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Miriam Fathalla agrees. The hardest part of her economic development work, she says, was the first year, when she was the only person in the local community who had been to Burning Man or a regional event. "The essence of this culture is experiential. It was very challenging to get people who hadn't had that experience to understand the vision."
Burning Man is trying to become an incubator for its own culture, rather than its center. If Burning Man is to continue to grow, to continue to be relevant, its center of gravity will have to move to its frontier.
"The frontier for Burning Man is to help people get more connected to their communities," Goodell says. "Not 'our community,' but their communities: their neighborhoods and their towns and their organizations. The idea is that people will say 'I feel inspired, I feel connected, I feel empowered. Now I want to go and do something in my community.' We know that if people are inspired, they can replicate what happens in the desert out in the world."
At Burning Man's 2014 Global Leadership Conference (yes, they have those), "$teven Ra$pa," a member of the special events team, asked hundreds of Burning Man R.C.s and community leaders from around the world to stop using the term "Default World" to describe the world outside of the Burning Man community. That distinction served a purpose once, he said, but now is pointlessly divisive.
"There is no 'Default World,'" Raspa said, "unless we default."
DISCLOSURE: From 2008 to 2013, Benjamin Wachs was the volunteer coordinator for Burning Man's media team (a volunteer leadership position). He routinely writes for Burning Man's official blog, for which he is not paid but does receive considerations (including a Burning Man ticket) estimated at under $500 annually. These facts were fully disclosed to SF Weekly. Burning Man received no editorial consideration or review of this piece prior to publication.
*Clarification: An earlier version of this story implied that CNN wasn't accepted because of privacy issues. Burning Man representatives say the decision was made for a variety of reasons.Showing 1-18 of 18
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