I’ve been chatting the last day or so with someone curious about (but a little wary) of attending Frostburn, a regional burn in West Virginia and held in mid-February. Along the way, this little memory popped up in my mind.
After attending my first Frostburn in 2014–the year it was really, really, really, really cold (and windy!), I shared my experience with a relatively new burner at the time, Gabe Karpati.
Gabe and his lovely wife Lupi had attended their first burn with the camp where I was then TCO at Burning Man, Black Rock City Farmers Market. They loved the event, the burn, the community … everything. And while they’d experienced a fairly mild burn their first year, with the only significant dust storm happening during camp strike, they wanted to learn more, participate more and attend more regionals and burns.
But as I told Gabe about my experience at Frostburn and the really, really, really, really cold (and windy) conditions there, he said (paraphrasing), “What is it with these burners? You go to the most inhospitable, dry, hot and windy desert; you go to the mountains of West Virginia in the coldest and most extreme time of year… . What’s next? A burn at the edge of a live volcano?!”
I had to laugh. And wonder if, by chance, he knew something I didn’t.
To this day, it makes me smile to remember this conversation and Gabe’s response. And, yeah, we are kinda like that as a community. Extreme. Amazing. Radical in our self-reliance. Radical in our gifting, our self-expression, our communal effort and more.
I don’t know if I’ll ever make it back to Frostburn, and that’s ok. I’m incredibly grateful I went (and when I went) in that really, really, really, really cold (and windy) year!
Whichever burn you attend — whether it’s The Big One in the Black Rock Desert; a small and chill one with a pool, showers and flushing toilets; one nearby which you’ve been attending like clockwork for years; or maybe one on another continent and far from your regional community — the experience can always be grand. How can it not?
For those of you headed to TTitD this year, have a blast.
For those of you looking closer to home for other events to attend, don’t be so quick to blow off Frostburn. There’s something rather remarkable about The 10 Principles put into play in a sparkle-pony-free zone.
And assuming tickets are still available, Sunburn in Lancaster, Penn., is coming up next week.
Whatever you do, or don’t do, stay dusty, my friends!
Photo by Brian Emfinger
