I know that the COVID-19 Pandemic is on everyone's mind right now. I hope that everyone is taking the proper social distancing measures -- wheverer you might be in the world. It looks like every single one of us is going to be impacted. No one should be panicking, but we should all be trying to avoid congregating and I encourage all of us to use the technology at our disposal to hang out virtually! This is going to be a real challenge but its critical for flattning the curve and reducing the stress on our Healthcare systems. Staying home can save lives! If you have any extra N95 masks please consider donating them.
With regards to Burning Man, I know everyone is dying to know: is it cancelled? Burning Man is still 171 days away. Thats a long time, but the truth is that at the moment no one really knows for sure what is going to happen. There have been lots of things in the past that have 'nearly' cancelled Burning Man and we usually don't receive our Permit until August. There is a lot of talk about about how the virus will burn out as we approach the summer heat, that intense UV light kills it, and that the Alkaline playa will make it difficult for the virus to survive in Black Rock City. While that could all be true, at this point its still speculation.
There is no reason at this point to think that the Burn will not be taking place. However, this could easily change in the future depending on how California and Nevada, the US, and the World in general are able to deal with the virus. Leadership in the Mycodelic Forest is continuing our 2020 planning cycle and are keeping a close eye on any new developments.
There has been a lot of chatter on the interwebs surrounding Burning Man Tickets and whether they will be refunded IF in the unlikely event that COVID-19 causes it to be cancelled. I don't know any more than you do, but the TOS basically says they are non-refundable. The org has not made an official position on this, but I don't want there to be any hard feelings or finger pointing if it turns out we will not get a refund. We don't know what is going to happen. If that makes you uncomfortable buying a ticket then please don't buy a ticket. We are still trying to gather as many people as possible who are willing to participate in the Main Sale and to purchase the full two tickets that are available. Myself, and a number of camp members have already participated in the DGS sale. We also are finding partners for the existing extra DGS tickets that we have with the goal of being able to make sure that everyone who wants to go can go.
With regards to Camp Dues, I'm just going to be up-front on the situation here. We are still encouraging people to pay their camp dues before the Main Sale for a reduced rate because we have some year round costs that need to be covered. In order to keep moving forward with plans, we need to have some cash on hand. Leadership has discussed the issue, and we decided that if the event does get cancelled that camp mates would be given the option to:
- Donate your Camp Dues
- Kick them forward to next year
- Get reimbursed most of your dues minus our yearly overhead (Sojourner storage is pretty much our only cost) which we would equally distribute.
Please make sure to update your Mycodelic Forest website profile and your contact information so we have the most up to date info. If you already signed up with an account on our website go to https://mycodelicforest.org/Edit-user-details.html, or you can create an account at https://mycodelicforest.org/Join-us.html. We are cleaning the cobwebs out of the website and will be using it more actively moving forward.
Remember we are all in this together!
