Episode 25: SBA & Pilot Burn (Leanna & TJ)

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[Will & Kate] (0:05 - 0:24)

Burners of New Zealand, Australia and Asia. Radically making magic on the paddock round the fire. B-O-N-Z-A-A-R!

 

Bonzaar Podcast!

 

[Leanna] (0:27 - 0:32)

Are you going to do like Wayne's World countdown?

 

[Stevan] (0:32 - 1:12)

5, 4, 3, 2, 1. Yeah, it's on. It's on right now.

 

Banzai, welcome to all. I'm Stevan Lay and this is the Burners of New Zealand, Australia, Asia regional podcast. In this episode, we continue our conversations with Sunburnt Arts to discuss Pilot Burn, Cosmic Canyon.

 

We will chat about Kapiti versus Matong, all the burning questions referring to our new home. Our definition of home and take a deeper look at Pilot Burn and beyond for SBA. So I'm happy to be joined again with Hotwire and this time, welcome back Leanna.

 

You were here last time Leanna, welcome back.

 

[Leanna] (1:12 - 1:13)

Thank you.

 

[Stevan] (1:13 - 1:14)

How's it going Hotwire?

 

[TJ] (1:15 - 1:18)

Pretty good. I don't see my little audio wave thingy moving here.

 

[Stevan] (1:18 - 1:19)

I can hear you though. No, you're good.

 

[Leanna] (1:19 - 1:23)

Maybe you need to bring your head into the camera, into the microphone.

 

[Stevan] (1:31 - 1:52)

Okay, let's get into a bit of the history of Sunburnt Arts. We formed on the 23rd of July, 2024 from Red Earth City Proprietary Limited into this iconic Sunburnt Arts name. Now, what I'm fascinated by is how did we come together to get this iconic name of Sunburnt Arts?

 

Leanna, what's the backstory?

 

[Leanna] (1:52 - 2:31)

Well, the backstory is during the restructure process, the group put out a poll, a naming poll to the wider community. And there were many, many, many, many submissions. And the winning submission was by Jodi York or Jodi Rivett, as we lovingly know her for Sunburnt Arts.

 

And I think we all know why it's called Sunburnt Arts. Yes. Australia.

 

Yes. From the poem, I Love a Sunburnt Country, which is a pretty iconic poem.

 

[Stevan] (2:32 - 2:41)

Yeah, it's an ode to Australia because she was homesick. She wrote it from the heart. How did she miss the landscape, the vast landscape?

 

[Leanna] (2:41 - 3:29)

She starts it talking about, you know, the kind of close kept gardens. You know, it sounds like English gardens. And, you know, if that's what you love, that's great.

 

But that's not for her. She loves a sunburnt country. And then she talks about Australia's landscape.

 

It's quite gorgeous. And when we were down at Capertee this past weekend doing the shipping container, Working Bee, you couldn't help but look at the sun reflecting off those rock cliffs, red, pink, orange. And actually think about that poem because it is a sunburnt country.

 

The grass, we're in a paddock. You know, there's yellow grain swept, you know, that's waving in the wind. It's just it was just incredible.

 

[Stevan] (3:30 - 3:42)

And let's get into how we formed the board. And one of the things I asked to everybody last time was why did you join volunteer for the board to lead this community?

 

[Leanna] (3:42 - 4:36)

I think for me it was to get closure. So I was part of the restructure thanks to Lisa Dyer Randall. She was living with me at the time and she was kind of the last one to retire from the restructure committee and kind of looked me in the eye and was like, you have to finish this.

 

And I did. And we need to put on an event. So I'm here to make sure that happens and to kind of cross the threshold into this new chapter of our evolution.

 

And I'm excited for it. I'm really, really excited for it. It's new beginnings.

 

This is a member owned organization. This is what we wanted. And it's come to fruition.

 

So I'm really excited to get our first event off the ground and get the band back together.

 

[Stevan] (4:37 - 4:49)

Yeah, you mentioned earlier doing the Working Bee on the weekend and how it felt like home to you. So the word home in the context of the Burner culture, what does that mean to you guys? Do you guys have a good definition?

 

[Leanna] (4:49 - 4:51)

I'm going to let TJ go first.

 

[TJ] (4:51 - 5:20)

Not really, I guess, because it's a shared house. It's like the exciting lounge room or a share house on a Friday Arvo and everyone's knocking off, gearing up.

 

But, yeah, I like the concept of home. Like it's a really wonderful thing to be told, welcome home, or like you made it. When I first got to Burning Man the first time and rocked up to the greeters, they stuck their head in my window and said, welcome home, you made it.

 

And I thought, I don't know this dude, but what? But it was a really lovely thing.

 

[Stevan] (5:20 - 5:25)

You made it, but where did you make it to? Where did you arrive? What is this place?

 

[Leanna] (5:25 - 5:47)

I think it relates to a sense of belonging, doesn't it? So home is a sense of belonging where you feel like you can relax and you can be yourself. You're comfortable.

 

This is your place. There's a sense of ownership and you belong there. It's safe.

 

[Stevan] (5:47 - 5:53)

Is it also a sense of familiarity? You know the place, you know the people.

 

[Leanna] (5:53 - 6:05)

It can be. You can feel like you're at home and still be in a new place. But because you're held by your community, for instance, you feel safe to explore.

 

 

 

[TJ] (6:05 - 6:07)

Yeah, communities is good word.

 

[Stevan] (6:07 - 6:11)

Okay, let's recap on our previous episode. We discussed about Burning Seed.

 

[TJ] (6:12 - 6:38)

Yeah, I feel terrible. We weren't able to talk about the site a great deal because we were still in the negotiating phase. Yeah, so we were all super hush-hush and guarded about that.

 

And maybe for everyone to explain and extrapolate on that. We hadn't quite locked everything in. So it would have been really bad for us to put out that energy and that excitement that we had without having those lowercase j's and t's dotted across.

 

But now, yeah, we're locked in and it's exciting.

 

[Stevan] (6:39 - 6:56)

Yeah, the elephant in the room last time was talking about the new site that you guys prospected for. And we couldn't really talk about the difference between Matong and Capertee. So this different site, Capertee, where is it?

 

And what's the landscape there like?

 

[Leanna] (6:56 - 8:03)

Well, we're in a canyon and it is apparently the widest canyon in the world. And the second largest canyon in the world, only to the Grand Canyon of Arizona, where I'm from. And it's stunning.

 

It's really, really stunning. It is filled with rare and abundant birds. Waking up there is quite incredible.

 

And I don't want to say noisy, but it's like the best noise ever because it's all these bird sounds you've never heard before. The rocks are red and ochre and so is the dirt. So it's hard.

 

We're on a farm. So the land itself is a private cattle farm. It's big and it goes deep into the canyon.

 

So there's cliffs on either side of us. Right up the guts. And yeah, it's pretty spectacular.

 

As an American, it kind of reminds me of Sedona.

 

[TJ] (8:04 - 8:05)

Yes, it does.

 

[Stevan] (8:05 - 8:10)

And how far away inland are we talking about? We're heading towards the west of Sydney.

 

[Leanna] (8:10 - 8:17)

We are west of Sydney. So if you're driving through Lithgow, it's about, I'd say about an hour away. It's about...

 

[Stevan] (8:18 - 8:20)

It's a spectacular drive, right?

 

[Leanna] (8:20 - 8:23)

It is a stunning drive.

 

[Stevan] (8:24 - 8:28)

You've actually got to go through the Blue Mountains, Katoomba, get all the fresh air.

 

[Leanna] (8:28 - 9:14)

Get all the fresh air. And you hit all these really cool spaces in the meantime. So there's like Bilpin Springs.

 

God, and like Bilpin Springs would be pretty amazing for like a decompression. What else did I see? Zigzag Railway.

 

There's all these really cute places that you could stop. Jenolan Caves is also on the way there. And then if you're coming from the other way, like north where I am, if you want to go that way, you're going to drive through Ryleston.

 

And if you go Ryleston way, you could also do a little side trip on your way back home to Mudgee, which is also pretty incredible. So there's so much gorgeous to see either way.

 

[TJ] (9:15 - 9:16)

Steeped in rich history.

 

 

 

[Leanna] (9:16 - 9:17)

100%.

 

[TJ] (9:17 - 9:21)

Yeah, I'm looking forward to going to Ryleston. There's a golf course there I'm going to have a little crack at.

 

 

 

[Leanna] (9:21 - 9:28)

Oh, that town. It's like the buildings there are hundreds of years old. Very, very cool.

 

Pubs are great. People are great.

 

[TJ] (9:28 - 9:31)

Yeah.

 

I can't wait to sample the ales there.

 

[Leanna] (9:31 - 9:32)

I've sampled quite a few.

 

[TJ] (9:33 - 9:56)

Nice.

 

Yeah, it's an amazing place. And as you said, driving through, I'm coming from Sydney, so I'm going to come from the south. So, yeah, I'll come up the Princess Highway and then sneak left before Sydney, so before Penrith and that, and then sneak up that way.

 

Go through Katoomba. And then, yeah, I think the Mount Victoria Pass or the Victoria something Pass is closed. It's going to be a bit of a detour through the bush there.

 

 

 

[Leanna] (9:57 - 9:58)

It's not bad though.

 

[TJ] (9:58 - 10:16)

Yeah, exactly. But you go up through those hills, the mountains and shit, and then it flattens out, and then you've got one more little bushy section from, I think it's Cape of Heels, Glen Alice, and then onto the flat in the canyon, and it becomes like sprawling farmland.

 

Super pretty.

 

[Leanna] (10:17 - 10:17)

Yeah.

 

[TJ] (10:17 - 10:28)

And the canyon's quite wide, and then as you get deeper and deeper, it even sort of hugs you a little bit closer, and then you're just like completely surrounded, and it's absolutely horrifying.

 

Can't wait to see the sunrise there.

 

[Leanna] (10:29 - 10:30)

It's so good.

 

[Stevan] (10:31 - 10:39)

You mentioned that it's noisy out there, but it's noisy by nature, right? It's all the wildlife, the bird life.

 

[Leanna] (10:39 - 10:41)

It's noisy by nature. It's all birds.

 

[TJ] (10:41 - 10:43)

It's noisy by nature.

 

Who's going with OPP?

 

[Stevan] (10:43 - 10:45)

Yeah. You know me.

 

[Leanna] (10:49 - 10:55)

It is. And bird sounds you don't normally hear in the city, so it's quite spectacular.

