Stevan: [00:00:00] Hi there. I'm Stevan Lay and thanks for tuning into the Bonzaar Podcast, a conversation show about the special burning relationship between Kulin and Blazing Swan. Before we start this mega double episode recording, we want to acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land, that host, blazing Swan, the Njaki Njaki Noongar people, and we acknowledge and respect their continuing culture and the contribution they make to the life of this region.

Because for the next two episodes, we venture out into the paddock of the Kulin Race course and talk with a bunch of passionate and dedicated burners on site at the burn. Firstly, we're joined by Erin and Will who are local, cool residents, and then Oly drops by for Chinwag after. We continue the conversations with JJ and Wesley, which is available to listen to in the next episode.

What makes Blazing Swan so awesome? Let's dial in to find out the secret sauce for this [00:01:00] marriage made in doof Heaven known as Blazing Swan.

Stevan: We do have internet.

Erin: We got something?

Stevan: Yes, we connection. I can You guys, there's, yeah, there's no feedback, so it's good.

Will: Cool. Fantastic.

Stevan: Excellent. All right. So how is everyone?

Will: Yeah. Good.

Erin: Good, good, good, good,

Stevan: good, good. Who, who do we have here? Introduce yourselves. I'm flying blind here. I can't see you guys, but um, i can picture you,

Erin: we can't see you either

Will: No, we can see you.

Stevan: Yeah.

Erin: Erin here we got Erin. I'm Erin. Hey. Yeah. Hi. How you doing?

Stevan: Good.

Erin: We, um, yeah, I've just taken over the front, over the, the couch spot, so it's nice and warm.

Will: Yes. Nina's been,

Erin: I got Will Will's here with me, [00:02:00] Uhhuh, although I'm his mother. I call him william.

Will: Yeah. Should I do that? You can call me William. That's fine.

It's really, it's my

Stevan: Awesome. And you, and you guys are, are local Kulin people?

Erin: Yes. We've been in Kulin for thrity years.

William was raised here.

Will: Yep.

Erin: Um, and my daughter as well. She's not here though. Yeah. So we've been here. Well,

Stevan: does she come to the Blazing Swan as well?

Erin: Yes. She was here earlier.

Will: Yep.

Erin: So, um, but she, uh, she comes and goes a bit. She tired. Tired. Yeah. I think she gets too tired.

Will: Yeah. It's, it's a lot when you're out here.

Um, uh, every year she, she stays for a little bit longer and makes her work a little bit better,

Erin: but I think, yeah, it's one of the beauties of actually being a local, you can just kind of duck home and have a sleep at your own bed and a proper shower and

Will: Yeah.

Erin: Feed the cat and all that sort of shit.

Stevan: Yeah. Does that help? Does that, um, being like, you know, that's a luxury for a lot of people. Um, does it help to [00:03:00] actually go and readjust and, and come back and be, I don't know, energized again?

Erin: Yeah, I mean, we try not to, we try and stay out here as long, you know. Yeah. As long as we can. But I mean it for set up and stuff, like, we don't have to lugg all our gear from Perth.

We just, I mean, it's still a probably, you know, 20, 30 minute drive from the farm to here to be able to bring everything out. But, you know, we, we can do all that just with a few car trip, so, and we're gonna whole farm to store all the gear on. So

Will: yeah, being able to store everything just sort of 30 minutes away from bla is, is a superpower.

It really enables us, because we're, we run two camps on quite a small crew. Um, not having to hold everything down in one big go, um, is, is massive. I definitely feel like,

Stevan: yeah. When did you, when did you start your own camp William?

Will: Um, so we started three years ago. Um, this is our third year running it, and so we sort of, 'cause moms run her camp every single year since the start of [00:04:00] Blaze.

Was there any, any

Erin: I did miss one year.

Will: Yeah,

Erin: that's because we didn't have a crew. That's the one when, when Meg came and we left you behind. Yeah. Yeah. For your birthday. My, my birthday, yes. I bought, I bought his, uh, wife out left and he, his birthday.

Will: And so yeah, we just sort of, um, glot on, we thought it would be easier to, instead of starting up a whole separate camp to kind of share resources and marquees and stuff.

And that was a good idea. But we had to, we had to live down in the sound alley where all of the giant subwoofers are 24 7, which was pretty hard work.

Erin: And it, and we had massive storms that year.

Will: Huge storm.

Erin: And we joined two marquees together and they leaked all down the center. Yep. It was, it was a trial.

Will: Yep. Um, but then you persevere every year, you come back and you improve.

Um, we learned that, so we, we split the camps and we had one down the way [00:05:00] and one up.

So mom runs the camp, THE Tin Horse experience. And so we wanted to run a, um, a sort of vapor wave, windows 95 nineties computing era theme camp. So we caught ourselves, THE internet, um, with the same styling, which has caused a lot of confusion for our DJs when we say come down to the camp and they show up to the internet.

But, um, we're working through it.

Erin: We've even, we live in, uh, even our, uh, crew camping area now called The Mess.

Will: Yes, we have the mess and the camp and the internet.

Erin: We're getting the everywhere.

Will: I think we'll do a little, we'll do a takeover. We'll start,

Erin: we, we even, were supposed to have a, a, a mutant vehicle this year, but we cursed it by calling it the Internet Explorer.

Um, and it didn't just wouldn't go, wouldn't load, wouldn't [00:06:00] start. So unfortunately

Stevan: that, that's a great name.

Erin: Yeah.

Stevan: Yeah. But we can't, 'cause it doesn't exist anymore.

Erin: I know. And nor did our mutant vehicles, so we had to walk everywhere.

Stevan: It's called Microsoft Edge or something, or I dunno what, it's a relic.

Erin: I, well, we, well, you know, we're not relics really.

Will: That's, that's kind of the idea because there's, there's, I think there's a real beauty in things that are, are not long gone, so they aren't quite respected yet. 'cause obviously. You look at ancient Egypt and people are, are reverent of the things that they had and that they did. But no one looks at a beige computer monitor and thinks, wow, what a, what an interesting time.

But it, it kind of is. And as you get a little further away, each time gets a little more interesting

Erin: to the point where this year we've, um, the, the deck, I do the decorations for the internet and we had, uh, I actually pulled apart a flatback monitor and uh, used [00:07:00] that as a decoration. I sort of put it so it looked like it was all overgrown with weeds and things.

And our mailbox, we all the camps have a, all the theme camps have mailboxes 'cause it's a mail service that goes around and ours is made out of an old. Beigey, uh, computer, you poke the mail through the CD rom spot and yeah, definitely making good use of that stuff.

Stevan: Well, there were floppy discs before that as well.

Erin: Yeah, well we've got floppy discs. In fact, I pulled a floppy disc apart to, uh, just for the artwork and uh, William said I didn't actually realize they were floppy on the inside.

Will: Yeah. I finally realized why it's called a floppy disc. Why is everyone calling this stiff square a floppy disc?

Erin: I haven't got some of the really big ones.

They're like, what are they, five and a quarter inch or five and a half inch,

Will: something like that.

Erin: Yeah. I haven't found a few of those leaking around at home, so, um, thank goodness I hang onto everything.

Stevan: Yeah, that's how I see the apo abacus as well. Like I look at it [00:08:00] fascinated by it. It's, it's such an old tool, old technology, but people weren't using it back, back in those days.

It was prevalent, yeah

Erin: it did work.

Stevan: Yeah, it still does. Yeah.

Erin: Oh yeah. That, that one still does. I'm not sure the stuff that we've got does. So,

Stevan: yeah. No. Well, welcome to the Bon Podcast guys. Um, this episode, I wanna look back at Blazing Swan, look at Blazing Swan, the Kulin Township and the blaze community, and the relationship. And also from your, from your, um, perspective as well, because, uh, you guys, are, local and live there and, um, bla when Blazing Swan came to, uh, to the site in 2014, or be even before that, Erin.

Erin: Yeah.

Stevan: What was the, uh, the whole, uh, story behind that?

Erin: Uh, um, so I, uh, well we, we have a, um, a racetrack set up in Kulin. We run a, an annual Bush Racers event, like horse running. That's, and uh, it's [00:09:00] an awesome sort of space. It's on someone's farm. Um,

Stevan: the Kulin cup.

Erin: Yeah. Oh yeah. Oh yeah, definitely the Kulin cup.

There's a whole heap of things, but, um, we also race any, anything that moves. We've had sheep racers and camels and tractors race every time. Uh, dog, dog races, they're always good. Hobby, hobby sheep always go the wrong way. Hobby horses, uh, and tin horse. Little mini little tin horses on, on, uh, trays. We race those.

But anyway, so the, but this, the space, it also has ablution blocks and stuff. And so when blaze looking for somewhere to be, they, um, asked, you know, several shires. Would they want them? I think most of them probably looked at 'em and said, no, no, no. Anyway, uh, they came to Kulin and Kulin and said, yeah, why not? And plunk us.

And like I said, we got the, the, the facilities all set up and everything. And so, uh, yeah, the first year actually I, I mean, I knew nothing. I knew nothing about it. I mean, I heard of Burning Man and stuff, but, you know, all I heard was a bunch of [00:10:00] hippies in the mud, so all or the dust. So, um, for me, and then someone contacted me 'cause I'm, um, with that Kulin and arts and we, they sort of said, oh, you know, this is coming.

You know, you do you wanna be involved? Yeah, why not? So

Stevan: this Koasis coming, but what, what, what is it that, that is described to you

Erin: Exactly.

You really didn't actually know what was coming.

Stevan: This is coming.

Erin: Yes, this is coming. So I think the first one was only like three days or something. And so I came out with a friend, we set up a, we thought, you know, we heard that you've set up camps and stuff.

So I thought, well, it's a great way to bring, I, I was already doing mini tin horses, so I thought it's a good way to, um, like why not have other people come and do them? So we set up our, uh, portable gazebo and we had all our stuff out and really had no idea what the hell we were doing. Um, it bucketed with rain.

That's when the, uh, camp, the Koasis River was formed because the amount of water that was [00:11:00] running down the hill and it just formed a whole river and it was just wet and it was horrible. But we had, we had fun and, you know,

Stevan: now have, have you experienced that kind of, do you guys experience that kind of rain or that kind of weather? Um,

Erin: oh, for sure.

Stevan: Out there?

Erin: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I, I make a, a comment when, when, when William was small, actually, we had a, a flood and the, uh, out the back from our farm is the Kondinon lake and it overflowed so much. It was up and over the road. So we were actually, we, we bought a little boat and we had our little boat, so we were sailing on the road, literally.

But that, that sort of flooding. Yeah, we don't, we haven't seen that for a while. But, um, you know, we, yeah, I think the rain, I mean the weather's changing all over and it's certainly changing out here, but we seem to get, rather than just a, a run of rain, you'd get like, it all falls at once type thing, so, um, but it's good.

Settles the dust. So it's nice out here if we have that hasn't rained this year.

Stevan: Yeah. And, [00:12:00] and it feels, it feels up to Salt Lake, which is a good thing.

Erin: Well, yeah. As long as people, we've had years where people have actually gone out in the Salt Lake and they had, so that's, uh, Jilikan lake and they have rolled in the mud.

And honestly, the runoff that comes from the farms around, I wouldn't go in there. It's pretty disgusting. Uh, and they, they, they had to be ho they tried to get, use all the showers, but then they end up just getting one of the fire trucks and hosing them all down, I think. Which they're

Will: infamous Mud men incident.

Erin: Yes. They try not to have, try not to have people go out there. Um, but yeah, people will go where they go.

Will: People do it. Turns out that all of these free spirited hippies like doing things Yes. When they see somewhere, they think I can go there.

Erin: Yeah. But my one year there was an, an awesome Mandela. Someone did a, a Mandela all out of natural, uh, you know, seeds and branches and whatever.

It's quite, quite large. And they did that on the [00:13:00] Salt Lake. That's pretty cool. It features in a lot of, um, pictures on, I think it's actually on the, like the website and stuff, so

Stevan: Yeah. Yeah. That's a great art piece. Yeah. Yeah.

Erin: But it's, it's a good location for that. You know, we've got jilikan rock and other rock, you know, a lot of formations that it's not just flat ground, which I think when you look at burning it sort of, that's what it seems to be just flat.

Will: Completely, completely flat out there.

Erin: So it's nice to have some other things here. And you know, we've got Cnut rock. Gets its name changed quite regularly and for others. So yeah. But even, yeah, like last night we had the Temple Burn people, there's a rock just we, you know, great overview of the temple. So they get up and, and uh, can sit right up, up high and look at that. So

Will: you see everyone up there each night for the sunset. Less people for the sunrise, less

people are

Erin: we, do you hear, you hear a chia go up and you go, oh, the sun's gone down.

Will: Yeah. Um, and it's quite beautiful. You see all the people up there and, uh, it's nice having the, [00:14:00] the terrain around here to help shape the land.

And over the years it's sort of gotten, utilized and become kind of mythologized as the, the culture around the, the area builds.

Erin: There's a, I mean, there's a theme camp out right around over the other side of some rocks. Uh, you know, we're talking, you know, big, big, uh, formations that's quite a trek called the magical Frontier.

And they have all these light, all these candles and things all set up in the rocks, and they do toasties at 10 o'clock. And it's, uh, it, it, and you basically looking straight out because you know, the horizon is very big here. So you can look out and it's just amazing view. It's my view every day people say, do you go to the sunrise or the sunset?

And I'm going, yeah, I see it all the time.

Will: Yeah. I'm always wowed when I, when I get back out here at how much sky there is. Mm-hmm. There's just more sky out here than there is in the city, and it's especially beautiful at night. So yeah, if you, if you come round to the magical frontier, you lie on the back of [00:15:00] the rock.

The, a lot of the sound and the light and the madness is behind you and you're looking straight up and into the stars, that's quite beautiful. Mm-hmm.

Erin: Just the scope of, yeah, like being able to see so much, so many stars and everything. We've had some good clear nights and so, yeah. And I, it, it's actually good.

Makes me re-appreciate it sometimes because you kind of, for me it's just the norm. Um, but you know, it's good you get to

Stevan: I think so. Yeah. I think once, once you get, uh, to see the Milky way in, in its a whole, you know, presence, you get a different perspective of, of how significant in or insignificant we are,

Erin: yeah. Yeah.

Stevan: So, yeah.

Erin: But I just love the, you know, the effect it has on people who live in the city or, uh, you know, just don't, don't get to see that sort of thing very often. I mean, for some people this is the. You know, hopefully they'll make them come more, which is what we'd like. We'd love people to come.

Stevan: Well, let's, let's talk about, Kulin, yeah, let's talk about Kulin.

The Kulin Shire. The Kulin [00:16:00] township, um, where it is, how far people we have to drive all those facts? Bit history, if you have

Erin: Oh, okay. I'm not that old. Uh, so Kulin's, uh, we're southeast of Perth and about three hours, so it's whatever, I don't know, 270 Ks or something, I think

Will: confuses people because everyone in Perth, they only know down south or up north.

Erin: Yeah.

Will: Okay. So obviously you live down south. No, no, no. Go east.

Erin: Yes. So, but not, not as far as Kalgoorlie. Um, so we're in the wheat belt, so that means some people, you know, you say, wheatbelt and they go, what? But that, what that means is basically we grow wheat, so we do, it's a lot of cropping, cropping of barley, wheat, canola.

Uh, Philipp Peas, lupins. Yeah. So, uh, a lot of that, one of these days I'm gonna make my own beer outta my own wheat. I live on a farm, so we grow our own stuff. Also, sheep, we

Stevan: need to survive with all the grains every morning, [00:17:00] every nighttime. Yeah. So it's very important

Erin: it is

Stevan: wheatbelt area.

Erin: Yeah. Oh, for sure. Yeah.

I mean, you, you know, the, you're having your toast in the morning, that's Mm. Wheat it's come from here, so gonna come from somewhere. We won't get into this.

Stevan: You're having your noodles or rice, you know, evening everything. It's

Erin: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Stevan: You having your sandwich in the lunchtime. Yeah.

Erin: Yeah. So, yeah, so, you know, I don't think people realize quite how much, you know, their everyday stuff.

And we, we talk about milk and we talk about meat and the veggies and stuff, but the, you know, your staples are being grown out here. But, yeah, so sheep is the other thing. Run out here. Some people do have cattle, but you need a lot of water for cattle and that's not really something we have lots of, yeah,

Will: lots of land, not very much water.

Erin: Yeah. So it, you know, farms are huge. Like, they're not just little pokey hobby farms. They're, they're quite, quite large. I mean, ours is actually small and we've got like two and a half thousand acres, so, but yeah. Um, lots

Will: not to brag.

Erin: Brag.

Stevan: What's the pop [00:18:00] population of Kulin?

Erin: Um, someone said, and I think, oh my God, I dunno.

Kulin shire is quite, quite widespread, uh, in town. There's probably like, you know, we're working in the hundreds. I think when we first came it was like 800, but now not in town, but the whole shire. And as I was saying, like farms are very big, so you don't, you sort of have massive amount of land, but not many people there,

Will: one family living there

Erin: and the problem. Yeah. And we, a lot of the farms now, people are buying, like if you're selling, you know, someone's selling up and they'll buy and then the neighbors will buy their farms. So we're not getting more people coming. That's what, that's what happens to the population starts to decline for that aspect. And I mean, the town, the town is here for the farmers, but also you need the farmers to, to buy from the businesses.

