Kiwiburn 2009 Afterburn Report
May 31 2009
I. Introduction ______________________________________________________________________
II. Organisation _____________________________________________________________________
III. Financials _______________________________________________________________________
IV. Art and Theme Camps _____________________________________________________________
a) Art Grants and Art Installations
b) Theme Camps
c) Centre Camp
V. Environment/Site Management/MPW _________________________________________________
VI. Paddock Safety __________________________________________________________________
a) Health and Safety and Medics
b) Gate and Greeters
c) Wranglers, MUDFOP, and Security
VII. Communications and Technology ___________________________________________________
a) Communications: Website, Print, PR/Media
b) Technology: Website, System Admin
VIII. Future Vision ___________________________________________________________________
Kiwiburn 2009 Afterburn Report
May 31, 2009
______________________________________________________________________
Organisation _____________________________________________________________________
Financials _______________________________________________________________________
Art and Theme Camps _____________________________________________________________
a) Art Grants and Art Installations
b) Theme Camps
c) Centre Camp
V. Environment/Site Management/MPW _________________________________________________
VI. Paddock Safety __________________________________________________________________
a) Health and Safety and Medics
b) Gate and Greeters
c) Wranglers, MUDFOP, and Security
VII. Communications and Technology ___________________________________________________
a) Communications: Website, Print, PR/Media
b) Technology: Website, System Admin
VIII. Future Vision ___________________________________________________________________
I. Introduction by New Zealand Regional Burning Man Contact, Mark Stirling, aka Yonderman
This year we achieved our sixth Kiwiburn, “Future History”. As is usual, this Afterburn report reviews Kiwiburn 6 and the previous year of associated activities. This was the third Kiwiburn to be held at our fabulous Whakamaru Domain site in the central North Island, in early Feb. We had the most fabulous summer weather for the three-day event. Numbers were up from last year, with an attendance of around 250 people. Also notable was the increased number of art and theme camp installations at the event. Every Burning Man event I have ever been to has had me in a “jaw dropping” situation at some stage of the event. This time it happened on day one when I set out to erect my art installation and saw the number of art structures and theme camps dotting the site. Amazing Kiwiburners doing amazing things! I was particularly impressed with Lynda’s temple with its vaginal entry point (lovely to be feel “born again” upon exiting the structure), and the Skullfuck Empire bar, an impressive structure built to mimic the massive Parthenon in Athens. By Kiwiburn standards, it certainly lived up to that comparison. I must also mention the Man. An even bigger structure than last year, and built so that you could even have a playful swing on the structure. Accolades to Kiwi! Jez’s elaborate wooden power pylons marked the pathway to the man, adding to the splendour of the centre point of Kiwiburn.
Kiwiburn continues to gain positive notoriety in New Zealand and overseas. The event was covered in detail in the local newspapers (with a pictorial), Word of the success of the event quickly reached the San Francisco-based Burning Man HQ, and it again received accolades at the annual Regionals Summit, held a few weeks after the event. Greg “Smokeblower” put together an extensive slideshow of regional events for the summit, and yours truly made sure plenty of “hot off the press” Kiwiburn pics made it there in time. We have become one of the three recognised international regional events, the other two being AfrikaBurn and NoWhere (Europe). This is despite our geographic isolation, our lack of being able to have a representative at the Summit due to the cost of flying over to San Francisco, and the fact that none of the key people from San Francisco have yet been able to attend our event as yet.
I would say that the event had fewer problems than last year. We had some incursions into the event from people who did not possess tickets, and there was some very minor damage to Kiwiburn property. Our MUDFOP (Mug Under Duress, Finger On Pulse) roster meant that we had a responsible designated person on duty constantly throughout the
event to deal with issues and mobilise others if necessary. I chose to MUDFOP on burn night, which as expected turned out to be a busy night for me. We had a good reliable committee for the entire year preceding the event, and everyone worked hard for the event. All committee members deserve a medal, or a good spanking at Slave camp next year! Bruce our big nob deserves a special thanks for his stunning leadership. You rock Bruce!
As always, the future is bright, Many left Kiwiburn buzzing about the event and planning for next year. I expect we will continue to see growth in the event at the same levels (+50% growth per year is a reasonable estimate of growth rate). Theme camps and art installations will probably also grow in magnitude and frequency. Thanks again go to Destination Taupo for their financial support and belief in us. We have the Whakamaru Domain site as our home thanks to them.
Finally, thanks to all of you who came and made Kiwiburn happen. Thanks for continuing the dream. Burning Man in New Zealand… who would have thought six years ago... don’t worry! I am not going to say it all again, but those of you who know me can imagine me smiling from ear to ear when I talk about the success of Kiwiburn – OUR thing in New Zealand!
