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With Burning Man 2024 edition in the rearview, its organizers are setting their sights on the long road ahead—but not without first reflecting on recent bumps in that road.
To secure the future of the iconic event, CEO Marian Goodell recently published a blog post in The Burning Man Journal and called upon its global community for donations during what she called an “inflection point as a nonprofit.” This public plea followed a troubling year for Burning Man, which failed to sell out for the first time in a decade amid concerns surrounding inflationary pressures and ticket pricing.
Organizers are keeping spirits high, however, by announcing the Black Rock City gathering’s next theme: Tomorrow Today.
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The “protopic” concept—a term coined by Burner Kevin Kelly to describe “a future based on steady progress, better than today but not perfect, and not without setbacks,” was revealed in a blog post by Stuart Mangrum, the director of Burning Man Project’s Philosophical Center.
“If we think of the future as a story we tell ourselves, two plotlines have seemingly come to dominate the popular imagination,” Mangrum writes. “On the one hand, a happy modernist fable of tech-fueled utopia, and on the other a postmodern myth of dystopian collapse.”
“It’s increasingly difficult to believe in the first [plotline] because we now know it’s built on an unsustainable foundation,” he continues. “And we don’t even want to think about the second because it’s a tragedy where no one gets out alive.”
For veteran Burners and newcomers alike, now is the time to get serious about shaping the gathering’s future and allowing it not only to survive, but thrive. Burning Man, of all places, is here to remind us of the power of our own minds. Next year’s burn encourages us to embrace protopianism and “to dream, invent, prototype and share our best and brightest ideas for the years ahead.”
You can read Mangrum’s full blog post here.
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