 

[Stevan] (10:55 - 11:00)

But they are loud, right? It's the cockatoos, the magpies. There's more birds out there, though.

 

[Leanna] (11:01 - 11:13)

There's so many of them. It's a cacophony of sound, but the kind of cacophony that you'd like to wake up to. You know, it's not honking horns or, you know, the garbage truck outside your window.

 

It's nature.

 

[Stevan] (11:13 - 11:17)

So we talk about this app that you guys just released, Spotter app.

 

[Leanna] (11:18 - 11:18)

Yes.

 

[Stevan] (11:18 - 11:24)

We spot – is it animal life and then also plant life as well?

 

Yeah?

 

[Leanna] (11:24 - 11:24)

Correct.

 

[Stevan] (11:24 - 11:27)

There's such a rich variety of fauna and flora there.

 

[Leanna] (11:27 - 11:36)

Well, it's to, like, keep you active on the way there. So our hope is that people are going to be carpooling. I mean, the price of petrol and diesel right now is very high.

 

[Stevan] (11:36 - 11:37)

It's still shit.

 

[Leanna] (11:38 - 12:07)

It's quite high. And so our hope is, you know, to encourage ride shares. And we're going to start putting comms out to that point with possible solutions in the next few days.

 

But Spotter is something that, you know, everyone can play. If you're bringing kids, play Spotter. If you've got, you know, extra adults in the car, play Spotter.

 

It's a conversation starter, and it's fun, and it helps pass the time.

 

[Stevan] (12:07 - 12:09)

Yeah. It's something different to I Spy with my little eye.

 

[Leanna] (12:09 - 12:10)

Goddamn.

 

[Stevan] (12:10 - 12:11)

Are we there yet? Are we there yet?

 

[Leanna] (12:12 - 12:12)

I got to be.

 

[Stevan] (12:13 - 12:22)

Okay. What else can we talk about with Capatee? So last time we couldn't mention much, but now we can – Well, now we can say a couple things.

 

[Leanna] (12:22 - 13:15)

So there is an amazing cafe that I went to, and this woman, Carrie – So the cafe is called From the Paddock, and everything is made there. And this family that owns it, Carrie, she's the, you know, proprietor, salt of the earth, freaking amazing woman. Hold on just a second.

 

I'm going to just mute myself. We had an intruder. I highly recommend going there either before you rock up or as you leave site, because the cafe is amazing.

 

It's big. It's outdoor. It's spacious.

 

And she's just the most welcoming woman ever. And this is a little tidbit I learned on my last trip there, is that the Glen Alice Campground has free hot showers.

 

[Stevan] (13:15 - 13:18)

They have amazing campgrounds out that way.

 

[Leanna] (13:18 - 13:19)

They do.

 

[Stevan] (13:19 - 13:22)

Small little retreats, campgrounds, family, you know.

 

[Leanna] (13:22 - 13:24)

I know. Amazing everything.

 

[Stevan] (13:24 - 13:26)

B&Bs. Yeah.

 

[TJ] (13:26 - 13:28)

So everybody patronize these places.

 

[Leanna] (13:28 - 13:46)

Absolutely. And as we find out more amazing places, because there's a lot of amazing places, I'll be letting you know.

 

From the Paddock, though, Carrie, tell her that we sent you. Fuck, she's amazing. Excellent sausage rolls.

 

Coffees.

 

[Stevan] (13:47 - 13:50)

And what else or why else are we so excited about Capertee?

 

[Leanna] (13:50 - 13:55)

I mean, where does the list start?

 

[Stevan] (13:55 - 14:02)

Travel distance? Let's talk about travel distance. So we just talked about petrol prices, but we're also limiting carbon.

 

[Leanna] (14:02 - 14:06)

Correct. We are. I mean, at least for New South Wales folk.

 

[Stevan] (14:07 - 14:09)

Compared to Matong we're talking about.

 

[Leanna] (14:09 - 14:10)

100%.

 

[Stevan] (14:10 - 14:13)

Six hours to four hours or three hours.

 

[Leanna] (14:13 - 14:42)

Well, that's from Sydney. But from Newy, it was like, you know, eight plus plus hours. So for me, Newy.

 

Yes. The site is more welcoming. It's huge.

 

It's more welcoming. There is grassy there, but none of the what do you call in Australia goat heads? They're called something else.

 

Like these guys that like stick in your feet.

 

[TJ] (14:43 - 14:45)

Oh, yeah. Those little thorny things.

 

Yeah.

 

[Leanna] (14:45 - 14:46)

Yeah. What are those called?

 

 

 

[Stevan] (14:47 - 14:48)

Double Gs.

 

[Leanna] (14:48 - 14:51)

Yeah. Double Gs.

 

So there's none of those there.

 

[TJ] (14:51 - 14:53)

Those people go through your bike tube.

 

[Leanna] (14:53 - 14:55)

Exactly. Yeah.

 

[Stevan] (14:55 - 14:58)

They'll go through your thong, your flip flops. You'll just pierce through those.

 

[Leanna] (14:58 - 15:09)

Exactly right. Exactly right. They're terrible.

 

So there were, I mean, I could walk around a little bit barefoot, but I'm a city slicker. So it didn't, you know, go too far barefoot.

 

[TJ] (15:09 - 15:10)

I'm not encouraging people to do that.

 

 

 

[Leanna] (15:11 - 15:12)

But my children did.

 

[Stevan] (15:13 - 15:17)

Yeah. They're not bindis. They're fucking punch holes.

 

They'll punch your thong. Caltrops they are.

 

[Leanna] (15:18 - 15:32)

Those are in Matong. Here at site, there are thistles that won't be there when we get there. But none of those big bindi type gotchas.

 

 

 

[TJ] (15:32 - 15:33)

They will be funnel webs.

 

[Leanna] (15:35 - 15:37)

Oh, look, there are snakes.

 

[TJ] (15:37 - 15:38)

Yeah.

 

Snakes.

 

[Leanna] (15:40 - 15:48)

There's snakes. We saw some snakes.

 

By the time we get there, it might be a little bit too cold for snakes at night.

 

[Stevan] (15:49 - 15:51)

Are there bisons out that way?

 

[TJ] (15:51 - 15:52)

No, there's moo cows.

 

[Leanna] (15:53 - 16:06)

Not on this farm. There might be drop bears though.

 

There are some trees that we're going to recommend that people stay away from because of the drop bears. So you're going to need to pay attention to the map.

 

[TJ] (16:07 - 16:11)

Yeah.

 

Don't camp or have picnics under the branches of trees.

 

[Leanna] (16:11 - 16:13)

No, drop bears can shadow.

 

[Stevan] (16:13 - 16:18)

Yeah, we're not going that far west. So there's no bisons or camels or any kind of western.

 

[Leanna] (16:18 - 16:18)

Moose.

 

[Stevan] (16:18 - 16:19)

Moose.

 

[Leanna] (16:20 - 16:21)

No, there's no moose there.

 

[TJ] (16:21 - 16:22)

We never know.

 

[Stevan] (16:22 - 16:54)

Yeah, you got to play the spotto game. Now, do you remember the survey, the eye bag survey that was completed? Now, they surveyed people's, I think Peter surveyed people's postal numbers.

 

And I think the radius was somewhere, just where the Blue Mountains was. So you guys are quite kind of hitting the mark there with Kapiti. So that's good.

 

What about like the terrain? Is it hilly, flat? Flat.

 

[Leanna] (16:55 - 16:59)

Flat with an incline. Flat with an incline. There's some rocks.

 

 

 

[TJ] (16:59 - 17:27)

The part that we're going to use is mostly flat. Plenty of rocks around. It's quite wide open.

 

It's a grazing paddock mostly here. The site does back up to the hill, but we do have the whole site for use. But as we've sort of been planning and strategizing and spitballing, we've just sort of reduced the size of the actual events so that we sort of keep each other, keep ourselves central and stay away from those sort of gnarly areas for the first time.

 

 

 

[Leanna] (17:29 - 17:34)

Yeah. Keep it intimate. The really cool part about the site is that we have the ability to scale.

 

[Stevan] (17:34 - 17:36)

Yeah. That's important.

 

[Leanna] (17:36 - 17:45)

Our future includes art cars. This event needs art bikes. It's that big.

 

 

 

[TJ] (17:46 - 17:47)

You don't want to walk the whole time.

 

[Leanna] (17:47 - 17:49)

You want to have an art bike.

 

[TJ] (17:50 - 17:59)

Yeah.

 

You want to have a push bike for sure. No, we're not allowed to have petrol powered bikes. So e-bikes are okay and push bikes.

 

 

 

[Leanna] (18:00 - 18:03)

But no motorcycles. Yeah, no motorbikes.

 

[Stevan] (18:05 - 18:13)

And with Matong, all the benefits that we had with Matong, with the forest, with the red earth of Matong.

 

[Leanna] (18:14 - 18:23)

We had familiarity, right? Like we had familiarity, we had history, and we had a story. And now we have the capacity to build a new story.

 

[Stevan] (18:23 - 18:33)

And the road quality was what I was trying to say, is the access accessibility. Not as kind of a, this is better roads than heading towards Matong.

 

[TJ] (18:33 - 18:34)

Same, same.

 

[Leanna] (18:34 - 18:43)

Yeah, I think same, same. You're going to be on dirt roads, but only the last bit.

 

You're only going to be on a dirt road for the last probably five and a half kilometers.

 

[Stevan] (18:44 - 18:48)

And it's more cost effective, this site, than going to a state forest.

 

[Leanna] (18:48 - 18:49)

I mean.

 

[TJ] (18:49 - 18:51)

Certainly seems that way these days. Yeah.

 

[Stevan] (18:52 - 18:57)

Yeah, so it's cheaper for us in the long run. You can use the funds for other things.

 

[Leanna] (18:57 - 19:15)

Well, and I think that because it's a private farm, we're able to build a relationship. And when you're going with a state forest, it's hard to build a relationship with a government body. But here, we're able to build and foster a relationship with the owners of the land, which is really special.

 

[Stevan] (19:15 - 19:25)

Yeah, there's a lot of work behind the scenes regarding keeping that rapport, that relationship, as well as the local area. What's the nearest town? You're saying this is Glen Davis?

 

[Leanna] (19:26 - 20:11)

So there's Glen Alice and Glen Davis, which kind of reside within the Capertese sort of umbrella. I'm sure there's probably even some other smaller towns. Like there's Bogee.

 

We visited Bogee while we were out there. Kandos is really close as well. So there's a lot of small towns that are amazing.

