Has Burning Man jumped the shark?

[Earth_First]

Burning Man, which gets under way Monday, is best known as a hedonistic weeklong art festival 110 miles north of Reno on a dry lake called the playa. But almost imperceptibly over the last few years, it has become a place where CEOs, venture capitalists and startuppers can network (while wearing, at most, swimsuits). While neither money, branding nor barter are allowed, suddenly companies are getting funded, co-founders are meeting, and people are getting jobs right on the playa. Among the 68,000 costumed and dust-covered attendees are some unexpected names - Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg goes. So do Google founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page. And Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk.

Anarchists parking Priuses next to ramshackle tents and tarps are now sharing the sand with wealthy techies arriving, via private jets, at luxury desert camps fully staffed with cooks, masseuses and assistants.Venture capitalist and legal scholar Dustin Boyer got a job while he was at Burning Man."How do you think I ended up working at Google? I met Larry and Sergey on the playa," said Boyer at a recent dinner party in the Mission District. "They were running around in full spandex bodysuits, so no one could see who they were - it's hard to be a billionaire at Burning Man, even though there are so many of them.

"Burning Man founders are happy about the changes - even courting them. Those captains of tech also fund the enormous temporary art installations in the city center and support the Burning Man nonprofit efforts."What we're seeing are many more of the Fortune 500 leadership, entrepreneurs and small startups bringing their whole team," said Marian Goodell.


http://www.sfgate.com/style/article/Burning-Man-becomes-a-hot-spot-for-tech-titans-4756482.php

[Chan790]

1. Long before now.

Burning Man ceased to be anything but commercialized the second someone realized a decade ago that it could be commercialized.

Asking now if it's jumped the shark is like asking during the credits of Gigli, "is it just me or did this film just get terrible?"

[Earth_First]

2. I knew posting this that this would be called out...

Yes, BM probably did just that a decade ago.

[arcane1]

3. Everything eventually gets too big

They recently made internet access available on the playa, and now my early-arriving friends are already posting playa photos on Facebook, and posting status updates on how far along their setup is going.

It gives me a vision of everyone walking around looking into their phones, just like they do for the other 51 weeks of the year.

Plus, there has been a lot of news about the increased police presence, and even a rumor that one of the art cars is an undercover police vehicle.

It's like a law of thermodynamics applied to everything cool. Either it gets too crowded and loses the intimacy, or the percentage of assholes increases, or it sells out, or whatever. It always outgrows and ruins itself in some way.

In the context of this article, what I've seen the past couple of years is so many friends who can't get a ticket because it sells out so fast. That makes sense when you consider companies buying up tickets in order to send employees there to do work for them. Buying Burning Man tickets for your cooks and butlers? Seriously?

All good things... you know the rest.

[OxQQme]

4. Tickets SOLD OUT

http://tickets.burningman.com/

[DiverDave]

6. The same thing happened to St Patricks day in Savannah

Used to be a great crowd, can drink on the street (if in a plastic cup).
Very mellow crowd.
Then about 95-96 turned into a collage spring break thing...just awful.
People fighting, tossing up on other people, just no fun anymore.
Stopped going in 96.
I bumped into a kid and passed by, he hit me in the back of the head, then fell down, vomiting...I just shook my head and left, aint been back since.

[Recursion]

5. The local ones are better. I like PDF.

Plus BM has a way of overloading my sanctimony tolerance.

[mulsh]

7. It jumped the shark when it moved from the beach. When the SF Chronicle and NY Times started

running articles about the event in themid 90's, well both papers are pretty much the post mortem record of cool and hipness.

Of course my opinion is far out weighed by the hordes who descend on the desert each year so enjoy your Burning Man

[Throd]

8. Not if you enjoy it.

[Brother Buzz]

9. Nobody goes there anymore. It's too crowded.