Alternatives to Burning Man

Can’t make it out to the Burn? Still want to chill with some sick spinners? Here are a few of the more well known alternatives to Burning Man, especially for the more skill toy oriented crew: There’s a plethora of fire gatherings and workshops sessions that happen on an annual basis. The first and probably best gathering is FireDrums. This event is held every year around the end of April/Beginning of May. It takes place out in the scenic Redwood Forest, up in the Santa Cruz mountains in California. Among the past teachers and performers have been Yuta, Alien Jon, Noel Yee, and others. It is by far the largest fire arts specific gathering in America. Although the dates haven’t been made official, this next year’s gathering is set to take place from May 6-9, 2010. Another very popular North American gathering is Wildfire, and the ideology behind the event is one of learning and sharing. It’s not a large gathering by any means, as tickets are quite limited, but everyone there is involved in both teaching and learning, so for the dedicated spinner, this would be a must. The event happens twice a year, in the Spring and Fall, in Ashford, Connecticut. The dates fluctuate, so make sure to check back on their website frequently. Sphere Camp is an ever growing skill-share event. Try Out Toys, the founders of the event, started out with a purely contact juggling mindset, but it has grown to include all facets of fire arts. This past year, there were 3 events, located in Austin, the New England Area, and somewhere else…(I didn’t really do enough research)…but being a traveling event, it makes it that much more accessible to people in between the coasts. Sphere Camp 2009 from The Gyronauts on Vimeo. And you can always check out any local events in your area, by going to the Burning Man website and looking up regional burns. Many of these events will be Decom’s (Decompressions) and typically take place after Burning Man. In the Austin are there is also Flipside, a regional burn where all sorts of fire is sure to be found. PEX is put on in the Philly area and is also a regional burn worth mentioning. As for the more worldly spinner, there are a few valuable options: The Japan Fire Festival is an ever growing fire gathering which was created by Yuta and others from Japan. In the past it has taken place in the late summer/early fall. There’s also the EJC, European Juggling Convention. Each year, a new location is chosen and thousands upon thousands of jugglers swarm to the event. This year, it’s taking place in Finland. While it may sound more like a juggling based convention, it is important to note that in Europe, juggling and skill toys go hand in hand. There’s a plethora of other juggling based conventions that happen throughout Europe each year, so it’s important to check wherever you may be.

-Sean

-Photo: TryOutToys

---

 Creator of GyroPulse and Co-Founder of The Gyronauts. Social Media Manager at Saatchi NY. Loving the Hoop since 2006. Loving the Poi since 2007. Loving the Burn since 2007 More from this author

---