 

Super, super pretty and full of freaking creatives. So full of people who are ecology-minded, really excited about the land, land regeneration, ecology, horticulture. Yeah, it was pretty special to visit.

 

[Stevan] (20:11 - 20:18)

One of the community questions that I see is the infrastructure. What infrastructure already exists at Capertese?

 

[Leanna] (20:19 - 20:24)

I mean, nothing really. I mean, the infrastructure that we have is our shipping containers now.

 

[TJ] (20:24 - 20:35)

Yeah, I think there's a couple of tracks where the farmers farm.

 

Maybe a campfire, rock campfire. So there's a campground.

 

[Stevan] (20:39 - 20:41)

Oh, so it's like a blank canvas.

 

[Leanna] (20:42 - 20:46)

It is a complete blank canvas, which is pretty exciting.

 

[Stevan] (20:47 - 20:58)

And how did the working bee go on the weekend? It had a good look at the site. You got the order shipping containers.

 

So you're kind of sort of like imagining a lot of things now, looking forward to things.

 

[Leanna] (20:59 - 21:43)

Yeah. We were there for a few days. Murphy's Law, of course, said that there would be 40 mils of rain in Matong the day before we moved our shipping containers when they hadn't had rain for an entire year.

 

So because of the rain, we had to delay the pickup of the shipping containers, which put things a little bit behind schedule. But it allowed us to walk site quite a bit and situate the shipping containers to a good, well-thought-out resting place for the next few years, dig that all out and get them ready. So it was a really fruitful couple of days.

 

[Stevan] (21:43 - 21:49)

So those shipping containers is the foundation of how we're going to build this home.

 

[Leanna] (21:50 - 21:52)

Absolutely. And they're all there.

 

[Stevan] (21:52 - 21:54)

How was the sorting out part of it?

 

[Leanna] (21:55 - 22:53)

You know, not so bad. So we had had our first shipping container working bee back in August last year, where we went to Matong and kind of dug through the shipping containers, threw away a lot of the broken, moldy, gross stuff that had been sitting there for years. And what was left was, you know, the stuff that we're going to work with.

 

So, you know, actual useful shit. And when they arrived on site, so we were pretty particular about what came first. You know, the tools, the build containers, and we went through those as meticulous as we possibly could with the amount of people that we had there.

 

And yeah, took photos and we're rebuilding that sort of asset register right now, so that our teams know what they're working with before they get there, when they get there in a month and a half.

 

[Stevan] (22:53 - 23:02)

One of the other questions from the community was the emergency services and safety, the difference between Matong and Capertee.

 

[Leanna] (23:03 - 23:18)

As far as like the distance to a rural hospital or a tertiary hospital, you know, helipad, landing, etc. Well, let's look at the website because I don't have all that memorized.

 

[Stevan] (23:19 - 23:30)

For Matong, the closest was Wagga Wagga, and then the biggest would be, you'd have to go towards Canberra. Whereas Capertee would be, I think it's Rylstone or Bathurst.

 

[Leanna] (23:31 - 23:32)

Well, Rylstone has...

 

[Stevan] (23:33 - 23:34)

Nepean hospital.

 

[Leanna] (23:35 - 23:58)

Yeah, well, Rylstone has a hospital that has 24-7 ED, of course. But the closest tertiary hospital would be Nepean, which is, you know, I think three and a half hours away if you were going by Ambo. But if you needed retrieval, it'd be pretty fucking quick.

 

[Stevan] (23:58 - 24:24)

I love how you guys did a really comprehensive situational analysis and looked at all different angles and looking at the distance, the safety, the terrain, the cost, everything. And it's all on the website so people can follow it. But yeah, so we're talking about the difference between Matong and Capertee.

 

And we've got a rich history of Matong. We've been there over 10 years, you know.

 

[Leanna] (24:24 - 24:36)

And then 10 plus years since we moved from Bellergen. All right. Yeah, here we go.

 

Capertee's emergency access. Rylstone Medical Center, 38 minutes. Nepean, three hours.

 

 

 

[TJ] (24:37 - 24:42)

Rylstone, that's cool, 38 minutes. That means it's 38 minutes to the local golf course. Yeah.

 

[Stevan] (24:44 - 24:51)

That's where it's at. Yeah, and you guys also talked about the risk between state and private mitigation, the planning.

 

[Leanna] (24:52 - 24:59)

Insofar as like paperwork and DAs and stuff? Or what do you mean?

 

[Stevan] (25:00 - 25:00)

Yeah.

 

 

 

[TJ] (25:00 - 25:23)

Yeah, I think using state forest and that kind of stuff in any government agencies, sometimes it's difficult because a lot of people come and go. I guess we were lucky at Matong there for a long time. We had the same people a lot.

 

But, you know, the fees go up. Legislation changes. A lot of the time you don't speak to the same person in the office when they've got to get up to speed and the scheduling and stuff like that.

 

 

 

[Leanna] (25:23 - 25:46)

And there's also a lot more red tape with these government agencies. You know, like, oh, no, we're not doing that this year, blah, blah, blah. But when you have a private owner, especially one who's had large events before, like our owner has, the red tape isn't there.

 

And we're going by the book with all the crossing of T's and dotting of I's.

 

[Stevan] (25:46 - 25:56)

Yeah, that's one of the strengths of holding it at Capertee is that the property owner has a lot of experience of festival culture.

 

[Leanna] (25:56 - 25:58)

They do. They do.

 

[TJ] (25:59 - 26:03)

Not burn culture, though.

 

They're about to get they're about to find out.

 

[Leanna] (26:03 - 26:04)

They're about to get inducted.

 

[TJ] (26:06 - 26:06)

We're better.

 

 

 

[Leanna] (26:08 - 26:09)

A hundred percent.

 

[Stevan] (26:12 - 26:14)

Yeah, it'll be interesting to get their perspective as well.

 

[Leanna] (26:14 - 26:21)

Well, yeah, they're going to have a perspective, but I feel like they're about to fall in love. So we're just going to need to, like, hold them gently.

 

[TJ] (26:22 - 26:33)

Yeah.

 

And honestly, like, I think this is my personal opinion only, but pounding Psytrance for three or four days straight compared to a burn. I don't know which one I'm choosing.

 

[Leanna] (26:35 - 26:40)

I don't know that I've ever been subjected to three days of Psytrance.

 

 

 

[TJ] (26:40 - 26:42)

Oh, it's horrible. It's all right when you're 20.

 

[Leanna] (26:42 - 26:44)

Why did you pay for that?

 

 

 

[TJ] (26:45 - 26:46)

It was all we had back then. It was.

 

[Leanna] (26:50 - 26:54)

No judgment.

 

No judgment. Lots of judgment.

 

[TJ] (26:56 - 27:43)

Yeah.

 

Burning's awesome. And it's been interesting to the communication with the landowners because maybe because their sounding tape and their sounding board is just, you know, those big Psytrance events, you know, from, I guess, the alternative space. And while pretty much everyone's aware of Burning Man because of the internet and whatnot and the massive impact it has had on culture worldwide.

 

So they're quite excited about it. Maybe a little bit sort of trepidatious because of the scale. When you look at things that are online about Burning Man, you just go, holy moly.

 

And you don't see a lot of boobs and butts flying around and oligarchs and whatnot.

 

[Stevan] (27:43 - 27:54)

But there's a lot of things to keep them fascinated by. You know, the art, the creativity, the shenanigans, if they're keen to get involved in some of those shenanigans.

 

[Leanna] (27:55 - 28:23)

They're keen to get involved in the shenanigans. They're gagging for more social opportunities, living where they live. So I think it's I think it's great for both of us.

 

You know, they're going to love what we bring to the table and they're lovely humans.

 

[Stevan] (28:23 - 28:27)

So just looking at the other questions there were.

 

[Leanna] (28:27 - 28:28)

I'm glad you have questions.

 

 

 

[TJ] (28:30 - 28:31)

Great questions, by the way, really good stuff.

 

[Stevan] (28:32 - 29:07)

Well, this is all the analysis that you guys did. So kudos to you for actually trying to figure out, you know, the balance because Matong is still in our hearts, right? And it's still in our minds.

 

But looking at this site, so many potential, so many possibilities. And yeah, this is probably one of the up-and-coming burns. Let's talk about Pilot Burn.

 

I think this is where the elephant in the room was also last time was Pilot Burn. We couldn't mention that. But now we can.

 

What are the dates for Pilot Burn?

 

[Leanna] (29:11 - 29:13)

15th to the 18th of May.

 

[Stevan] (29:14 - 29:17)

So it's a nice and short weekend of camp out kind of deal.

 

[TJ] (29:17 - 29:51)

Yeah, and we had to do that because when we stood up the new board, we were faced with, as we talked about last time, finding a date at work because now the burner sphere is so full and the calendar is absolutely chock-a-block. Plus, you know, all the other festivals that shall remain nameless. And then, but also this groundswell of enthusiasm.

 

We are responsible, putting the responsible fiscal hat on is we had to like rebuild this org. So we needed time.

 

[Leanna] (29:51 - 29:52)

Rebuild capacity.

 

 

 

[TJ] (29:52 - 30:17)

Yep. Yeah. And get our crew back together.

 

And so, plus wanting to do something as quick as possible. So we had, that's why we sort of came up with the idea of the camp out. Because obviously, you know, it's quite small and allows us the chance to rebuild our systems and bring the community back together and because people were hesitant and wary, of course.

 

So getting that.

 

[Leanna] (30:17 - 31:12)

Well, they haven't. I mean, so many people in our community haven't had, like TJ and I haven't been to a burning seed since 2019.

 

Right. And there is a whole bunch of people who have gone to burning seed in 2023. But a lot of us didn't.

 

I was overseas at the time. And people are just like, you know, I'm going to wait until the restructure happens. Then I'm going to go back and do the thing when the thing is completed.

 

Which is completely fair enough. I was also in that same boat. And now the thing is completed.

 

It's owned by us. And it's directed by people who the community has voted for. So it's directed by us.

 

And now we're going to have a party by us, for us. And so it's like, fuck, yes. I'm so fully all in, all feet in, hands in, everything in, to do the thing.

 

So, yeah, it's exciting. It's exciting.

 

[Stevan] (31:14 - 31:28)

It's fascinating how all these things lead to this road of pilot burn. And you also want to test out the site, right? So you want to check it out and invite people and, you know, just brag about it probably as well.

 

Like, hey, come and see this.

 

[Leanna] (31:29 - 31:30)

Yeah. And is this going to work?

 

[Stevan] (31:30 - 31:31)

It's so pretty.