So, you know, it gets a bit tricky. So you don't have a lot of diversity in the sort of stuff that you have in town as far as shops and things. But, you know, we've got a pub, we've got hire, actually the pub's [00:19:00] owned by the community. It's now the Kulin Community Hub. Mm-hmm.

Will: Yep.

Erin: Uh, so the kulin, it was like basically getting sold.

No one wanted to buy it. So the community, we have a, a community group and they came, they stepped in and actually bought it. So as a result, on a Thursday we have volunteer day, so anyone can go in and work in the, in the pub. And, uh, I mean obviously the right licensing in.

But yeah, no, it's good. We, we have a, you know, decent collection, enough, enough shops that, you know, you can certainly be out here and, and, um, and have all that happening. Yeah. So,

Stevan: and you guys are known for your, your, yeah. Sorry,

Erin: I was gonna say we also have a massive water slide.

Will: We do.

Stevan: Yes.

Erin: We have, we have the biggest water slide.

We have a little aquatic center. Uh, I mean, our aquatic center is a pool. Yeah. Um, and we have a massive water slide that [00:20:00] is the biggest in country WA or something.

Will: I think something like that. It changes every time. Yeah.

Erin: Or the southern hemisphere or, or the world.

Will: Yeah. I think it might be the world.

Erin: I'll say the world.

Um, but it actually came, that, that all came from, um, some farm, someone in Queensland was selling, well, they were literally giving it away, I think. Um, but you had to come and get it. So a bunch of our farmers got in their trucks, drove to Queensland, dismantled this slide. Mm-hmm. And they, uh, and they very carefully numbered all the pieces.

So its gonna be like a jigsaw to put it back all. They got the high pressure hoses out to clean it and rubbed off all the numbers. So, um, but it's up, it's fantastic.

Will: It's, and it really is like a, a cornerstone of the childhood of any kid in town.

Erin: Yeah. My daughter got a concussion on it.

Will: Yeah. She was one was,

Erin: she was like the third person down right on the side.

She'd hit her side, [00:21:00] hit her head, but we don't talk about that, but it, but we get people, like, they'll like, you know, come out here, uh, schools will bring the kids out for a, you know, drive with a bus and bring their kids here for a, a day. So, you know, you get it. It's quite a draw card for, for people to come to, come for just for the slide, you know, they'll drive and, and out here, you know, driving a hundred Ks to go down a water slide is nothing.

So, yeah. You know, that's what we do. That's just what you do. So,

Stevan: and you also have one of the cheapest, uh, petrol prices around town as well.

Erin: Oh yes, yes, we do. Definitely tell. Yeah. So we decided that you need to, um, make, be, you know, you want people to come to call and so how are you gonna do that? So things like our caravan park is a, a pay what you think.

So you basically, you pull in, there's no set fees. If you wanna pay 10 bucks for a night, you do. If you [00:22:00] wanna pay 50, you do. So if you just, you set your own fee. But also, yeah, we have the petrol, we have a 24 hour petrol and the extra, like most people, like when the fuel comes in, it's obviously the, whoever gets the fuel charges, it puts their, their little bit on top.

But our Shire doesn't do that. It, you know, keeps it fairly minimal and as a result we we're quite comparable to Perth a lot of the time.

Will: Yeah.

Erin: Um, you know, so, um,

Will: sometimes we, we leave from Perth and we get down here and we're like, why do we bother? We shouldn't have feel that when we left. Yeah.

Erin: Yeah. So, you know, that, and, and that's just one of the things that Kulin does.

Like, you know, we're very, I think we're very innovative about some of those sorts of things. You know, even our bush races events been going for, this is our 30th event this year. So, um, and you know, that draws in four thousand people in for a weekend. They're, they're actually less civilized, I think, than blazing Swans. [00:23:00] I think they, they don't understand the concept of Moop, which is, um, matter out of what's it, matter, matter outta place, matter outta place.

So like, rubbish. Um,

Stevan: that's a nice, that's a nice compliment to the burn community.

Erin: Oh yeah. Much better. I mean, I have literally seen people on their hands and knees picking up little bits of glitter and stuff off the ground here. Mm. So I think they leave it better than they, than when they arrived and, you know, same, you know, the amount of stuff that's out here for a week, it's, you know, certainly is a big credit to the Blaze community for, for, you know, thinking about all that.

So I think they prob yes, they probably pick up some of the Bush races rubbish as they go.

Will: Probably do, probably do. Well that's one of the, the things that Blazing Swan wanted to ensure is that cool wasn't just the place that it was being hosted, that they were sort of getting something back. And so there's been a lot of art donated to [00:24:00] Kulin, the Big Egg.

Um, yes, with the flame throw removed, they decided that wasn't, uh, a good public sculpture. Um, more flame that swan than in town normally.

Stevan: Uh, where, where is that actually situated or located? So people can probably go visit it.

Erin: Opposite the pub. The visitor zone, um, or visitor discovery zone. So there's a whole walkway and you can actually, the walkways has little plaques on it that shows where the Bush races have donated money back into the community. But also it has, there's a little sort of stage area and a bit of art there, and the eggs sort of mounted up on the stage.

So it's, uh, yeah. Opposite the pub next to it. We've got a new, um, all ages precinct, which has got flying foxes and basketball and a whole bunch of, of other stuff for Yeah. All ages.

Will: It gets bigger and nicer every year. Yeah. Yeah. It come [00:25:00] through, um, that, that whole strip all the way, like used to just be the skate park, a gazebo put in playgrounds.

The wall memorial is beautiful there. Yes. Yeah. Across from the hall.

Erin: And we are still actually someone's, we had a, recently had a, a town meeting of, you know, what, what do we do next? Um, and I think they're, they're still looking at more ways of making that whole entrance look good and, you know, invite people to stay in Kulin.

And we're getting that now. People stay in Kulin rather than stay out at, you know, and then they stay out at hiding or something. So they stay in Kulin and then they venture out. But that means that, you know, they're doing all their stuff in Kulin. Mm-hmm. Um, and uh, rather than staying somewhere else and then just visiting, so walking down the street and.

I say, oh, great. You know, we, we booked, we thought we'd be here for two days. We've stayed a week, so we must be doing something a a little bit on the right way.

Will: Yeah. And it's [00:26:00] all along the main street. And along like same road is the, the tin horse highway essentially. Yeah. When comes, um, there's a lot of towns when that you just know from driving through.

There's a lot of towns out here that sometimes I look around the corner and I go, I don't even know where this place is. Yeah. I've been through here 600 times. I've never looked one block deeper. And so having the, the beautiful main street that's really inviting lots of caravan facilities and stuff like that is a, is a huge draw.

Erin: And I think we talking about the, the Tin Horse Highway. So because we have a Bush Racers event, the first, I think it was after the first one and one of the farmers, so the track is about, uh, 15 Ks out of town and the road that leads out, um, one of the farmers along there put a made a tin horse and stuck it in the paddock.

And then the next, you know, the farmer over the, over the fence sort of said, well, I can do that better as we do. And so they put, you [00:27:00] know, something out. And then we ended up with an entire, a whole football match. They've made outta tin horses with a, a suspended on a wire, a football. And they were like doing ma you know, up on each other's, I dunno what you call that.

What do they do when they, you know, jump on each other's back in Footy

Will: Screamer

Erin: Is that what it's called?

Will: Pretty sure.

Erin: Okay. Whatever. Uh, but then as a result, you know, there's well over a hundred tin horses of various shapes and sizes. Uh, we have a competition every year at the Bush races. Uh, so we get a lot coming in from out of like, not even Kulin people now they're, they're coming in from out of town.

Mm. And it's also spread. We, I actually live out the other side of town, so, um, we have ours on the, the west side.

Will: Yes. The best side.

Erin: The best side. Well, we have the biggest, we have the, the West. Kulin Whopper. It's what it's called. It's massive. It's yeah. Very. Yeah. Think big, huge, like giant pineapple sides.

You [00:28:00] know, that's sort of

Will: giant pineapple size.

Erin: well, you know, what are the giant, you know, giant banana, giant crayfish?

Will: Yes. Yes.

Erin: Isn't there a giant pineapple

Will: There probably is, probably, is probably in Queensland.

Stevan: There is a giant pineapple. Yes.

Erin: That make sense.

Stevan: Giant sheep.

Yes. Yeah. Big banana

Erin: And there's a actually in Wagin and there's Bart the sheep.

He's, he's pretty massive too. Name. Yeah. His name is Bart. Well, very definitely around. Yeah. Anyway. Um,

Stevan: so what are these, so what are these, uh, tin horses, uh, or tin uh, characters? What are they made of and how do you, how do you guys produce it? How do you guys make it?

Erin: Okay, so they, they're well tin generally

Stevan: but from a barrel, I guess from a,

Erin: yeah, yeah. So like 44 gallon drum, uh, is the sort of the usual sort of size. But we do, you know, honestly, they, they've ended up, they've made out of all sorts of stuff and a lot of, I tend to, my dad and I, we've made [00:29:00] over 20 of them. Some of them we've had to retire through wear and tear. A few of them have had their tummies shot through several times.

Will: I think the East Kulin Whopper burned down

Erin: the east. Kulin Whopper?

Will: Yeah, that was one out this way.

Erin: Was it?

Will: Yeah. A big, big one made of hay.

Erin: Oh. Oh, okay. Well that's, there you go. So they're made out everything. So, but we're actually, yeah, so basically we just, yeah. Get an idea like we wanted to do, like I did, um, I came across some, um, of those gas bottles that you do for like the helium ones, and they were sort of round and pink.

So I made a row of horseradishes. So they have heads, like a horse, look like a radi.

Will: There's a lot of puns. Along the road.

Erin: Um, and generally yeah. You just make them out of all

sorts of stuff and hopeful. Yeah. Hopefully they, and we've had some out there for, you know, 20, 25 years. Mm. Um, just go out every now and again and give 'em another spray paint and a bit of pot riveting [00:30:00] and a bit of white on.

So many of 'em are just wired up. I sometimes get a bit embarrassed because my opinion is they should just be viewed from a distance, but, uh, people get up really close and personal and they just look like crap. They're well worn. Yeah. But we've had, um,

Will: if there's anything that farmers have a lot of it's spare metal and Yeah.

Erin: And the, and the ingenuity.

Will: Yeah. The ability to, to fix things to each other.

Erin: Yes. Wire you wire anything to anything, so, yeah. Yeah. But, uh, yeah, but we've had, um, on the highway, we're on the third police car, so someone put out a car with a couple of police standing, doing random breast testing, and, uh, two of them got set fire to.

So we're on our third one out there. I've had three of them. People have taken them for a walk and never bought them home. Anyway, that, you know, that happens. We just build another one.

Stevan: I saw, I saw one that was of Raygun from [00:31:00] the Olympics. The Olympics, Raygun.

Erin: Oh yeah, yeah, someone did of that. There's there's two, there's two of them.

So that's, yeah, sometimes whatever the, the, the recent topic is, you know, they'll, they'll do that. So I think, are they called Haygun? Naygun, that's Ray Na I dunno. Whatever. Right. But there're, there's actually two of them, and they've, they've put them on the highway side by side. They were, they were in last year's competition, so.

Will: Yep.

Erin: Um, but someone did one that's, it's an entire, it's a whole wave, like a, um, one of those tube waves.

Will: Yeah. Yep.

Erin: And they've got a, it's Matt, it's just huge. And they've got like a horse on a surfboard coming out of the tube and one sitting off a top. There's even a dog on a surfboard and, and everything.

So, but they, there is just, you, you name it, someone's probably made it into a horse

Will: and really like everyone gets involved. Um, there's a couple of ones built by students from the school. Um, I think I did one as a student.

Erin: Yeah. Pegasus.

Will: Pegasus is out there. The hardest one to spot probably. Yeah.

Erin: Oh yeah. It was the Constellation [00:32:00] Pegasus rather than the actual constellation.

Uh, we got, we got one out there that's, or we've got two, actually. One was painted by someone at Blaze. Uh, but another one was made by, um, the poolroom, one of the theme camps here. So it's a unicorn with a rainbow.

Surprising. It's surprising. Yeah.

So it's, it's, it's a unicorn with, with a rainbow. And that's out there as well. Mm-hmm. So. Mm-hmm. Um, and we've got someone driving around at, at Swan at the moment. They've, they've actually got one, a tin horse on top of Yeah. On top of something with electrics and they're driving that one around.

So, um, they're, they're quite, uh, they get into everything.

Will: Yeah. Yep. Trying, I was trying to think of some of the, some of our puns, because there's the Australian defense horses.

Erin: Oh yes. I like that. Yes.

Will: All, all three branches. You've got the dead-cert dead

Erin: is literally, it's a, a skeleton. Yeah, a horse [00:33:00] skeleton.

Will: It's a bit morbid, but, um, but no, there're, yes. Good one.

Erin: I dunno what else. We got?

Will: trying to remember what the name of our boat is.

Erin: Oh, that's, um, nag Kulin. And instead of calling Nags says, well, it says Kulin Dags, and then the Ds crossed off and says Nags. That was my dad's joke. Um, I also think it says mtgg

Will: mtgg?

Erin: That's its number, like its registration, which is MTGG is a hungry horse.

Stevan: So does building a tin horse

Will: what's a hungry horse?

Who raised me,

Erin: not me. Blame your father.

Stevan: So building tin. So building tin horses. Do you guys get inspired of, uh, in doing, uh, [00:34:00] other art projects?

Erin: Uh, yeah, I guess

Stevan: at, at Blaze.

Erin: Oh, at Blaze. Yeah. Well, I mean, I'm all about the tin horse out here, but this year I, I've actually been, because I just bring out a shit load of, of craft materials and tell people go for it. Because they say, oh, how do I do this? And I say, well, it's a tin horse. It's not real. It doesn't actually matter. But I, you know, get people come in and they'll say, I'm really not crafty or anything, but I thought, come and have a look. They'll be in there for hours and then they'll come back the next day.

Literally, I've had people like two days in a row, just in my tent for six hours.

Will: I think like every year there's always one person who just spends every day there.

Erin: Yeah. But this year, so this year we've also, I, I incorporated, um, costume blinging so people could come in and, you know, jazz up their costumes or a lot of, a lot of newbies don't quite know how to,

Will: how crazy some of the outfit are.

Erin: Yeah, exactly. Yeah. That's probably what I'm looking for. So they just wanna add some extra. I, I had a whole bunch of people have come through this year. They've [00:35:00] collected tins as their cups. Um, I said, please wash them. Um, and they've decorated them, so they're walking around with these, hanging around their neck and using 'em as their actual receptacles.

We've had doof sticks being done.

Will: We're gonna have to go, go stick searching for next year.

Erin: Yeah. Everyone comes and says, where do I get a stick from? We say, well, look where you're, you're in the middle of look around the corner, you're in the middle of a paddock. I say, go up the hill. There'll be a stick. Um, but yes,

Will: literally grow trees.

Erin: I have had to put a a stop to people hot gluing gems to their body though that we we're not doing that. So some people try everything.

Stevan: That's too kinky.

Erin: Not too kinky. It's too fricking hot.

Will: Painful.

Erin: So, yeah. So, you know, uh, but I mean there's lots of other arty stuff and there's more art camps showing up, like with just jet all sorts of arts. It wasn't lot whilst running a little art house.

Yeah. It was fantastic. And like yeah, doing all sorts of other things as [00:36:00] well, which is um, which is good. So there was a whole little tent that was all covered in crocheting.

Like we, we did that on one year. We had a a a frame covered in crocheting. It was a crochet chill cave.

Will: Yep. Yep.

Erin: Um, so, um, yeah, which is great. It's good to have, takes pressure off my stuff, other people doing stuff

Will: because it gets really busy. I think we're gonna have to scale up a bit off a

bit. It's full everyday.

Stevan: Set up theme camps or volunteer or,

Erin: uh, no, not as, not theme camps. We, we've got a few people who, um, may might join in with another camp. I know of a couple of locals who, well, there are ex locals, I should say. They like family still here, but they, you know, moved on. But, um, they come and they've joined other camps, but, uh, yeah, I think we are the only actual theme camp from kulin.

They had one year, they had did have some, some guys [00:37:00] came out, they had the export tent and basically they, yeah, they gave away export beer and they had, every night they had some sort of animal on a spit and, uh, which got complete, every bone sucked dry. They, they expected this bunch of hippies who wouldn't, who would all be vegan or something in there.

We just went nuts for this roasted meat. So that's, yeah. Um, yeah. So, uh, I think they, they came out just more as a, it was also a bit of a dig at the whole live export thing. Yes. That, that's how long that, that's been going on. Really.

Will: Yeah, true. I forgot about that.

Erin: Won't get controversial over that.

Stevan: Yes. Yeah.

Will: Most of the time

Stevan: I remember year.

Erin: Yeah. Yeah.

Stevan: There was a whole thread, there was a whole, uh, discussion about that, so it was interesting.

