I love this beautiful winter art. Thank you for posting it.

It also bothered me that lately there’s a lot of throwing around the ‘Burning Man’ comparison, just like ‘Web 2.0′ and ‘Social Networks’. They become a buzzword to use anywhere, hoping to get more eyeballs.

However, the event looks great! – It seems to me it can stand on its own two legs without need of comparisons. It deserves its own reputation! The Ice and Snow Festival already has a ring to it, and if the name was featured in the title, maybe it could help communicating it.

And +1 marco to absolutely everything you said.

They are really amazing snow sculptures. You don’t see them on that scale in many places. Living in Minnesota, ice palaces have a special charm, too.

Gumby Roffo

Most of you are a bunch of fucking idiots. You have turned Burning man into a religion and now your beating Xeni over the head with the cross you made in a desert art class. Just say it, your desert PAGANS, no big deal, spit it out. Yes, RELIGION, you even have Ten Commandments (principles) and the followers are called BURNERS. Follow them or you might go to hell. And if burning man is based off of stupid people who bake all day long with playa dust in every orifice then I guess hell would be….China right about now?

Ten Principles

Radical Inclusion
Anyone may be a part of Burning Man. We welcome and respect the stranger. No prerequisites exist for participation in our community.

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.

Decommodification
In order to preserve the spirit of gifting, our community seeks to create social environments that are unmediated by commercial sponsorships, transactions, or advertising. We stand ready to protect our culture from such exploitation. We resist the substitution of consumption for participatory experience.

Radical Self-reliance
Burning Man encourages the individual to discover, exercise and rely on his or her inner resources.

Radical Self-expression
Radical self-expression arises from the unique gifts of the individual. No one other than the individual or a collaborating group can determine its content. It is offered as a gift to others. In this spirit, the giver should respect the rights and liberties of the recipient.

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.

Civic Responsibility
We value civil society. Community members who organize events should assume responsibility for public welfare and endeavor to communicate civic responsibilities to participants. They must also assume responsibility for conducting events in accordance with local, state and federal laws.

Leaving 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 endeavor, whenever possible, to leave such places in a better state than when we found them.

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. We make the world real through actions that open the heart.

Immediacy
Immediate experience is, in many ways, the most important touchstone of value in our culture. We seek to overcome barriers that stand between us and a 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.

Burn Out

When a group of Pittsburgh Burners thought to themselves: “What makes Burning Man special?” the answer was resounding: harsh conditions, amazing art, good people. And what harsh conditions were available? Winter, of course…cold, snowy, Pittsburgh winter. And thus “Frostburn” was born.

Imagine the climatic opposite of Burning Man: a frozen forest where ice and snow join fire and steam as mediums… Where sharing warmth is not just a figure of speech, but a necessity. Where radical self-reliance and communal effort are critical for human survival…

Frostburn thus far been a resounding success in bringing people together, showing off new art, and reminding us why we liked to play in the snow in the first place. We’ve had sweat lodges, viking ships, (clothing optional) Mr. Rogers sing-alongs, and even full service bars serving pierogies. Not to mention the snow-ball battles, polar bear plunges, and other winter activities. One of the most rewarding things, however, has been seeing people realize what they can do, huge contingents bringin’ it from climates where the temperature never sees 50, while others have come back just because they realized what they can do. Plus it’s made hot chocolate all the sweeter.

Frostburn has some amenities…limited electrical sites, RV access, a heated bathroom…but more and more, people have been creating warm spaces for people to gather and be together and share stories (umm…and party). Won’t you join us?

Funny thing…years ago (back in ’96/’97) a bunch of burners on the Burning Man email list were considering trying to put together a BMan-like event somewhere in winter…in the snow…. pretty soon thought better of it (the thought of a snowy landscape strewn with frozen-to-death raver-folk kind of put the final damper on the idea).

:-)

-Chef Juke

[1] https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Sapporo_Snow_Festival

ALL of these wonderful things everyone talks about on how environmentally “friendly” Burning Man is totally fucking with you: The Bureau of Land Management created these rules, not the wonderful Green Minded burners. Burners were even forced to create burning platforms because they were “scaring” the land with scorch marks. Not even water can be poured onto the ground.

It’s called Black Rock CITY. It IS civilization. And most of you don’t camp, you have trailers. Bringing civilization with you is not roughing it. Here’s a map of your “city”

http://www.burningman.com/preparation/maps/10_maps/BRC_2010_web_final.pdf

And this picture does resemble China’s Ice city….

http://www.flickr.com/photos/carnivillain/4957809453/in/set-72157624807070802/

By the way, Burning Man does not belong to you. Burning Man relies on the U.S. Government issuing permits for the event to be held on PUBLIC LAND. By the way, your lease is up…..

If Burning Man is truly about “leave it as you find it” then why not take all that acrid smoke you all produced with you when you leave? And what about all that dust you launch up into the air?

As far as being away from “civilization” the town of Gerlach-Empire is about 30 miles away. A yodeler could even call for help.

And you even have “rules” imposed on you with police, firefighters and Rangers present. You’re not as free to be you and me as you believe:

An imposed curved grid street structure.
A speed limit of 5 mph (8 km/h).
A ban on driving, except for approved “mutant vehicles” and service vehicles.
Restrictions and imposing of safety standards on mutant vehicles.
A ban on campfires and Tiki torches.
Burning your own art must be done on an approved burn platform.[
A ban on fireworks.
A ban on firearms.
A ban on dogs.

TOO FUNNY, A BURNING MAN BAN!

Oh, you BUILT an airport that serves only Burning Man.

http://www.airnav.com/airport/88NV

Burn On.

Come say hi, we’ll give you a tour!

-Pottymouth
Ice Operations Manager
Arctica