 

[Leanna] (31:31 - 31:37)

It's like, you know, you've got to pinch yourself when you're there. This is, like, so great. It's so beautiful.

 

 

 

[TJ] (31:38 - 31:46)

Exactly. I'm bringing four new burners. I'm bringing four homies from my hometown who have never burned before but have had to listen to me for the last decade walking on about it.

 

 

 

[Leanna] (31:47 - 32:01)

I'm bringing some new burners too. Yeah. I'm pretty excited.

 

One was going to come to last year. And that was going to be his first burn. And now this is going to be his first burn.

 

[Stevan] (32:02 - 32:20)

Okay. So the name pilot. So usually with, like, TV shows, they do a pilot, which is, like, the first episode or something.

 

Is this, like, kind of like you guys are bringing new burners? Is this going to be your first episode of your burner life? And how did you get the name of pilot?

 

We're not burning pilots, are we?

 

[Leanna] (32:20 - 32:25)

We're not burning pilots. It's like a pilot flame, dude.

 

[TJ] (32:26 - 32:26)

Yeah.

 

[Leanna] (32:26 - 32:28)

It's that continuous.

 

[Stevan] (32:29 - 32:30)

Just have to clarify that.

 

[Leanna] (32:31 - 32:32)

It's that small flame.

 

[Stevan] (32:33 - 32:34)

The blue flame, yeah.

 

[Leanna] (32:34 - 32:42)

It's the small flame that's burning to ignite the larger fire. And that's what we're doing.

 

[TJ] (32:42 - 32:52)

Yeah, we're running out of re-ignition.

 

Phoenix was taken, you know, recombobulate metamorphosis. We're running out of words there.

 

[Leanna] (32:53 - 33:02)

But I thought this was quite cute.

 

I think it's perfect. I really love it. I love the name Pilot Burn.

 

And wait until you get into the canyon, because it really is a cosmic canyon.

 

[Stevan] (33:02 - 33:12)

Yes, okay. Let's briefly chat about Cosmic Canyon. Literally, it is.

 

Is that because it's so obvious that you had to call it Cosmic Canyon on the pilot burn? First burn?

 

[Leanna] (33:12 - 33:13)

The start?

 

[TJ] (33:13 - 33:17)

I think, again, we were just like, fuck, we're running out of time.

 

[Stevan] (33:17 - 33:22)

Everything's so obvious now. The dates, the place, all the people, so obvious.

 

[Leanna] (33:22 - 33:31)

Sometimes it needs to be, right? Next year, we can be a bit more obsequious about everything that we do. But this year, we're going to hand it to you.

 

[Stevan] (33:32 - 33:36)

Yeah, explain, describe more about this Cosmic Canyon that's going to happen.

 

[TJ] (33:37 - 33:45)

Well, there's stars, and we're coming into the age of Aquarius. So it just seems fitting, really. I think all our shackles are finally starting to align.

 

 

 

[Leanna] (33:45 - 33:50)

Pluto's in retrograde. Retrograde. Yeah.

 

Heading towards green.

 

[Stevan] (33:51 - 33:56)

Yeah, it's far away. There's not much light pollution, so we can see the Milky Way.

 

[Leanna] (33:56 - 33:56)

Oh, yeah.

 

[TJ] (34:01 - 34:07)

And yeah, because it's May, too, so the sun, I think sunset's at 5:45. That'll be a little bit of a long night.

 

 

 

[Leanna] (34:07 - 34:08)

Did you look that up recently?

 

[TJ] (34:09 - 34:09)

Yeah.

 

[Leanna] (34:10 - 34:12)

You did.

 

I had a feeling you did.

 

[Stevan] (34:13 - 34:15)

Well, we turned back the clock this weekend, so yeah.

 

[Leanna] (34:15 - 34:17)

Ah, we do, too.

 

[Stevan] (34:17 - 34:23)

And we're daylight saving. And it is our autumn month. Beautiful kind of sunsets.

 

[Leanna] (34:23 - 34:29)

More pinks, more reds. More oranges. Yeah, all those oranges.

 

 

 

[TJ] (34:29 - 34:31)

It's that cool colour. It's good shit.

 

[Stevan] (34:32 - 34:50)

And what else are we expecting for pilot? Have we got some? I know that on the website, someone actually put out a poll saying, how many people are we expecting to get?

 

And there was, I think, between 200 people to 500 people was the estimate. What do you guys reckon?

 

[Leanna] (34:51 - 34:58)

500. I think, well, I mean, we hope we don't get more than 500 because we're capped at 500.

 

 

 

[TJ] (35:00 - 35:04)

Yeah. We passed the 100-ticket-sale mark last week, I think.

 

[Leanna] (35:05 - 35:08)

Yeah, before we went to site.

 

We're at past 100.

 

[TJ] (35:09 - 35:11)

Yeah. We probably anticipate more.

 

[Stevan] (35:11 - 35:16)

So that's a hard line, 500 people? Yeah. I can't bring an extra four new burners?

 

[Leanna] (35:17 - 35:23)

I mean, you can. If you buy their tickets now. If you wait until a week before the event.

 

[Stevan] (35:24 - 35:29)

That's a nice size, though. It's a nice number. That's what modifyre was.

 

That's kind of like what underland is, you know?

 

[Leanna] (35:29 - 35:31)

Yeah, that's what underland is.

 

[Stevan] (35:32 - 35:37)

It's kind of like third degree. And this is where you can actually test. It's a pilot.

 

So, yeah.

 

[Leanna] (35:38 - 35:39)

It's a pilot burn.

 

[Stevan] (35:41 - 35:42)

So obvious.

 

[TJ] (35:42 - 36:11)

And also, historically, it's that 500 mark is where you start to reach critical mass. So if we were to sell out 500 tickets really quickly, then we'd go, holy moly, like, you know, we need to look at expansion next year. But 500 is a good thing to rebuild our community, to make sure we have all those support networks, you know, all your rangers and all that kind of stuff, so that we can support having potentially all these newbies and all the problems that may bring up.

 

But also.

 

[Leanna] (36:11 - 36:11)

We're rebuilding.

 

[TJ] (36:12 - 36:12)

Yeah.

 

 

 

[Leanna] (36:12 - 36:13)

Go on.

 

[TJ] (36:13 - 36:14)

No, that's pretty much it, I think.

 

[Leanna] (36:14 - 37:05)

We're rebuilding community, Stevan, but we're also rebuilding capacity within our volunteer sort of ranks in the org.

 

So, you know, people have been wanting to get activated for some time and they're, they're still excited to do the thing. And now they're doing the thing. So we have to test those waters.

 

Get back into our equipment, see, you know, what systems are going to work in this new environment, how we're going to use the land to, you know, the best fit for the event. And so this year's a pilot burn. It's, it's the beginning.

 

We're at the beginning and that's such a cool place to be at. You know, it's, it's really exciting and it's, it's emotional. It's good.

 

[Stevan] (37:05 - 37:22)

I think 500 was that magic COVID number of gatherings. If you go over that, then, you know, it's illegal. But what's what are the surprises or what other expectations about about theme camps and volunteers?

 

Let's talk about those two departments.

 

[TJ] (37:23 - 37:49)

Well, we've got a new ticketing system, which is also a volunteer rostering people management system, which is really awesome. It's called undiscovered events. Run by a burner.

 

It's a really, really good platform. It's quite easy to use. And because it's local made Ryan is, I don't know when he sleeps, but he's just always super responsible.

 

 

 

[Leanna] (37:50 - 37:52)

He's there all the time. He's amazing.

 

[Stevan] (37:52 - 37:56)

Are they also helping out with other orgs? Other burn orgs that you know?

 

[TJ] (37:56 - 37:57)

Yes, absolutely.

 

 

 

[Stevan] (37:57 - 37:59)

Yeah. And who are they?

 

[Leanna] (38:00 - 38:11)

I think they do. I mean, yeah, he did third degree. Lovefest.

 

Spice. Yeah. He does.

 

 

 

[TJ] (38:14 - 38:35)

It's really good. It's super easy to use. And any black little features you can tweak.

 

For the bonus field, which has been really good. We've been populating that with all our teams. For volunteer management and then the ticketing.

 

And then because we're all over it, any glitches or anything that we find, because we're really giving the system a good test run.

 

[Leanna] (38:36 - 38:37)

Trying to break it.

 

[TJ] (38:38 - 38:40)

Oh yeah.

 

Not on purpose, but it just happens.

 

[Leanna] (38:40 - 38:41)

Sorry.

 

[TJ] (38:41 - 38:43)

It falls apart in our head.

 

[Stevan] (38:43 - 38:46)

Better have the glitches now than later on.

 

[Leanna] (38:46 - 38:57)

Well, that's what he says. He's like, yes, tell me the problems. And then he immediately fixes them.

 

It's just such a joy working with them. It's such a joy.

 

[TJ] (38:59 - 39:02)

And it's really, really easy to use.

 

Awesome.

 

[Leanna] (39:03 - 39:05)

Yeah. The URI is so good.

 

 

 

[TJ] (39:06 - 39:08)

Yeah. What was the question?

 

[Stevan] (39:09 - 39:11)

The volunteers. Let's talk about the volunteers.

 

[TJ] (39:12 - 39:34)

So, yeah, we've been using Slack as sort of our main membership. And we're sticking with that membership format, which I think is really awesome because it gives people a clear vote on all those things. It's quite structured.

 

It's also a wonderful space. It's a great place for people to engage that isn't necessarily Facebook or other social media. It's a little bit more sort of org centric.

 

So people behave a bit more.

 

[Leanna] (39:34 - 39:48)

They do. They're not assholes.

 

Yeah. We also have the propaganda group that is for shenanigans, which is great. So we do have a Facebook group that's not run by us.

 

 

 

[TJ] (39:49 - 39:50)

Yeah. It's not moderated by us.

 

[Leanna] (39:51 - 39:53)

Yep.

 

It's for fun.

 

[Stevan] (39:53 - 39:58)

You also reintroduced the flaming galah as a communication tool.

 

[Leanna] (39:59 - 40:03)

Yeah, what do you think about it? How gorgeous is it? It's amazing.

 

[Stevan] (40:03 - 40:11)

I remember getting it during Burning Seed, so it's good to revive it and get some news updates about the community again.

 

[Leanna] (40:11 - 40:29)

I think it's a really important tool, and the concept now is less email, more zine. How do you say that word? How do you say it, Stevan?

 

Zine? Zine?

 

[Stevan] (40:31 - 40:32)

Oh, okay.