Erin: Yeah. And I think, yeah, like they, they did have a bit of it. Someone actually got, did the wrong thing and.

[00:38:00] That you can basically do what you like as long as you're not offending or you know, you're not bothering other people. But yeah, someone actually did some graffiti on their tent, I think, because, but not in right way. And I, and I tell you what, the community came down very hard on that person. So, um, but anyway, yeah.

You know, each their own, but they kept going. The boys didn't mind all a bunch of local, young farmers, so Yeah. They love a good joke as well.

Will: Yeah. Um, most of the, the locals that I see out here are the ambos.

Erin: Yeah, yeah. The firies

Will: who chatting with the Firies.

Stevan: Yeah. Yeah. How do they, uh, how do they, um, sort of like view Blazing Swan, what's their take on it?

Erin: I, I think it's, like I said, compared to the Bush races, it's actually way more civilized. Um, you know, considering the amount of time that it runs for

Will: Yeah.

Erin: And the, just the diversity of people. Mm-hmm. But it's actually, you know, and obviously the [00:39:00] things that might be consumed out here, I think they find that it's actually, you know, much, much easier to work. You know,

Will: people are a lot more responsible for themselves and if not themselves, than for the other people around them.

Erin: Yes.

Will: It's, it's a really big support network. Mm. Like, yeah. Um, you see it music festivals or similar things. Somebody in the in the crowd is having a hard time or they fall, um, and they sort of get pushed to the side.

Here, you'll get taken off and given some water and the rangers will get called in.

Erin: Yeah. You know, and even if, whether, you know, you know, and, and everyone's sort of, no one's gonna walk past someone who's in trouble that, you know, every, everyone will. Yeah. Um, will, will, someone, will help, help you

Will: strong, strong sense of sort of civic responsibility.

Erin: Well, it's that community. Yeah. It's definitely a community, you know, that, that happens. So, so yeah. So I think as locals, I think they're, you know, they're [00:40:00] quite happy, you know, even the cops and that Yeah. They, they zap everyone on the way out, but, you know, fair enough, that's their job. Um, but, you know, they still don't have any issues.

You know, actually sometimes the, the worst issue is when we get some, some yahoos from town who thinks they can just jump the fence and come in and cause a bit of a ruckus, but they don't, yeah. They're just, you know, make, they're not the people who it would normally be. They're not burners, they're just annoying.

So I think some,

Stevan: yeah, there was one year, there was one year a bunch of bikers showed up at the gate, I think.

Erin: Yeah, that'd be right. So, um, yeah, and I mean the, you know, the, the police.

Actual people inside. So, um, I think overall, I mean, you know, the, and, and the, the, and that's the thing about mostly people respecting kulin as well. You know, there's always gonna be a couple [00:41:00] of, you know, go a bit too fast through town or fill up their water or

Will: use the emergency fire hose to clean their car.

Erin: Last year, last year we had over 30 degrees every day. And it was just, it was, honestly, it was even, I was just blah. Yeah. And it was so much dust that we, someone, uh, saw that, uh, at the petrol state, well the, the petrol there, they were, um, using the, the emergency fire hose to wash their car. Um, and so one of my friend actually went over and said, yeah, you can't really do that.

So I reminded, I, so I get on and remind people about, you know, how to treat kulin on the way through as well. So

Stevan: yeah. You're using up the local resources.

Erin: Yeah. Well, not just that, but, um, that's actually illegal, I think,

but yeah, that's, and like people say, oh, you know, can we fill up our water tanks in Kulin? And we, and I, we'll automatically get on the chats and say, no, you can't do that. You [00:42:00] know, it's, it's even, uh, you know, bigger, more, uh. It's so we need and less of than you'd have in the city. So please just, you know, bring all your own, own gear.

Yeah. Um, yeah,

Will: I'm talking, talking to the people at the hardware shop sort of day before Swan kicked off, and I was saying like, well, they were saying that basically all of their business that day was people getting last minute things for Swan. Mm-hmm.

Erin: Well, their trailers broken this, or their caravans broken.

Yeah. Cut

Will: a couple of bolts, a spare battery.

Erin: And that's the other thing, like, um, the organization users, well, you know, they, they don't, uh, we, you know, we say to people, don't come here and expect to buy all your groceries because, you know, there's only a limited amount for us, sort of, or, you know, it's, it's not like a Coles in the city.

Stevan: Yeah. It's not Costco or Walmart or something.

Erin: Yeah. Yeah. So, you know, but if you do need something, it's certainly please you, you know, shop here. But, and, and I think and Swan do that, our hardware, you know, they sort [00:43:00] of have a deal and, you know, get things in. Although I went to buy some star pickets and they said, oh no, Swan's taken them off.

But, um, yeah, so it's good. So, you know, the Swan's trying to use the Kulin facilities as much as possible, but without running us into the ground, so, which makes it, makes it a good event, you know?

Stevan: Yeah. Yeah. I think it's a, it's a perfect relationship,

artsy and.

Will: Yeah. And I think that you can really see the, the comparison that one of our most cherished parts of the town is the Tin Horse Highway, and that it's a big community events and that it's quite artistic and that it's quite resourceful and creative, which is exactly what Blazing Swan is. Mm. Um, you can really see the parallels there.

Stevan: And with the site, it's, it's a [00:44:00] private property?

Erin: It's, yeah, it's, um, yeah, but I mean, the whole setup is here all the time. Um, but, but it is still private property and they will put a crop in, like put, um, yeah. Some sort of crop in when there's no one around, like, between events. So our, our events not till like the Bush races, not till October, so at this time to actually put in some sort of cropping system, but yeah.

So they, yeah. And they're quite happy. They work in well with, with everyone and mm-hmm. Uh, they, so the owner, he, you know, he comes past, I was doing a, a training for rangers. So we have rangers who go around and just keep an eye on everything. They're not the police, they're more there as helpers. Um, and they, um.

They and the owner went past in on his quad bike and they said, see that guy, he can do whatever he wants.

Stevan: Surge.

Erin: Yeah, Surge. Yeah. Including the, I think it was the first year that he, [00:45:00] um, or the second year, uh, where we had, uh, burning the effigy, which is the, and he, um. Uh, it was pouring with rain and we're all still standing out there watching this, this thing, and Surge stripped down to his undies and raced around.

And I think that's where the, the Nudie run started after that years. Uh, yeah. It's more and more this year. Year. It's huge. Yeah. Down and run around the, the effigy. Yeah. Um, it's,

Stevan: and he wasn't even a burner at the time.

Erin: Nah, god no. No.

He just,

he just enjoys a good time.

Stevan: Yeah.

Erin: So, yeah. No, we love it.

Stevan: Alright, I've actually, I've actually designed a little quiz, a blazing swan quiz.

You guys wanna play along?

Erin: Oh, absolutely. We'll try.

Stevan: Let's test your memory then.

Erin: Oh,

Stevan: so this is all about blazing swan. It's, uh, asking about themes and what year and so on and how many people attended, if you can,

Erin: I dunno how many people attend.

Will: This is all on you. Sorry, [00:46:00]

Stevan: it's on the website. Erin.

Erin: Is it, do I look at the website?

Why would, and there's no connections out. No, uh, yeah, we've got no coverage out here at the moment, so, um, we can't even cheat.

Will: Website. Website is for people that haven't been to swan yet.

Erin: Well, we're the internet, so I do, I do say people, I do say we are the internet, so maybe, I dunno, maybe just come to us.

Will: 20? Or is it 20?

Erin: 21?

Stevan: It was two years.

Erin: Oh, so 20. So 20 and 21. It was one year where they did shorten it.

Will: One was canceled, one was

Erin: canceled outright,

Will: didn't run. And then one was, and then there was a shorter version.

Erin: 20 and 21. I know. I've got a 19.

Stevan: Yeah, 22. Yeah. 20 and 22. Yeah.

Erin: Oh, there you go.

Stevan: And what was the, what was the reason why it was canceled?

Erin: Uh, COVID.

Stevan: Yeah. Yeah.[00:47:00]

Will: I remember that year because we got all of our friends excited to go who hadn't been, we're gonna have like a big year. Everybody was excited. It was like the perfect time in our lives, and then it got canceled, didn't come back on, and now they've all got kids.

Erin: Anyway. Well, there you go. Well, we still do.

Stevan: In which year was a theme beyond the Black Stump used for blazing swan?

Erin: Ooh, I shoulda hat. I've got all my, I have all my tags.

Will: We went to that one. So it must been 18. Yeah.

Stevan: Yes, correct. Yes. 2018.

Erin: Two for two.

Stevan: How many people attended that year, do you think?

Will: Like 20

Erin: millions.

Will: 20 or 30.

Somewhere between.

Stevan: More than that. It was three [00:48:00] 3000, over 3,200 around,

Erin: there you go. Wasn't far off.

Stevan: It was probably one of the biggest, uh, attended.

Erin: Is that right?

Stevan: How many one were Yeah, around that? Well, 20 18, 20 19 I think was peak.

Erin: I always thought it was a silly, silly theme. Anyway.

Will: Silly theme. It did come after. Yeah, because it was sort of after a chain of like illumination, imagination.

Exactly. And then it's the emergence sort of thing. So that it was beyond the black stump, but then we sort of pivoted and now it fits in better now that we're doing cosmic coincidence.

Erin: Yes. I I feel like it should all be, always be. That's what the theme should be. Something like that. Yeah. Because we had illumination and Yeah.

Blah, blah. Yeah. Anyway. Okay.

Stevan: Well this is the next question. How many one word theme have blazing Swan used?

Will: There you go. Well, probably up to 2019 since we think that was the first.

Erin: Yeah. But they've had, what was last year?

Will: Last year was vintage. No Neon. Neon

Erin: caravan. Neon [00:49:00] caravan. That's it

Stevan: hold on that could be an answer.

Erin: Yeah. Got that one right too. Um, I reckon

Will: so did, did

Erin: half of them blazing. Swan had 10 many. One was 10 last year, so this is 11, maybe five. Five,

Stevan: four. Inception, inspiration, illumination and element.

Erin: We knew that. We do now. Okay.

Will: What Elemental was my Elemental First Swan that I attended?

Erin: Was that the one?

Stevan: So that would be 16.

No, 17. Maybe

Erin: 17.

Stevan: Anyway, that's probably a question down. What 2025 for Blazing Swan?

Will: 2025...

Erin: Cosmic Coincidence.

Will: Space Crabs. Yeah,

Erin: space crabs. Most definitely.

Stevan: What was the other one? Bat. Bat Country.

Erin: The what?

Stevan: Bat country was it? Do you remember? Bat Country. Oh, an [00:50:00] alternative kind of theme for Blazing Swan.

Erin: Yeah.

Stevan: What was

Erin: Larry?

Larry,

Stevan: question seven. What was the 2021 Blazing Swan thing?

Will: 21

Erin: didn't have one. Oh no, we did

Will: it, the small one. I went we're, it consulting with my wife across the room

Erin: and we're now realizing she can't hear you. So, uh, 2021.

Will: 2021. Let's do it. Anyway, that was the theme.

Erin: Have a fun time.

Stevan: Were you there? Were you guys there?

Erin: Probably.

Will: I had a Phoenix rising. There you go.

Erin: Really?

Will: Now she's nodding and smiling. She knew. Oh.

Yeah,

Erin: that was the year We didn't actually have a camp, but we, I didn't, we did come.

Will: Well, no, you went

Erin: Megan. I did.

Will: Meg went, yeah,

Erin: [00:51:00] William to celebrate his down the road. We actually, literally did, we didn't sleep here because my daughter had a, she was ready, rent a place just up the road. So we literally went home every night.

Will: Mm-hmm.

Erin: That's good. Good sleeping.

Stevan: Question eight. In which year was Poseidon's flame used for a theme for blazing swan's?

Erin: Not, what are we, 2023. It's only recent 23.

Stevan: Yes, that's right.

Yes, that's right. Yes,

I think And how many, how many people you reckon attended that year?

Erin: 6,000.

Will: I mean, it must be around three

Stevan: 80,000

Erin: I think that was burning man that year.

Stevan: So this is just, uh, just after, after the cancellation. So people were like ramping back up. Yeah.

Erin: Is that counting, is that counting part, is that just the, is that counting crew as well?

Will: Sure.

Stevan: Uh, yeah. Probably [00:52:00] entire. It's around ballpark number. Yeah. Do you remember that year?

Erin: Yep.

Will: That was the first year that ran, the year we ran it together.

We didn't sleep much. So it was pretty, it was a pretty rough year.

Erin: It was. That's why, see, they called it Poseidon. That's why Poseidon's Adventure.

Will: True. Yeah. They did invite and

Erin: it down the rain

Will: storm. Yeah. Not just evoking Poseidon.

Erin: Oh my God. It was a storm,

Stevan: well, well, how's that for picking a theme and then, not realizing the weather.

Erin: Yeah. Yeah. I think they, they just jinxed it.

Will: Yeah.

Stevan: Yeah, yeah. Fair enough. What was the theme for Blazing Swan in 2019?

Will: 2019?

Was that elemental?

Stevan: They finished the one word themes,

Erin: Larry.

Stevan: Oh yeah. We, yes, into this one. Happy as Larry.

Erin: All I think of is Leisure, Larry. [00:53:00]

Will: A little different.

Erin: Little different.

Stevan: And that was it. That was last question.

Erin: Did, did we win? Did we get It did pretty well actually.

Stevan: Good memory. Good memory.

Will: It was gonna be harder.

Stevan: It helps. It helps being there as well.

Erin: And we didn't even use Google,

Will: we're we? I quite like this year's theme, uh, cosmic coincidence. I've had a, like a lot of people have been talking because when you're at Blaze, your entire time is sort of just coincidences. One after the other, bumping into someone. Haven't six years suddenly, or just at the right time, you think, oh, I left my water bottle at home.

The person next to you has one. And it really is

just lots of coincidences happening all the time. And that's what drives you forward. That's what a, a blaze moment is. [00:54:00] Mm.

Stevan: But I find that happens every year. Like you get

Will: all Yeah. Yeah. But, um,

Stevan: connections or

Will: Absolutely. Plays,

Stevan: blaze miracles or synchronicity or

Will: blaze miracle is a, is a good term.

Erin: That's a good word.

I suppose in last year, last year was just a bit too much neon for me. I think

Will: I was quite annoyed because that was our theme. Our theme is the, is the neon pink and blue. So

Erin: Yes, yes.

Will: We weren't, we weren't special. We were just, uh, doing the theme.

Erin: We thought we were special. Oh. We're special. Anyway. Yeah.

Stevan: So thinking, so thinking about the past effigies and temples, what do you guys remember and what's your, uh, favorite ones or the ones that you

Erin: I remember, I remember one year I got in trouble 'cause I stuck on the ground early and I took a photo and I posted it and they told me off.

I do remember that, um, the year that they had

Stevan: So you're the one

Erin: Yeah, I'm the one, the big swan with the egg, obviously, because the eggs in Kulin. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Um,

Will: like there was, there was one with two [00:55:00] swans

Erin: Yes.

Will: Next to each other. Yes. I liked that a lot

Erin: because I like, and the change of location, like, you know, having, because I used to all be down on the, the flat.

Down, down the bottom here. So, um, but now they're, yeah. All in the same spot up here. Uh, last year's was pretty cool with all the different, all the different effigies. They, they had depiction of the different effigies all the way round.

Will: That was very cool. It was very good.

Erin: So that was a good one. I didn't like the, hat

Will: of my favorite burns is

Stevan: Happy as, Larry.

Erin: Nah. Didn't like that.

Will: My, one of my favorite, I don't actually remember. I don't think it was, uh, a temple or a real effigy, but it couldn't get burnt that year because the weather was no good.

Erin: Oh yes.

Will: And so we came around a week or two after.

Erin: Oh no, that was, um, Swan Henge.

Will: Yeah, Swan H

Stevan: Yeah. You're talking about the swan henge.

Will: Yes. Yeah. Yeah. And so we came around after with a handful of people. I was pretty young. I would've been probably 17. Yes. And we had Colin brought out [00:56:00] his trache.

Yeah. Yeah. And that was such a beautiful night where I met all these sort of swan people.

Erin: We all slept in the, um,

Will: slept in camp heart

Erin: in Camp Heart.

Will: Um, we, we played and set, tried to figure out the rules to hold them poker, burn something. And that was like my real first taste of the swan community. That's probably a good way to, was really experience. And, but yeah, really small scale, really intimate and really special. That's probably what kind of hooked me forever.

So that's, that's my, um, slightly off center answer for best effigy is the one that, the one that no one else gotta see burn

Erin: wasn't, actually,

Will: wasn't an effigy in the first place.

Stevan: It art piece. It was,

Erin: it was all made out of, um, hay bales. It was a, a swan henge they called it. Yep. So like stone henge.

Will: Yeah. Yep.

Erin: And we actually, um, like when they were looking, they were looking [00:57:00] for like crowdsourcing it, and I put, I, I put in the contributed the most, so I, I got the right to set fire to it, which is set off the, the spark. Yep. And then of course we didn't have it, so that's where we Yeah. We came back and came back and did that one.

