EDITORIAL
On Censorship at Burning Man
Carlos Avila Gonzalez / The Chronicle 2010 restrictive. It’s bad enough that would-be participants who weren’t among the first 50,000 to buy tickets are having to pay $1,000 or more on the secondary market to join the sold-out soiree in Nevada’s Black Rock Desert. The restrictions on photographs and video at the Playa are just plain absurd. Want to publish a photo of the event on Facebook, or even a news site? You need to start by obtaining permission of everyone in the shot — or the creator of any artwork you shoot. If you want to share any photos beyond friends and family, you must obtain written permission from Black Rock City LLC, the organization that runs Burning Man. Want to shoot video? “Alas, you can’t just show up at Burning Man and start shooting,” its rules stipulate. All cameras “capable of capturing motion imagery,” even if just for a few seconds, must be registered and tagged. The organizers’ characterization of Burning Man as a “private event” might have been reasonable enough when it was a gathering of a few dozen people at Baker Beach. But now that the event draws enough people to overflow AT&T Park and the only prerequisite to entry is a paid ticket … it is a very public happening, like it or not. Equally ironic is organizers’ insistence that reselling of tickets “to make a buck” — beyond the face value of $360 — “goes against the ethos” of Burning Man. And to think people were going to Black Rock Desert to escape a corporate-dominated where surrendering dollars and control is the price of admission.Copyright © 2011 San Francisco Chronicle 09/01/2011
Frederic Larson / The Chronicle 2010
Frederic Larson / The Chronicle 2010
Chad Ziemendorf / The Chronicle 2010
Talk about unclear on the concept: Burning Man, the supposed mecca of free expression, is becoming expensive and
Frederic Larson / The Chronicle 2010
Frederic Larson / The Chronicle 2010
Chad Ziemendorf / The Chronicle 2010
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