 

[Leanna] (40:33 - 40:36)

Is it a zine or a zine? What is it? A zine?

 

Zine? Tell me.

 

[Stevan] (40:37 - 40:40)

A zine, yeah. I think a zine.

 

[Leanna] (40:40 - 40:52)

A zine, yeah. I'm actually asking you because I get roused all the time. You know, tomato, tomato, whatever.

 

I don't know. I'm going to say it wrong.

 

[Stevan] (40:52 - 41:06)

Yeah, so the flaming galah, it's got some mentions of these shenanigans and propaganda you guys are talking about. So it's good to get all these updates and developments of what's going on behind the scenes.

 

[Leanna] (41:06 - 41:18)

Good. Glad you're reading it. We're putting a lot of effort and love into all the comms going out.

 

Big props to the comms team. They're amazing.

 

[Stevan] (41:18 - 41:22)

And how else are you guys communicating, like you mentioned, if people are not on Facebook?

 

[Leanna] (41:22 - 41:28)

Look, we tried Carrier Pigeon, but they just kept getting fucking hungry.

 

[TJ] (41:28 - 41:31)

Yeah, they complain a lot.

 

[Leanna] (41:31 - 41:33)

They get distracted.

 

 

 

[TJ] (41:34 - 41:34)

Which is really good.

 

[Leanna] (41:36 - 41:38)

Yep. Sync on the internet.

 

 

 

[TJ] (41:40 - 42:19)

But yeah, we've got the Slack thing. So when you become a member, you can choose to jump into Slack. And things are really good there because I enjoy it because the balance of creative ideas and support, because it is sort of an official sort of channel.

 

And we're doing that because we want that history. We want that knowledge history. So you can just jump in the search bar.

 

If you've got a question, type in the keywords, and then you're going to see the full history of people who've discussed things. It's quite easy to use. It does allow teams to sort of have their own little safe space, like their own lock channels or whatever, so they can coordinate together.

 

And again, we keep that institutional knowledge.

 

[Leanna] (42:22 - 43:03)

100%. And Slack, like, integrates with G Suite.

 

It integrates with Airtable, Miro. It integrates with so many other programs. And as, I guess, what did Peter call us?

 

Elders. So as an elder burner, I find the Slack interface really an opportunity for some of our younger people coming through because they're going to see it again. So they're going to see this platform in other areas of their professional career as they develop.

 

 

 

[TJ] (43:04 - 43:07)

And how cool to be stupid as LinkedIn.

 

[Leanna] (43:08 - 44:25)

Yeah, I fucking hate LinkedIn. But Slack is really utilitarian.

 

And so I'm happy to introduce people to that right now. And some of the other things that we're doing. So we're trying to really invest in the community and build them up, not only for events, but also just for fucking whatever.

 

One of the things that we haven't or about to announce this weekend is that for Pilot Burn, we are offering a grant to certify 20 volunteers in first aid, CPR, and psychedelic first aid. So this grant will be directed towards, you know, rangers, sanctuary, fart, etc. But, you know, predominantly be for crew that's coming to Pilot Burn.

 

And of course, it's going to be good for us at the burn, but it's also going to benefit, you know, whoever undergoes these courses for whatever they do afterwards. So they'll get actual certification in these skills. And we're hoping to do that kind of stuff, you know, always provide opportunities for people to skill up.

 

[Stevan] (44:25 - 45:03)

Yeah, one of the interesting things or questions I like to ask around is what kind of communication tools or platforms that different orgs or different people use. Yeah, Slack is, you know, very popular. The other one is discourse.

 

People also use Telegram, Whatsapp, of course, you know, Whatsapp. These are mostly Meta and Instagram, but not much on X or any other like, you know, social stuff. But Telegram, have you guys considered Telegram for like pushing out these, you know, these grants or messages or these courses that you're offering?

 

[TJ] (45:03 - 46:03)

We're using Telegram to chat with Ryan at Undiscovered. And he's created an awesome bot that you can interface with as a team leader, someone who's running a roster or whatever, which is really awesome. The problem with all these apps is it's difficult to get the full coverage of the community.

 

Some people don't want to use X, some people don't want to use Telegram, some people don't want to use Slack, etc. And so it has been a little difficult trying to figure out what is best for the org so that we have that institutional knowledge kept. And that legacy of information, Google Drive is a great example.

 

We're all pretty happy with that. So, yeah, it is tough. You don't want to spread yourself too thin with these things, but also you want to try and get as much reach as possible.

 

So, yeah, we have considered a lot of those things, but it's just what the community wants to use. So if the community wants to use something, then we'll use it. To a point.

 

 

 

[Leanna] (46:04 - 47:15)

Yeah, to a point. Like for Telegram, for instance, is linked to Undiscovered, our ticketing platform. And we're going to use it like the capabilities are quite large, but they're not as sexy as Slack and the other things that we're using.

 

So what we're going to use Telegram for is pushing outcomes that will affect all ticket holders. Like say there's a flood or an evacuation or something that's going to affect all people who are coming to our event. We're going to send an SMS out through Telegram.

 

And so, yeah, the option to download Telegram is in the messaging when you subscribe to it, you know, when you log into Undiscovered. And that'll be more comms as we go. But it will be the way to hit all people that have a ticket once we're there or on the way there.

 

You know what I mean? We're not going to be communicating via Slack once we're on site. But if we need to get a message out to all participants, we're going to use Telegram.

 

[Stevan] (47:16 - 47:31)

And with this pilot burn, where have you guys advertised? Where have you guys sort of put out the word? On Facebook, there's like an events page through the Burning Seed and the Sunburn Arts Facebook profiles.

 

[Leanna] (47:31 - 48:14)

I think we've tried to be quite coy. And to protect the event. As we grow, that might change.

 

But for now, all of our official comms are through Slack because that's our operational platform. So we communicate there first. We send out member communications routinely.

 

We could probably do some member comms soon. But Slack is the operational hub. So if you want to know more, log in.

 

 

 

[TJ] (48:14 - 48:32)

And we're asking people to do that this time because as we've created this relationship that we've started, that we've finished with landowners and the community and stuff, we have to be very, very careful. So the last thing we want to do is just start blasting out comms to the whole wide world. But we're still in that first date phase.

 

 

 

[Leanna] (48:33 - 48:35)

We're still in the first date phase.

 

[TJ] (48:36 - 49:33)

Yeah. And yeah, that was a massive reason why we were so, like Leanna said, we're so coy about the comms going out.

 

Because Facebook and social media, everybody's on that. So if people can see us getting our furnace here and hyping each other up and booking shares and doing all that, and that might really freak out local people, local community members, landowners, et cetera. So while we're in on the joke and the way we talk and we have our own fire and our own culture and language, that's just completely foreign to other people that are going into their backyard.

 

So, yeah. And it also ties back into capping at 500, obviously to stay legal. But also, we've seen what happens if we expand too fast.

 

We're not set up for that. We'll start burning out ranges.

 

[Leanna] (49:33 - 50:38)

Yeah, we're not there yet.

 

And that's okay. Like, how good to have an intimate event, build the community back up, build our own capacity back up, and then grow. And with that, we grow our outreach within the community.

 

We build on the ties that we already have, build that trust, build those relationships, and we have their stamp of approval. It's important that we invest locally and we don't tread on any toes, but also establish the relationships that kind of are beyond the stamp of approval sort of thing, but have a working relationship where you're like, okay, I get what you're doing. I might not like you too much, but you're all right, because not everyone's going to like us, and that's okay.

 

But that they know we're not there to take from them. We're there to add to them. That's what we want to kind of get across.

 

[Stevan] (50:38 - 50:51)

I think what's going to be interesting is having this study of all the hard work that we've done previously until now, until maybe 10 years later, until seeing the whole thing evolve and change. And I think it would be a good study.

 

[Leanna] (50:51 - 51:14)

I think it'll be a fascinating study because there's been a lot of hard work that has happened over the last seven years. Just to get us to this point, there's been a lot of hard work that was made harder by a pandemic, and made harder still.

 

[Stevan] (51:16 - 51:30)

We've been through a lot as a community. Let's not forget the bushfires that also kind of cancelled that event as well. It kind of contributed.

 

It's the whole world issues and whole world developments.

 

[Leanna] (51:30 - 51:37)

It's so big. It's so big. So, so big.

 

But here we are. This is a time to celebrate.

 

[Stevan] (51:39 - 51:48)

Let's talk about the internal kind of outreach you guys have done. You've sent out expression of interest for these theme camps. What are we looking at with theme camps?

 

[Leanna] (51:49 - 51:51)

We're looking at an incredible billet, let me tell you.

 

[Stevan] (51:52 - 51:59)

We've got the old kind of crew back. We've got some new blood as well.

 

[Leanna] (51:59 - 52:04)

Let me dive into the theme camp. I'm looking for the spreadsheet.

 

 

 

[TJ] (52:05 - 52:08)

Quick question. Do we spell center camp R-E or E-R?

 

[Leanna] (52:11 - 52:22)

Because I spell E-R, but sometimes I try to be good and spell R-E.

 

I say center. You say center.

 

[TJ] (52:23 - 52:24)

Centrae

 

[Stevan] (52:24 - 52:26)

Centrae. It's centrae camp.

 

[Leanna] (52:26 - 52:26)

Centrae.

 

[Stevan] (52:28 - 52:28)

Centrae.

 

[Leanna] (52:29 - 52:30)

I say center.

 

[TJ] (52:30 - 52:31)

Leanna, have we got?

 

[Stevan] (52:32 - 52:36)

Center camp. It's going to be massive. I'm looking forward to center camp.

 

[Leanna] (52:37 - 52:59)

Fucking awesome. All right. So, we've got Mind Sub.

 

We've got Red Earth Brewery. We've got House of the Rising Saun. We've got Tentacle Temple.

 

We've got freaking Sunset Town. We've got, help me out here.

 

[Stevan] (52:59 - 53:01)

The Burning Seed Post Office.

 

[Leanna] (53:02 - 53:14)

I think they, I actually think they wanted, they submitted an application to rebrand to the Sunburnt Arts Postal Service. They just haven't got their stickers yet.

 

[Stevan] (53:14 - 53:16)

That's kind of sexy too.

 

[Leanna] (53:16 - 53:20)

They wanted to rebrand and we said we'd love that.

 

[Stevan] (53:20 - 53:25)

The possibilities, right, with a post office, a public utility. What can you do?

 

[Leanna] (53:26 - 53:58)

So good. And I can't find the spreadsheet. I'm looking in files.

