The U.S. Bureau of Land Management on Thursday asked organizers to shut down the entry after organizers allowed the event to swell past its population limit, breaking the rules of their permit, according to BLM spokesman Kyle Hendrix.
Monday, September 03, 2018
Burning Man oversells event, asked to shut down entry
The U.S. Bureau of Land Management on Thursday asked organizers to shut down the entry after organizers allowed the event to swell past its population limit, breaking the rules of their permit, according to BLM spokesman Kyle Hendrix.
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I have read about Burning Man in the past an I knew it was a massive festival, but I never realized the true scale, especially on a population level. Seventy thousand people is certainly a lot to control and regulate, but it’s interesting that a mere 358 people (out of several tens of thousands) could tip the balance too much. The article talks a lot about the overpopulation of the Playa, but says little of the repercussions for violating the federal permit. Do they have to pay a fine? Shut down entry? Or do they just follow the procedure outlined in the article that described only admitting new Burners when others leave? Hopefully it is an easy fix, because Burning Man seems like such an enlightening place to experience. In regards to the extra security being added to the burn sites, I think that is a great idea, especially after last year’s incident. With such a large crowd of people, accounting for unpredictability (even more so around flames) is most definitely a smart idea.
I think the issues facing the Burning Man festival could and should have been avoided. I think the reason for over-selling is nothing more than the motivation for profits the same concept of people on airplanes. The inconvenience of it is one factor but though people may be angry or annoyed what is more concerning at this festival is the safety hazards. They claim that they oversell tickets to offer more people the experience of attending the festival, however due to past events I think they should be reprioritizing. Some one last year died at the festival and over selling tickets puts the response time and effectiveness of their emergency response crews lower. I believe that as a company who holds this festival that has some very dangerous elements to it they need to reprioritize what there major goals are for the festival, and at the top of that list should be ensuring the safety of its participants.
Oh Burning man!! This does not sound good and really it sounds like there is a deeper issue here than just a few hundred over cap. The BLM has every right to pull the permit and shut the event down, but they didn’t. Next time the group may not be so lucky. As with any large event, the goal is the maximum number of people who would be able to enjoy the event and I get it, Burning man wants to make money, but for what I am still unsure of. It there are over 9,000 volunteers, who, according to the article, are not counted in the cap, then what does burning man need to spend money on? Also, 79,000 is a lot more than 70,358 people. It comes down to, as the article stated, the amount of police, fire, and ems needed and for the safe evacuation of an injured person from the event, not to mention getting those above mentioned forces to the place of injury. If your cap is 70,000, then 55,000 should be your sold out mark. This allows for 9,000 - 10,000 as a volunteer force and about a 5,000 buffer zone for people who decide to come last minute, but always keeping the cap at 70,000. No more.
Hellish Bacchanalia, oversold and breaking the law, sounds like airlines also, but the free spirit Burning Man seems to be above the law again. I am not damning anyone who goes to these events, but I would not trust this place to observe basics of health or safety, which means I would be trusting them with my life and I would never give that to them. The worst fear for any type of event like this is a massive attack and this overcrowding seems to be a step away from ensuring that that type of tragedy does not happen. Another issue is that what if something goes wrong when they actually burn the man, someone died last year after running into the fire, how do they make sure that does not happen to anyone else or the burn doesn't fall the wrong way and scorch a group of the crowd watching. This event seems like a packed can of sardines ready for something bad to happen.
I have heard a lot of stories about burning man, and while I think it could have been a great idea in the past when there were far fewer people to deal with, I can't think of the issues and problems that one would have to deal with when essentially setting up a small city of 70,000 people for a week. It's a ludicrously ambitious project that I guess happens semi-successfully every year, but truly at what cost? I actually worked on an art project that went to burning-man a year before I cam here to Carnegie Mellon. It was called "sea-grass" and it was essentially a grid of flexible light poles which swayed in the wind with LED's embedded in them. Working on that project was swell and I think experiencing all the art and awesome vehicles that people build an dbring to the festival would be great. I just don't think the rest of the experience would be for me.
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