Utah in 2013
Annual Regional Recap Report
What a successful year for Utah! We have faced many obstacles and challenges that have contributed to our growth, both as a community and as individuals. Our cohesiveness has continued to evolve and we are closer and more organized than ever. Our year has been full of events and gatherings, both large and small. Sometimes, our biggest problem is trying to decide which fun thing to do!
Christmas Tree Burn
We kick-off each year with our annual Christmas Tree Burn. 2013 was one of the best tree burns we’ve had! Initially they were scheduled in January, but being conscious of poor air quality that plagues Utah in the cold still winter months, we moved our burn this year to the end of March when the air is clear & moving again. This is a free, family-friendly event for our community & is greatly appreciated. Probably 250 people attended the burn. There was a community potluck to kick-off the event & apple cider for the kids. One of the community members brought out a mini-sound camp & played dance music all night. What fun to dance around hundreds of burning Christmas Trees of our salty playa!
Volunteer Vitalization
In April we really ramped up our Volunteer Vitalization event. This jump-starts the volunteer season & get volunteers excited about participating in Element 11. It was a huge success!! It was a family-friendly open-house style format on Sunday afternoon. People were welcome to stop by anytime & stay as long as they’d like. The primary goal was to get volunteers registered, figure out where they’d like to help & then get them connected with that committee or department. We had over 175 volunteers register that day! Upon arriving, everyone was first shown a short video about Element 11 & volunteering. People loved it so much, they kept watching it again and again! Here’s a link to our video “
What is Element 11?”
Precompression
We decided this year to make Precompression about art & artists – a way to inspire and encourage participation in the festival. What a great time this turned out to be! The family-friendly event was held in May. Artists were invited to bring their art project ideas. The community attendees were given tokens to vote for their favorite projects. The artists then received $1 for each token they had earned in community support of their project. Not only were artists able to earn money for their project, but also getting a sneak peak on what was in store at Element 11 was awesome & helped build more community excitement!
Burner Day in the Park
Late spring, we host another free, family-friendly event. The City of Murray & Murray Park have been wonderful to work with for this event. The park is big & spacious with nice pavilions. We have a community potluck, bake sale, and opportunity drawing for cool stuff like burning man bikes & Element 11 tickets, as well as water bottles, paintings, etc. The highlight of our event is the conclave show. It’s their dress-rehearsal for their Element 11 pre-burn show. One of the best things about Burner Day in the Park is other people in the Salt Lake community who happen to be at the park that day, come over to find out what we’re all about & we’re able to share the excitement & creativity with them.
Element 11
This year in July, was our 13th annual Burning Man regional at
Bonneville Seabase, which sold out at 1200 people! The theme was “Labyrinth – Find Yourself by Getting Lost”. What creativity was ignited from this theme!
Leading up to the festival, the main effigy builders had in-town work nights, once a week building a giant Labyrinth castle. The temple crew also spent many nights building their masterpiece. There were many social fundraiser gatherings for various projects and theme camps. Projects for people to be involved abounded. Build projects and fundraisers are a wonderful way for people of all kinds to build bonds, not otherwise possible.
Our city was laid out much like Black Rock City, with labeled streets and intersections, as well as a lit “Esplanade” lined with a wide variety of theme camps. Our salty “Playa” was filled with many amazing works of art.
On Friday night, we burned a large Viking ship that was built the previous year and left up for our venue owners to enjoy throughout the year. Leaving something unburned each year, for the next year’s burn is a new tradition for us, and we are unofficially calling it the “Legacy Burn”. We left a beautiful structure that is in the shape of an infinity sign to be burned in 2014.
Our main effigy was a large castle, with a labyrinth of surrounding lights. It was spectacular! The main effigy pre-burn show was something for the record books! Our Conclave and West African drummers spent countless hours practicing and preparing and it really showed. Further, we are so proud of them for putting in the work to be able to represent our community in the Great Circle at BRC.
Right near the main effigy was a large bar that burned later on Saturday night. Our temple, resembling a Star Gate, burned at sunrise Sunday morning and was very awe inspiring. The Jellyfish from the Year 1200 provided sound for both the Castle & Temple burns.