The following sections are a more detailed report on Kiwiburn, broken down into a series of topics, and each written by the relevant committee member.
II. Organisation by Kathy Guidi
After becoming an official Incorporated Society last year, we took the next step and applied for non-profit status in late 2008 which was granted. We approached becoming a non-profit more from an ideological perspective although it does afford us a $1000 exclusion from income tax. It also places some restrictions on us, most noteworthy being that no one person can be paid unfairly for work (and to date Kiwiburn is strictly an all volunteer run organization). Additionally, if Kiwiburn Inc should dissolve, any remaining assets/monies must be donated/given to another non-profit organisation.
As part of becoming an Incorporated Society, we must have three officer roles on the committee: The Chair (Big Nob), The Treasurer (Bean Counter), and Secretary (Committee Wrangler). These three officers serve on the larger Organising Committee (ExCom) whose purpose is to act as stewards for Kiwiburn Inc., providing oversight and guidance on business matters required to run the festival. A person must have served on the ExCom for at least one year before taking on an Officer Role.
For the 2008/2009 year (serving May 08 – April 09), the ExCom was comprised of 14 spunky and fire-loving worldly individuals. We welcomed Rowena “Serendipity” Budd and Richard “Rich d’ Rich” Parratt to the committee and said au revoir to the talented and very pink Jonathan “Helix” Beza.
In brief, your ExCom and the roles they played consisted of:
Bruce Scanlon: Big Nob
Jodi York: Bean Counter
Richard Parratt: Committee Wrangler; Art Grants Committee Member; Health and Safety Officer Co-Manager
Wendy Allison: Theme Camp and Art Installation Admin Team; Health and Safety Officer Co-Manager
Rowena Budd: Centre Camp Coordinator; Art Grants Committee Member
Kyla Dyresen: Theme Camp and Art Installation Admin Team; Community Outreach Liaison; Art Grants Committee Member
Cass Edwards: Website Czar
Kathy Guidi: Administration Goddess; Gate/Greeters Manager
Chris Hankins: Site/MPW Manager; Man Designer and Builder; Bureaucratic Liaison
Sam Hankins: MPW Team Member
Polly Lind: Site Planning/Town Placement Mistress; Security Wrangler; Volunteer Coordinator
Mark Stirling: BMORG Regional Rep
Shelley Watson: Art Designer (theme, tickets, posters, etc), Art Grants Committee Chairperson
Allyn York: Theme Camp and Art Installation Admin Team
In addition, non ExCom roles and positions were held by the following outstanding individuals:
Greeters Station Designer: Kora Deverick
Environmental/Recycling Managers: Gadgit and Tammi
Temple Designer/Crew: Lynda Wixon, Myles White, Allyn York and team
Lastly, we’d like to reiterate that everyone who purchases a ticket becomes a ‘member’ of Kiwiburn Inc and is entitled to express their opinion about how the organisation is run. The ExCom periodically goes out to the wider community for feedback via the Kiwiburn Forums and is always interested in the opinions of its members! So if you are keen, get involved, join the ExCom, or raise your hand to take on a management role, and have your say!
III. Financials by Jodi York and Kathy Guidi
We had an incredibly great financial year with Kiwiburn covering its expenses from ticket sales revenue for its first time ever! 250 tickets were sold in the $50 to $80 range. In addition we received koha from approximately 20 locals who came on ‘locals day’, bringing our attendance to 270!
We changed our ticket sales structure and while we still had three tiers of tickets prices ($50/$60/$70), we structured them to be released over certain months preceding the event. In the days leading up to the event, we’d only pre-sold 140 tickets (less than last years’ numbers) which had several of the Committee members quite nervous. But the burners came through and over 100 tickets were sold at the Gate at $80. While this was GREAT and it brought in a little extra money, not having a better indication of sales prior to the event makes it a lot harder to plan for the festival properly.
Therefore, in order to ‘encourage’ folks to pre-purchase tickets, we will be looking at raising the Gate ticket price considerably this year while holding the pre-ticket sales prices constant (for the third year running!) We received our second round of Destination Taupo Corporation (DTC) grant money in the amount of $5000 (we have
one more round of funding in for 2010’s event). We are eternally grateful to Warwick Hall, DTC’s Events Marketing Manager, who continues to greatly support Kiwiburn. And hopefully, we burners return the favour by spending time pre- and post-festival in the Taupo District area supporting local businesses. DTC also gave us $2000 to kick-off our Arts Grant Programme (see Section IV).
On the expense side of things, overall, expenditures came within our forecasted budget. We allotted more money to The Man, The Gate, and The Temple although our superbly budget-conscious teams actually spent the same as last year; we saved close to $1000 by renting a smaller marquee for Centre Camp which allowed us to not have to get a permit and we reduced our sound system rental costs for Centre Camp by renting speakers from the Wellington Dance Collective at very reasonable prices and we purchased a mixing deck which Kiwiburn now proudly owns.
