Put very simply: A theme camp, as the name suggests, is a group of people who gather together in a group at a "burn" (Burning Man or similar event) to work together on a concept, and make an interactive event. A village is a collection of camps which have joined together to make a larger community.
Camps and Villages at Burningman in
2003: Mapped ( A - L , M - Z )
2002: Mapped ( A - L , M - Z )
2001: Mapped ( A - L , M - Z ), Unmapped
2000: Mapped ( A - L , M - Z )
1999: Mapped ( A - L , M - Z )
1998: Mapped ( A - M , N - Z )
1997: Mapped
There's a lot to read, there. If you'd like a little more focus in your reading, you might start with some of our local camps, if you are in the Chicago area. For 2003, we have the following listed:
- Boditch Navagational (sic) Database (Send e-mail)
- Congregation B'Nai haMidbar (Send e-mail)
- Wildlife Refuge (Send e-mail) (Visit homepage)
That's not a lot for a city our size, but it's about as many camps as we've seen over the last few years. The first camp, I still don't know anything about. I should write to the gentleman and find out more.
The second camp listed, as the name suggests is a Jewish themed camp (based in Oak Park) which will have kabbalah classes, a sabbath pot luck, meditation and socials. They're inviting everybody, but if you decide to bring food, you really should keep it kosher, because if these guys are davening on the Playa, there's an excellent chance that they keep kosher, themselves. If you put non-kosher food into contact with a serving utensil or a dish, and then other food comes into contact with that, it's not kosher any more. Rekoshering gets to be a real pain even with metal, and wood and ceramics, strictly speaking, can't be koshered at all. So, if you visit and these folks decline an offering of food, please don't feel insulted. Ritually speaking, they may have no choice.
The third is an artists group that includes "StephStuff" (Stephanie Andrews), an artist who moved here from San Francisco a few years ago who works in "new materials". I know, that sounds a little dry, but her site is worth a visit. It's probably unlike anything you've seen before. This camp is probably where the Burning Chicagoans are going to be this year, judging from list announcements regarding Synchroni-city. The bad news is, it's probably where the local Burning Man cabal is going to be as well, and that can get unpleasant.
In 2001, these local camps were listed:
- AAA Camp send e-mail
- Blimp Radio Network Compound send e-mail
- Camp Conception send e-mail
- Head Lamp Camp send e-mail
Without thinking, I had placed the last of these on the list of "non-local camps" before. This, as I explained, was a purely sentimental inclusion that would probably have made no sense to a non-chicagoan. The address given was that of the "Playa edition" of "Urbus Orbis", a well-loved Wicker Park coffeehouse that folded when its landlord jacked up its rent.
This, admittedly, is a pretty short list considering how big Chicago is, and 2002 looked even leaner. "Camp Conception" had been the 2001 incarnation of the "Burning Chicagoans", cast in terms of the "Seven Ages of Man" theme. In 2002, they returned to take part in the Floating World as Camp Whistleworks, where visitors could make ceramic whistles which would become part of a steam-driven organ. There was also a camp calling itself the "Boditch Navagational Database" (sic) (contact address Eapvor@yahoo.com) - and that was it!
Faced with a shortage of local camps, Chicagoans sometimes took part in camps based in neighboring cities, Milwaukee in particular, which in 2001 was listed as the home base for these camps:
Aside from the local camps, there were a number of camps and villages in 2001 that sounded or looked interesting to me (or at least different):
01. Al-Riyad
A traditional Middle Eastern home is recreated. (send e-mail)
02. Antenna Theatre's Euphorium
They did the "Kubla Khan hallucination" display in 2001. (send e-mail)
Would you like to learn Tuvan throat singing or "Balinese monkey chant"? Then drop by here, where you will find people eager to teach. (send e-mail)
04. Burning Scouts
(send e-mail)
05. Camp Cherry
A fun place to make an ass of yourself. Home of the "wheel of indiscretion". (send e-mail)
06. Camp DeNile
07. Dante (2002)
A preview of your eternal damnation. (send e-mail)
"Draka" is sort of a train-like bus in the shape of a fire-breathing dragon, with a lounge inside, that people have used to get around "Black Rock City")
- Department of Public Transportation Mailing List
- send e-mail to Draka's lair
- Send e-mail to the Department of mutant vehicles
09. Dragon Debris
10. Emerald City
Popular Dance location, friendly group of people who, unfortunately, stopped gathering after BM 2001. No, I don't have any idea of what they're up to these days.
11. Firetown
(send e-mail)
12. Funk Camp
Home of the funk mobile, a dance party that works its way down the streets, around a mobile sound stage. (send e-mail)
13. Gigsville
(send e-mail)
14. Gnomefatty
(send e-mail)
(send e-mail)
(send e-mail)
(send e-mail)
(send e-mail)
19. Illuminaughty
(send e-mail)
21. Light Brite Camp
(send e-mail)
(send e-mail)
23. The Lost Penguin (2001. Warning: annoying pop-up ads)
This link is a little different from the others. The virtue of "the lost penguin" wasn't that it was especially exciting. It wasn't, and it didn't seem to want to be. It was a nice place to take a load off your playa-cracked feet and talk with people at night. People there seemed more approachable than was the norm after sunset.
24. Love Project
(send e-mail)
25. Lush Camp
(send e-mail)
26. Mad Scientists
(send e-mail)
27. Malpractice Camp
(send e-mail)
28. Nuclear Family
29. OCF County Fair
(send e-mail)
30. Playa Phone
(send e-mail)
(Or access their site via their url over at Geocities)
- technomaniacircus mailing list
- send them e-mail
Not that thrilled with the S and M aspects, but I have to be intrigued with a camp that invites you to sell your soul, and gives you change. (send e-mail)
33. Xara
This camp, which creates a fictional Pre-Mayan jungle culture, does have a Chicago presence in the person of Kevin Ford, who sometimes holds local events. He does generally ask that one be an active part of the Burning community before coming to one of his events, which he seems to want to keep community-style events with a personal touch instead of awkward gatherings of strangers.
Click here to return to Burning Businesses in Chicago, or here to return to the main page for these blogs.
