Entheos @ Burning Man
The word entheos is the root of the English word "enthusiasm” and is, we believe, at the heart of the Burning Man principle of Immediacy. The Burning Man Organization defines the principle of Immediacy as follows:
Immediate experience is, in many ways, the most important touchstone of value in our culture. We seek to overcome barriers that stand between us and a recognition of our inner selves, the reality of those around us, participation is society, and contact with a natural world exceeding human powers. No idea can substitute for this experience.
Entheos @ Burning Man is a placed theme camp in good standing that creates 24/7 interactivity for citizens of all ages in Black Rock City. The camp was founded by members of the Entheos Community and it welcomes camp participants from more than 40 countries around the world. Our approach to Radical Inclusion, Diversity, and Equity (R.I.D.E.) has helped us to cultivate an extraordinarily diverse group of participants from around the globe. Each year Entheos @ Burning Man reserves one third of its’ camp population for people who have never camped with Entheos before (including both Burning Man virgins and veterans). Committed Participation and Civic Responsibility are the primary criteria for being invited to camp with Entheos again in subsequent years. In 2019, Entheos campers participated by Gifting over 10,000 volunteer hours on playa to create, build, operate and strike the public interactivity offered by Entheos @ Burning Man.
Radical Self-reliance and Decommodification at this large of a scale require Communal Effort to efficiently build a camp in Black Rock City without dependence upon outside vendors. The resources we have are the resources we collectively acquire, create, transport, build, operate, strike and store for ourselves. Through our collective efforts we help keep one another healthy so that we can enthusiastically support our primary mission of providing 24/7 Interactivity as a placed theme camp in Black Rock City.
Throughout the year: Entheos Community members and Entheos camp participants are dispersed across the United States and through countries around the world. Because of this geographic dispersion, and the significant diversity of our community, it isn’t viable for everyone in our international camp to show up at weekend build sessions in San Francisco, New York, Toronto, or Empire. However, as we prepare for Burning Man in the off-season, we each contribute various combinations of labor, skill and resources (consensually regarded in good faith as energetically equivalent and essentially needed) to support the creation of the Entheos camp before we ever reach the Playa. Those involved in the local, hands-on, off-playa projects are typically volunteering 100 or more hours to Entheos outside their playa participation. Those who can’t physically volunteer at the local build projects contribute more substantially in other ways that are essential to creating
Before the event: In late August, approximately one hundred Entheos camp participants head to Black Rock City for Build Week, before Burning Man even begins, and many of them volunteer 60 or more hours on Playa to build camp before Opening Day.
During the event: At the official Burning Man event, between Opening and Closing Days, all participants who camp with Entheos @ Burning Man are expected to volunteer at least 20 hours during the event to help run the camp interactivity/operations, to strike camp at the end, and to help Leave No Trace.
“Radical Self-reliance and Participation cannot be outsourced, especially not through financial or transactional means. While it is normal in the default world to pay for ideas to be created,, Burning Man is based on a Gifting economy. All camp members are expected to engage in Gifting through meaningful and immediate contributions to both camp interactivity and operations according to their skills and abilities.”
After the event: On Sunday and Monday, following the Man Burn, all camp participants participate in striking camp and Leave No Trace. After Monday sunset, a smaller Strike/LNT crew remains to do detailed Mooping after most campers and vehicles are gone.
Use the buttons below to navigate the pages of Entheos @ Burning Man and learn more about how you can participate as a camp member of Entheos.