Our Rangers and Med Tent volunteers continue to make us proud with their skill and dedication to keeping the peace and providing assistance whenever called upon.
We have maintained a wonderful relationship with the landowners of venue, local fire department and mayor of Grantsville. They attend our event not just to help it be a safer place but because they enjoy it. The firemen suited up in their firefighting gear and chopped down the pole left standing in the fire during Friday night’s Viking ship burn. This year the landowners of Seabase had a Solstice Burn in December with the fire department and mayor along with a couple members of our board of directors. Our wonderful Board Chair, Jeff Reese, presented on behalf of Element11, a $500 donation to the volunteer fire fighters and it was matched by the property owners. It feels good to be in a position to be giving back in more ways than smiles and memories.
You’re welcome to read the
Salt Shaker’s issue about Element 11 2013 – It’s a compilation from E11 participants who have shared their story in their own way – a little quote, some prose, DJ sets, words of gratitude, stories, photos and videos.
Utah CORE & Utah at Burning Man
The Utah CORE project was honored to be among those selected to participate at BRC in 2014. They had regular work nights that were highly attended and enjoyed by all. Their project, The PsycheDelicate Arch, was based on the Delicate Arch, one of the most recognizable of Utah’s many natural wonders.
Beyond the CORE Utah was very well represented at Burning Man with art cars, theme camps, the fire conclave, and rangers. You’re welcome to read the
Salt Shaker’s issue about Utah at Burning Man.
Decompression
Our decompression event was also a wonderful collaboration between our Board of Directors and the Ogden family north of Salt Lake City. It was a new way for us to hold a decomp event. Most decomps in the past have been held at clubs and in town venues for one night and adults only. This year it was a solstice weekend camp out for families at
Fort Buenaventura. It turned out to be quite wonderful and will probably be explored again.
Jenkstar Ranch
We have many other events throughout the year that are not necessarily Burning Man regional events but that fall in line with many of the principles and ethos of Burning Man.
Along the beautiful green river lies a wonderful, magical place where adults can act like kids and their kids can’t believe they are their parents… Where old fashion cap gun wars and kickball games are the norm. Where the sights and sounds created come from the solar rays that warmed us during the day. It's the Jenkstar Ranch! A place like no other!
There are many fun events there but I feel the need to give an honorable mention to the Jenkstars. In the spring they host SLAM Fest, a sustainable arts, living and music festival, and in the fall, Melon Nights. You can check out their website at
www.jenkstar.com.
Quarterly Town Hall & Socials
Since the formation of the Element 11 board, we’ve held quarterly community meetings to keep the community involved, aware and as a place to allow conversation about important topics. At the Q4 2013 meeting, we decided to mix things up a little bit. Changing the format of the meetings to more of a town hall style – with interactive stations set up to engage people in discussion. A DJ set the mood with great tunes and tasty treats abounded. It was a hit - more fun and less meeting. Still providing the same information and actually received more feedback and input from the community than at prior meetings.
Elemental Stars
At our 4th Quarter Town Hall, we honored 36 individuals with “Elemental Star” awards (the name is a play on our regional event “Element 11”). We asked department heads to provide lists of their overachievers, and the list was further narrowed down by a vote from the Element 11 Board of directors. The recipients received discount tickets for next year’s festival and recognition in our
Salt Shaker newsletter. Of course, we were not able to give an award to everyone, so there were a couple of hurt feelings, but overall the process was a great success! We have already started planning ways to expand the program, and we are confident that it will be even better next year.
Looking ahead to 2014
We’re exciting about what’s in store for 2014 and are already deep in the planning stages. We’ve keep evaluating the way we do things & continually work to improve processes. We have our theme decided, “Into the Wild” and can’t wait to see what creativity that inspires. Our art grant applications will open soon and we plan to have grants awarded by mid-March to allow plenty of time for amazingness to happen. Excitement is in the air!
www.element11.org
www.facebook.com/groups/Utah.Burners/