Speaking of asset acquisitions, we invested heavily ($1200) in the purchase of walkie-talkies (8 sets) for the Wrangler/MUDFOP Crew (see Section VI) to help with security and communications during the festival. We also, once post-festival numbers showed such a large surplus, invested in a $800 tele-conference speaker phone system to facilitate better meeting communications among the ExCom which is something we’ve struggled with for the past two years. And the Gate Crew invested in a variety of things including a carport which we can now re-use in future years.
On the downside, we spent $700 more on toilet rentals and servicing – not knowing how many people were going to be on site led us to take extra-precautionary measures to ensure we had enough facilities to accommodate everyone – something I’m sure you’re all thankful for!
So, with all that said, we ended the fiscal year (March 31), with a pre-tax surplus of close to $7000! We estimate tax to be approximately $2000, which would leave us with a post-tax surplus of $5000. That, added to our existing balance of $4500, gives us over $9000 in the coffers, a truly exceptional amount.
While forecasts for the 2009/10 year are not yet complete, the Committee is confident we will have a significant amount of money to put towards the Art Grants Programme, more festival infrastructure and security, and of course, towards ourbeloved Man and Temple budgets. Stay tuned into the Forums for discussions on these very important topics!
Inflows
Interest Earned $ 18
art grants $ 2,000
TDC sponsorship $ 5,000
ticket sales $ 17,169
Total Inflows $ 24,188
Outflows
Ads $ 28
Art Grants disbursements $ 1,828
Bank Charges $ 95
Carbon Offsets $ 648
Cost of Goods:
Gate $ 842
Wranglers $ 180
Man $ 1,879
Materials $ 200
Temple $ 872
Total Cost of Goods $ 3,973
Equipment Hire:
AV $ 75
structures $ 392
Toilets $ 1,560
Total Equipment Hire $ 2,027
Insurance $ 366
Miscellaneous $ 39
Office $ –
Rent Paid $ 925
Services:
Medical $ 2,500
printing $ 535
Total Services $ 3,035
Supplies $ 125
Taxes $ 1,462
Telephone $ 236
Utilities $ 299
Capital Expenditures:
To Radios $ 1,221
To Mixer $ 205
To conference phone $ 813
Total Capital Expenditures $ 2,239
Total Outflows $ 17,326
Net Surplus pre-tax $ 6,861
IV. Art and Theme Camps
a) Art and Art Grants Programme by Shelley Watson
In addition to The Alpha and Omega Man and the colourful flag waving Temple on the hill, we had ten pre-registered artists and art projects for 2009. The newly formed Kiwiburn Art Grants Programme (see below) allowed several artists to bring their visions to fruition. See if you can remember these pieces: The One, ANDNA, Obsoletely Fabulous, The Merkabah, The Cubit Box of Mystery, Future of Dreams, Journey Past the Centre of the Earth, The Hickory Dickory Dock Stop, and The Candy Tree!
Thanks to a $2,000 grant by Taupo District Council, Kiwiburn was able to create an Art Grants Programme for Kiwiburn09 (KB09) which we modelled on the Burning Man Art Grant programme. An Art Grants Committee (AGC) was formed with an odd number of members for voting purposes (to avoid a locked decision), and people with a variety of skills to approach each submission from a different point of view, eg artist, engineer, etc.
The 2009 AGC was comprised of existing members of the ExCom. Application guidelines were drafted and posted onto the forums in June 08 with submission deadlines targeted for September 30th. We had 7 applications to consider. Where necessary, applicants were sent questions by the AGC via email.
Applications were evaluated based on the following five criteria:
Interactivity with people;
Interactivity with the environment;
Relevance to theme;
Wow! Factor; and
Ingenuity.
Each AGC member applied a score of 1-5 to each category. The scores were totalled and a percentage worked out by dividing the total by the possible maximum of 25 points. This percentage was then applied to the amount asked for. This was the amount awarded, with the balance awarded to Bunny and Paul for the documentary (special case). Funds were disbursed to artists upon receipt of expenses.
