Episode 19: The Third Degree (Caer, Dale, Ruth, & Tyne)
This episode features four board members of The Third Degree - Ruth, Dale, Caer, and Tyne - to explore the NSW Central Coast's family-friendly regional burn. Discover how this intimate 400-person event evolved from a pandemic-era one-off at a scout camp into an intentional experiment in radical inclusion and in accessible burner culture. The conversation covers the event's distinctive features - running water, hot showers, radical inclusion for families and disabled participants, and mandatory volunteer shifts that transforms attendees into active participants - while exploring how their innovative approaches to consent culture (piloting the BED framework), burnout prevention (three-year rotation system), and accessibility (low-income tickets, disability accommodations), and the challenges of building elaborate temple and effigy structures under tight timelines. Board members also share personal burner origin stories, discuss the post-COVID fragmentation of Australia's burn community, and explain how The Third Degree serves as an incubator for testing innovations like emergency pager systems and consent protocols that can scale to larger events, all while maintaining a collaborative (magic of participatory culture), transparent governance structure focused on sustainable growth and making burner culture welcoming for newcomers who might find the overwhelming intensity of larger events or larger-scale burns intimidating.
Host: Stevan ‘Silent Disco’ Lay
Guests: Cairi “Caer” Duncan, Dale ‘Pillar’ Matthews, Ruth ‘Happy/Turtle’ Tetley, & Tyne ‘Tynamo’ Arnold
Produced by PY Wong & Stevan Lay
Theme music by Will & Kate
Temple burn | Third Degree: 4th Dimension | 4-8 September, 2025 | Camp Kariong | Central Coast, NSW, Australia
Photo credit: Stevan Lay
USEFUL Links:
The Third Degree: https://the3rddegree.org/
“The Recipe For The Perfect Burn” - Peter Simpson-Young: https://bonzaarpodcast.net/blogs/the-recipe-for-the-perfect-burn
Bureau of Erotic Discourse: https://bedtalks.org
Bureau of Erotic Discourse Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@BEDBureauofEroticDiscourse
Kiwiburn: https://kiwiburn.org/
Sunburnt Arts: https://sunburntarts.org.au/
Burning Seed: https://www.burningseed.com/
Blazing Swan: https://blazingswan.com.au/
Common Arts Victoria: https://commonarts.org.au/
Underland: https://underland.au/
Aurora Burn: https://auroraburn.org.au/
Afrikaburn: https://www.afrikaburn.org/
Burning Man: https://burningman.org/
Miss Peaches Theme Camp: https://theartfulbea.com.au/
Timestamps:
[00:00:00] Theme music intro
[00:00:30] Panel intros
[00:04:46] Wilderness productions
[00:07:58] Descriptions of 3rd degree
[00:14:15] Effigy & temple
[00:24:59] Growth of 3rd degree
[00:28:41] New burners
[00:32:02] Burner voice messages
[00:34:44] Ruth’s origin story
[00:38:16] Dale’s origin story
[00:40:20] Caer’s origin story
[00:44:46] Tyne’s origin story
[00:47:09] Burnout
[00:49:09] 3-year rotation
[00:54:06] Organising 3rd degree
[00:57:51] Board structure of 3rd degree
[01:05:20] Name & theme
[01:07:54] Site
[01:17:23] Burner voice messages
[01:20:01] SASS EEMO
[01:25:37] Theme camps & art
[01:32:31] Shenanigans & fuckery
[01:39:27] Five ingrediants for perfect burn
[01:49:10] Pilot programs
[01:56:15] Burner voice messages
[01:58:35] 3rd degree fifth element
[02:01:48] Future of burns
[02:10:35] 2026 burn calendar
[02:14:34] Shoutouts
[02:18:01] Outro
[02:19:55] Outtake 333
[02:23:44] Theme music outro
The information presented in the following audio program is for informational, educational, entertainment, and archival purposes only. The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed on the Bonzaar Podcast are solely those of the hosts and the guests and do not represent the views, thoughts, and opinions of the entire burner community. Bonzaar Podcast is an independently-produced, volunteer-led, and community-funded project and is not associated or affiliated with the burning man organisation or it's world-wide subsidiaries.
This episode was recorded on 12 January, 2026