So. Yeah. Um, and that's, that's another thing about,

Stevan: that was the second year, wasn't it?

Erin: The what? Oh no, that was a second year. No, no.

Stevan: Or first year?

Erin: No, it was quite, it was,

Will: it was a couple of years in, but not many.

Erin: Yeah. But that was, um, that's one thing about living Kulin. Yeah. We could come and have that still happen.

Yeah. So we, um, which was a nice, nice extra bonus

Will: in, in terms of best temple or my favorite temple. It's very hard to top this year's. Uh

Stevan: Okay.

Will: Which is a, a beautiful courtyard of trees, basically. Just, just a, a really amazing use of space, um, and structure.

Erin: It actually burn really beautifully too.

Will: It burned beautifully,

Erin: you know, with it sort of

Will: big ember was coming up [00:58:00] straight through the center and

Erin: Yeah.

Will: Billowing up. Yeah. And it had really sort of powerful message inside. Yeah, definitely some, some recency bias, but it's stuck in my mind very strongly.

Erin: I don't always get to see the temple

Will: before it goes. I have a problem.

Erin: Yeah. Because I, because I run a daytime camp. Um, unless I'm wandering around the night, I don't always get to see everything, so.

Will: Yeah. Well, and because we run a daytime and night camp True daytime and a nighttime camp. So you wander over to the internet and answer people's queries Yes. At night. So

Erin: Yes. Yes.

But yeah. But yeah, no, you know, I mean, any of the burn, I mean, they, they had a special burn this year where they burn the church.

Will: Yes,

Stevan: yes. Let's talk about that.

Erin: Yeah. The original church. I missed that too.

Will: Yeah. Mm-hmm.

Stevan: oh, you missed it,

Erin: told you I can't get to anything.

Will: We were having dinner,

Erin: but I mean, I remember, you know, the church when they, when, you know, they used to

Stevan: next minute church burns down.

Erin: Yeah. When we were first, [00:59:00] when we were down, um, yeah, they would right down at the, the, almost the exit going out, you know, going leave when you were leaving.

And that's where we would house the church. So you had to wander all the, there they were never allowed in with everyone,

Will: but would make the pilgramage out there.

Erin: They had blood baths and stuff,

Will: they're always far away.

Stevan: And did people, did people understand the history or the meaning or why it was burnt and the story behind that? Do, do you know, think,

Erin: I think there's plenty of us around who, who know, you know, what the church is about and, and all the rest and that they, uh, you know, they're a nice,

Stevan: it was a part of blaze.

Erin: Yeah. They're a nice bunch of people, but geez, they're funny Actually. We thought the naughty nuns were out again this year. Delivering ice. Yes.

Will: The Nuns on ice.

Erin: Nuns on ice out.

That was pretty cool. So we haven't seen them for a few years, so that was, um, that was a nice thing to come back. Yeah.

Stevan: Did they deliver it in a [01:00:00] hearse?

Erin: No, they did, they deliver it in a hearse. They borrowed one of the art cars and just filled it up with ice. So, um, and we just, yeah, but basically you gotta ask them for ice and they tell you to fuck off. So I don't really how that went.

Will: Yeah. Well that's what I asked around about why I was being burn and I also just got a fuck off. So

Erin: probably need to ask them after swan.

Stevan: That's actually the real answer. Why? I think,

Erin: yeah, I think it just, well it's probably, it's ten years old, so maybe it's just done it's dash. Its everyone needs to upgrade or, or maybe got termites

Stevan: Well, the church in all of us now, so. Yeah.

Erin: I feel like would've got termites. We, yes.

Talking about I actually been to pox eclipse, but that's my, my next challenge.

Stevan: Well, hopefully Oly will will be on, and we can chat about that a little bit as well. Um, let's talk about, um, why do you guys come back every year? I mean, [01:01:00] this is your Easter holiday as well, and you guys must have had Easter traditions over the years as well, so, well, why come back to Blazing Swan.

What's, what, what is it about basing Swan that you love?

Will: Well, it's, it's actually, uh, easier for me because my family is here.

Stevan: Mm.

Will: So mom's coming out here every year. Um, you wanna do Easter with the family?

Erin: I think that's where it's the first few years. My husband sort of wasn't too sure because I, I was also taking the kids with me, so, well, not when they're little, but I mean, you know, they were coming out here, so yeah, he sort of felt a bit lost with no Easter.

I mean, we've never been, I mean, yeah, there's enough chocolate to go around here,

I think, and hot cross buns, but, um, I, I mean, look, I don't, it doesn't bother me. I'm, I'm, I'm a teacher, so also I'm on holidays at the moment, and, uh, yeah. And being of the older, older generation, I'm probably not, I'm not working or anything, so, [01:02:00] but it, it's a good way to go.

This year, actually, this year is quite good because, um, you know, obviously today being the Easter Monday, or we don't have to call it Easter Monday, um, but then we have Anzac Day holiday. So it's a three day week working. A lot being here and, you know, staying for the, until the, until the end. Mm-hmm. But you do get people who just come for the over the weekend sort of thing.

Yep. Um,

Will: yeah, but I mean, I think the, the thing that keeps me coming back is that there's nothing like it. There's, there's nothing with the same mixture of, um, community and art and music. Um, you can get little slivers. You go to a festival, they got the music, but they don't have the community. You go to a doof and it's like this, but kind of weird.

Um,

Erin: I, I've always said if it wasn't in Kulin, it's not something I would've done.

Will: Mm.

Stevan: I was, I was gonna, I was gonna ask you that. What happens? [01:03:00] What if it was in Perth? Would you drive four hours? Like

Erin: No.

Stevan: Everyone else?

Erin: No, no.

Will: We'd make, we'd make it,

Erin: it's become my thing now. Yeah. But it was definitely, you know, if you're thinking like 11 years ago or, or longer, um, it was not, I, it, yeah.

Definitely wasn't my sort of thing. I mean, I was, I'm an arty person Yeah. And all that and, and mu you know, music wise and everything, but just not something I would go to. But because it was here, I, and I guess because we got actually contacted being, you know, with the Kulin arts, we, we sort of got contacted and said, you know, this is happening, blah, blah, blah.

And yeah, sort of went from there that we just. And I thought it, yeah. Anyway, I, and I'm all about, you know, like I said, all about bringing people to kulin, so that's why I bring a bit of kulin into here so as well.

Will: Yep. And, uh, I think probably it being here and you going [01:04:00] helped turn me into the sort of person that would wanna, would want to be here.

Erin: Yeah.

Will: When I saw this, um, for the first time relatively, like very formative years, that definitely changed the direction of my life quite significantly.

Stevan: Are you also planning? Yeah. Are you also planning to experience, uh, the East Coast burns or international burns and

Erin: that's what I

Stevan: even burning man burning.

Erin: No, I'm not that, I'm not, sorry, I'm not, I'm not that keen. I mean, I don't do, you know, festivals or anything like that, you know, that's just not what I do. But, um, like I said, I, you know, here, I, I don't, I don't think I, I enjoy being a theme camp because it gives me something to do. And I love seeing people coming in and experiencing crafty shit for the first time and doing stuff and, you know, the, just the, you know, the people who come in and say, I can't do this.

And you say, yeah, you can, and they, you know, spend six hours [01:05:00] doing it. And, um, I think as I, I did come one year with my, my daughter-in-law, you know, just as a participant and I knew people, so it. Quite nice. We could hang out with them, but it was not the same. I didn't, I, I felt like I didn't have a, a home.

Mm. Yeah. You know, um, I needed, uh, I needed to, uh, have that space and that connection, I think. And, but, um, I just didn't get it as a straight up participant. Mm-hmm. I, I need to be doing something I need,

Will: and you need, you need to be giving something.

Erin: Yeah. And that's because that's who I'm, you know, you know, I like to, I'm a big volunteer person.

I like to do a lot of volunteer work in Kulin. So, um, or anywhere I do volunteer work, Brunswick.

Stevan: Yep. Um, it's also the, it's also the small town mentality. I think It's, which is more welcoming as well as getting involved.

Erin: Yeah.

Stevan: Getting to know people.

Erin: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I mean, you know, small towns [01:06:00] thrive, uh, you know, you have to have volunteers.

Um, you know, I mean, our, our entire bush raise events run by volunteers, you know, and you're talking to 4,000 people coming into town and, and it's getting less and less. And I, I trying to, I'm sort of working on some things at the moment where I'm trying to encourage that volunteer filling in people and, you know, the, the, just the wanting to help out.

Mm. Um, and do that sort of stuff. So, you know, for me, that's my challenge. I.

Um, you know, family volunteer. My mom and dad, you know, my dad's 90 and mom's 85, and they're the biggest volunteers I know. So

Will: I was gonna say that it's, it's in your lineage.

Erin: It's definitely in my blood to be a volunteer for things. So yeah. So that's, that's, you know, and I, that's what I was saying. I, that's why I need to be doing something.

Mm. I'm not necessarily wanna be taking, [01:07:00] and, and, and I know that's not the concept here, but you know, the idea of, I I, I couldn't give enough. Maybe that was it. Maybe. Yeah. Yeah. So whereas running a camp, God running two camps now. Yeah. It's just, that's my, yeah. I, I like it. Love that. So, I dunno. So I dunno if I'd go to, to others.

No. I guess if you,

Will: I also only really have like one a year in me.

Erin: Yes. Well true. Take a while.

Will: Every year and a half or so would actually be nice. Come around quick.

Erin: Just when you're coming down from Swan, you rev then you start back up again for the next one. Yeah. Doing all that stuff and all that stuff.

We say, we're gonna straight up Swan, let's do this and this, and we don't. Um, it's definitely,

Stevan: well how do you, do you guys decompress after this? So what, what's your usual routine?

Erin: I, uh, I sort out all my craft materials and all [01:08:00] take everything outta crates. The. I just, yeah, I mean I'm, I'm a on my own sort of person anyway, so I find, but I, like, I've got the, my crew around for, you know, a few days, which is quite nice.

We, and we do mega chill, um, sit around and watch bad, just camping and eat pizza and Yeah. And twisties.

Will: Yeah, we try to take the pack down a little slow 'cause it's, it's very hard to pack. Packing or setting up is fun because it's exciting. It's as much work, possibly more work, but, you know, you're building something and then you get, get to enjoy it.

The pack down is the, is the hard part.

Erin: You're tired.

Will: You're tired. You spent like all week at Swan. Um, the sound system exploded

Stevan: and you don't wanna leave as well.

Will: And you don't wanna leave. Yeah.

Erin: It's another advantage of also being local is we can, we can take our time and we can come and go.

Will: Yep.

Erin: I mean, you know, one year [01:09:00] I came out, 'cause they were short on people to help, like the general helping, uh, and I sorted all the lost property.

That was quite fun. And not, it was a wet year. But, but yeah, that, you know, and, and even that, you know, that's sort of a nice way to, and being here with all the crew that all the, you know, organizers. And, um, you know, be helping them out in that regard. Mm. But I think it's,

Will: and that, I think that does taper you off a bit from the intensity of the week.

Erin: Yes. It's not just an abrupt in I go back to work.

Will: Yeah. Which I did. I had that, I didn't do my decompress very well last year. Um, I had basically, we, we had a, a pretty rough pack up, very rushed. I got up back home and then the next day I was still going, I was still on, on full throttle. And so I was like, I know what I'll do.

I'll unpack everything. I'll clean all of my extension cords. Like I'm in the kitchen with a cloth [01:10:00] cleaning to a hundred meters of extension cables and moving cars around and dropping stuff off. I was like, this is great. I'm getting so much done. The next morning I caught in sick for work because I couldn't get outta bed.

Just all crashed all at once.

Erin: You definitely need to take that time.

Will: Yeah. I just didn't move all day. So this year, we'll maybe, um, be a little bit more respectful of my, of my body and my energy.

Erin: I think that's part of also the difference between people who run theme camps and people who just come as a participant.

Um, I think, yeah. I don't, I don't know that people realize quite, I mean, people say, oh, thanks for this and thanks for that. But I don't think they quite realize just, you know, blazing if there was no theme camps, there's no blazing swan. I mean, there's no anything. So, you know, really, um, we are the backbone of it all.

And, and I think, uh, yeah, we just, you put a of work into [01:11:00] it.

Will: You do, you do.

Erin: But we do it for the fun of it too. Yeah. That's what we doing. Again,

Will: you, you put in a but load of work and it's all worth it when you, when you look out and there's 20 people holding hot glue guns and, um, you see people, three people dancing to the silliest music you can play in your tent.

It's most definitely, um, it, it becomes all worth it very quickly.

Stevan: Yeah, it does. Yeah. That's why we love it. Yeah. That's why we come back.

Erin: Yeah, yeah, for sure.

Will: Exactly. Plus it's, it's a challenge, right? Every, every year. 'cause we had quite a rough first year as a theme camp. We had a pretty good second year.

You, every time you come back and you think we're gonna do better, you don't think, oh, that was really hard. Not gonna do it again. Let's give up. Yeah. You know, it's a, it's a real, it's a, it's a tricky challenge to do and it's all for not just yourself. I guess a lot of the, [01:12:00] someone was saying after they'd spent the whole day in the, in the camp.

Doing up there, doof stick. He was so excited at the end of the day, he said, it's been a long time since I've put so much energy and time and focus into something for myself and not just for like the person paying for my time. Um, and I think that's a huge part of it, is that this is something that I, that we want to provide and it's hard, but that, that makes it worth it and it makes it a good challenge to crack. Um,

Stevan: yeah. How do you, Will, how do you, how do you sell it or how do you tell people what, what you're doing, like what this community is or what blazing swan is?

Will: It's really tough.

Stevan: Do you have a good way? Yeah, it's tough.

Will: I don't, I don't have a good way.

Erin: I've sort of tried to develop one on the years. Yeah. Like, especially for telling kulin people.

Mm. I've, I've done, you know, I, the first [01:13:00] few years I spent and I would do a little report, I guess up for our local, local paper. Um Mm. But just trying to explain to people what it is about and. Out here doing drugs and yeah, whatever,

Will: but also running around naked. It sort of is.

Erin: People always look at, I always say, look, there, this, this goes on, you know, people are running around naked, blah, blah, blah.

I, I don't, not wrong probably as well, I guess I'm, I'm trying not to put that image in their brain, seeing as I am a local and they look at me every day. So, yeah,

Will: it's, it's really hard to explain. Once someone comes for the first time, it sort of clicks. But yeah, I, I haven't found an effective way to, to get across the idea.

I usually try and invoke Burning Man. I say, you know, you know, burning Man's big, big, massive thing out there and people tend to know that. [01:14:00] Some people know it too well. Um, yeah, I mentioned it to a cousin the other day and he was like, oh, so it's like a bunch of tech millionaires, cosplaying as homeless people and say, well, no, there's less tech-billionaires here.

Erin: I actually go with the community.

Stevan: Not at blazing swan.

Will: Yeah. No, not at Swan.

Erin: I tend to go with the community thing. I say, you know, we, it's, it's, it's a community. Yeah. Um, it's, you know, and everyone is like-minded if, if you here, you tend to, well not everyone, but you know, the majority of people are here with the same mindset or the same like mind that you are here to, you know, be a friend to everyone to.

And I think the gifting community, you know, having all that going, um, is, is that how that happens too? You know? Yeah. People are constantly, you know, they get, get in the, and it, they get in the swing. And I think it's for some people who you don't experience who don't have that sort of volunteer experience and all the rest, and then just [01:15:00] suddenly, you know, how welcoming someone is when you gift them a piece of your apple or a, you know, something small.

It doesn't have to be huge. And I think for some people that's a, that's a huge eyeopener to, to what, what human beings can be and who we could be. Um, so yeah. Makes it, it's a great thing. It's a good learning for, for those people who don't get that chance to

Yeah. To do it.

Will: The daytime is definitely the hardest to explain.

I usually have to have to give examples because people can sort of understand at night there's people set up big sound systems and they play music and they have fancy tents, but there's, and they say, oh, who's playing? And you go, no, no, no, no. There is is no playing, there is no who's playing. It's just like

Erin: someone will,

Will: you know, someone that can play will be playing

Stevan: no headliners

Will: and they're, they're not brought in for the event.

They're going the event and they're also here. And so people sort of get that [01:16:00] across. But then I say during the day, you could also go and get a coffee or have a nap or watch a incredibly. Competitive and surprisingly violent pillow fight at the pillow dome.

Erin: Yes.

Um, it's scary.

Stevan: Well, we do get, we do get Daft Punk as well, I anything to do up on fence,

Erin: up on the trash fence.

I think that's where everyone went to get their sticks for their doof sticks.

Will: They probably did. Probably did.

Erin: Yeah. That, that's about as headline as we get.

Will: And I definitely think that actually, like the camp is a great example of we just bring a bunch of craft supplies out and people can wander in and make something.

And I think that starts to get the ball moving in people's head about what people are bringing and giving and what you'll be doing while you're here. Um, [01:17:00] that definitely helps.

Stevan: Alright. Um, finally, do you guys wanna give a shout up or say anything else? Shout to your crew, to the people that helped you out and,

Erin: oh, I always, yeah.