The inaugural kickoff of the Art Grants Programme went really well overall with only a few hiccups along the way. We were pleased to be able to partially fund all artists who submitted applications. For 2010, we hope to have more money devoted to Art Grants and we encourage all artists, young, old, new, or established, to submit an application for your project. Full details about the Art Grants Program can be found on the Kiwiburn website: http://www.kiwiburn.com/art-grants
a) Theme Camps by Kathy Guidi
We had 14 theme camp pre-registrations this year. Those, in addition to a few late arrivals, provided for a lot of entertainment on the paddock. In keeping with our theme of Future History, the Auckland Skullfuck crew outdid themselves yet again by morphing into the Skullfuck Empire, complete with Romanesque temples and chariots; and Club
Pedro created an amazing pyramid which could be seen from far and wide. We welcomed back many groups including Balrogs Playpen, The Green Fairy, Pink Moa, the Kiwiburn Kostume Korner, The Drop Zone, and our veritable Polly’s Put The Kettle On, where folks could go for their daily fix of coffee or tea, have a chat, or write a letter to be delivered by our inaugural launch of the Kiwiburn Paddock Post. Newbies included Texture for the Soul; Princess Camp; Shambala Healers Camp; The Vodka Bar; The Ark; Il Sucio Mexicano; Save Paris Hilton Camp; and the Wearable Arts Fashion House.
As usual, we had many sound camps providing a wide array of hip-grinding, foot-stomping, body-swaying groovy tunes. We endeavoured to locate all sound camps at the far end of the Domain where they could blast their tunes into the wee hours without imposing on those who camped in the Main paddock. For the most part, this did work well this year, although sound does travel. Next year we do hope to have a ‘Quiet Zone’ area for those who have children and/or who need to have their beauty sleep.
And while not true Theme Camps per se, we must give a shout out to the following folks who brought Kiwiburn transportation magic to the paddock and who made everyone’s lives just a wee bit more enjoyable: StinkyPuppy for his trailerload of bicycles for public use; Bill for his many kayaks which allowed folks to escape and explore the lakeside
areas; and for Rich d’ Rich and Lumos for resurrecting and making even better, The Dodgy Rodger pirate ship.
Thanks to all the folks who brought their camps and worked hard to provide Kiwiburn with fun and merriment!
b) Centre Camp by Kathy Guidi
This year we rented a smaller marquee for use as Centre Camp and located it in the centre of the Main Paddock, underneath the beautiful majestic tree. We also rented a smaller sound system as we wanted to keep loud noise to a minimum.
The beautiful Rowena “Serendipity” Budd was the mistress of Centre Camp, orchestrating and coordinating the many activities that went on throughout the weekend. There were many wonderful workshops and performances held, both
pre-scheduled (via the KB Contributions Register) and impromptu: drumming and percussion workshops, massage, tai chi, the fashion show, 5 Rhythms Dance, and an amazing performance by Sam the OneMouthBand! Good job everyone!
Oh, and while not hosted at Centre Camp, we must recognise Naked Jelly Wrestling, need I say more? Performance art at its finest!
And for the third year running, we had a ‘locals day’ {traditionally held on Day 3/Burn Night} where we invite the nearby townspeople to come in for the afternoon, see what we’re about, and participate. Hosted by Polly’s Put the Kettle On, the Locals Tea Party went well with approximately 15 to 20 people dropping in, several of whom were repeat visitors from last year.
The placement and use of Centre Camp was a success. For next year, we will be exploring the feasibility of investing in and building our own Centre Camp structure versus continuing to rent a marquee.
V. Environment, Site Management, and DPW: by Chris “Kiwi” Hankins
Kiwiburn keeps on coming of age. Every year the participation level of the celebrants gets bigger and bolder and in some ways is becoming more sophisticated than it’s size would other wise allude to. 270 people, one dog, a horse and I’m sure I saw a taniwha celebrating Kiwiburn and the burner community with gusto.
The 57 acres we had at our disposal was well utilised and even though we didn’t use it all we knew it was there if we needed it. The beasties were removed to a safe location and there were no sheep… hmmmm not to sure how I feel about that…. maybe we need to put that on the agenda for 2010 – ”need sheep roaming around” All the infrastructure needs were in place including four new radio walkie talkies… they worked well and made a new way for everyone in the loop to be in the loop. At times I would hold the radio up for others to hear what was going on and there was a feeling of participation to the level that some said “I need one of those”… we listened to you and have bought more….
MPW RULES!... there are no rules…. just get the shit done when the shit needs to be done. Whilst there is a core group of people that gather for duties 24/7, there is a limitless supply of others that when asked say ” what do you want and where do you want me to do it?”
We established the Grotto this year… Andy gathered corrugated iron for a fence plus rusty chain and created the first grotto sign… Andy rocks mmmk. Jason and John came all the way from Australia to be part of the crew and take charge when needed… well John treated it as a retreat and was missing in action a few times…. love you Johnny. Deja was tireless with his trench digging duties and the gathering of water to put fires the rest: Karl is the shit; Bacon needs to cook more bacon and has stepped up for kitchen duties in 2010…. KB may supply a pig or two mmmk Hippie!... well he is the original hippie and as such is a god; Kuru… new to kiwiburn and trying to impress…. impress he did; Avon… you better be back next year bro!; Skat… anyone seen him lately?; Dak took a somewhat back seat this year and deservedly so… his efforts in the past have taken him to a zone where he needs to step back and enjoy what is going on around him…. but not for long though there is work to be done… and a MOOP report; DJ Dave is another one of those rock solid “tell me what you want and it’s done” kinda guys… see you at BM 2009 bro; Trent!... this dude travelled all the way from Oz also and when he arrived no body could find him… who loves you baby! I will have missed some one out of the line up so I apologise for my memory fails me… otherwise you’d stand out and be mentioned above….
