A few posts ago, I mentioned the two recently made documentaries about Fyre Festival and this week is sort of continuation of that. I saw this article from the BBC about Burning Man and how the “über rich” are ruining its culture. Per this article, they “glamped,” spent hundreds of thousands on luxury housing, and never fully disconnected from the internet to post their Instagram photos of themselves at the festival – including ads with the brands they were collaborating with.
Of course, this reminded me of the marketing for the Fyre Festival, which catered to the über rich as well and was widely received positively by them. This intrigued me because the Burning Man attendees who were more keen on the old rules of the festival (positivity, openness, love, self-expression, community, and art – among a few) said that these newer attendees were the opposite of the spirit of the festival. So much so that one of the rich camps was revoked their invitation to the festival.
In my opinion, Burning Man does not need marketing due to its reputation, so I find it funny that these people are advertising themselves, their brands and Burning Man in a manner similar to Fyre Fest, but people aren’t having it. I don’t know if it’s because of Fyre’s failure or because the culture is completely different.
To read up on the details and story go here: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-47203978
Also, I never knew that there were so many amazing art projects on display at Burning Man. Check out Burning Man Arts here: https://burningman.org/culture/burning-man-arts/
FNAR 264-403 Art / Design / Digital Culture 