Camp Contact Newsletter
Our progress and how you can keep chugging along with us!
The Newsletter Rundown
- DC Events
- STEP program
- OMG sale
- Our Mission and Principles!
- The Discovery Process
- Workshops Deadline
- Carpool and our CC Burner Bus!
- Tea Lounge
- In"tent"tional Internal Events
- Meeting our Contribution Coordinator
- Meeting our R.I.D.E. Coordinator
- Meeting our Workshops Coordinator
I'd like to say I could make a link to jump to specific topics... but I can't... so here we are...
DC Events!
SpiritWild Fundraiser
SpiritWild, a BiPOC lead Wellness and Performance troupe who is joining Camp Contact at Burning Man this year, is doing a Fundraiser at Sunday Love, at Flash, 645 Florida Ave NW in DC, this Sunday, May 7th! Please join us starting at 3pm: https://www.flashdc.com/e/m58qKe2bWs
Also, follow them on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/wearespiritwild/
Camp Contact Emergence - May 12-14
We’ll have a low-key relaxing weekend on a 30 acre farm 1-½ hours outside of DC over Mother’s Day Weekend, May 12-14. We’ll prepare healthy meals together including food from the garden on site. This bucolic space has a large pond and open space for a hike. So far we have workshops including:
Family Constellation Therapy with Randy Goldberg
Wim-Hof Breathwork, Five Tibetan Rites & Qi Gong with Thunder
Acro Yoga, Contact Improv & Authentic Relating with Spacious
Financial Abundance with Anjela
There’s still room for your workshop, and we welcome performances and artistry as well! We’ll have a nice camp fire and space for fire performance. We can use help setting up if you want to come on Thursday or Friday morning! Event is Dog friendly if you want to bring a canine friend! Address sent upon registration.
Mid Atlantic Events for CC
Quink July 20-24, Louisa VA
What is a Quink?
The spark of positive change
Roughly the opposite of trauma
An acute experience that changes life for the better
An event after which you have lasting positive memories and capacities
We organize the QuinkFair with the intention
to hold space for positive, life-changing experiences.
Every year, we come together at QuinkFair to create space for transformative moments. We share our own quink experiences in their many forms. We work together to create a sharing, inspiring culture using a wide variety of offerings and experiences to stimulate “ah ha” moments, engage your imagination and creativity, and spark self-awareness and healing. We consciously cultivate consent culture and mutual respect.
In the pursuit of self reflection and personal insight, we offer the use of divination tools like Tarot, Runes, I Ching as well as self-exploration systems like Astrology, Human Design, Destiny Cards, and the Enneagram. QuinkFair features diverse workshops to provide options to choose from for fun, connection, and to inspire personal quinks.
We don’t think of ourselves as a music festival, yet we create space for people to play music, present music and song workshops, and create space for drum circles and dance events.
We don’t consider ourselves a spiritual
event, yet we honor the potential of ritual to help
clarify our desires, call in what we want and help
us let go of what no longer serves us. The
opening circle asks us to clarify our intention for
the weekend. The Effigy burn helps us let go of
the old and celebrate new beginnings. The
morning ritual at the river encourages us to grieve
what we intend to let go of and wash ourselves
clean as a way to solidify our intentions.
In the closing ritual we celebrate our new
beginnings and clarify what we want to take back
into our lives with us.
We take inspiration and influence from larger festivals- from the Rainbow Gathering we draw sustainability, shared food, and a non-commercial culture, from the Twin Oaks Communities Conference we bring the lessons of living in intentional communities as well as embracing family participation, from the Network for New Culture we bring a strong consent culture, transparency, and non-violence, and from Burning Man we bring an immediate, participatory, radically inclusive culture.
QuinkFair works to make festival attendance accessible to more people by lowering barriers, especially financial and logistical barriers. We keep ticket prices as low as possible, we offer scholarship tickets (some lower cost, some free), we offer lower cost tickets for volunteers. All food is included in the cost of tickets (QF is internally non commercial, we have no vendors on site), and we provide transport from local airports, bus stations, and train stations for folks who are reliant on (or prefer to travel by) mass transit.
A day at QuinkFair may include
Early morning activities - yoga, meditation, martial arts, etc.
Delicious and healthy meals - all meals included when you buy a ticket.
