Posting about real life stuff that is actually happening now.

[numb3r_5ev3n]

 So, Burning Flipside is less than three weeks away. And because I can't get all the time off that I would normally get, the usual phenomenon of "procrastinating about packing because of work, and then throwing everything that's left into a plastic bag the morning of, and leaving around noon on Thursday" is not an option. I will be leaving *from* work Friday afternoon, and hopefully getting to the event before the gate closes at midnight - which is totally doable provided I can get my ass to Mars out of DFW, specifically through DFW traffic, in less than an hour and a half. 

And this means all my gear, my boots, my spare boots, and my backup spare boots have to be ready to roll when I roll out of the parking lot shortly after 5PM on Friday the 26th, three weeks from now.

So, most of the Burner community that I interact with is in a serious state of schadenfreude about Fyre Fest. I mean, with my income, $105.00 for a Flipside ticket can technically be considered an extravagance. These folks shelled out anywhere from 5000-12,000. And ended up being served ham sandwiches and housed in FEMA tents. The urge to point and laugh is strong (one tweet: "SPOILED RICH KID: "Poor people need to pull themselves up by their bootstraps!" RICH KID AT FYRE FEST: "MY SANDWICH IS BAD! SEND EVERYONE!")

As someone said in another article, the true hallmark of privilege is still having a future after something this fucked up happens to you. But at the same time, I kind of feel terrible for joining in all of the schadenfreude? I seriously hope no one has actually come to harm because of all of these shenanigans? Because I know what it's like for an event to seriously go south, even though I and the people I was camping with got out of Flipside 2015 right before the flash flood hit that turned the event into three separate islands, stranding people for up to a week and eventually necessitating that people be airlifted off of the land?

And in the meantime, I'm thinking, "How much do you think Ja Rule and Billy McFarland are willing to part with some of those surplus FEMA tents for? I'm asking for a friend." 

Comments

[fidget]

Nah, you're not alone in laughing about the Fyre Festival stuff. Then again, I've been picturing Ja Rule as General Zaroff and it keeps making me laugh, so there's that end of it.

You know, I have a friend in the DFW area who is also in the "burner" community (did I even use that term correctly? Is that even a term?). Burning Flipside sounds like something she'd be attending. I don't know where I'm going with this, suffice to say that I only know like three people in Texas, and two of them possibly belong to the same small subculture.

[numb3r_5ev3n]

LOOOL. That is a hilarious mental image.

And does your friend go to Flipside? I might know them.

[fidget]

"Flipside" sounds vaguely familiar, but my memory is shit.

Her name is Jess and she does a lot of Hooping.

[mirrorofsmoke]

Wait. $12,000 for being housed in Fema tents and eating ham sammiches! OH my god I'm laughing my ass off. I'm sorry, but that's definitely a way to smack their privilege a little bit. :P

[numb3r_5ev3n]

I'm kind of afraid none of them will learn anything from it, though. They got one brush of how it feels to be powerless in the face of a chaotic situation which money can't necessarily get them out of right away - because it got them into it; but their lives are going to go right back to normal once they get to the mainland.

[mirrorofsmoke]

I know. You're right. Sadly. But it's still heeelarious!

[worlds_of_smoke]

I can't feel terrible for the schadenfreude. I mean, I've read that the VIP experience tickets were actually in the 6 figures, and if you're paying that to see Blink-182 and a bunch of "celebrities", I'm gonna laugh my ass off if shit goes tits up. Especially when you're doing stupid shit like leaving your computers and passports in tents, because that's a lack of common sense that is mind-boggling.

ETA: I will say that I hope nobody actually got hurt.

[numb3r_5ev3n]

Yeah. This was basically the equivalent of the cancer that is said to be destroying Burning Man - the sudden predominance of VIP "plug and play" camps catered by outside third-party vendors in a place that is supposed to be 100% class and currency free. Had it worked, Fyre Fest would have essentially been one giant Plug-And-Play camp. This is one reason why Burners are crowing about it so much.

[worlds_of_smoke]

I don't blame them at all. I'm not familiar with Burner culture, but these sorts of things just seem like "Capitalism FTW" Festivals. Fuck that shit.