Introduction

Land Acknowledgement

We gather for SideBurn on the traditional territories of the Haudenosaunee, the Anishinaabe, the Mohawks of the Bay of Quinte, the Huron-Wendat, the Mississaugas, and other Indigenous peoples from across Turtle Island. We are grateful to have the opportunity to work and build community on this land.

This year’s theme: The Great Rewilding

This year’s theme calls us back to our roots, to the wild within and around us. A return to instinct, imagination, and play. It’s a celebration of nature’s chaos, human creativity, and our deep connection and respect for the earth that holds us. Together we become forest spirits, glowing fungi, creatures of light and laughter, co-creating with the land rather than upon it. The Great Rewilding is a living reminder that the wilderness was never lost, only waiting for us to awaken.

Learn more about the event.

The 10 Principles

As an officially sanctioned regional Burning Man event, SideBurn subscribes to the 10 Principles as guidelines. They are:

1. Radical Inclusion: Anyone can be a part of Burning Man. We welcome and respect the stranger.
2. Gifting: Burning Man is devoted to acts of gift-giving. The value of a gift is unconditional. Gifting does not contemplate a return or an exchange for something of equal value.
3. Decommodification: In order to preserve the spirit of gifting, our community seeks to create special environments that are unmediated by commercial sponsorships, transactions, or advertising. We stand ready to protect our culture from exploitation. We resist the substitution of consumption for participatory experience.
4. Radical Self-Reliance: Burning Man encourages individuals to discover, exercise and rely on their inner resources.
5. Radical Self-Expression: Radical self-expression arises from the unique gifts of the individual. No one other than the individual or collaborating group can determine its contents. It is offered as a gift to others. In this spirit, the giver should respect the rights and liberties of the recipient.
6. Communal Effort: Our community values creative cooperation and collaboration. We strive to produce, promote, and protect social networks, public spaces, works of art, and methods of communication that support such interaction.
7. Civic Responsibility: We value a civil society. Community members who organize events should assume responsibility for public welfare and endeavour to communicate civic responsibilities to participants. They must also assume responsibility for conducting events in accordance with local, provincial, and federal laws.
8. Leave No Trace: Our community respects the environment. We are committed to leaving no physical trace of our activities wherever we gather. We clean up after ourselves and whenever possible leave such places in a better state than when we found them.
9. Participation: Our community is committed to a radically participatory ethic. We believe that transformative change, whether in the individual or in society, can occur only through the medium of deeply personal participation. We achieve being through doing. Everyone is invited to work. Everyone is invited to play.
10. Immediacy: Immediate experience is the most important touchstone of value in our culture. We seek to overcome barriers that stand between us and recognition of our inner selves, the reality of those around us, participation in society, and contact with a natural world exceeding human powers. No idea can substitute for this experience.

Let’s get started!