Introduction to some self-exploration systems - such as Human Design, enneagram, astrology, Myers Briggs, and destiny cards….
Practices or processes that support self growth - changing language, personal reflection space, sharing circles, affinity groups, etc.
Healthy ways of relating - Authentic Relating, examining inter personal dynamics, play, etc.
Temple of Oracles - Seeking guidance using various divination tools and rituals.
Aphrodite’s Temple - Creating a consent culture and exploring physical intimacy.
Living life differently- from meeting some communities, to energy independence or downsizing, to claiming a new name.
Music! Fire circles! Dance!
River! Mud pit! Burning sculpture!
and of course camping on established campsites in the beautiful forest of Louisa, Virginia.
Watch this video to learn about the origin of QuinkFair
Some workshops on the schedule
Enjoying Energy Independence by Alexis Zeigler
What’s the best way to protest the fossil fuel industry? To not use fossil fuel. But isn’t that expensive?
Not if you use the Direct Drive DC Microgrids (D3M) developed at Living Energy Farm in Louisa Virginia. Our D3M energy systems cost about 80% less than conventional off-grid kits, and will run for the rest of your lifetime with almost no maintenance costs. We will give a brief technical overview of how these systems work, and what a D3M lifestyle is like. We will talk with participants about their home situation and how D3M might work for them.
Self Love Language by Joy Smith
Talking lovingly to ourselves takes a major step towards acknowledging our worth, moving towards our dreams and establishing peaceful relationships.
Come enjoy interactive play with words, body stance and self talk that affect how you feel. Explore how changing the way you talk to and about yourself can help you find more peace and ease within yourself, and in your life.
“Call Me By My Name" by Jade and Paxus
As a rite of passage into adulthood, many people choose a new name different from the one they were given at birth. We embody our essence fully when taking on a chosen name. This is a workshop for folks interested in sharing personal narratives on identity to discover the meaning of the name(s) we are known by.
Authentic Relating by Mike Jadoo
Authentic Relating (AR) practice helps us feel connected and understood by others. It explores a method for solving social problems while listening to our needs and those of others.
AR games provide an easy and fun way to help us practice relational conversations and to experience deeper connections with others so that we can enjoy life more. We will use several games to practice in pairs or triads in order to gain tools to help us build deeper connections.
Meet the Communities
Several of the intentional communities, mostly around Louisa, Virginia, will come for an ice cream social, talk with you about their communities and you can set up times to go visit the ones close by.
The festival opens on Thursday morning July 20th at 10am. Plan to come early to catch all the events you want to take part in.
Get a-STEPin'
However:
STEP will be paused for the OMG Sale July 23 - August 3, 2023
Once STEP re-opens August 3, it will remain open though August 26, 2023
This is a verified, safe market place that allows people with tickets that don't want them to sell them to people that don't have them! It does require a fee and a Burner Profile to participate in, we believe its about $50. The list is currently long and will be getting longer, so get your name on it as soon as you can!
Tickets purchased in STEP have the option to be shipped until July 21, 2023. Once that date has past, any tickets purchased through STEP will be held at Will Call for pick up at the Box Office at the Gate entrance to Black Rock City.
There is A LOT more information to convey, but that can be best viewed at the Burning Man website.
Burning Man will be releasing 3,000 tickets in the beginning of August known as the OMG Sale!
After you register, the day before the sale, you will receive a personal link that will put you in line for the sale.
One MUST register for the sale between July 26th 2023 (noon PDT) - July 28th 2023 (noon PDT)
(if you do not register for the sale, you will not be able to partake in said sale)
The sale is on August 2nd 2023 (noon PDT).
Like the main sale, this will happen fairly quickly, so take off of work, take a long lunch break, set alarms, and be on a secure/stable server. Also, like the main sale, if you have purchased tickets through the Steward Sale, Main Sale, or Ticket Aid Program you will be ineligible to purchase tickets for the OMG sale. Each registrant that successfully makes it to the online ticket booth will be able to purchase up to 2 tickets ($575 + taxes and fees/ ticket) and 1 vehicle pass.
We ask that if you make it to the ticket window, and can afford buying 2 tickets, that you purchase the maximum amount available to help other campers in their search for tickets.
Our Mission and Principles
'Living' refers to the fact that this Mission and Principles is an ever changing document that evolves with the heart of our community. You can view the early growth of this process, here. We also invite suggestions to be made (if so desired) to allow this to truly and fully be a document of collaboration!