The Flame effects and Pyro at the pre-burn and Man Burn were brought to you by Ryan aka His Nibs. He spent months getting the propane flame bar ignition system perfected at his own personal cost to enable us to BURN THE MAN. Karl also played a part in this new ignition system until he ran out of acetylene. Nick oversaw this part of the
burn plus worked his magic with the box of rockets and fire works that Ryan had bought. The burn was truly epic. Cheers guys.
Rubix… without her vision the man would have only been some pieces of wood screwed together and looking woody. She transformed Him into Her or should I say IT! One side was Man Women and the other side was Women Man… brilliant!
I miss being at Kiwiburn more than you will know, it is more a part of mine and my family’s life than anything else has been and it’s a good thing.
Bring on 2010!
MOOP Report: by Sam Hankins and Bacon
You know we’re a Leave No Trace event and that means we need to leave the site BETTER than we found it! MOOP – Matter Out Of Place – is trash, butts, bottles, and anything else that SHOULD NOT be on a paddock. We had approximately 12 people present for the post-festival cleanup, tear down, and MOOP patrol: Jason, Kiwi, Irish
Andy, Sam, Dave, Karl, Hippy, Lilly, Kat, Rubix, Bacon. Hi Dive and a few others.
Overall the site was left better than last year with far fewer cigarette butts. Still, there was some scattered rubbish up the top paddock under the trees between the toilet block and the main road and some melted wax that was left. There was a small problem area by Balrogs: spillage of glitter/ body paint which had evaporated and moved around a bit, and a few stray ciggie butts, but nothing major. A bigger problem area was near The Drop Zone where there was some scattered litter and a large polyflax matt that had disintegrated and resulted in a very focused 30-minute cleanup effort by a team of
six. Up by temple there were lots of little pieces of rubbish, ciggie butts and bottle tops. Over by the man, there were not too many burnables in the ashes this year, so raking soil over the ash was fairly easy. And around all the other camps, things were pretty good aside from a few stray pieces of MOOP.
This year the whole site was line swept as opposed to people walking around willy nilly. It would only be a half day job if the line was 15 to 20 people wide so we will be encouraging more people to help out post-festival. Although this might be
difficult, it would also be good to implement a system where people have to get their site inspected before leaving so that the burden is not placed on the MOOP Team.
Recycling
First Tammi and Gadgit deserve big gold stars for running the recycling area this year. And especially for carting over a trailers load worth of recycling to the Transfer Station on Sunday morning once the festival was over at 10 am. We are grateful.
HOWEVER, loads of recycling and trash continued to pile up outside the pony shed post-festival as tired burners hurriedly packing cars and sourcing rides suddenly found very little to no room to take out THEIR GARBAGE. And not all garbage/recycling was sorted. Cans and plastic were sorted fairly well, glass not done well at all as it was not split into colours. Rubix and a few others spent A LOT of time sorting through the mess and HiDive and Bacon carted a van load of trash and recycling to the Transfer Station. We need a better system for recycling.
Issues to be addressed for next year:
• Commissary: Approximately 10 – 20 people are on site days before and days after the event as part of the MPW team who have very limited time to get all the work done. A few blessed volunteers kept the MPW team going by donating personal food, cooking, and ensuring the team got fed. We should explore having a ‘planned’ commissary for
the MPW and volunteer crew next year.
• MOOPing: We need to better communicate via the Greeters and Event Guide the concept of MOOP to better educate first-time burners to the concept and encourage everyone to de-MOOPify their areas before leaving the site.
• Recycling: a) Better communicate to the attendees how the recycling is gong to work prior and during the event:
ie: Recycling closes promptly at 10 am on the last day of festival; or b) Do away with recycling altogether and let participants deal with their own trash and recycling.
VI. Paddock Safety
a) Health and Safety and Medics by Wendy “Dr. Windy” Allison
This report looks at the health and safety aspects of the festival, noting what happened and what issues were raised relating to health and safety during the event.
Safety planning in the lead up to the event
As part of legal requirements for Kiwiburn, all art structures and theme camps must have a pre-prepared safety plan. This year, we continued the practice of contacting all registered contributors and assisting with development of their safety plans. Many people find health and safety planning daunting, and liaison with the health and safety officer makes this task much easier. Many returning camps from previous years simply updated their plan where changes had been made, and experience from previous years made addressing complex safety issues much simpler this time round.