 

So, that's amazing. We've got. Here we go.

 

Electric Teepee. Erstwhile. And I hear that Erstwhile is also one of their members.

 

Maybe their theme camp lead is also bringing an art car. We've got Pickle Planet. Those sexy, sexy human beings slapping and pickling.

 

And we're following up with Kids Camp. But those are, yeah, those are.

 

[Stevan] (53:58 - 53:59)

Did anybody mention?

 

[Leanna] (53:59 - 54:07)

Hopefully coming. Waiting for a little bit of a follow up from the team leads there. But pretty exciting.

 

[Stevan] (54:07 - 54:10)

Any interest from any Melbourne camps?

 

[Leanna] (54:12 - 54:18)

Camps in general? No, but lots of interest from Melbourne folk.

 

[Stevan] (54:19 - 54:21)

What about Costume Remix from Canberra?

 

[Leanna] (54:21 - 54:24)

Yes. Goldie.

 

[Stevan] (54:24 - 54:26)

Any other Camberian camps?

 

[Leanna] (54:26 - 54:43)

Goldie is coming. Yes. Costume Remix is coming.

 

You know what? That's a really good point. I should reach out and be like, hey, are you bringing the theme camp?

 

Because I assume she was. They're coming, though, which is fabulous.

 

[Stevan] (54:44 - 54:50)

It would be cool to have someone local as well. Like a local Blue Mountains, Lithgow, Bathurst.

 

[Leanna] (54:50 - 54:57)

Don't worry. Once they see. They'll be there.

 

We've got some allocated tickets.

 

[Stevan] (54:57 - 55:08)

Mudgee Boys will be helping out a bar. Whispering Shack. And also Red Earth Radio.

 

[Leanna] (55:09 - 55:15)

And RER. So they don't want to come as a theme camp per se. I was told.

 

[Stevan] (55:15 - 55:16)

It's a public utility then.

 

[Leanna] (55:16 - 55:20)

Exactly right. It's a public utility. It's there for all.

 

[Stevan] (55:20 - 55:20)

Talking shit.

 

[Leanna] (55:21 - 55:26)

And there's a few, well, at least two art cars that are coming as well, which is pretty exciting.

 

[TJ] (55:26 - 55:29)

Let's talk about Dust.Events, the app as well.

 

[Leanna] (55:29 - 55:32)

Yeah, let's do that.

 

TJ, you go.

 

[Stevan] (55:32 - 55:36)

Is this the first time you guys are piloting this app?

 

[Leanna] (55:36 - 55:39)

Yes. But not the first time it's been piloted.

 

[Stevan] (55:39 - 55:52)

No, it's a very popular app. Actually, Blazing Swan is currently using it. And previous other burns.

 

So, yes, how is Pilot Burn being featured in Dust.Events?

 

[TJ] (55:52 - 56:36)

So we have our own event. So first of all, Dust.Events. The app is Dust.Events. You can look it up on your browser or you can install it on iPhones and Androids. And it's basically like an online what, where, when guide.

 

I believe it's made by burners for burners. It's got quite a few events on there. I saw the Las Vegas burn.

 

So I've been really trying hard, Especially when really shit face drunk, not to just create random events on there for my friends in Vegas. I have turned up there. Expecting Margaritas.

 

[Stevan] (56:37 - 56:40)

I'm sure there's a safety switch for that. TJ. I mean, you can't.

 

[TJ] (56:40 - 57:30)

Yeah. So, yeah, we've got Pilot Burn. So Pilot Burn Tack or Dash Burn.Dust.Events. That's us. It'll pop up. Anyway, when you sign in, it's got a bunch of tabs in there. Camps, events, art, music, map, links.

 

You can send out messages. Print. Print it.

 

You can download it for offline viewing, etc. You can, more importantly, interact with it. So if you have a theme camp, you can register your theme camp on there.

 

And your events. So I've got admin access. So if people start populating it, I make a habit of checking it a couple of times a day.

 

Look, I'm looking now. I've got three changes. And it's super easy for us to just publish in the backend.

 

And it's accessible without internet while you're on site. You can download into a PDF.

 

[Leanna] (57:31 - 57:31)

It's fantastic.

 

 

 

[TJ] (57:32 - 57:44)

Yep. It's really, really well done. And it's just super simple.

 

Like, they've kept it really, the interface really simple, and it works. So it's a really wonderful thing. So that's obviously saving enormous on printing and whatnot.

 

 

 

[Leanna] (57:45 - 57:46)

Production.

 

[TJ] (57:46 - 58:00)

And it just massively reduces the workload of, you know, the org potentially having to curate all these events and put them into one place. So now we can focus really heavily on a survival guide.

 

It's awesome.

 

[Stevan] (58:01 - 58:08)

Yeah, it works offline. So how's the network coverage out there on the site? Yeah, that's great for it.

 

[Leanna] (58:09 - 59:05)

Look, if you've got Telstra, you'll get kind of the, like, sat SMS service through, like, SpaceX, whatever. So I just have Telstra, but I was able to receive SMS pretty well. Like, there was usually a delay.

 

You've got to, you know, you're around, walking around, doing your thing. But you'd get a text within 10 minutes of somebody sending it, which is pretty fucking good compared to other carriers. So you can still communicate with people in reasonable real time if you have Telstra, but if you don't have Telstra, you might not be able to communicate.

 

Expecting a temple. People are expecting an effigy. So when you say, hey, we're going to do it this way, they're at least expecting it.

 

It's not a new concept.

 

[Stevan] (59:06 - 59:11)

Yeah, the other obvious question was, are we expecting a temple and an effigy at Pilotbird?

 

[TJ] (59:11 - 59:12)

Yes.

 

[Leanna] (59:12 - 59:13)

Yes.

 

[Stevan] (59:14 - 59:15)

And all the designs been submitted?

 

[TJ] (59:16 - 59:36)

No. So that's, as far as, like, the big all bells and whistles design, that kind of stuff, we're aiming for that for next year. So this year, obviously, there's restrictions on how big and what you can burn and when.

 

When you start to get above those limits, you need to start involving all the local external agencies.

 

[Leanna] (59:37 - 1:00:08)

But we've come up with a really sexy, fun solution. And we don't want to, like, let the cat too much out of the bag here because those columns are coming out in the next couple of days.

 

So our artery lead, Bea Pierce, has taken the bull by the horns and she's got an incredible idea, an incredible, well-thought-out plan that she is releasing unto the wild in the next 72 hours. So watch this space.

 

[TJ] (1:00:08 - 1:00:10)

And also, you're going to be there to see it.

 

 

 

[Leanna] (1:00:11 - 1:00:18)

I was going to say, also, be prepared to bring your gloves and your, you know, work boots because you're going to be involved.

 

[Stevan] (1:00:19 - 1:00:26)

You've volunteered for the FART team, Hot Wire. How's the burn preparations and the fire safety and everything going with Pilotbird?

 

[TJ] (1:00:27 - 1:03:17)

Quite well. So, as we said, we're using Undiscovered to run the rostering, which is really good. We can communicate directly with people in there and it's just a lot less cluttered than the Google email blast that we were doing, which is really good.

 

You mentioned the bushfires years ago. So after that, Burning Seed invested quite heavily in all the firefighting gear because we've always wanted to reduce our workload and our strain on local, you know, local fireys, et cetera. The last thing we want is for local fireys on their weekend, if you're on call, to come out.

 

We have such an experienced team that if anything untoward does happen with fire, we can jump on it straightaway. So that's really good. And we have the assets to do that.

 

We have three, four slip-on units, a slip-on being like a small water tank, you know, four, five, six hundred litres with a pump and hoses that we can slip onto the back of a ute or we can slip onto a trailer. And so that gives us enormous and speedy response to any of the fires. And obviously, being Australia, we have a very fire-conscious people and culture.

 

So while we're all very comfortable with having a campfire and all that kind of stuff, we are policing it quite heavily with burn barrels, et cetera, same as any other burn, really. We just need to know where these fires are so that if something does go wrong, we can direct all these wonderful assets and people that we have to those things to jump on the problem. We've also updated the Sandman manuals, the Perimeter Ranger manuals because all these things, you know, Sandman, Perimeter, Rangers, fire enclave, that's part of our culture and we just need to have nice, clear instructions and some guidelines for that so things don't get too chaotic and we can do the wild shit but also be safe and responsible.

 

And yeah, FART's about to start recruiting pretty heavily. We have a pretty good team of leaders like our base and now we're going to start opening it up so that we can start encouraging people to come and learn. So if you've never swung off a fire hose or understood the different classes of fire and what extinguishers need and extinguishing mediums you need for those things and the flow of emergency management, we can start mentoring people.

 

So we have such an experience base where we can put one person who's really experienced and give them a new person to mould and break and abuse and use now but to train up and teach because, you know, we're burners. We do this stuff ourselves first and foremost so we play but we look after each other and then we look after the land and have these wonderful experiences and experience people to do that stuff. So it's quite exciting.

 

 

 

[Leanna] (1:03:18 - 1:03:19)

Super exciting.

 

[TJ] (1:03:20 - 1:03:37)

Yeah. And also, you know, it can also, which I really dig, it allows us to sort of educate the public as well like, oh, I want to have a generator.

 

That's fine. Just got to think a generator makes heat. A generator has fuel, has toxic gases coming out of it.

 

So just having people think about that and the effect on their…

 

[Leanna] (1:03:38 - 1:03:39)

Don't bury the generator.

 

[TJ] (1:03:41 - 1:03:50)

Exactly.

 

You know, baffling the sound, don't baffle it too close or you're going to burn it. And have people have that civic responsibility so they can have these wonderful things and learn.

 

[Leanna] (1:03:51 - 1:03:53)

Well, exactly.

 

They learn shit.

 

[TJ] (1:03:53 - 1:03:54)

Yeah. And we're like, yes.

 

[Stevan] (1:03:54 - 1:04:02)

What other things can we learn at Pilot? Like we're going to have to build a power grid, also some water supply.

 

[Leanna] (1:04:02 - 1:04:04)

Eventually we're going to build a power grid. So that's a long-term thing.

 

[Stevan] (1:04:04 - 1:04:18)

Yeah, but just an interim kind of shorthand kind of solution at the moment is just to build a temporary so we can work out how we're going to consume energy, consume water, traffic flow, all these kind of things.

 

[TJ] (1:04:18 - 1:04:48)

So we talked about this last time as well. Like we have to go right back to basics and we have to go real self-reliant, radically self-reliant. We don't have the huge budget and huge people to be able to do those things like we've been used to at other nearly established firms like Blazing Swan, et cetera.