Stevan: Any,

Erin: yeah, definitely my crew. Yeah. Like, I mean, I love them all. I mean, we're all family.

Will: They do a,

Erin: literally,

Will: they do a, a mega job. Like it's a lot of work. There's not many of us, but everybody in the crew is, is super passionate and is willing to help out and, and understanding. Like, it's, it's probably the hardest thing that we do all year.

But everyone still shows up. And, um, I think

Erin: yes, we haven't, haven't lost anyone to, I mean, you know, people come and go, but, you know, usually circumstances something might change for them. Mm-hmm. But generally, you know, with everyone, they'll say, look, they can't come this year, but I couldn't come next year.

Yeah. Um, and but I think also to all the other theme, camps, I mean, you know, as I said, without this Yeah. Without theme camps, blazing Swan doesn't exist, you know? [01:18:00] Yes. From, from the, the smallest little tent to,

Will: without black Lagoon, nothing happens.

Erin: No. Get coffee in the morning. Bought my own pot machine out this year so I didn't have to wait in line for coffee.

But I mean, you know, right down to, you know, the belligerent churchies, we love them.

Will: Yeah. And the organization for sure. And all of the infrastructure, DPW the i I was thinking the other day about how crazy it is that we have a radio system we call in, say, you know, black Swan, this is the internet, and uh, 24 7 person will be on there and they'll direct you in their little room.

I assume they've got like a old timey operator board that they're plug everything into. Like that level of organization is not just important, but like, just the whole It's vital

Erin: the infrastructure. Yeah. To get power to every camp. Yeah.

Will: Power to toilet. The toilets are [01:19:00] amazingly clean. Yeah. For how filthy everyone is out here, it's pretty, yeah.

They do a fantastic job and like without that, the whole thing falls apart horrifically

Oh. And so quickly.

Erin: Yeah. No, there's just to anyone, anyone who does all that pre-work and, you know, the effigy builders, the temple builders, the, you know, everything. It's just phenomenal amount of work Yeah. Um, that goes in behind the scenes that, you know, people just don't realize, I think. And

Will: Yep.

Erin: They certainly need Yeah. Mega, mega, mega, mega praise.

Will: Absolutely.

Stevan: And when do you guys get, uh, preparing for and planning for next year, next event?

Erin: Bigger and better. No,

Stevan: usually you start like pretty early?

Erin: I got told I should be bigger, I might need a bigger tent.

Will: We, we probably should scale up a little.

Erin: Yeah. It's just more cleaning up of craft material. So yeah,

Will: we start planning next year,

Erin: today,

Will: the day that we rock up to Swan. Yeah. And we start putting things together and we go, why didn't we bring this? [01:20:00] Oh, we have to do that next year. No one writes it down. Mom does. She writes some things down.

Erin: I sit and write notes.

Yeah.

Will: And then your brain refuses to think about Blazing Swan for six to eight months and then you madly rush to get the next year. Yeah, we get the next one.

Erin: Visiting every opshop

Will: seems to be the system,

Erin: but we, yeah. No,

Stevan: hasn't failed.

Erin: I thought this year when I started, when I opened up for costume building, I thought, oh, that's gonna be all the tin horses are becoming, you know, blase. No one wants them and nah, they roll out of here. And the thousands, I, I should count one year.

Stevan: You guys are part of the, the whole landscape now. I mean, that's right from the beginning start.

Will: Yeah.

Stevan: part of the furniture.

Erin: Yeah, furniture pretty much.

Will: We're on a very low couch. I'm not sure that's gonna be, get outta this. So she may literally, yeah, [01:21:00] literally become furniture.

Erin: Thank goodness. See, that's why I have a young crew. I figured out they carry all my stuff and when I'm, uh, in my tent, I say to people, right, look down.

If it's not dirt, pick it up, put it in the bin. Or in one of my tubs and my knees say thank you.

So it's getting to that point.

Stevan: Well how the, the uh, double Gs,

Erin: they're not too bad that our end. Not too bad this year. I mean, they're around. I,

Will: yeah,

Erin: I'm sorry. It's just part of the landscape as well.

Will: Stepped on a couple,

Stevan: it must be just the first two years I think when, when there was no, um, you know, hippies on site yet. So yeah. Think the first year was pretty terrible. Yeah.

Erin: I can't believe how many people get around in bare feet still, but, oh yeah.

Hopefully disposing them rather than just chucking them around. But um, yeah, no, they, I think they, but I mean it's a staple. Yeah. I take my caravan back [01:22:00] to my dad after this and he always finds double G like six months later in there. So I think you just have to have to put up with, its one of those things.

Stevan: Alright, thank you very much for coming on the, having a chat.

Erin: Yeah. Welcome.

Stevan: Fascinating stuff. Yeah,

Erin: I'll see if I can get off your couch.

Will: Yeah, it was great. Um, thanks for having us on.

Erin: Nice chat with you too.

Will: Yeah,

Stevan: we've got Oly coming on next for chat so let's take a short break and we'll be back after these short burner voice messages.

Double Shot: This is Ranger Double Shot coming to you from Blazing Swan 2025. Just wanna shout out my, uh, beautiful Ranger teammates for doing such a good job of keeping everyone safe this year. Love you guys heaps.

Hotwire: Xin chào Stevan Nam Lay. What's up man? This is Hotwire here. Uh, I just [01:23:00] wanna say congratulations and well done on the Bonzaar podcast. Man, the website looks incredible and just kudos to you for all the hard work and effort you've been putting in. I can't wait to, uh, sit down and have a little chin wag with you.

I just think this medium, uh, is incredible. As you know, we've been talking about this for a long, long time, and it's, uh, so good to see this. I think communicating and chatting and sitting down and expressing ideas, uh, in this burner community is just such a wonderful thing, and this is a great medium. So hats off to you, bro.

Kudos. Can't wait to see you. Maybe burning seed, who knows? But, uh, yeah, every time we see each other, it's always a great time. Thank you so much for the silent discos and yeah, man, just keep going, keep doing art. Art is amazing and this, uh, this, this audio art is incredible. I think sitting around and having a, a good conversation with people and, [01:24:00] uh, you know, hearing about their art and their expression and their, their joy and their wonder is just incredible.

So thank you so much. Can't wait to see you again, buddy. Can't wait to chat. Love you heaps. This is hot wire. Take it easy.

Stevan: Yeah. Okay, cool. We're recording. Okay. Alright. Welcome. Welcome to the Bonzaar podcast. Uh, we have Oly on. How's it going, Oly?

Oly: Going good just towards the end of the event and a little bit sleep deprived, but All good.

Stevan: Yeah. Uh, quite a, an eventful day, you said earlier.

Oly: Yeah. We just have the, the last minute sort of stuff going on with tired participants sort of leaving and people enjoying themselves with what they've got left and having a bit of fun.

And we're just maintaining it in the bigger picture. It's not that much, but it's just a bit, a bit of work for us behind the scenes.

Stevan: Mm-hmm. Always busy. Yeah. Yeah. It's, it's a pleasure having you on. Um, let's chat about, uh, your origin story. How did you get [01:25:00] involved or how did you discover the burning man culture and how did you get involved forming, forming Blazing Swan?

Oly: So basically the first time I found about Burning Man culture was I was riding a motorcycle through North and Central America, caught up with some mates and they were headed to Burning Man. And I happened to be in, I think it was in Oregon at the time, and then we headed on down and could get tickets at the gate still.

I think it was back two thousand 10, I think it was off the top of my head and sort of over a festival sort of styles, uh, at the time, like not really my jam anymore. I'd rather go to see, uh, artists play and then went to Burning Man. I was like, holy crap, this isn't, uh, a normal festival. And was mind blown.

And then ended up going again, uh, two years later and. Started possibly making a burn here in WA with a few crew.

Stevan: Yeah, that was 2012, 2013?,

Oly: Yeah, it was end[01:26:00]

started doing stuff on the ground and become a, I suppose, an entity

Stevan: and had a campout at first,

Oly: yeah. So yeah, I was reliving this with a few people before, like our memories going like, this is about, what, 12 years ago or so? And so my understanding is we had something happen up at, uh, Bickley Valley up at one of the organizers place, Paul's place, and we did a small, like a three-hundred 50 person camp out on a property up there.

And that was with all the key members. I think you've spoken to quite a few of them already. Um, Wez sort of, I'm trying to off the top head, Cat and Matt and, um, I'm not gonna remember everyone's name off top head right now. Seven, I think it was 12 people at the start and seven of us jumped on the board. Mm.

Stevan: And then, and then it was the, the, uh, planning of the first burn in inception.

Oly: That's correct. That's right. We, um, you've probably been told this, well, couple, a few people we [01:27:00] organized that we didn't find, we got the property, I think it was in December. We got access or, or permits to be able to hold it up and Kulin the wheatbelt.

And then we decided, and so that's what four months set for. And we were only expecting you three 50 people, like we did at the first one up in Bickley Valley. That quickly escalated to about 1200 people. Um, and it was like, holy cow. So action stations. But luckily we had a core group of people who just had all the skillset that matched each other to be able to pull off everything.

So we all chipped in and any hole that was there, it was filled by another member of the team.

Stevan: Well, there there's a story behind the, how it became, uh, how it was first, uh, rejected for. God said no. So let's talk about the,

Oly: do you know about that story at all?

Stevan: Well, I do know it's, it's, it's, so it's been [01:28:00] passed on.

Oly: I'll give you my version of it. Mm-hmm. So basically we were looking for, venues were searching sort of areas to go and chase and I think, and a few of the guys went down to a place, sort of southwest of Perth, sort of start of the wheat belt country and looked really promising venue, but it was more rolling green hills, grounded out crops in a creek and stuff like that.

So it was really beautiful, very lush, green place sort of stuff. Not, not, not a ideally, uh, playa sort of version of a thing. And, um, so,

Stevan: and this is for, and, and this is for, you're picturing for 300 people, like you're saying?

Oly: Yeah, about 300 people or something like that. So it would've been a bit of a challenge, I think, to grow into that space.

Plus I didn't actually visit the space myself. Um, I've just got told, um, different, well, the accounts of the place and, because then I remember after they looked at the venue, they told me they went back to the, the house or the, the farm or farm shed or whatever it was that there and, [01:29:00] um, space with lots of backpackers or woofers, and all that sort of, and help out the farm and got there.

Then the lady, I think it was the lady said, um, this sounds really amazing. I just have to ask and see what God says about this. Okay. That's interesting in itself. So the left. I think we were, um, this was like a week or couple weeks, I dunno what the actual timeframe was. We were all having a meeting up at Paul Jorgensen's house and um, there was a phone call, um, one on someone's mobile.

And, um, it was the, the lady ringing up and basically she ran up and said, um, well look, unfortunately God said no. And so we're like, okay, it's probably a good, we minor dodged a bullet there. So, and then obviously Lewi then started up his theme camp. God says No, and I actually, with Frankie started up another theme camp called God Said Yes.

So, and then we had the, [01:30:00] the swan, the first one in between. God said yes and God said no. Um, yeah, yeah.

Stevan: Parallel to each other.

Oly: Yeah, exactly. All the nice straight lines. I think God said no was on the edge of the playa at the time. And we were up, uh, the base of Cnut Rock, or, yeah,

Stevan: so they, they were actually on, on the Salt Lakes.

Oly: Uh, we have one camp on the Salt Lake because the Salt Lake's actually too soft to go onto. It's, it's um, it's as soon as you break the surface, we've had to pull a few people out there try to go driving on it, and it's just mud after about an inch, it's just mud after the crust.

Stevan: Yeah. And then, and then the, uh, I guess it was, uh, God did say no because we had a drenching, right? So

Oly: yeah, we had a drenching. I dunno whether that's God saying no or God bringing everyone together because I think

Stevan: Yeah, that's right. Yeah.

Oly: What created the community of the Hollow Blazing Swan was that flood, because it put everyone out. Um, there was tents underneath [01:31:00] the mud. I remember the, I think it was Camp Koasis, um, it was coming through Knee deep

Stevan: Koasis Creek.

Oly: Yeah, it was coming through knee deep through the camp, therefore we called it Koasis Creek after that. And um, yeah, I think, I think it was a DJ playing. And he just got on set and they, him to get off and he, like, I just started. And they go look down, and he's like, oh, okay. Down there. And was a couple funny memes after that with the inside of the koasis.

And it's got God blazing Swan, God says no. That sort of stuff. Pretty,

Stevan: yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And how did the, uh, the, the locals react? Um,

well, looking back at it,

Oly: well, um, the first one we, when we burn, when the rain started to come through. We had the owner of the property surge down in his tidy whitey, um, after maybe let's say two or three beers, um, dancing up a storm and sort of semi [01:32:00] breaking perimeter.

And when the perimeters ask, who's this? And it's like, uh, he's the owner of the land and he's been the only person on site who's been allowed to break perimeter, um, yeah, the whole time. But he was at a safe distance. He just kept an eye on, but yeah, he absolutely, because it's a break of the rains up here, so it's wheat area, so they love all the, when the raids come through, which is normally around the time, but at the start it was obviously those dirty hippies out in the bloody bush.

Having bloody orgies and taking lots of drugs. And then, um, now it's come to be part of the community up here and they're really responsive to it and a lot of 'em get involved. We've got like the Tin horse experience, um, out here that, 'cause we have the Tin Horse Highway, which is quite famous in this area around the kulin area, and they build little tin horses at, in at Blazing Swan.

Stevan: Hmm. Well, do you remember the first year we had the emu export camp, which was a local

Oly: Yeah. Which was on the sheep export life, live sheep export, which sort of twisted [01:33:00] a few people the wrong way. And I think there was some, um, graffiti left on the export tent, which, because they were serving up, uh, sheep on a spit and emu export.

So, which they would've neither nor there about it, but was offended a few people, but everyone to be fine with it because that's what the livelihood way

Stevan: Yeah, no, that, that was just a, a local gesture for the community. Yeah.

Oly: Yeah. Jumping farmers, jumping in and getting involved and loved it.

Stevan: Yeah. And, and what about the, the first, uh, two, three years?

Well, the first four years I think when I was there, um. The, the theme was, was mostly like a one, one letter. Yeah. Like a one word theme.

Oly: We certain could, couldn't seem to give away from a letter. I, I think it was inception, um, there was Ignition or Ignite or whatever. Then there was, I can't remember.

Stevan: And then it's like Beyond the Black stump.

Oly: Beyond the black Stump. Yep. Which is at the back of nowhere.

Stevan: But it makes sense. [01:34:00] Yeah, it makes sense. Yeah. You've gotta drive four hours to Kulin.

Oly: Yeah, exactly. Unless you come out to pox Eclipse, which is a bit further.

Stevan: Five hours.

Oly: Yeah. Yeah. So it's, it's a heaven to drive back from here.

Stevan: Well, let's talk a a little bit about that there.

POX I've never been yet, uh, looking at, at the photos and the videos, it looks so good. How did you guys, uh, it's how does it run and how do you guys, uh, manage to, to, to keep that community as well, like to build that community?

Oly: So basically it was born out of like myself and Kristen from the Church of Belligerence because our, like most, we're right into our car scene and sort of motorbikes and, and rock music and that.

So we've been toying with the idea for a long time, probably about nearly eight years or so, and just looking for the place to be able to hold it. And, um, but there's such a community. It's like, it's like a burning man. It's like your Wasteland weekend over in America as well. [01:35:00] And it involves, I. Quite, we've got quite a few larpers coming out.

Um, but also we've got guys who are just into Mad Max to no end. Like we've got one guy, Kev, who's just got, he's got two Mad Max vehicles. He is got the Mad Max in a cept from Mad Max One and Mad Max two. He's building, um, what is he building now? He is doing the Night Riders car, um, and doing an MFP car, the yellow and red and blue, uh, pursuit cars from the seventies and yeah.

But that's been jumped on board and everyone seems to love it and it's just been growing. We're trying to keep numbers really small, like we're at about 500 and we're happy at that size at the moment because we don't go too big. We wanna keep community rather than just open it up to everyone at this stage.

Stevan: And, and how's, how's the, how's that, how's the relationship, uh, with the locals there? Is it Southern Cross?

Oly: Yep. Southern, yeah, Southern Cross is where it's held, so it's, it's going really well out there. [01:36:00] Um, Shire's been helping us out to no end and doing some really cool stuff, you know, giving us a nice space of land out there involved with the, the local, uh, motor cross community.

Um, there's been a few little tensions here and there, but it's all been pretty, pretty well maintained and really well going. Looking at holding our next one in October this year, and yeah, looks like it's all going ahead, flat out.

Stevan: Yeah, was a bit of hesitation in terms of what you guys were bringing to, to the place?

Uh, just like, just like blazing a swan in with Kulin.

Oly: Um, there was a little, little bit of hesitation, but I think they're probably more on board with the theme that we've got being, uh, a country mining town where you've got all the people who are sort of into their cars and stuff like that. So it's more of a, and like a, I've been talking to a lot of farmers, even around blazing area.

They're pretty keen on it because a lot of them have got cars or hidden away in their sheds and stuff like that, so there's a lot of heads around.

Stevan: Yeah. That's a bit of a hike for them, [01:37:00] but know that's good.