Safety during the event
This year there were two health and safety people on duty, checking theme camps and art structures against the prepared plans. This scheme worked very well, with all contributions receiving their safety check within the first dayand-a-half. Safety in and around Kiwiburn was very good this year, with no injuries sustained by participants related to the safety of structures or power sources, and no non-compliant structures having to be upgraded. Rain was again an issue, and some cables and exposed electrical connections had to be covered as they were at risk of shorting in heavy
showers.
The medics had a relatively easy time of it, since Hippie’s appendix was safely tucked away in a jar this time. They mostly treated bee stings and sandfly bites, and one case of a burnt ear attached to a fire spinner who had got carried away with his staff. They didn’t have to amputate. One participant received bruised ribs from taking on the Health and Safety officer in jelly wrestling.
The Man Burn
This year, the Man Burn was bigger than ever, and included pyrotechnics for the first time. It was factored into the safety plan to have this supervised by a trained technician, and it all went off without a hitch. Again, the standard of safety was high, and communication much improved from last year. The safety perimeter was sufficient and well marked.
One participant attempted to run through the pyre but was waylaid by a switched-on wrangler before she could get dangerously close. It may become necessary to station people at points around the exclusion zone to prevent future occurrences of this. The new location for the Man Burn lends itself well to pre-burn performance and safe vantage points to watch the burn.
Hygiene
There were no hygiene-related injuries or illnesses at Kiwiburn this year. The portable toilets required servicing once during the festival, but the number and the amount of toilet paper was sufficient for the number of participants. The upgraded toilet block was much more pleasant to use, and there were no issues with water supply or drainage. And the bathroom fairies kept the toilet block swept, clean, and stocked with toilet paper and soap. Thank you!
Dogs
There were two dogs at Kiwiburn this year. While Kiwiburn has a strict ‘No Dogs’ policy, this was not made clear in media relating to Kiwiburn, and the two people who brought their dogs a long distance were allowed in on a judgement call by gate staff. Dogs pose a hygiene and safety risk to participants, and the environment at Kiwiburn can be very distressing for a dog. Next year the ‘No Dogs’ policy will be more clearly disseminated in media and gate staff will be asked to check if there are animals in arriving cars.
Overall
Overall, the standard of safety was high, and participants observed the safety guidelines. Having the extra safety officer on site was well worthwhile in ensuring the ongoing safety of everyone at the festival. Issues from last year were addressed, particularly with regard to extra safety crew, exclusion zones/supervised pyrotechnics for the Man Burn, and pathway lighting.
The process for maintaining health and safety at Kiwiburn seems to be working well. It needs at least two people on site, which is sufficient to cover the festival at current population.
b) Gate and Greeters by Kathy Guidi
The Gate and Greeters (G&G) has been combined into one group for the last three years. The G&G opened from 8am through 1 am on the first two days of the festival. The Gate opened again on the third day in the afternoon for the Locals Tea Party and in the evening for Burn Night where we invited locals for a koha (a nominal donation). At all other times, the gate (into the Main Paddock) remained locked and was only open for emergency personnel.
The breakdown of arrivals was as follows:
60 people on-site pre-festival (theme camps and volunteers)
140 people arrive Day 1
50 people arrive Day 2
-----
250 total ticket purchasers
20 locals for Locals Day/Eve
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270 total
Issues during the Event:
• Ticketing: 25% of people were on site during the days leading up to the event. Folks were not processed for tickets until the evening of the festival (Wed) and it was difficult to ensure everyone was accounted for. Although, in keeping with the true burner spirit, several people sought me out during the festival to pay for their ticket.
• Gate Management: Due to construction going on at the Domain for the new leasees (SLAM), there was no front gate at the roadside and therefore we had no control over people coming into the front paddock. This caused several problems with some local folk who showed up inebriated, parked their cars, and either watched the goings-on or
eventually fence-jumped into the festival. Also, the Greeters Station was vandalised on the last night during the wee hours of the morn and was attributed to the local boys who had caused trouble earlier in the night.
• Gate Sales: There was a huge number of Gate ticket sales (100 out of 250) for which we were not prepared. The volume of folks coming in on the first day caused some backlog at the G&G Station and we did not have enough volunteers scheduled to handle this inflow.
• Getting Volunteers and Training for volunteers: The Gate and Greeters is staffed by volunteers. We currently do not have a good way pre-festival to get volunteers and so this is left for the Gate Manager to do on-site. It was moderately difficult to get enough volunteers to fill all the shifts (4 hours) and some shifts were not filled until the
day of. We had a two-page “training guide” filled with information the G&G volunteers were expected to communicate to arrivals. However, again due to unexpected large numbers, volunteers did not always convey this information nor know how to handle certain situations. On the plus side, we had radios available for the G&G volunteers and they could and did call the Wrangler Team/MUDFOP/ or Gate Manager for assistance. On the downside, a dog was let in when it shouldn’t have been and some miscommunication occurred with a few attendees.
