Burning Flipside
Tuesday, May 27th, 2008Burning Flipside (or Flipside) is an annual alternative arts and performance festival staged in the RUGGED Texas Hill Country west of Austin. Modeled on and loosely associated with Burning Man, Flipside is one of several Regional Burns around the USA.
Many of the core values of Burning Flipside are borrowed from Burning Man, and the same short, memorable terms are used for them, namely:
* No Spectators. Every attendee is expected to participate in some way for the event, with a performance, art piece, other form of creative expression, or volunteering to help.
* Radical Self-Expression. Art and gatherings at the event have few restrictions; many emphasize taboo subjects, politics or alternative lifestyles
* Self-reliance. All participants are responsible for their own food, shelter, water, and other necessities at the event.
* No Vending. Flipside is a non-commercial event; sales of any commodity (the one exception being ice) for cash is not allowed and may cause eviction from the event. Instead, a gift economy is used. Giving one gift in exchange foranother is considered good form, but any kind of quid-pro-quo is a violation of the gift-economy rules
* Leave No Trace. An extension of the self-reliance principle applied to outdoor living, requiring all participants to respect their environment and clean up everything they bring in. Since the event takes place on a rented campground,
used by other events during the year, participants try to leave the site cleaner than they found it rather than in an identical condition.
Theme camps
Groups of participants build a structure or area for public entertainment with an underlying theme. (Example: The Art Car Camp has many cars lining the playa.)
Interestingly enough within the many tribes there seem to be some clans which hang and play together but seem abit separate from the whole but which come together when needed. A sociologist would have a hey day here!.
All night and day camps sponsored games and fun aand people were gifting things from food to things that glowed or blinked in the dark. A good story or joke was genrously accepted and applauded. The vibes of good will abounded.
You could take a nude yoga lesson, learn how to belly dance or spin fire or have a free massage during the sweltering afternoon hours or go for a swim at Hippy Hollow. People lined up every am at the Ice camp to refurnish the ice in their coolers. Monday morning the Ice camp put on a snowball fight in the playa. Coolers of crushed ice were eagerly plundered by ice warriors looking to make the perfect snowball and score a coupe on their friends or enemies!
Performances — Flipside has a number of performance spaces that are used by musicians, theatre groups, DJs, pageants, and interactive performances many of which go on all day and night. OK my favorite was not the 80’s music that started at 4 and went to 8 am when I wanted to sleep <G> but she did go after “Beat It” by Michael Jackson with gusto!
Art Installations
Flipside community members bring art to the event for display, including large freestanding works, fire art, and interactive pieces. This is an event staged by the artists, for the artists and of the artists. Lookey Lous are discouraged by a limited number of tickets sold through a controlled system and a need to prove your contribution. After securing a coveted ticket you must show you have what is needed to survive for the duration and must also be accompanied by a sense of adventure depending on which group is volunteering at the greeters station. You may be asked to play a game or spank a bottom for admission. A sense of play is needed at Flipside, if you are hot and bothered or easily offended this is NOT your our event!!
One guy sat up on what I can only describe as a perch or throne most of the weekend, bursting out into an awseome light show and huge fiberoptics music driven diplay when night fell. . He was obviously indomitable for I never could not catch the perch empty no matter when I looked, and I can go without much sleep fairly well during the warm months since I store sleep up like a bear in the winter. <G>