Surf a mutant sofa in the desert: Burning Man festival to see its first CouchSurfing camp

Surf a mutant sofa in the desert: Burning Man festival to see its first CouchSurfing camp

Over eighty members of CouchSurfing are to form a camp of the same name at the Burning Man (link: www.burningman.com) festival, an annual event that takes place in Black Rock City, the name of a temporary town that rises every August in the Nevada desert to exist for one week only.

Burning Man, a festival dedicated to art, self-reliance and radical self-expression, will start on Monday, 27 August and will continue for a week. Last year’s event drew 40,000 people from around the world. CouchSurfing members also organized a party using a CouchSurfing group devoted to the event. This year will see the first theme camp dedicated to CouchSurfing, and a “mutant couch” will become the centerpiece of the camp.

Neither the CouchSurfing camp or Burning Man is officially connected to or funded by CouchSurfing. However, Casey Fenton (link: www.couchsurfing.com/caseyfenton), co-founder of CouchSurfing.com, says the website was partly inspired by Burning Man and that “a large portion of the first members of CS were burners”. The name “burners” refers to enthusiasts of the event. “These people created wildly individual and colorful profiles, setting the stage for the amazing collection of people that CS is now”, Casey adds.

Pointing out similarities between the to organizations, Casey says, “CouchSurfing and Burning Man both inspire people to do great things and reach for the stars. Both encourage people to get involved and participate instead of spectating.”

The initiative to set up a CouchSurfing camp for the festival was born nowhere else but on the CouchSurfing website by enthusiastic CouchSurfing members. “There were several posts on ‘Burning Man’ group calling for someone to take the lead on doing a CS camp. I decided to go ahead and put it together and take the summer off from school”, says James Lathrop, known to his campmates as Sofa King in Charge (link: www.couchsurfing.com/profile.html?id=1OASNIF). “The only rule that I've stuck to from the beginning is that every single member of CouchSurfing camp is a member of CS.”

Lathrop said he first expected around 20 people to register but the popularity exceeded his anticipations and now there are 85 CouchSurfing members signed up to be part of the camp. “That posed a special challenge to me to make sure that everyone was fully prepared for the experience”, says Lathrop, who will be attending the event for the fifth time. According to Lathrop, most CouchSurfers at the camp will be Burning Man “virgins” – a term used to describe first-time attendees of the festival. “I think that is because most of the veterans in CS are already with other groups of friends or other camps.”

Lathrop and his campmates are currently building the Mutant Sofa from many donated couches that is to become the symbol of the camp. Lathrop says it will be his first interactive art project for Burning Man festival, so named for its yearly ritual burning of a large wooden effigy.

Lathrop is not the only person taking the initiative to put the camp together. Other camp organizers include Howard Chong (link: www.couchsurfing.com/people/chongman99), Thomas Ploszaj (link: www.couchsurfing.com/people/studebaker), Kelly Cochran (www.couchsurfing.com/people/bikiniskigirl), and Jay Walsh (link: www.couchsurfing.com/people/jaywalsh). Rachel Fiori (link: www.couchsurfing.com/profile.html?id=77LGCK) took on tasks of preparing the camp kitchen, shower, and dirty water disposal. The festival requires that all attendees bring their own water to drink and use at the event, and the dirty “grey water” must be evaporated or transported out of the event. By US federal law, it cannot be dumped on the desert, and the festival organizers make great efforts to return the desert environment to its natural state after the events.

This will be a “virgin burn” for Rachel, who is an active CouchSurfing host in San Francisco, California. Fiori, known to her good friends and campmates as Princess Fiori, says she is overjoyed to be in the same camp as a few of her CouchSurfing friends. Not willing to stop hosting even while traveling, Fiori will be providing a ride from San Francisco to Black Rock City to two Italian CouchSurfers. She also plans to open her home in Black Rock City for anyone that needs a place to stay during a cold desert nights. “Campo de Fiori tent space is available for surfing while my home base couch is not. Feel free to surf on over to the Mutant sofa or Campo de Fiori.”

The CouchSurfing camp will host pot-luck party on Wednesday of the event, with help from Cochran. It will also hold a pancake breakfast on Thursday morning, with Walsh flipping the pancakes. The breakfast will be given out for free, as commerce is completely disallowed at the event, and even bartering is discouraged. But Walsh is no stranger to serving up free pancakes. In addition to being known in San Francisco for his pancakes at CouchSurfing meet-ups, he says, “I hosted an all-pancake breakfast at my camp two years ago, and was really excited to find out that CS Camp wanted to do one as well.” Interviewed in his San Francisco home while testing his batter that he transport to Black Rock City, Walsh added, “Nothing beats pancakes for breakfast out in the desert.”

For more information about the Burning Man event or the CouchSurfing camp, you may visit these links:
www.burningman.com
www.couchsurfingcamp.com
www.couchsurfing.com/group.html?gid=434

Mattthew Brauer