Issues to be addressed for next year:
• Determine how to better process pre-festival participants. Perhaps have Gate open a day or two pre-festival. And/or explore using wrist-bands to identify ‘processed’ participants.
• Gate Management: We need to ensure there is a roadside front gate that can be locked. We also should look at separating the Gate from the Greeters and have Gate people on-call 24 hours/day during the festival.
• Gate Sales: For budgeting and management reasons, we want to encourage folks to pre-purchase tickets. We will be looking at increasing the Gate Sale ticket price by a significant amount so as to encourage pre-purchase of tickets.
• Volunteer Solicitation and Training: Explore ways via the website to get volunteers signed up for shifts pre-festival and how best to train them. Some issues could be remedied by splitting up the Gate and Greeters into two separate groups.
c) Wranglers/MUDFOP and Security by Polly Lind
We worked very hard this year to bring better internal security to the festival. While we haven’t had any significant problems in the past with the denizens of the paddock, this year we had some issues with fence jumpers and people sneaking in and causing trouble. While it was handled well this year with the resources we had in hand, it has certainly pointed out the need to grow our Wrangler team. The festival numbers have and will continue to grow, and we finally feel the need to have some structured internally organised and run security teams, to be the eyes and ears of Kiwiburn, to
look after the denizens of the paddock and to deal with fence jumpers.
Modelled after Burning Man’s Black Rock City Rangers, we formed the Kiwiburn Blsvk Sheep Wranglers, who act as the eyes and ears of KB. They serve six hour shifts, usually in pairs, remain sober and drug-free and serve as ‘mediators’ if required (people can seek help from them on any number of things). Aspects of their job include patrolling festival perimeter and high-risk areas for fence jumpers as well as dealing with unruly participants as necessary. Wranglers use non-violent conflict resolution skills and more firm skills when dealing with fence jumpers. The Wrangler team also was integral to
Burn Night, helping to keep participants behind the barriers for their own safety.
We are grateful to Dave Bradshaw, a veteran Burner, BRC Ranger, and co-organiser of Europe’s regional Burning Man event, NoWhere. Dave worked with us for months preceding the event, helping us with ideas about team shifts and educating us on the roles and responsibilities of being a Ranger/Wrangler. During the event, he gave on the spot radio training and worked tirelessly throughout the festival training Wranglers, working shifts, and was always glue to the walkie-talkies.
We also created a MUDFOP (mug under duress, finger on pulse) post. The purpose of the MUDFOP was to have one highly visible person (thanks Wendy for making the outfit) with whom festival attendees could easily identify and approach. The MUDFOP is the central point person who can make decisions or find someone who can make important
decisions as well as delegate tasks as and where needed. We had a MUDFOP on duty 24 hours a day for the entire duration of the festival. The MUDFOP interfaces with all the other internal teams (Medics, Heath and Safety, Gate and Greeters, Wranglers, MPW) and with external security, aka the police, if required. We have a good rapport with the local police department and they are available to us as our ‘backup’ security if we can not handle security issues ourselves. All the issues we faced this year pointed out in a gentle way where we need to focus our energies regarding security issues, border patrols, MUDFOPing, and Gate, which we are now in the process of sorting.
Issues during the event:
• Fence jumpers/lake crashers: There were a handful of people who snuck into the festival either via the lakefront or by jumping the perimeter fences. These people were approached by the Wrangler/MUDFOP and asked to leave. However, some claimed to have ‘paid’ and we did not have any way to determine if this was true. We had fence
jumpers on two of the three nights. Most were found, spoken to, and asked to leave.
• Locals not fitting in/violating property: On burn night, where we invited locals to come in for a koha (nominal donation), a group of young men came into the festival and appeared to ‘spectate’ rather than ‘participate’. This made many people uncomfortable. They were watched by the MUDFOP and Wrangler team and a few Skullfuckers tried to
approach them, but they mainly kept to themselves. Later, visibly inebriated, they were observed breaking the solar lights along the walkway and they punched one person. They left the main paddock of their own accord but remained in the front paddock for several hours, continuing to drink. The MUDFOP nor Wranglers felt comfortable approaching them. After a period, the police were called, but the young men left shortly thereafter, and the call to the police was cancelled. In the morning, we found that the Greeters Station had been burgled with a number of items stolen.
Issues to be addressed for next year:
• We could have used more walkie-talkies as we only had 6 sets which was not enough given the size of the paddock.
• Employ the use of wrist-bands or other physical way to identify ticketed attendees. This will help us then identify nonattendees who have snuck into the festival.
