Burning Man Isn’t Canceled: It Prepares to Enter the “Multiverse”

Late last week, Burning Man released a multi-medium official announcement via their blog, website, and YouTube channel about this year’s 2020 build. To be clear, Burning Man’s main event in Black Rock City is not canceled canceled. It’s still going to take place, just not in person. According to Burning Man Project CEO Marian Goodell, Burning Man will truly embody its theme this year as it prepares to enter the “multiverse” (hippie jargon for hypothetical coexisting, contemporaneous, and infinite universes).

The decision to move remote was largely due to concerns regarding “public health and the well-being of our participants, staff, and neighbors in Nevada.” According to their official announcement, refunds were to be made available for those in desperate need, however, the article then went on to hedge, “If you have the means, it is our sincerest hope that you will consider donating all or a portion of your ticket value, and/or making a tax-deductible donation to Burning Man Project,” transparently scribing hesitancy and reluctance. Before any uproar or talk of insensitivity in times of crisis, let it be known that Burning Man operates year-round as a 503c or non-profit organization. Admittedly, it will suffer severe financial repercussions from 2020’s lack of ticket sales and these capital losses will “require substantial staff layoffs, pay reductions, and other belt-tightening measures.”

To add insult to injury, the official announcement also alluded to permit/regulation complications. “Beyond our concerns about the coronavirus, new impositions and unnecessary cost requirements from the Bureau of Land Management have seriously threatened the viability of producing Black Rock City in the Black Rock Desert. If Black Rock City is to be built on public lands in the future, we have significant challenges to overcome with the BLM.” It could be assumed that BLM has disincentivized Burning Man Project from setting up camp in its desert basin, for reasons unbeknownst to the common burner. As time trudges forward, updates will most likely shed light on this cryptic predicament. The head injury lawyers Rosemead can make sure the ones injured get the compensation they deserve.

Despite all the hullabaloo, the announcement outlined blueprints for a virtual BRC and, to be frank, they sound promising if not impressive. The psychonaut coders of Silicon Valley – the founding mothers and fathers of Burning Man, unnamed but monumental pillars – will construct a virtual BRC. The platform will require some form of a “ticket,” but will be accessible to a whopping 100,000 burners, 30,000 more than 2019’s burn. Promising to deliver an online platform equipped to host 100,000 guests without server crashes would require some dangerously dexterous back-end coding. But if any group of individuals could do it, it would be burners. We look forward to the burner community’s ingenuity, or better yet we have have faith.

For more information, click here to visit their official website.

Click here to keep Burning Man Project’s mission alive and donate.

To visit the beginnings of virtual Burning Man and/or to creatively contribute to the multiverse, click here.

The full script from Burning Man Project CEO, Marian Goodell’s, official statement on YouTube:

“Hello Burning Man community. Hello artists, new campers, art car producers, volunteers, staff, entrepreneurs, thought leaders, collaborators… I am not here to tell you we are canceling Burning Man. No, Burning Man is a culture – it’s a movement. We are not defined by one aspect of Burning Man. We are defined by what we bring to Burning Man. Burning Man is 100 affiliated events around the world on six continents. I am here to tell you that we will not be collaborating on Black Rock City in the desert this summer. I am going to tell you that we look forward to inviting you to come to the virtual Burning Man. Virtual Black Rock City. Black Rock City 2020 is in the ‘multiverse.’ I mean, that is the theme, after all!

This is not an easy time for us. We have actually already sold some tickets to Black Rock City. That’s the DGS sale and the FOMO sale, and we are working to make a refund to those that need the refund. And for those of you that are compelled by what we’re doing and you can afford the gift, we would appreciate being able to continue to do our work for Burning Man. We need your support. Burning Man is not just Black Rock City – what we do is year-round. We have a staff and we have an office in Reno, in Gerlach, and in San Francisco… and we are scaling back so that we can make it to 2021, but we need your help.

Please, do what you can to help support us. We are not just Black Rock City. We are Burners Without Borders, who are on the front line of COVID-19. We are Fly Ranch and The Sustainability Project, doing innovations in sustainability. We are helping bring the networks together, of theme camps, regionals, artists. We are a philosophical center and bringing educational and storytelling and films and books to you and to the world. We need your help. Help us bring Burning Man out, so that we can help you take Burning Man out.

In the coming weeks, I will return here with short videos to give you the answers to the questions… that you need… If you have a ticket, now you have a ticket to virtual Black Rock City in the ‘multiverse.” If you don’t, we will make that opportunity available for you within the coming weeks. You should go and visit our website today. You’ll see something totally different, and you’ll see opportunities to engage and to begin to imagine how you can help us keep Burning Man alive in the world. Thank you.”