Oly: Yeah, absolutely.

Stevan: Yeah. You gotta go where the party is.

Oly: Yeah, definitely. And it's a pretty damn good party.

It's very different than Blazing Swan because obviously we've got a licensed venue out there, so we, we put on a main stage, which is on the back of a semi trailer trailer and we have bands playing in the back of a truck and we have a bar there. And then we have what we call clans as what your theme camps are.

And they're all based around you got, we've got a radio station out there, dead end radio, and we've got, uh, was it Bodega Bazaar, um, which do like a cabaret sort of style thing and it's all just very wasteland looking and all nice red dirt, which gets everywhere.

Stevan: Yeah. And you've got some volunteers as well out there?

Oly: Yeah, we've got a lot of volunteers. Got a lost lot of cross volunteers with Blazing Swan and that, so a lot keeping like the Ranger theme going over there and mental health sort of stuff. And [01:38:00] we're growing slowly because obviously we're a lot smaller and so we build as we need in regards to those sort of stuff.

But yeah, it's a very big cross pollination.

Stevan: Yeah, I can see a lot of crossover there with, with the burn community. Um, like.

Oly: Yeah, it's just like, um, wasteland Weekend and Burning Man. Very like you got the Death Guild basically from Burning Man going out and building the Thunderdome out at, um, Wasteland.

Stevan: Yeah. Cool.

Well, let's talk about a bit about the, the evolution of, uh, of Swan. So yeah, you, you, you were there in the beginning. Uh, we were there. Uh, and until now it's, it's been, you know, a lot of work and it's, it's, I think it's, you know, from, from the perspective of, you know, people from the East coast, it's one of the better burns in Australia.

Oly: Oh, thank you. Yeah. Um, yeah, it's a really good burn. It's, it's just absolutely amazing. It just blows your mind. At the, we were a bit worried how [01:39:00] it was gonna work because a lot of people hadn't been to Burning Man. Sort of heard about it, but didn't know the concept of it and like theme camps were like, oh, they're gonna be able to understand what we're trying to get them to portray.

And all that first year bang on, they just smashed it outta the park. And it's, having that base has been so, so good to work from. And it's just, it grow and grow and grow is absolutely amazing.

Stevan: Hmm. Yeah. And, uh, like the, the landscape as well, it's, it's grown, it's grown bigger. The city's is obviously filled up with more people.

Oly: Yes, certainly has.

Stevan: And the theme camps has evolved as well.

Oly: They certainly have. We got, um, some of the old favorites, sort of getting a bit older and having new blood go through 'em and change sort of styles. And then you got all the new bloods coming through and absolutely smashing it out the park with, um, what they're bringing to, to the, or to the edge of the playa, I suppose.

Stevan: Yeah. And but also in an, end of era for the church. The Church of Belligerence.

Oly: Yeah. [01:40:00] That was, uh, burnt the church, it was an interesting one on the, I think it was the Thursday night, um, uh, we got out there and they built the church and that was our first burn at, um, blazing Swan this year, which was a absolutely marvelous burn.

A bit of a. Heart wrenching one.

Stevan: It took, it took a while. Yeah.

Oly: Uh, it actually went reasonably quick. Um, they did a wonderful job on setting it all up and the, uh, doing all the burn plan and stuff like that. And it was burnt to exactly as planned flames popping through the roof and coming through all the little, um, paneling on the, on the walls and stuff like that.

And, you know, a bit sad to see the church go, but I'm sure they'll grow a little bit. Although their new camp where they're based out of it is being called Temu Church because it's just thrown together. Everything from Temu

Stevan: that's not the official name. Right? For next year.

Oly: I dunno. I think we can make it that they won't like it.

They don't like it. I know that.

Stevan: Yeah. Yeah,

Oly: yeah.

Stevan: But I, I don't think a lot of people are [01:41:00] familiar or aware of, like, there's a backstory to the church being bent down or even the church belligerent itself. I think so. Um, do, do you,

Oly: I know basic stuff on it. I know a little bit how it started out of the far away Tree Tribe.

Stevan: Yeah.

Oly: Where it was started and you had, um, two different sort of styles of people in there. So you had like the happy far away Tree Tribe people, which were beautiful people then you.

Well, they got the name from, I think, I can't remember name off the top of my head at the moment. Um, basically called Kristan Belligerent and he liked the name so much he thought he might as well start something with it there, started the Church of Belligerence and um, from there on. Um, and have they been belligerent?

Yes, they [01:42:00] have. Doing all their stuff like um, raining blood and black metal yoga. I find it quite nice. And walking home two or three in the morning, uh, walking away from the doof-doof in there in the background, you can hear a nice pantera playing or just some nice metal in the background that's going. Ah, that smooth my soul.

Some normal music.

Stevan: Yeah, I think so. Yeah, it was definitely, uh, in the cards or planned like they were gonna burn it down.

Oly: Yeah, it had come to the end of its life. It'd been used for, I think it might have been eight years or so, it might been more than that. Um, and just the condition of the actual paneling and everything they built.

It's just old now, so they've gotta do something new. So they decided, well we were gonna be super belligerent and for pox eclipse to steal the church belligerence and takes it to POX and burn it rather than burn it. Its blazing swan, but we, we got too slack to do that.

Stevan: [01:43:00] That's too meta.

Oly: So, yeah. So

Stevan: you, you're crossing festivals. Yeah.

Oly: Yep. Yeah, exactly. Uh, same but different.

Stevan: Yeah. And and you said it was emotional?

Oly: Yeah, I, no, I think there was a photo of Kristen. I was sort of involved. I was, I was event manager at the time, so I didn't get to get super emotional. I was more working. But, um, I, I think there's a photo of Kristen with tears in his eyes, but also that cheeky, bloody evil, smoky as in his face at the same time.

So yeah, end of an era, start of a new and quite a few of the church crew afterwards and there. Yeah, happy and sad and it's good to see it. burn. It was a really good performance as well, so it was not just the burning of the church. There was a full performance by the church belligerent crew, um, before they did it, and it was really amazing.

I think there would be some video out soon on that [01:44:00] was a bit able to describe exactly what it was without actually seeing it.

Stevan: And like, usually they, they always feed the crowd afterwards as well.

Oly: Usually. I dunno what happened there. I had to shoot off before the traffic got bad and I couldn't drive the car through the, um, the crowd because there was quite a few people there.

Stevan: Yeah.

Oly: And quite a few people yelling, save the church when everyone else is yelling burn the church.

Stevan: Well, for, for the uninitiated, they, they will probably get offended. So, because it, it is a symbolic kind of a figure

Oly: ab Well, it is until you go into the Church of Belligerence. The good old greeting of, fuck you with the good old middle finger raised and all the belligerent sort of behaviors and um, yeah, so, because I remember, I think Kristen was toying with the idea of taking the church of belligerent to Burning Man and the idea was to have a upside down cross burning on the front of it.

And I think then they realized, oh, maybe that's got slightly different connotations in [01:45:00] America. Um,

Stevan: yeah.

Oly: So it might not go down too well, but they ended, didn't end up having the facilities to go take it to Burning Man itself, so it all got done here instead.

Stevan: Well, you need, I think you need to build a following.

You need to build a history and the backstory. Yeah.

Oly: Yeah. I think they've, they've done it pretty well. A lot of their books that they relate because they have their own little, because we have the, well Swan has the wtf, the Where's the Fun Guide, and I think, uh, the church prints booklets out every year for, um, all the people that go through there and gives backstory and tells what the events are on all that sort of stuff.

I think this year they got lazy and they couldn't be bothered writing stories, so they just wrote this page left intentionally blank on every single page on the left hand side. It was very, very belligerent of them.

Stevan: Uh, they, they're collectors item. I've, I've got some of them. I've got one of them.

Oly: Yeah,

Stevan: probably the first one.

Yeah, they do good swag. The church.

Oly: They do absolutely amazing swag.

Stevan: Yeah, but let's talk about some of theme camps this year or over the past [01:46:00] as well. How it's evolved.

Oly: Yeah, so,

well we still got, um, good old Koasis from the first year. They're, yeah, they're pumping what, today's Monday. So Rum Punch Monday still cranking.

So I'm gonna be on working tonight so I can see I'm gonna be dealing with a fair few drunk people, um, because we close at midnight tonight here. And, um, I don't even know what time it's now. It's probably about eight o'clock, seven, eight o'clock or something, whatever. Three hours less than what you are over there.

Stevan: Three hours.

Oly: Yeah. Seven 30. Um, and so yeah, we'd go around and shut people down tonight, so it's gonna be, um, good to be the fun police, which is gonna be fun. Um, but yeah. Other theme camps we've had, um, the Magical Frontiers are really amazing camp, so if anyone knows the cave rock area around the back of that, they're sort of, you walk through around the back of the cave rock and they've got a theme camp through there, which is sort of like, uh, you go through these [01:47:00] swinging Western style doors and you get in there, they have a little bar there, a little of candlelight berry lights and amazing toasties.

They do really cool toasties. Um, people just absolutely love them and live music playing out. Who the lead of the crew, Joe actually did the temple this year at Blazing Swan. So they had their, um, fair bit of work put in front of them having to build their theme camp plus also build the temple as well, which was a amazing feat in an amazing temple as well.

Stevan: And now what about the, you know, you talked about the live music, uh, that's something that it's kind of like, you know, dying in the last few years of live music. It's for electronic music now, so

Oly: Yeah, most of the, most of the theme camps are based around electronic music. So you've got God said no size down this year, a little bit comparative to what they [01:48:00] normally do with like their big pyramid and stuff like that.

Um, you've got Funkaz Bar, which have been cranking the tunes. You've got Abode who, uh, another amazing electronic music space. Um, what else we got up there? We've got, um, uh, you got to be confirmed. Confirmed. Um, another really cool space. Um, what else have we got up there? Trans, trance Central Station. I think it was, I'm trying to rack my memory late in the, in the evening.

Um, what else is up there? Treetops, good old treetops are up there. Um, we've had, um, chainsaw Cobra who've been here for a while. They seem to have changed up there. Their lead has had to move away now and to a cabaret style. Uh, performing arts happening. Um, I think I went past, there was a clown on stage doing an act.

Stevan: Nice.

Oly: [01:49:00] And I think there was accordion being played there as well and all sorts of stuff. So, and

Stevan: that's a different transformation. Transformation,

Oly: yeah. They had a huge techno system before. They're all techno based and now they've gone more cabaret style, which is quite interesting. Um, and then, I'm trying to think what else is down through this way then you got the old steampunk pancakes, um, where I'm sitting right now in the library, or I can't remember the, the official name for this place, but I'm sitting in a nice little library set up, which

Stevan: that, that's the infinite loop.

Oly: Yeah. Up in Infinite Loop, which is the quietest spot for camping and for a couple of theme camps and a bit of crew camping and, um, yeah. And I don't think they've organized the library too well. There's no decimal system alphabetized, so we haven't had anyone with OCD come in and get overly ambitious on it yet.

So I think they're still waiting.

Stevan: And [01:50:00] how does, and and what was the, uh, the, this year, both the Effigies and Temple,

Oly: I can speak for the Temple build.

I think we're pretty big because I've helped do the fireworks before and these, so this year I was feeling the vibrations in my, in my tent. So it woke me up, but I didn't get to see it unfortunately. But, um, temple Burn was amazing. Um, we had a big circular temple. Um, 'cause to me the whole thing, blazing Swan is the temple.

It's the heart of Blazing Swan, whereas the effigy is the party and the temple is where all the community gets together to either unload emotions or help people through or just unload stuff from their life in the default world. And I think they did an amazing [01:51:00] job this year and the, the burn they did this year, slightly unsuccessful in the lighting of it because it was trying to get, um, a flame arrow being shot onto a lighting pad.

And unfortunately it missed on a couple of shots, but we ended up getting it lit up with one of the flaming arrows being dragged across to it. Been hard to see in the dark because it got delayed a little bit as all burns always seem to happen, delayed by about 20 minutes or so, and it's just too dark to see.

But then it went up and it was actually, this year was actually amazing because there was a few people heckling at the start. Soon as it all started, there wasn't a noise at all on the hill. It was just dead quiet. It was quite moving. Absolutely amazing.

Stevan: Yeah, the, the silence makes it more impactful.

Oly: Oh, it's just, it hits you so much harder and having that many people all together in one space and everyone just being respectful and silent was just mind blowing.

Uh, it, um, it [01:52:00] pumps up the heart.

Stevan: Yeah. We've had incidents previously with the Temple Burn where people, you know, it wasn't silent. And I think that's through the growth phase of the community. So it's more of the education thing and respect and, you know,

Oly: yeah. We've be trying to do education throughout the whole, I think all burns suffer from the same thing.

It's just when it's quiet and there's people who have had a few, few things to drink or whatever, and they get excited or bored and it's quiet, so it's their chance to do a big yell out. And, but this year it was, it happened at the start, but then it was all quiet from there. And it's just a process of just teaching everyone what the whole burn is about and understanding.

Stevan: Yeah. So let's talk about the, well, the West Coast, you know, the Perth Freemantle area.

Oly: Yep.

Stevan: How is it different to the other Burns East Coast burns or Yeah, how, how's it unique? Blazing Swan?

Oly: We're cooler, um, no, I guess we're more isolated over here. We don't have [01:53:00] such a big, um, population base on the West Coast and sort of initially youm.

It's got that sort of arts culture sort of thing, which is getting slowly pushed outta Fremantle due to gentrification and stuff like that. But that base around there, you got all the people who are sort of in this burner, I suppose you'd say, burner mind, like people who understand the whole concept.

And so that's helped tremendously. And then now it's spread across all the Perth and everyone's started to get into it because now Blazing Swans, it's going really amazing now. I think we had about three and half thousand people this year. Um, and no real major issues, which has absolutely amazing everything, um, we've been able to handle in house and it's all been pretty good.

Stevan: Yeah. There's a lot of artists and, um, you know, creative people in Fremantle.

Oly: Yeah.

Stevan: Which, uh, which builds that community, you know, away from the Blaze, you know, [01:54:00] away from the Kulin.

Oly: Yeah. And been going as long, long as Blaze has for about 10 or 11, 12 years. It's fostered the community as well by putting back all the art grants and getting people to be able to understand that they're artists.

Everyone could be an artist just given a chance to be able to create something out there.

Stevan: Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah. A a lot of people do. It's the checklist is to, yeah. Have any travel tips?

Oly: Well, it's, it's good to have touch base with some local burners here to be able to help you navigate if you're coming from interstate or overseas or something like that, because it is a little bit difficult to get outta here.

But everyone's willing to help out and chip in and might be easy to get on with a theme camp and have a chat with theme camps and suss out what's going on with them and help out through that way. Um, if not general camping and pretty much your neighbors will look, help look after you. And it's a big community.

Everyone seems to understand the community side of things, which is really good [01:55:00] and helping each other out. So it's been tremendous in that respect.

Stevan: Yeah, and for the people that wants to create something, build something, there's also support in in Perth there as well.

Oly: Yeah, so we give out grants and um, well we used to have the Swans Nest, which is now no longer, which is a space we used to be able to help artists build stuff at.

Um, there's looking at doing something again similar. Um, we've done a lot of stuff where we've been able to, well I haven't been involved with it, but they've been creating space on site laid down in yard where we can keep artworks and stuff up here and reuse and repurpose and all that sort of stuff as well.

But yeah, being able to give money to help people create the art that they need through the Blazing Swan Arts program has been absolutely wonderful. And there's been some amazing art out here this year, which is really good. Lot, lots of light effects and on different aspects of what art is. [01:56:00] Shart Gallery, which is, is it shit or is it art?

So it's up to the person to make their own decision, whether it's art or shit or shit.

Yeah.

Stevan: And what about the art over the years? What, what impressed you?

Oly: Um, just the different sort of concepts. Like I remember one year someone got all the 5 cent pieces and created the echidna. So made a sculpture outta the echidna and then glued all 5 cent pieces, which has got the echidna of the 5 cent piece on it, on it.

And it was this huge, I dunno how much I, how much money was actually put on it and gluing all these 5 cent pieces onto this art piece, which is about just over a meter high, I think, and probably about 800 mil wide and, um, stuff like that to these, these geodesic shapes with all these lights on it, with infinite mirrors and oh, there's, yeah, I think, I'm trying to think of another, [01:57:00] all the art that I've seen, um, what was the space?

Crabs, incubation space, um, laser projection things and trees with speakers and all sorts of stuff. And yeah, obviously would like to have seen more art, but I've been working too much, so there is more art here.

Stevan: Uh, there, there'll probably be some people asking about the what happened to the millennial falcon?

What happened to the Star Wars guys?

Oly: Uh, I think you can Google it and it'll give you directions how to get there because they've, um, I saw

Stevan: they parked it somewhere.

Oly: Yeah, so they're, they've moved to just north of Perth. Um, the guys, they've been doing it, they've been the nineties doof crew, so they're all getting on an age now and it takes a toll coming out here and building.

Well, the first year, I think they built the desk, uh, no, the, um, start Destroyer, which was probably fits about 20 or 30 people in. Then they stepped it up and Obi and all [01:58:00] these crew then built the Millennium Falcon, which was, I think that could hold about a hundred and something people in it. And I remember sitting inside at one time, full screens in the background.

