Burning Man: Have the founders comprimised their ethos?

[Feldspar Jockey]

I'm going to be moving out in the vicinity of the Black Rock desert in Nevada for a new job. One of the things that area is famous for is the annual Burning Man Festival. Since I will be nearby, I was interested in going so I decided to do some research into what the festival is about, what I can expect, etc..
Initially i was inpressed by the ideals that it stands for, however as soon as I started digging below the surface, I discovered some troubling facts. First of all was the steep cost of attending, $380 per person x 50,000+ attendees plus other fees comes out to over $20M in revenue for a one week event. Now if everything was taken care of for you by event organizers, I can understand that price but from what the website says, you're expected to take care of almost all of your own campsite expenses and clean-up. Since it couldn't cost $20M to run the event, where is the rest of the money going?
I typed "burning man revenue" into google and only had to look at the wiki article to stumble across at least some of the controversy. When the founder, Larry Harvey started the Burning Man organization, he did so as an LLC instead of a non-profit. Now he could argue that the reason for this was that an LLC was easier to set up but an LLC also isn't required to have very much financial transparency, which works to his advantage. In the beginning of 2011 things had reached a breaking point on the board of directors. Here's a quote from Wiki.

"The move towards becoming a non-profit organization was the result of "bitter infighting" between members of the board. At one point it looked like all of the board members were going to hire lawyers. Corporate appraisers were brought in to determine how much the company was worth, which Larry Harvey found "abhorrent" and against all of the values that Burning Man stood for"

Obviously, burning man was turning a tidy profit for Larry Harvey and the other board members didn't like that idea. The fact that he thought financial transparency was "against all the values that Burning Man stood for is an obvious piece of hypocricy. Wiki goes on...

"An earlier agreement stated that each member of the LLC would only receive "sole compensation for many years of service, a golden parachute of $20,000". But the members now agreed to an arrangement whereby each member of the LLC would receive an undisclosed sum prior to the transfer of their ownership rights to the Burning Man Project. Marian Goodell, board member and head of communication, addressed concerns about the lack of transparency with this statement: “When you’re in the middle of a storm, if you’re going to explain all of how you got there, and how you’re going to get out, it often sets more panic among the survivors than if you just sail the boat out of the darkness.” "

So I'm wondering if there's any Pitters here who have been to Burning Man and/or have a better grasp on the issues of the event and the board of directors and of Larry Harvey in particular.

Is Burning Man a commercialized joke on itself?

Is the event still legitimate but the organizers have sold out?

Is my time better spent dropping acid in the desert and "riding the snake" with Jim Morrison?

[TheMan]

Sounds like I should set something similar up.

[Matt Cavanaugh]

What 'ethos' did BM ever have, except to be a venue for pampered yuppie corporate types to pretend for a week that they 're hippy / nature boy / edgy / hip primitives? It's one giant look- how-terribly-cool- we-are circle jerk.

[Ericb]

This year Larry is going to make the Burning Man out of wicker and supersize it. The Board of Directors were unavailable for comment and seem to have disappeared.

[Lsuoma]

http://gumbercules.com/i_dont_give.jpg

[Feldspar Jockey]

What 'ethos' did BM ever have, except to be a venue for pampered yuppie corporate types to pretend for a week that they 're hippy / nature boy / edgy / hip primitives? It's one giant look- how-terribly-cool- we-are circle jerk.

http://www.burningman.com/whatisburning ... iples.html

Decommodification-
"In order to preserve the spirit of gifting, our community seeks to create social environments that are unmediated by commercial sponsorships, transactions, or advertising. We stand ready to protect our culture from such exploitation. We resist the substitution of consumption for participatory experience."

In the mid 90's a barter system had evolved to exchange goods and services within the camp. Larry Harvey quickly shut it down. Apparently, the only commercial activity allowed is Harvey's Black Rock Desert LLC. Hypocrite.

[Matt Cavanaugh]

Decommodification-
"In order to preserve the spirit of gifting, our community seeks to create social environments that are unmediated by commercial sponsorships, transactions, or advertising. We stand ready to protect our culture from such exploitation. We resist the substitution of consumption for participatory experience."

For a week. Then back to the other 51 in Silicon Valley, doing la Vida Capitalisma, pulling down big corporate salaries, living high-tech lives in big houses with big screen TVs, big cable bills, big Wolff ranges, big Sub-Zero fridges, and big carbon footprints. Bunch of fucking poseurs.

NB: 'gifting' is not a fucking word.

[Feldspar Jockey]

Decommodification-
"In order to preserve the spirit of gifting, our community seeks to create social environments that are unmediated by commercial sponsorships, transactions, or advertising. We stand ready to protect our culture from such exploitation. We resist the substitution of consumption for participatory experience."

For a week. Then back to the other 51 in Silicon Valley, doing la Vida Capitalisma, pulling down big corporate salaries, living high-tech lives in big houses with big screen TVs, big cable bills, big Wolff ranges, big Sub-Zero fridges, and big carbon footprints. Bunch of fucking poseurs.

I don't doubt that's true of many of the attendees. However there's bound to be a core community who practice what they preach. I like the anarchic ideal that they espouse not to mention some of the arwork is downright fucking cool. I'm looking for the Burning Man experience minus the baggage. Since I'll be living near Black Rock Desert I would like to go but I can't handle the double standards. I don't want the experience to be fake.

NB: 'gifting' is not a fucking word.

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/gifting

[another lurker]

Feldspar is a good rock.

[Feldspar Jockey]

Feldspar is a good rock.

:naughty: :obscene-birdiedoublegreen: :doh: