PolyParadise - A Year of the Virtual BURN - 2020

Saturday December 26, 2020

WOW!!! JUST WOW!!! What a Challenging YEAR 2020 has been for all things Burning Man & all things Human. Covid-19 has brought us to our collective knees and has shown us that we are all part of the same Global Apartment Building regardless of being separated by large bodies of water.  The year brought the term Social Distancing; when it really should have been Physical Distancing as we have all learned we can be SOCIAL without being in the same Physical Space.

March 1st we opened registration; by then Covid-19 was spreading throughout the globe and had entered the United States; of course we all thought that this virus would not magically go away but be contained and that it would have minimal impact to our separate lives and our collective Burning Man (BRC) experience.

We were introduced to the term Pandemic and the realization that Covid-19 would in-fact change everything we had known and change all we do as Burners & as people; our global governments were mandating that we not gather in large groups to mitigate the spread of the virus.

We postponed our annual March Work-Party to Memorial Wkd; On April 10th BMHQ made the decision that Black Rock City 2020 was cancelled.  Of course there had been lots of tickets already purchased - There had been PolyParadise Camp Fees Collected ($4,200); of which I had already spent on purchasing infrastructure items and Work-Party prep.  BMHQ had come up with a ticket refund strategy; but as an individual camp producer with the collected camp fees spent I was unable to provide Camp Fee refunds as Burning Man was doing; the best I could do was to offer those that paid Camp Fees in 2020 would have those camp fees carried over to 2021.

The Pandemic continued to get worse; infections were raging within the continental US as well as all over the globe so we made the decision to postpone the planned Memorial Day Wkd Work-Party until July 4th Wkd, maybe by then things would be different, we would be able to gather in larger groups safely.

In April we started to have Monthly Online Gatherings via Google Meet & Zoom to do all we could to keep our Global Village of PolyParadise Community together.  I am so grateful to all those that participated each month; I know it helped me feel connected to you all, I hope that you all felt that as well.

July 4th wkd - the Covid Crisis was still raging in the US & across the globe; we decided to have a small gathering here @ Casa De Scotto & Wildchild.  There were ~13 Burners from Arizona & neighboring states; we transformed our backyard in a UV-LIGHT experience and did the best we could to be safe amidst the virus. Our backyard was big enough to setup a single 20'x20' with the UV-Tape & Lights - The goal in BRC will be to transform the 40'x40' Event Space into an incredible nightly UV-Light experience. With (3) different types of glasses (Stereoscopic-Prism-Hearts) the UV-LIGHT experience was even that much more over the top.

BMHQ created several options to collectively congregate Virtually during Burn-Week; as good as those were they would not allow us to continue our time together as The Village of PolyParadise; so we hosted (6) Zoom meetings during Burn-Week celebrating several milestones we would have done together (Camp Setup-Opening BRC-Mid-Week-Friday Night-BURN DAY-Temple Burn).  We also hosted a Virtual Chicago Hot Dog Night together.

We again transformed our backyard into a UV-LIGHT experience and hosted small gatherings of our community to celebrate all things Burning Man.  We celebrated Burn Night with a Janky As FUCK Burning Man Effigy - We celebrated The Temple Burn honoring those in our community that had passed since BRC 2019 (Ephraim - Ray Shady - Eric Laskowski - EZ-Rider). We shared what we wanted 2020 to be - we shared our LOVE for each other; thank you all so much for making the Burn 2020 the best it could be as the Pandemic raged around us.


Casa De Scotto & WildChild - July 4th 2020
Casa De Scotto & WildChild - Burn Week 2020

In the months since Burn Week; Covid-19 has consumed our souls & our lives; the Pandemic is much worse then we ever thought possible and the number of Global Infections & specifically US Infections has risen to levels that are just plain scary.

Despite all of that - as a Village we PURCHASED a 12-Seat People Mover.  This vehicle was purchased post Burn 2019 by the late Ray Shady.  We posted a PayPal Pool to cover the costs.  We set out to fundraise $6,000 (We made that Goal).  This vehicle was transported from Reno to Maricopa, AZ (Thanks to Dr. Dirt) for allowing us to store the vehicle on his property outside Metro Phx.  After Purchase Price & Transport Costs there is $1,500 left from this initial fundraiser for the construction of this Vehicle into a BRC DMV worthy Art Car.

We are going to start to do the basic evaluation of the base of the vehicle (Brakes & Undercarriage) and then start to figure out what this Art Car will become.  We used a Google Form to start to solicit from the community ideas on what we can make this vehicle into.  Once the structural evaluation is finished and any found issues are corrected, we will start to figure out what this vehicle will become as a BRC Art Car.  As we get to that part of the project we hope to have Work-Parties in 2021 as safely as we are still going thru the Covid-19 Pandemic.  We will most likely need to have additional fundraisers to cover costs over & above the remaining $1,500 remaining.

With our late in 2020 purchase of the vehicle and that any potential registration with DMV for a potential 2021 event will start & finish before we are even ready to submit a design - given the ongoing Covid Pandemic and limitations in time and potential crowd size for gathering to create the Art Car - it seems unlikely that we would debut this vehicle if BRC 2021 happens. With that said it gives us enough time thru this upcoming year to create an amazing BRC worthy Art Car for The Village of PolyParadise 2022.

As of this writing NO DECISION has been made by BMHQ about Burning Man (BRC) 2021.  They have punted the ultimate decision for at least a few months to see where discussions with Federal, State & Local Governmental & Health Authorities stand on large gatherings of people within the state of Nevada in 2021.

We are obviously still in the throws of the worse Global Public Health Crisis since 1918.  So many factors are up in the air; we do have hope on the horizon as Covid-19 Vaccines are currently being distributed in the US & around the world.

Many questions remain about returning to BRC in 2021:

Will the population of BRC be reduced to limit risk of further Covid spread? In that scenario we would obviously get a reduced number of tickets in a DGS Sale. How do I decide who gets allocated a slot in the sale?

What would be the cost of tickets? Would those tickets be NON-REFUNDABLE?

How would we create our Village of PolyParadise Resident experience in an atmosphere of constant potential of Covid spread?

Will there be MANDATORY 24/7 MASK MANDATE?

Will there be a Proof of Vaccine mandate?

How do we run an event like The Human Carcass Wash in a physically distant way?

It is my hope as Benevolent Dictator of The Village of PolyParadise that BMHQ makes the decision that holding a Burning Man event in 2021 is just not in the best interest of Global Health and that they wait until 2022 for a return to Black Rock City; regardless of the financial impact on the Burning Man Project and its yearly financial requirements for producing Burning Man around the globe that have always been funded by Burning Man Ticket Sales.

I do not have a Crystal Ball to know what the future holds and when the next Burning Man in BRC will be - but what I do know is that in a CRAZY UPSIDE DOWN YEAR like 2020 - The state of the Village of PolyParadise is strong - we will survive as individuals & as a collective of a 23YR Burning Man Theme Camp.

Stay tuned for more details as we know more about the state of the Global Black Swan Event and how that will impact a possible Black Rock City 2021 and all the subsequent decisions to be made.

Stay tuned for details about moving the Art Car Project forward in the new year.

In light of all of the current unknowns - Registration for PolyParadise 2021 will be opened when we know from BMHQ that BRC 2021 has been given a Thumps UP!...

Respectively Submitted...
Scotto
- Benevolent Dictator of PolyParadise
- Burning Man Lifer/Geek/Zealot