They had the, well, what's the bar from the, um, star Wars movies in there.

Stevan: Okay. The Cantina bar.

Oly: Yeah. Had the Cantina bar in there. Um, and I'm sitting in the middle of a sheep paddock just going, you wouldn't believe this is a sheep paddock. It's a full Millennium Falcon nightclub. So from the outside they've all painted up and, or basically made out of, um, was it a patio or shed structure And then.

Canvased in from the old CB, which is quite bit of bulk handling wheat silo things that they have here, leftover canvas. And so they did all that and then I think it was about three or four years ago, got a bit too much and then [01:59:00] they moved the Millennium Falcon to a property about an hour a bit outta Perth, which has now been concreted into the ground and now used it as a venue for fundraisers for a lot of the Council Blazing Swan, especially koasis and a few other ones.

Stevan: Yeah, that's pretty cool.

Oly: Yeah, absolutely. So they're still still open to the Blazer community and to be used, but also it's on private property, so if you do find it on Google Maps, you can't see it from the road because it's down a hill behind it, so you can't try looking for it. But it's on Google Maps as well.

Stevan: Yeah. Well, speaking about permanent art, um, what about the, the year when they built the egg as well and they relocated back into the C

Oly: Ah, yes. Matt, the Shire, Matt Brave. So that's the, what's that, the third year I think it was where we built that ginormous one with telephone poles holding up its wings and [02:00:00] like a.

Swan with its wings together in front of it, the body behind and in the middle it was sort of covering an egg, a wooden egg, which when burnt, then revealed the metal egg below it. And that was then gifted into the cool and Shire at the end of that blaze and is now sitting in the shire of, well, the town of Kulin, I think in the rotary park down there, which can be seen by anyone driving past.

So that was donated through to them and that was, was probably about nearly two meters high, I believe. And yeah, fractured sort of egg. It was really cool.

Stevan: Yeah, yeah, yeah. It was a good gift.

Oly: Absolutely.

Stevan: Yeah. It's, it's a, it's a unique relationship. I mean, you know, most, most burns and, and events would, should, would have to have this kind of relationship, um, with their, with the landowners. Um,

Oly: yeah. [02:01:00]

Stevan: Talk to us about, you know, building that relationship with Kulin.

Oly: Well, 'cause we were really lucky because when we first jumped in and we got the property, there was, um, I think, I'm trying remember the surname, but Jen was involved with the shire of, she was, I can't remember her role engagement officer or something to do with helping create the community officer, build a community, and um, which is really progressive town already.

Ev chargers in here and all that sort of stuff. And they've got the Kulin Bush races, which is the site we actually run, uh, blazing Swan on, and that have been running for about 20 something years, I think before we got here. I think they're into the 27th year. And they're pretty big as well. So they do all the bush races here, but obviously when we first get in with the dirty hippies, dirty, freo hippies coming in, doing all the crazy stuff.

But because of the management team we had in place [02:02:00] and management plans and all the professionalism we had behind it, all the, the people were dealing with in the shire were understanding that we weren't just coming out to have a big bloody party in the bush, which we were. But um, we were also planning behind it as well and making sure everything was done properly and to the law and all that sort of jazz and just continuing on communication between each other and slowly growing and working with each other.

It was a few rocky years, but like I just caught, I haven't been here for a couple years and then I caught up with all the locals and they're just loving, loving it all up here. 'cause the man of, um, well coming people coming into town, going and buy stuff, the fuel, buying all the stuff from the general shops and then on the way back the cafes and stuff get absolutely hammered.

Because it's basically just a local pub and a [02:03:00] couple of shops and, and the towns are, are dying because all the young people go into the city to live their life and leave, move away from the farms. But coming out here, it's sort of like revitalizing the sort of area, I suppose, to a small degree with this and the Bush races going through.

So it's been been quite good. And you have key community stakeholders with all the police and the Shire and little St. John's Ambulance and all the people involved there, the firies and that. It's been really great.

Stevan: Yeah. It's, it's hard to see Blazing Swan anywhere else. Yeah.

Oly: Yeah. Absolutely. This is it's home.

Mm,

Stevan: mm-hmm. Mm. Should we talk about the, where do you see the, the future of Blazing Swan? I mean, we've got a lot of, uh, younger, well, new faces you're saying.

Oly: Yeah, absolutely.

Stevan: Um, as, as well as the old faces are also, you know, always sort of coming back to blazing swan year after year. Yeah. It's good to see. But um,

Oly: yeah, it was quite good this year [02:04:00] because there was quite a few of the older crew come back who hadn't been out here for a few years, and there's been a few that have been out for quite a number of years and just catching up with 'em on site and just seeing how the, how our little baby's gone and where it's going.

And it's absolutely amazing to see that it's, it's still got the community there and it's, I it's been transferred well and.

And all the infrastructure behind. It's easy to grow because I remember the struggling the first few years trying to figure out how to bloody pay for everything. Now I think it's slightly more comfortable where they've ever got a little bit of cushion in the bank to be able to afford to do things, whereas we had to wait to ticket sales before we could actually do anything to it.

Spend money because we were basically, yeah, spend it all on making it grand and as big as we could to inspire people to create art and theme camps and stuff like that. And yeah, it's been, yeah, I think it's only way is up for me, I suppose. Good old classic quote. Yeah.

Stevan: Yeah. With, with the, with the [02:05:00] social media as well.

I think the more people participating in the discussions

Oly: Mm.

Stevan: And keeping it alive, I think that's a, you know, we have to keep it alive.

Oly: Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. And yeah, the community's here for it and it's, yeah, it's great to see it growing and as I think, I don't think it'll grow too much more. We're sort of getting close to capacity here, um, regards to site size, unless we rejig a few things.

We have got other places on the property we can access. Um, and as good as driving down today. And I saw the owner of the land come through, had a nice chat with her and she's really supportive of all, comes down and watches it all and has a good time and gets to go home and go to bed in a nice, after a nice warm would've been.

Stevan: That was, that was luxury the first few years.

Oly: Yeah, absolutely.

Yeah. Yeah.

Showers and everything for everyone.

Stevan: Yeah. So for sure. Yeah. I mean [02:06:00] it's, we, we, we do, we do need the, the, I guess the virgins, you know, the new people in and fresh ideas, you know, ways of looking at things and running things. So,

Oly: yeah, absolutely. And just getting different people's ideas on what, what they wanna create the event into and, um, how it'll look in the future. Because if you just stay the same, then it's just gonna, it won't last as long.

Stevan: Yeah. So had quite a good number of volunteers this year, which means, you know, you, you can, you have that luxury too.

Oly: Yeah. That, that blew my mind when I remember, I only got here on the, the Monday afternoon I think it was, and set up camp, and I think the guys had been on site for about three weeks before that. And I went down to one of the meetings we had at the kitchen up here, and it looked like there was about 200 volunteers here to set bloody thing up.

And I was like, holy cow, how do we feed all these people? This is unbelievable. But yeah, so the engagement of volunteerism is quite, quite huge. And it's, yeah, it's, it's amazing People just volunteering their time, [02:07:00] their own time to be able to build things for the community and it's, yeah, it's absolutely mind blowing, that sort of stuff.

I love it. Absolutely love it.

Stevan: Yeah. Blazing SWan is different as.

Also added a new volunteer role, which is the Exodus crew.

Oly: Yes. I can't talk to you about that. I have no idea about it. I'm about to find out about it soon because we're about start Exodus.

Stevan: No, but that's, that's a good initiative. I think. Uh, it's different to, to the other, I guess, gatherings or festivals.

You gotta look after your, your people.

Oly: Yeah. That's why we, that's why we shut music down at midnight tonight because most people will drive home tonight. We wanna make sure they got a good bit of sleep and rest before they drive. What is it? The four hours back to, um, the city. Three and a half, four hours.

And most 'em do it in the afternoon, which is a worry because then you got the sunlight in your eyes. So we're just trying to minimize on people or [02:08:00] minimize risk driving back to Perth because we have been out here for seven, if not more days if you're a volunteer. And yeah, it can be tiring and emotional.

Stevan: Alright, cool. Uh, any shoutouts. Who's who's, who else is in the crew that you wanna mention?

Oly: Um, so the main crew I've been working with, um, so all the event ops teams. Uh, good old Lewi who started doing the stuff back in the day, well before blazing Swan up in the sand Dunes of Lancelin back in 2008, or might been might, his owns little burns up there.

Stressed as hell. So shout and, um, making it and just, yeah, all the rangers and um, what the crew, all the [02:09:00] DPW crews sometimes cause more havoc than, than they fix, but that's DPW

and um, yeah, and just all the other crew. It's just everyone that's been involved. Even just the theme camps themselves. Amount of work, theme camps.

Stevan: Yeah, theme camps,

Oly: amount of work, theme camps put in. Everyone just thinks, oh, they'll just do a theme camp outta here for a week. It takes forever and a day to be able to get all that stuff together back in the city, plan it, spend the money on it, logistics to get all that in site, then to build it and then to pull it down after you've had a long, or probably building, partying, and.

And then never wanting to do it ever again. Then three months later, they forget how bad it was and remember the good stuff and do it again. So yeah, theme camps are, that's the lifeblood of Blazing Swan, really.

Stevan: Mm. Theme camps and the art. Yeah.

Oly: Yeah. Absolutely.

Stevan: Well, I, I just wanna, I just wanna say a shout out to you too, uh, oly, uh, for contributing to, [02:10:00] you know, formation blazing Swan building the community, um, and also keeping, you know, uh, you, you, you're still, you're still part of it.

Yeah. You're still here.

Oly: Yep. I'm still stupidly doing crazy hours and event management and yeah. All volunteer having fun.

Stevan: Well, what's the, what's the main reason why, why you do it? I mean, uh,

Oly: it's about, to me it's for community and creating a space for people that'll enjoy and express themselves. And just going out and just having all the people together.

It's just a good time. It's a really good time. So just enabling people to be, be who they wanna be out in the space where they wanna have fun, creating art and camps and all sorts of stuff, and cars and whatever.

Stevan: Yeah. So, Blazing Swan is not a doof,

it's not a festival.

Oly: Uh, no. Depends on who goes. It depends on who goes really what they, what they attend it for.

It can be just a doof if you wanna make it a doof, but if you look deeper behind the scenes, it's a, it's a community. It's [02:11:00] people putting stuff on for make.

Or just chill out camps or whatever it is, or libraries like I'm sitting in, it's, yeah, it's all different. So it can be a doof, or it can be a very whole different experience. Indeed.

Stevan: Yeah. That's right. It's home.

Yeah.

Oly: Yeah. People live for it. Some, some of people just live to blaze, it's quite, quite an amazing thing.

Yeah.

Stevan: Yeah. Yeah. Cool. Thanks very much for, for having a chat. Appreciate

Oly: No worries, mate. So easy. Great to chat with you has been way too long.

Stevan: Yeah, it has. Yeah. So what I'm trying to do is just to start up, uh, just to chat to people having on record

Oly: Yep.

Stevan: And, and preserve it and, you know, to keep this culture or this, this community alive.

Oly: No, awesome. That sounds awesome.

Stevan: Yeah. So we just started.

Oly: Yep.

Stevan: And, uh, we're gonna move around, talk to Japan Burn and Dragon [02:12:00] Burn burning seed. We'll take, we'll take this to Burning seed and talk to some of the, the people working in the Sausage factory. Yeah. Um, we'll have a chat with them and, uh, yeah, it's, it's, it's more about, I guess the collective part of it's the learning, the sharing, networking.

Oly: Absolutely. Yeah. And just, yeah. Helping each other get better and create a wider community.

Stevan: Yeah. And this is the format I, uh, I like anyway. Yeah. So, yeah. But the long form format, I think, um,

yeah, it's, yeah.

Oly: Gets you engaged.

Stevan: That's right. Yeah.

Oly: Too Easy mate

Stevan: thanks to my earlier guest Erin and William and Oly, and also the library for letting us use this space. See you in the next episode with JJ and Wesley. Keep listening. If you want. Hear the outtakes for Nina and Will. Show

Nina: two. Suck my dick.

Stevan: Yeah, I'm back, [02:13:00]

Nina: Steven. We're recording in three, two. Suck My penis.

Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah.

Will: Which I think means,

Stevan: was that a sound check?

Nina: Yes. Yes. That was a sound check.

Will: Checking that Nina's accessories aren't coming through too much.

Nina: Did you get the vape smell there?

Will: We haven't invented the, the Smell edition.

Nina: Mm-hmm.

Stevan: Internet is pretty shit

Nina: Namlay You're meant to start now. Start the podcast, correct. Namlay. Start the podcast. Steven. Is he gone?

Stevan: Can you hear me? Yes. Hello.

Will: We can hear you.

Nina: We can hear you start the podcast.

Will: Can you hear Nina? And can you hear me?

Nina: Is it this? Maybe I can hear me though.

Stevan: Can I call you? Hold on.

Nina: Okay. Can you not? Can you hear us?[02:14:00]

Of course. The problems at his end are.

I gave you the sticker. This is not your fucking problem. Do you wanna just run it without him? I'm gonna have to go in like,

Stevan: yes. Alright, got you.

Nina: Can you hear us though?

Stevan: Hello? Can, are we lagging?

Nina: Can you hear us? Can you hear me? Can you hear me?

Stevan: Is is the internet on? Oh, the internet on?

Nina: How would you be talking to us if the internet, if

Double Shot: the internet wasn't fucking on, won't be able to hear you. You coming on signal? For fucks sake.

Stevan: It's pretty bad. Bad connection.

Nina: We're in a fucking paddock. Of course. It's a bad fucking connection.

Oh, also, also, it's not us, it's you. [02:15:00]

Stevan: Yeah, I think it's me.

Nina: Okay, so we're actually recording. So do you wanna start the podcast?

Stevan: Okay, so go let's mm-hmm.

Yes. Tell us, tell us. You set up, is it actually working? Have you guys recorded some?

Nina: Oh my god. Will you shoot me?

Stevan: Oh, the audio. Hold on.

Nina: We're recording. We're.

Okay. Okay, cool.

Stevan: Yes.

Nina: Cool. So go start the podcast.

Stevan: Hello.

And the blaze community. So who do we have with us today? There's, there's a panel of people and as well as some audience. [02:16:00] Audience.

Nina: That's right, Stevan. Uh, so today we have me, I'm Honey Badger and I'm here representing the cat, hers.

Stevan: Who do we have?

Nina: Swan and we also have on the couch with us Will.

Will: Yep, that's me.

That's me.

Nina: And Will, who are you?

Will: Well, I'm Will,

Nina: will you are

Will: I run, uh, the internet outta theme camp. I'm most well known for having a mom

Nina: and, and Will's mom is in the audience here. She may be on the podcast later. Hi Erin.

Will: She's, she's the, the runner of the camp and a Kulin local, um,

Nina: 'cause Kulin is where Blazing Swan is held.

Will: It's, so we pull that back out as much as possible because as soon as you say, yeah, no, no, no, I was, I was actually born here.

You instantly gain a lot of rap.

Nina: So many friends,

Will: you get a lot of hugs really quickly.

Nina: So Will, what does your camp do?

Will: Uh, we just play loud music. [02:17:00]

Nina: No, come on. That's true. But like

Will: we play the loud music that, uh, no one else,

Nina: but some of your blurbs and your like music events are really hilariously named.

Will: That's true. We do try to, you try to theme it up quite a lot because otherwise

Nina: what's the control?

Dance control.

Will: Yeah. Control alt dance. Um, what, what do we have?

Nina: I don't fucking remember.

Will: Megabyte mixed down. DB mix 2.3. Like

Nina: they're like, they're like, in my head you're like the 90, late nineties nerds who grew up on the internet. Yeah. And then discovered friends.

Will: Well they that's exactly what it's, yeah.

Nina: Sick.

We also have Will's wife here, so he, he made a friend.

Will: She's, she's here.

Nina: She's laughing at us laughing.

Yeah. And I don't know what I do. I I first started the camp shit. Gift at

Will: Did you start? Shit. Gift, but

Nina: fuck Yeah, I started shit gift.

So I'm the cause of shit gift. It's a shit camp. We ran it for like $300 and it was shit and so much fun.

We [02:18:00] did coon and Goon at noon bitches and then it kind of devolved into like goon showers, which are actually happening down the hill right now.

Will: Yeah, I can see that.

Nina: Um, we're like the, the bogan trash of the paddock, but I, I rage quit that 'cause. I didn't wanna have to kill my friends.

Will: I love, uh, I love walking past and you just see like,

Nina: fuckery,

Will: two people sitting in a gazebo looking grumpy with a bathtub out the front.

Nina: Oh. So they've put the leftover ice in the bathtub today. They're doing ice baths. And ice shots.

Will: Ice shots.

Nina: So if you, well 'cause the booze goes in the ice and then if you put yourself in the ice, that's the ice bath. And then if you do that, you get an nice shot.

Will: There you go.

Nina: People actually quite like it.

Yeah. We try to do it on like the Monday when some people are leaving.