The Discovery Process
The process goes as follows:
- A Potential campmate applies to camp
- The Cultural Stewards (CS) team reviews the application and ideally invites the applicant to schedule a discovery session with our CS Team.
- The CS Team is essentially the "Camp Vibe Check" Crew.
- After passing the 'vibe check', campers will be prompted to schedule a session with our Contribution Coordinator "Dr. Quinn" (Her bio is down below). Here we will explore how you want to show up/ contribute to camp.
- Once you have your role, we will set you up in telegram and it will be your responsibility to stay on top of information relevant to your team... as well as meetings and meet-ups pertaining to camp.
On behalf of the Cultural Stewards team, we are so excited to meet you and create with you on and off the playa!
WORKSHOPS!
If you would like to host your workshop or other events at our camp this year, please follow this link and submit your details to us as soon as possible. Event Form Submission deadline is May 15th. Please send sooner than later.
Many people say that running a workshop was one of their most rewarding Burning Man moments.
If you have any questions, please message Diana our Workshops Coordinator, or submit an event using our form here.
Carpool and CC Burner Bus!
Anyone wanting to come on the bus to the playa will have to have a ticket in hand. The bus will not be stopping at the will call ticketing booth.
Every registered camper can sign up for the bus leaving on Tuesday.
All other campers are encouraged to join our carpool chat on telegram after they get accepted into camp. If you are planning on joining us for build, we will all make sure transportation is arranged.
Tea Lounge
We are looking for a Tea Lounge lead (and support team). If you have a flair for creating ambiance and serving warm beverages to weary, mysterious, and magical travelers.... you might be exactly who we are looking for!
If interested, you can find the application here under Tea Lounge Coordinator.
In"tent"tional Internal Events
We have our eyes set on some fun and engaging activities for our village mates to participate in this year to deepen our connections and sense of friemily.
Our main questions to all of you are:
- What is your favorite event at Burning Man?
- What internal events would you like to see in the village?
-
E-mail us at hello@campcontact.org to respond to these questions and/or if you are interested in being apart of the magic.
Say Hello to Dr. Quinn!
She is excited to insert herself in this beautiful collective and help ensure that all the many areas of this amazing production have the support necessary to thrive.
Dr. Quinn has been living nomadically for 15 years, 5 years in her self-converted sprinter van tiny home, so she's handy with power tools and great at adapting to new environments. This will be her 16th burn. Quinn has a deep passion for personal evolution, consciousness, and thriving in communion with others. She is an author, an artist, and runs a successful business based around magic, marketing, and mindset for healers, coaches, and holistic practitioners.
She is very enthusiastically ready to chat with you about claiming your contribution roles for camp this year. We are choosing roles and stewarding positions in advance of arrival this year in hopes that we can decentralize more of the camp-knowledge and make everything run smoother.
Say 'How Do you Do' to Rua!
We are blessed to have Rua joining us on playa this year to ensure that camp contact offers a safe space for BIPOC campers and attendees. He will be in the R.I.D.E. (Radical Inclusion, Diversity, and Equity) Coordinator position for camp.
His role will be to coordinate with other "Social Cohesion" related Stewards/Leaders such as our Consent Team Lead and our Resolution Counsellor lead on any related issues.
He will also work with the Burning Man Org's R.I.D.E. program which is working to ensure that burners as a whole understand important concepts related to diversity, equity and inclusion.
The Burning Man Learning Portal, the Burning Man Hive, is a wealth of information for R.I.D.E related content, Sustainability content, and more. Once you sign up you can check out:
and more! If you are a Burner who identifies as BiPOC, we encourage you to join the Burners of Color Resource Group on the hive!
Say 'Hiya' to Diana!
We are excited to have Diana as our workshops coordinator and hope to get the pleasure of meeting her as well! Please feel free to reach out to her with your ideas (by May 15th!)
Until next time you beautiful beings!!!
Camp Contact
P.S. (please reach out to us with any questions you have! For Burning Man, You can communicate with the core team directly at core@campcontact.org or our cultural stewards team at hello@campcontact.org) FOr all other events Reach out to dance@campcontact.org
See you in the dust, or at one of our events in the Mid-Atlantic!