 

We just don't have the capacity for that this year. So please stop asking. But we're doing what we can and what we can supply is awesome.

 

We just have to be really careful that we don't overpromise and under-deliver.

 

[Leanna] (1:04:49 - 1:04:50)

Exactly right. Yep, exactly.

 

 

 

[TJ] (1:04:51 - 1:04:54)

Yeah, yeah, everyone's going to get water and everyone's going to get power and we're like, hang on, hang on, hang on.

 

[Leanna] (1:04:55 - 1:05:27)

Well, I mean, at the end of the day, at the end of the day, this is a fucking burn. Yeah.

 

Burning man doesn't fucking supply you with power, doesn't supply you with water, doesn't supply you with food. It supplies you with dust. Yeah.

 

It supplies you with… Those one thing aren't there. But that's a…

 

With crazy, crazy dreams and broken promises, we can supply you with those. Lots of habits.

 

[Stevan] (1:05:27 - 1:05:28)

So this is the question.

 

[Leanna] (1:05:28 - 1:05:29)

Yeah, that's the question. Yeah.

 

[TJ] (1:05:29 - 1:05:31)

They do have those things.

 

 

 

[Stevan] (1:05:31 - 1:05:31)

This is the question.

 

[TJ] (1:05:32 - 1:05:37)

But that's evolved over 30 plus years to where it is now.

 

[Leanna] (1:05:37 - 1:05:42)

Yeah, 100%. And look, we want to have those things. They're not happening this time.

 

[Stevan] (1:05:42 - 1:05:48)

So for all the doofus and all the ravers out there, how's the sound quality out in the valley there?

 

[Leanna] (1:05:49 - 1:05:57)

Oh, baby. Oh, baby. It is a fucking amphitheatre. It is very, very good.

 

 

 

[TJ] (1:05:59 - 1:06:00)

And it's because we've only got…

 

[Stevan] (1:06:00 - 1:06:01)

So bring your function one.

 

[Leanna] (1:06:04 - 1:06:06)

We've got some good sound systems coming.

 

[Stevan] (1:06:09 - 1:06:11)

Also bring your little JBL pill if you want as well.

 

[Leanna] (1:06:12 - 1:06:13)

I mean, if you want to.

 

[Stevan] (1:06:14 - 1:06:15)

And the silent discos.

 

[TJ] (1:06:16 - 1:06:17)

Yeah, silent discos.

 

[Leanna] (1:06:17 - 1:06:23)

Oh, a silent disco would be amazing. Yes, please, to the silent disco.

 

I love those. Hell yeah.

 

[TJ] (1:06:23 - 1:06:24)

Me too.

 

[Stevan] (1:06:24 - 1:06:30)

It gets totally dark out there, doesn't it? So people have got to be like lit up.

 

[Leanna] (1:06:30 - 1:06:33)

You're in a canyon. Yeah, you're in a canyon.

 

[TJ] (1:06:33 - 1:06:38)

Yeah, bring a head torch because there are rocks around.

 

But we are looking at tracks.

 

[Leanna] (1:06:40 - 1:06:46)

There are rocks. Fucking bring your head torch anyway.

 

It's in the middle of the night. Jesus Christ.

 

[Stevan] (1:06:46 - 1:06:48)

Would I be sleeping next to a kangaroo?

 

[Leanna] (1:06:48 - 1:06:51)

Oh, there are wallabies throughout the canyon.

 

[Stevan] (1:06:51 - 1:06:56)

Gorgeous. Love it. This is typical Australiana kind of burn, isn't it?

 

 

 

[Leanna] (1:06:56 - 1:06:57)

Absolutely.

 

[Stevan] (1:06:57 - 1:07:00)

Sunburn, fucking canyon, west.

 

[Leanna] (1:07:00 - 1:07:08)

Wombat burrows. There's wombat burrows.

 

There's snakes. There's wallabies. There's all the things.

 

[Stevan] (1:07:09 - 1:07:11)

All you need is a crocodile, right?

 

[Leanna] (1:07:12 - 1:07:15)

I mean, we could probably find one. But I'd be happy.

 

[Stevan] (1:07:16 - 1:07:18)

There is a creek or some water estuaries or something.

 

[Leanna] (1:07:18 - 1:07:21)

We've got Bruce the shark. He's the landowner.

 

[TJ] (1:07:21 - 1:07:28)

Yeah, there is a dam on site.

 

But as again, it's a working. Jesus, I sound like such a negative Nelly. But there is a dam on site.

 

[Leanna] (1:07:28 - 1:07:39)

We're going to have an art feature. We're going to have an art feature in the dam. Just don't get in there. You don't want to get that cow poop all over you.

 

No. No.

 

[Stevan] (1:07:41 - 1:07:45)

Well, you're talking about hippies after all. So maybe you could become traditional.

 

[Leanna] (1:07:46 - 1:07:57)

Seriously, it is a very small dam. And it's pooped in religiously by the cows. So I'm just going to say no.

 

[Stevan] (1:07:57 - 1:07:59)

Yeah. Off limits.

 

[Leanna] (1:08:00 - 1:08:08)

Unless you're a fan of fecal-borne illnesses. And if you become infected with a fecal-borne illness, you'll be asked to leave.

 

[TJ] (1:08:09 - 1:08:10)

And mocked mercilessly.

 

 

 

[Leanna] (1:08:13 - 1:08:13)

Religiously.

 

[Stevan] (1:08:14 - 1:08:15)

So what are the features?

 

[Leanna] (1:08:15 - 1:08:16)

What are the features?

 

[Stevan] (1:08:16 - 1:08:17)

Of Capertee Valley.

 

[Leanna] (1:08:17 - 1:08:23)

We've covered it. It's beautiful. Serenity.

 

The vibe. The cliffs.

 

[Stevan] (1:08:23 - 1:08:28)

What about the weather? How cold is it going to be for everybody else out there? Bring your electric blankets.

 

[Leanna] (1:08:30 - 1:08:37)

I think it's going to be in the seven to eights high at night. So it's going to be cold.

 

[Stevan] (1:08:37 - 1:08:39)

Plenty of burn barrels though, right?

 

[Leanna] (1:08:39 - 1:08:41)

Not plenty, but there will be a few.

 

[TJ] (1:08:42 - 1:09:25)

There will be a few. I think we've got four, five camp applications so far.

 

And there will be a burn barrel at centre camp, Ranges as usual. But I did see, I was looking online, you can buy little battery-operated fan heaters. You know your power tool batteries?

 

You can get the little ones. Yeah, so I've got one. I'm going to give it a good test out.

 

So, yeah, it'll be cold. So that just means get all the op shops on the way and buy big puffy jackets. Buy all the wool blankets that you can see, because out in those country op shops, you always score those scratchy wool blankets.

 

Those things are like gold.

 

[Leanna] (1:09:25 - 1:09:30)

Or those like sheepskin that you use for like babies.

 

[TJ] (1:09:31 - 1:09:31)

Yeah.

 

 

 

[Leanna] (1:09:31 - 1:09:34)

You can use those underneath your sleeping bag.

 

[TJ] (1:09:35 - 1:09:38)

Yeah. Yeah, get yourself off the ground.

 

 

 

[Leanna] (1:09:38 - 1:09:40)

Yeah, get yourself off the ground.

 

[TJ] (1:09:41 - 1:09:41)

Yeah.

 

[Stevan] (1:09:42 - 1:09:54)

Okay, let's talk about next year. Like you guys have chosen a date. Like you mentioned previously in the previous episode was Anzac Day.

 

That was the most popular vote.

 

[Leanna] (1:09:54 - 1:09:55)

That was.

 

[Stevan] (1:09:55 - 1:09:56)

So Anzac Day next year.

 

[TJ] (1:09:58 - 1:10:11)

Yeah. Honestly, Stevan, I just don't have the bandwidth to think about it right now. I just want to focus on this year, if that's all right.

 

I'm super keen for next year. I can't wait. But, yeah, as I said, I'm getting to the, I can't wait.

 

 

 

[Leanna] (1:10:11 - 1:10:17)

I just want to talk about what's in front of us. So I almost feel like, yay, we've covered it.

 

[Stevan] (1:10:17 - 1:10:18)

Yeah.

 

Cool.

 

[TJ] (1:10:18 - 1:10:23)

Yeah. It'll be directly proportionate to the wins and losses of this event.

 

 

 

[Leanna] (1:10:24 - 1:10:27)

Correct. How about we talk about next year's event in August?

 

[Stevan] (1:10:28 - 1:10:37)

Definitely. Yeah. We'll definitely get some more episodes out of the pilot burn.

 

So we can talk to all the burners out there, all the members.

 

[TJ] (1:10:38 - 1:10:43)

I've got to say, I think after this one, I think the groundswell is going to increase a lot.

 

[Leanna] (1:10:43 - 1:10:45)

Yeah, same.

 

[Stevan] (1:10:45 - 1:10:46)

Oh, for sure. For sure.

 

[Leanna] (1:10:46 - 1:10:54)

There's a lot of people that are like, what's going to happen? What's going to happen? And, I mean, it was pretty.

 

 

 

[TJ] (1:10:55 - 1:10:56)

I haven't been pumping a great deal by being so coy as well.

 

[Leanna] (1:10:57 - 1:11:03)

No, no, no. I think we can start pumping it now.

 

Like, we're in the pump it stage.

 

[Stevan] (1:11:04 - 1:11:13)

Yeah, I understand. We've got to concentrate, focus, put our blinkers on and focus on this, doing this amazing event. Then we can leverage off that and build it bigger.

 

[Leanna] (1:11:13 - 1:12:06)

The Working Bee this weekend had people who had never been involved with burning seed at all, but knew about it. Or some people who had only gone to 2019 and who have been waiting to see some sort of resurrection. And then they reengaged.

 

And that was three locals. No, actually four locals that reengaged after only going in 2019, who were incredible. And they're definitely point people.

 

And then a couple new people who came to the Working Bee who have never been to a burning seed. And they've only been involved in our local burner culture in the last year, year and a half. And they're fucking amazing.

 

They're super, super amazing. Two of them are leads now. And that's cool.

 

That's really, really cool.

 

[Stevan] (1:12:07 - 1:12:25)

And how's the teams going? I know that Sanctuary is very popular. There's a lot of people signing up for that.

 

Center Camp, we mentioned earlier. FART, you're taking care of that. So what about the other volunteer leads and other departments?

