What This Year’s Muddy Mess Means for Burning Man’s Future

KQED's Forum

KQED

Politics, News, News Commentary

4.6 • 656 Ratings

🗓️ 8 September 2023

⏱️ 56 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

For decades, it seems, people have been complaining that Burning Man has sold out, lost touch with its original values, or simply jumped the shark. The annual images of hedonism and drugs and glamping tech billionaires has made the week-long celebration in the Nevada desert an easy target. And social media mockery of the festival came to a head this week when attendees got stuck in the mud after a rainstorm. Yet for many, the Burning Man experience continues to be life-changing and transformative, and the event’s influence on arts and culture in the Bay Area and beyond is undeniable. Still, even some longtime Burners are saying the festival needs to change –to become more inclusive, more sensitive to the environment, and more prepared for an extreme weather future. As attendees finally make their way home from the muddy Playa, we’ll get a report back from this year’s event and assess the future of Burning Man. Guests: Steven T. Jones, journalist and author of the 2011 book "The Tribes of Burning Man: How an Experimental City in the Desert is Shaping the New American Counterculture" Favianna Rodriguez, artist and activist; co-lead of a Burning Man camp for people of color, Que Viva camp; co-founder and president, The Center for Cultural Power David Boyer, director of programming, KALW; producer and host of the podcast "The Intersection," which devoted its third season to Burning Man. Anna Vignet, social video producer, KQED Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:44.6	From KQED in San Francisco, I'm Alexis Madrigal.
1:01.2	For decades, it seems, people have been complaining that Burning Man has sold out,
1:05.4	lost touch with its original values, or simply jumped the shark.
1:09.1	The annual images of hedonism and glamping tech billionaires
1:12.4	have made the week-long celebration in the Nevada desert an easy target. Yet for many, the
1:17.9	Burning Man experience continues to be life-changing and transformative. And the events influence on
1:23.1	arts and culture in the Bay Area and beyond is undeniable. So today we take a look at the festival with proper skepticism,
1:29.9	but also recognition of its place in people's lives.
1:33.5	How does Burning Man need to change in the year 2023,
1:36.5	37 years after it began out on Baker Beach?
1:39.7	That's coming up next after this news.
1:50.5	Welcome to Forum. I'm Alexis Madrigal.
	...

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