• We may not want to do “Locals Burn Night” again as we had several problems with those who did not integrate well with the community.
VII. Communication and Technology
a) Communications (Web, Print, PR/Media) by Kathy Guidi
Our Art and Publications designer, Shelley Watson, did a tremendous and fabulous job designing all of our print media (posters and tickets) as well as our website banner for the theme Future History. In terms on public relations, Kiwiburn had a presence on Tribe and Facebook although most people find out about the festival via the website or word of mouth and some even heard about us through the CouchSurfing Network. We do
not actively ‘publicise’ the event as we seek to grow organically, attracting those people who resonate with the ‘burner’ philosophy and our Ten Principles.
We have, for the past three years, endeavoured to build rapport with the local Mangakino community. To do this, we have place announcements in the local paper, The Dam Advertiser, approximately two weeks prior to the event, inviting folks to a “locals tea party” and “burn night”.
During the festival this year, we were contacted by the Taupo Times and Clare Chapman was sent on-site to conduct an interview with Regional Rep and KB Founder, Mark Stirling. Clare wrote a very colourful piece about us which was published on February 10 called “Kiwiburn, Not Your Usual Festival.”
b) Communications and Technology (Website, Sys Admin) by Allyn York and Cass Edwards
C&T in the lead up to the Event:
As mentioned in earlier sections, the Kiwiburn ExCom communicates primarily via email and via phone conference. In the past we’ve used Skype as our conferencing system but have had trouble with Internet connectivity and accessibility. Last year we deployed phone cards to all members and started using a teleconference service called All Conference Calls. Members phoned into a local number, which connected everyone to the main group in Wellington. This worked better overall, but we still had trouble hearing people clearly. This was attributed to a poor conference phone. Research showed that a good conference telephone would cost around $700–$1000 and if the budget allows for it, we will purchase one post-festival once final accounting is completed.
With respect to the website, the only change we implemented this year was a News Feed/Blog. This was meant to keep people apprised of up-to-date Kiwiburn news. It was used initially, but over time, lacked enthusiasm and support and we are considering phasing this out next year as most news is conveyed via the Kiwiburn forums. For the upcoming year, we are exploring converting the entire Kiwiburn website over to Drupal to allow us more flexibility in management and updating of content.
Our on-line ticket sales process went smoothly this year with the ability for people to purchase tickets via Paypal or Direct Deposit.
C&T During the Event:
Our website ticketing ‘shutdown’ went smoothly this year with no known issues. And on-site internet access was available
throughout the festival (for those who brought their own).
Issues to be addressed next year:
• Purchase tele-conference phone for Wellington.
• Convert website over to a better content management system, ie: Drupal.
VIII. Future Vision by Bruce Scanlon
As usual, we begin our future vision by looking at the past. Last year in this section of the report we anticipated:
• 50% growth (achieved)
• Increase in theme camps, art, contributions from the community (achieved)
• Art grants (achieved)
• More structure for volunteer and committee oversight (achieved, most notably with MUDFOPs and Black Sheep Wranglers)
We also spoke here about increasing the length of the festival. The community discussed this and it was decided that the three days of the event are already intense enough, and people wanted the opportunity to get that right first.
Some notable future vision-y things we also achieved were official non-profit status for Kiwiburn Inc. and the full coverage of all festival expenses from ticket revenues for the first time ever.
We have once again exceeded our expectations and put on a fabulous event while building our capabilities. Now from this solid safe and secure position we cast our vision forward.
We are financially secure and have an experienced crew of people running the event. If anything, our challenges this year come from dealing with our success.
The great shortage is that of people doing organisational work during the event. With increase in size and notice from local communities, gate, greeters, and perimeter become more important. More people at work during the festival will be needed for the Black Sheep Wranglers, and possible increases to the gate and greeter staff. And more people to manage those people.
In the past we have lost committee members when we met major goals. Different personalities seem suited for different phases of a festival or organisation’s life, and now the festival has moved into a new stage where it is no longer struggling to survive. There is some dissatisfaction with performing some of the tasks, and it is a challenge to find new people to fill those roles.
Whakamaru Domain has a new leaseholder doing major infrastructure work, and we will need to work on continuing our good relationship with them as well as adapting to the major changes they are making in fencing and roadworks.
Challenges aside, as we begin planning for Kiwiburn 2010 we are fantastically empowered by our unexpectedly large bank balance. We should be able to increase budgets for the Man, Temple, and Art Grants, so we can look forward to
more, bigger, more fabulous art. The budget should also allow for all necessary infrastructure costs, such as on site storage, more radios, and support for the MPW, as well as things we haven’t even thought of yet.
At the end of this report I must conclude again, the future looks incredibly bright! The festival and organisation is in fine shape. Our main challenges are dealing with our success. It’s hard to imagine a better situation.