Will: Yeah.

Nina: And we try to ask, are you driving? You get cordial. Are you not driving? You get vodka? Yeah, it's good.

Will: Yeah. Camp shit gift is one of my favorite camp. Yes.

Nina: Have you ever made to a spew? Drew at you?

Will: Spew drew at you? I think you'd like it actually, no, I haven't.

I haven't. It's so much fun. I did wanna come this year because [02:19:00] it was described as um, uh, for people that, uh, like books but don't wanna read. Well if you like being read at you like

Nina: so many, many moons ago, drew Barrymore wrote an autobiography, I assume with a ghostwriter and it's called Little Girl Lost the Autobiography of a Young Drew Barrymore.

And I shit you not, this thing's going for like a hundred dollars on uh, like eight books or whatever because like there are no more copies. So one year, many moons ago, we have a shit gift tub at shit gift. So you can like leave a gift, take a gift, no Moop. It all has to be shit. So somebody put this book in there and we were all, I don't know, fucked, hung over.

And so we started reading it. It's amazing. That woman, she's had a life. It's been difficult. We're lucky she's still here. She was like jacking her mom's credit card at 12 years old and like flying to LA with a friend to do blow with like movie stars.

Will: I mean, who wasn't

Nina: anyone else? She'd been to rehab by the time she was 11.

Like Drew's had a rough one. It's amazing. She's [02:20:00] where she's today. Really? Yeah. Um, so every day at a time we read like a random selection of five pages of her autobiography. They've been doing it for like five years. They haven't finished the book.

Will: I mean, it sounds like there's a lot to get through.

Nina: It is. There's so, so many activities like Yeah. So much life lived.

Will: Yeah. I I love the the raw simplicity of shit gift.

Nina: Yeah.

Will: We, we bring exactly what we need. And

Nina: I love when people come to the tub and try to take a gift and they're like, this is broken. And I'm like, can you, like, it's in the name shit gift. We did have to draw the line one year though.

Will: Yeah.

Nina: We were gonna put in, we were gonna poke holes in a condom with a needle and put it in the tub.

Will: That is a bit far.

Nina: It's an unwanted pregnancy is a shitty, shitty gift.

Will: That's a very bad gift.

Nina: And then we were like, is that also like legally liable? Oh, we can't do that. That's true. So that was the line

Will: as soon as the law came in, ethically you didn't really mind.

Nina: I actually, that actually traumatized me. [02:21:00] Do you want hear about the incident? The. Have idea or like, I don't have a penis, so it doesn't traumatize me as much as penis owners, but I assume you do have a penis. So like, do you wanna not hear this?

Will: Alright, let's, I mean, let's go. This is not, this is not what I thought I was signing up for.

When I, when I,

Nina: well, I, to be clear, podcast listeners, we were given no prompts and the podcast host is awol. So this is now the Nina and Will show, um, which means that, tell me if I'm talking too much. So it was many years ago. It was like 2019 I think. And like the event had ended and we just got, it was really hot.

So like we packed down for a couple hours and then communally without speaking we're all just like, fuck it. And like, boarded up the door and huddled in the murky 'cause we were just fucking hot and started like consuming everything we had left. Let's say, um, blah, blah, shit happened, blah, blah. My friend is naked 'cause it was hot, and who cares?

And then like, we're standing [02:22:00] outside the table and he's got a hammer in his hand. No one knows why. And he's flopped his dick up on the table and he's just like, tapping it, just tapping with a fucking hammer. And we finally figure out what he's doing and his boyfriend is like, whoa, I like that. Don't hurt it.

And the rest of us are like, we like you. We don't wanna, whoa, whoa. And he's just like completely glazed over just like you.

Will: When you have a penis, you do just sort of do stuff with it. I gotta say,

Nina: that's the impression I get.

Will: I gotta say and like, I dunno.

Nina: So do you do that stuff with a hammer?

Will: Sometimes? You see a hammer and you go, I wonder

Nina: you married this, don't you? Look at me, you birthed this father's, will we, we all blame your father will.

So, so we're like, and he's like, he looks down and like catches what he's doing and is like, oh, and puts the hammer down. And we're like, okay. This kid had been like hanging out at [02:23:00] our camp, this like 22-year-old Swede, and he picks up the hammer and we're like, okay, whatever. And he's standing across the table.

He picks up the hammer, he rears back with his arm. He brings that hammer down so hard. We all screamed and fell on the floor about an inch away from my friend's dick.

Will: Oh my God.

Nina: And at that point we were like, tonight is finished. You're not hanging out with us anymore. There was, there was like silence.

Just we were, it was terrifying. And then we decided we needed to not be with each other and we needed to go make new normal friends and we all split.

Will: That's it. That does seem that's the, the exiting incident.

Nina: It was a, it was a thing. A thing that happened.

Will: There you go. That is, um, that is kind of just a blaze story.

Nina: Well, what's the blaziest thing that's ever happened at the internet?

Will: At the internet?

Nina: Gremlin invasion.

Will: Gremlin invasion.

Nina: Were they humans?

Will: So we, we ran our, our church night. Um,

Nina: oh, you mean like two days [02:24:00] ago?

Will: Last night. Last night. Okay. Last night, uh, we ran our church night Sunday, um, after the, the Church of Belligerence were sort of a infamous theme camp.

Nina: They were initiated because someone had had too much of the woo and the hippies.

Will: Yeah, exactly.

Nina: And someone pitched a fucking fit one night and just apparently went on a massive ass rant, like, you know, him and everybody there was like, oh my God, you're so belligerent. Like if you ran a church, if you were in a church, it would just be the church of belligerent, belligerent.

And he was like, yeah. And he made it.

Will: Yeah. So sort of an anti theme camp. They're against everything that you're for. Um, and so

Nina: if you try to get a drink, they won't serve you unless you scream

Fuck you at them.

Will: Yeah. And then you'll get like some lemonade and a cigarette butt. That's a true story.

Nina: Oh, I was like, that's not far off as church.

Will: Um, and so we run out night [02:25:00] where we're playing like heavy metal and intense dark music.

Nina: Dude, you had shock. They like shockingly good music last night. 'cause normally the church music is just fucking terrible.

Will: Pretty rough. So bad. But, um, so we're running our church night and um, we've. Official church member on the deck.

Um, which was fun, we thought. Yeah. You know, get them involved. Not, not just making fun of them or anything. It's wanna be friends here.

Nina: It's a love hate relationship.

Will: But of course we didn't really consider that, uh, they would get in there and be belligerent. And so,

Nina: sorry, sorry, sorry. How did that not occur to you?

Will: Very quickly. They started, um, ducking into the back. They started tipping our paintings around. That's amazing. Throwing our Paul flamingo up into the ceiling.

Nina: I've seen your mar I hope you put it up one year. Whatever they did probably helped.

Will: [02:26:00] Um, and we, we can't get them out here.

Nina: Oh, but no, you shouldn't touch the artwork. I just meant the marquee itself. It's this like massive white piece of shit they bought for a dollar.

Will: Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Sorry. Whoa. This is our brand new shiny marque.

Nina: Oh shit. You bought a new marquee.

Will: This is our brand new,

Nina: I take it all back. Nevermind. You're a real boy.

Will: We, yeah. Yeah. Mom's got the bad one.

Nina: You gave the shit one to your mom.

Will: Well, I mean, they were hers to start with.

Nina: Oh, I was gonna say bad son, but nevermind. You just like re return gifted.

Will: Yeah. Um, 'cause the, the first year, so mom's becoming every single year, every single blaze,

Nina: your stuff gets bigger and bigger.

Will: Even the weird one. Um,

the cOVID one.

Nina: Yeah.

Will: And which my, my wife went to instead of my birthday. So just a little fun fact.

Nina: Wow. And you married her. This is true fucking love with himself. She skips your birthday love.

Will: And so mom's been every single year. Um, and she [02:27:00] runs the Camp Tin Horse experience.

Nina: It's adorable.

Will: It's

Nina: because, so the road out to site from the town of Kulin is the Tin Horse Highway. Mm-hmm. And clearly you two would know more about this than me, but like, basically every farmer or house out there takes trash and turns it into a tin horse. So like oil drums, it's absolutely adorable. And my favorite is the used cop car.

Will: Yes.

Nina: 'cause it gets me every time, every time It's like a joke. Tin horse art sculpture. It's like we country art

Will: about, we thought about putting out a, a Facebook post saying, Hey guys, just, you know, let you know there's a, there's a cop on the, the punchers. It's so funny.

Nina: So Erin does crafting, so you can come and use like a tin of beans or whatever the chi is obviously cleaned.

Um, and you can craft your own little tin horse.

Will: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Nina: Do you still do the Tin Horse races? Wow.

Will: Yeah, that was fun. We've, we've got the tin horses that you can take for walks. We didn't do any races this year. They do disappear. They do, yeah. But they usually come back, um, most of the [02:28:00] time. Um, but yeah, I talking

Nina: about, so yeah, your mom does that.

Will: So, so she runs the camp, and so we've got these two big white Marques, um, and we had this big sound system and we thought, Hey, what if we play music out at Swan? What if we just did that? And so,

Nina: but you live in Perth now?

Will: We do. So we live in Perth.

Nina: So you guys have to like come back here to

Will: Yeah, so we, so we lu all of our stuff down, um, and we said for the first year we'll just be the same camp.

Nina: Mm.

Will: We'll just have the two Marques. And at night we're sound Oh yeah. Remember. And during the day and the day, we're craft, we're craft. And so we're down in the sound alley and it's. The least prepared we've ever been for a week of pure torture of sleeping in the sound alley.

Nina: You slept there?

Will: We did. We did sleep there.

I mean, you're at least young, didn't do a lot of sleep. I never slept down there, so I think, I think mom slept pretty well actually slept blaze.

Nina: For people who haven't been, the site planners done where there's [02:29:00] like, they try to zone it for sound. So there's sound Camp Alley where like the loud fuckers who, what the fuck were they playing till 6:00 AM last night?

I liked it. It was was good. It was abode and it was good. So they stay down there and most of them, this is how they survive. They don't actually camp there. They put their tents up here. Mm-hmm. So you must have not known that.

Will: Yeah, we didn't really think it through. Yeah. We thought we'll just, we'll all be together.

Yeah. And so we'll sleep there and then we'll wake up and we'll live there. And then we spend the whole day there for a week and we'll lose our mind. And then we play our own music even louder. And then you sleep to public transport playing hardcore trance at like 4:00 AM in the morning.

Nina: Have you been in symbiosis?

Will: We have. We have been in symbiosis.

Nina: I like this camp and I wish they play different music.

Will: We feel that all out. A lot of things. Yeah. Okay. That's why we started our own camp.

Nina: I'm not into the psy trance, but like the kids who run it are super cool and their camp set up super cool. And oh, here's a good one.

Did you go into 6 1 0 5? It's a new camp this year. Camp 6 1 0 5.

Will: We, [02:30:00] we did,

Nina: do you know what the name means?

Will: No,

Nina: it's the postcode for fucking Armadale.

Will: Ah. I thought it was somewhere. Armadale. Makes sense.

Nina: So for people who aren't from Perth, Armidale is a suburb of Perth that is

Will: sort of the armpit of Perth .

Nina: Yes. I was gonna say the the meth capital of Perth.

Will: That's Rockingham

Nina: true. Oh, I have friends in Armerdale. They come to me. I don't go down there. So apparently there's a camp of like Bogans from Armerdale, which I like respect. I'm gonna go in there after this actually.

Will: They're going,

Nina: I'm gonna meet them.

Oh, they're gone.

Will: They gone there outta here. Fuckers. Yeah. There's only two of them.

Nina: So they did that whole thing with two people?

Will: Yep. Yep. Oh, like crazy.

Nina: It was small, but not that small.

Will: No, it's like, it made us put us to shame because we're six people.

Nina: I didn't say that you said that,

Will: but we did. So same kind of vibe over there of just like a couple of people who just wanted to bring something.

Nina: No, that's super cool.

Oh, like they did. Well, I would've said it was more than two people.

Will: Yeah. Yeah.

Nina: Um, so I actually have to go run an [02:31:00] event in about 20 minutes.

Will: You're running the event?

Nina: Yeah. Would you like to hear about, do answer any questions? Would you like to hear about my, have you been to my event?

Will: It's the, well, you could you explain it to me?

Nina: So I run an event called Ask a drunk Scientist. Um, and yes, I, my friend Liz and I started it, but she's dumb and she moved back to Yankee land, so now it's mine. Um, and so we acquire a panel of scientists. I am on the panel because I'm an overeducated human. Um, and basically just anybody with a background in science or we have one mathematician because we love her.

Whatever. We love her. She's great. She's a nude vomiter,

Will: right? What about Paul?

Uh, he's just a, he's, he's also a mathematician.

Nina: I fucking know.

Will: He doesn't count at all.

Nina: And we also have Paul, we love him ish. I guess we, we have a Paul, but we've got like a botanist. We've got eologist this year. Um, we're pretty heavy on geos and microbiologists.

We've got a psych, a clinical psychologist. We have a vet. It's kinda all over the place. And then basically we just get shit-faced and the people ask us science, and [02:32:00] half the time we answer with like really proper answers. And it's really informative. And half the time we just scream science words at punters. I can't describe it.

Will: There was a lot of shitting on science.

Nina: One of our audience members has just arrived to this podcast and she's here because she literally attends this event every year. It's fabulous. But yeah, I have to go do that. Um, so the point was maybe we should wrap up my portion of the podcast with something. I don't know. What do you want One more topic. What do you wanna talk about?

Will: I, I sort of thought you were inviting me to freestyle rap for a second.

Nina: Okay, let's do that.

Will: Which I don't think I could do.

Nina: I've never done that. Let's see how that goes. I'm here at the place. I got flies up my nose, my thongs hurt. Uh,

Will: that's about how I expected it to go. Yeah,

Nina: my thongs hurt. The squishy in my toes, let's never do that again.

Will: It was your idea.

Nina: Hey, did you go to shock collor Jenga?

Will: Sh no, we didn't go to any of the shock color things,

Nina: so I tried to go to Shock collar karaoke, but they were being respectful because it was during Welcome to Country, so [02:33:00] they didn't wanna be too loud, so they turned it into shock color Jenga.

Mm-hmm. And it fucking blew my mind. Yeah, I got the shock button. Paul Castle. I've named names Paul, the mathematician, put the shock collar on. I signed a consent waiver, which I am absolutely sure was not like legal. And he gave me consent. And so they, it's big Jenga and they write numbers on each block, one to a hundred.

And the shock color goes from one to a hundred intensity. And so whichever block you're doing for the Jenga, that's what you get shocked. And you can only shock the person whilst they're actually touching the block.

Will: Whoa.

Nina: I know there's some grimacing from the audience. They're wrong. It was fucking awesome.

Will: We did really wanna do the shock color,

Nina: whatever. Burners in the Australasia region are listening to this, you need to import shock color jenga. Um, also, Paul, if you're out there, you are a fucking pussy. And I had such a good time. There was another person there, Sarah, from the church, and she, it was on 99 and she was like, Matt, whatever.

Paul's like, gimme, gimme, [02:34:00] gimme seven. And I hit the beeper and he is like, ah, no, he's just, he doesn't have high pain tolerance. Yeah, he is a pussy. All right. I think I've talked enough. Erin, would you like to come up here with your, your son?

Erin: Yeah.

Nina: Okay. We're gonna have a handover now and God knows where the podcast producer is, but thank you to our audio tech PY, who's a magician and very grumpy about it.

I'm trapped in cords.

Will: You, you.

That's, thanks

PY: Stevan. Are you fucking there?[02:35:00]

Will: Try

Erin: visionary

that's down

is a lot further than us. Sorry. Technical mic.

Will: I'm remembering why we stopped using these headphones.

Erin: Yeah, we had them on your holiday to New Zealand. And we had to try and find overhead ones. It was sort of when they were just coming out. Um, because yeah. And you guys [02:36:00] scratch.

It's got a, it's that feeling like when you put, um, down, just

down Uhhuh.

Will: Yep. We'll need to, um, to you mic a back a little. Oh.

Say something.

Are you with us? Wake up in

Erin: the room. Get your fuck outta bed.

Stevan: Hello? Can you hear me?

Will: Hello? We can hear you.

Stevan: We can, can you hear me? Yeah. You guys. Oh, cool. Yeah, I heard you guys earlier [02:37:00] on the messenger, but some feedback.

Erin: Sorry.

Yeah. Yeah. We weren't.

Stevan: Hello?

Yeah, the, the, the signals. Hello? The signal's not too, too great.

Erin: Can you hear us?

Stevan: Can you guys hear me? Or

Erin: we can hear you.

Stevan: I can hear you, but it's not too great. It's, it drops out now and then's. Alright.

Erin: We got,

Stevan: yeah, it just drops out now and then, so I can't really hear you.

Erin: Hello?

Stevan: I think the messenger was better, but you couldn't hear me, right?

Will: No, we, I don't think we anything.

Erin: No, they've just been adlibbing

Will: previous time, basically.

Stevan: That's pretty cool.

Will: Okay, we gonna get a messenger [02:38:00] now.