 

Yeah, the Rangers.

 

[TJ] (1:12:25 - 1:13:30)

Yeah, got a good Ranger lead, good Ranger tour. I see a lot of really engaged people, which is good. A lot of veterans, which is really good.

 

So we're going to be having Ranger training on Friday from 2 till 4 or 4.30-ish. It'll be great. The other teams are starting to populate now.

 

I think two, three months ago, there was probably a lot of wary trepidation. But now I think that we're releasing. We've been doing quite a lot of work in the background as the board, but maybe not communicating that out so much because we obviously just have to be so careful about things.

 

But now that we are happening and we've got a lot of the approvals and everything's starting to happen, the teams are starting to populate. People are coming out of the woodwork and getting involved. And then also tying that back to just the way that everybody's quite polite on Slack and really encouraging and supporting, which is awesome.

 

So, yeah. And also, I think we undiscovered in the membership form, like just constantly hammering and asking people, what do you want to get involved in? Here are your options.

 

Pick one. Pick two. Getting them plugged in and then getting engaged, engaging with people and getting them a job.

 

 

 

[Leanna] (1:13:31 - 1:13:33)

Yep, I agree with that.

 

[Stevan] (1:13:33 - 1:13:40)

Yeah, being a Sunburnt member is also building your own burner profile, right?

 

[Leanna] (1:13:41 - 1:13:43)

Yep. It's like a new face of the burner profile.

 

[Stevan] (1:13:44 - 1:13:54)

Yeah, most orgs or events, burn events now, you need to be a member of an org or kind of like a club membership before you get a ticket, before you get introduced to the community.

 

[TJ] (1:13:55 - 1:14:00)

When did we start that? I think in 2016, maybe 15?

 

[Leanna] (1:14:01 - 1:14:02)

Yep, maybe even 14.

 

 

 

[TJ] (1:14:02 - 1:14:04)

Direct response because we needed people.

 

[Leanna] (1:14:05 - 1:14:07)

Yep. It's not new.

 

[Stevan] (1:14:08 - 1:14:10)

What else do you want to mention about Pilotburn?

 

[TJ] (1:14:11 - 1:14:22)

Low-income tickets. So, you have low-income tickets available. So, people, if you're out there and you're on the fence and finances are tight at the moment, which they are, then yeah, you can apply for that.

 

 

 

[Leanna] (1:14:23 - 1:14:35)

Yeah, like we totally understand fuel prices and all the extra fucking shit that's piled on right now. So, yes, low-income tickets are available. Utilize them.

 

[Stevan] (1:14:35 - 1:14:55)

Yeah, people are not as, I guess, with the recent festival cancellations, like what, the Blues Fest, Birdsville, Big Bash, all these are being cancelled. So, I think people are a bit wary of what's going on with the festival culture or with the even outdoor camping kind of lifestyle culture.

 

[Leanna] (1:14:55 - 1:14:58)

Sounds like it was restricted only to events starting with B.

 

[Stevan] (1:15:02 - 1:15:03)

Not Burning Seed, yep.

 

[Leanna] (1:15:04 - 1:15:04)

Pilotburn.

 

[Stevan] (1:15:05 - 1:15:13)

Yeah, Pilotburn all the way. And what other achievements or milestones have you guys hit?

 

[Leanna] (1:15:14 - 1:16:28)

Well, we've got over 400 members. That's a big milestone. It's huge.

 

We're about to submit our application for DGR status for our charity, which is awesome. We're about to, like I said earlier, provide a grant opportunity for people to become CPR and first aid and psychedelic first aid certified, which is awesome. And we're about to have our first event.

 

That's a lot. We've just completed the first ever Sydney gay and lesbian queer burner Mardi Gras float. It's fucking historic.

 

It's the first ever queer burner Mardi Gras float to ever happen. And that was an incredible, incredible milestone, which deserves its own podcast, I'd say. Will Savage, amazing human, led the fray on that one.

 

Yeah, we're doing a lot.

 

[Stevan] (1:16:29 - 1:16:35)

And moving shipping containers is, I guess, another milestone because this is...

 

[Leanna] (1:16:35 - 1:17:48)

Moving the shipping containers was a huge milestone. I mean, it was bittersweet, right, where it's operational, also emotional. Moving the containers sort of signals a change and something that's a permanent change.

 

You don't move your shipping containers for a year and then move them back. So, it's been a process of, you know, holding space for the landowner that has held our shipping containers for so long. And, you know, acknowledging his feelings and desires and also our new landowners' feelings and desires as we move our infrastructure to this new property.

 

And then all the logistical knowledge that you learn along the way. Like, I mean, I'm going to be honest with you guys. I didn't know what a frana was three weeks ago.

 

But now I know what a frana is. I know what a B-double is. I know what a side loader is.

 

All sorts of shit that, you know, I'm a better person now because I know.

 

[Stevan] (1:17:48 - 1:17:50)

These are all, what, logistical terms?

 

[TJ] (1:17:50 - 1:17:53)

Yeah, a frana is like a front-end loader. So, it's like a forklift that extends.

 

[Leanna] (1:17:55 - 1:19:34)

A frana is like a crane.

 

A frana is a crane that you need a dogger for. Also didn't know what a dogger was. I knew what a rigger was, but I didn't know what a dogger was.

 

But now I know what a dogger is and a frana. And a B-double is like what, oh, what do you call them? Road trains?

 

Yeah? So, it's like a fully loaded, you know, double trailer that you see on the road. So, you've got, like, the driving part, and then you've got a trailer, and then you've got a trailer.

 

And this guy had the driving part, Shane, and his dog, Bella, had the driving part. And then the first trailer aspect, which was a side loader, and then the second trailer aspect, which was a double loader that had two shipping containers on it. And I had never seen it.

 

You know, you see pictures of side loaders and how they work, but then you come to appreciate how they need to work when you need them to do what you want them to do. Like, you know, I'm going to need you to back up onto this land in order to get the shipping container to get onto this part of the paddock facing this way. You know, et cetera, et cetera.

 

And because our land slopes, when he first arrived, he was like, no, you're going to order a franta. I'm only doing this if you get a franta in the morning. I was like, wow.

 

We should go to bed. Let's talk in the morning. Yeah.

 

 

 

[TJ] (1:19:36 - 1:19:59)

Also, I'm trying to get a franta. For Burning Seed last year, at Matong, I managed to organise to get a trainer to come to site to train up our participants and our crew on how to drive it. And it worked out to be like $350 a person attended us and used the franta that we had on site.

 

So I'd like to do that next year for sure.

 

[Leanna] (1:20:00 - 1:20:08)

Yes, 100%. It's another one of those investments, right?

 

Yes, 100%. I love that idea.

 

[Stevan] (1:20:09 - 1:20:17)

This is so much inside baseball. I love it. I'm not catching most of it. But I'm learning too. That's cool.

 

[Leanna] (1:20:17 - 1:20:20)

Two crazy brains just like talking shop.

 

[TJ] (1:20:20 - 1:20:32)

Yeah, the franta is like a forklift, but the fork can extend out and raise and move around like a crane. So it's really helpful for moving shipping containers around or anything.

 

[Stevan] (1:20:33 - 1:20:34)

And building tall effigies.

 

[Leanna] (1:20:35 - 1:20:38)

Yes. Yeah, it's like.

 

[Stevan] (1:20:38 - 1:20:39)

You need a ticket for that.

 

[Leanna] (1:20:40 - 1:20:41)

Yes, you do.

 

[TJ] (1:20:42 - 1:21:04)

And if you try and get it by yourself, it can be really expensive. But if you book, you know, that trainer to come to you and you have your own hired franta and you've got 10 people, then, yeah, and you can get certified in one day, I think.

 

It's half a day of death by PowerPoint and then half a day driving around. So it's really easy.

 

[Leanna] (1:21:05 - 1:21:12)

Which is a lot better than ticket for rigging, dogging, et cetera, which is more like.

 

 

 

[TJ] (1:21:13 - 1:21:14)

Rigging a dog is a week each.

 

[Leanna] (1:21:15 - 1:21:19)

Yeah, a week, 10 days situation with maths.

 

[TJ] (1:21:20 - 1:21:22)

Yeah, it's not easy.

 

 

 

[Leanna] (1:21:23 - 1:21:28)

Did you know that in America we say math? And in Australia we say maths.

 

[Stevan] (1:21:29 - 1:21:34)

Well, there's a lot of numbers. So you've got to add the S. It's plural.

 

Yeah, I don't know.

 

[Leanna] (1:21:35 - 1:21:35)

Emphasis.

 

[Stevan] (1:21:35 - 1:21:37)

A lot of maths to do.

 

[Leanna] (1:21:37 - 1:21:38)

Maths.

 

[Stevan] (1:21:38 - 1:21:39)

Otherwise you're just doing one math.

 

[Leanna] (1:21:40 - 1:21:42)

100%. Listen, I'm going to go to bed. I love you guys.

 

 

 

[TJ] (1:21:42 - 1:21:43)

Me too, man. I'm rooted.

 

[Stevan] (1:21:44 - 1:22:31)

Yeah, let's land this plane. So looking forward to Pilot Bird. And the dates again, the 15th to the 18th of May, 2026.

 

Next year there's something else happening for next year. So this year's theme is Cosmic Canyon. So bring all your cosmic stuff and sparkly stuff.

 

Yeah, and sign up, join up, become a member. And how do we get there? How do we get to the website?

 

sunburnarts.org.au. That's exactly right. burnarts.org.au. Thanks, guys, for coming on, TJ, Leanna, for talking about Pilot Bird.

 

[Leanna] (1:22:32 - 1:22:34)

Thank you for having us. We appreciate it.

 

[TJ] (1:22:34 - 1:22:34)

Anytime.

 

[Stevan] (1:22:35 - 1:22:36)

This is going to be an historical event.

 

[Leanna] (1:22:37 - 1:22:44)

We think so. I hope it's going to be a historical, cathartic, and all those things event.

 

[Stevan] (1:22:46 - 1:22:50)

And it's been in the works for several months now. So yeah, all the hard work.

 

[Leanna] (1:22:50 - 1:22:51)

About to pay off.

 

[Stevan] (1:22:52 - 1:22:56)

All right, thanks, guys. Good night. Have a good one.

 

See you soon. Talk to you again soon.

 

[Leanna] (1:22:57 - 1:22:57)

Ciao.

 

[TJ] (1:22:57 - 1:22:58)

See you, buddy.

Transcripts transcribed by TurboScribe.ai