Home is where you burn at.
Richard North
Public
Seen by 72
Hello all, I apologize for this taking so long to write this but umm my dog ate it.
This AP is to bring to everyone's attention that as a community we would like to discuss where we would like to host our Celtic collaboration in the years to come. My darling other facilitated an open forum at the end of last year's event creating a space where you could all voice your thoughts on 2024's event and if we should stay or leave the beloved site which is Marthrown of Mabie. You can now see the feedback in the 'AP' chat over on Telegram. In terms of staying or going, you will see there were 3 camps with the majority wanting either more information or more time to discuss, or saying that we should stay for various reasons.
There has been mixed feed back regarding the site over the years and I can safely say that by no means do we see ourselves here for the long haul but the question is where to next??? Taking the market research results into account with the majority of the voices there stating something other than finding a new site for 2025, and given that the conversation hasn't developed further, we have reserved Marthrown 14th - 21st April 2025 for the same cost as this year. All we ned to do is confirm with Pam and Mike who are holding those dates for us.
Since April, Vic and I have visited Pam and Mike a couple of times to chat with them and see what there plans are and as it stands they are retiring and selling the businesses they have built over the last 18 years. They will be vacating Marthrown in February 2026 and are selling the business as a whole, assets and all. With this in mind, CB 2025 will be the last event with Pam and Mike as site owners so feels like a natural send off before they retire.
Tangentially, we spoke about the infrastructure they own and if they would be open to selling them to us but unfortunately that can not happen as it would devalue the business they will be selling as it comes as a job lot.
So to recap, this AP is to announce and to invite discussion on the following;
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CB 2025 dates are booked for 14th - 21st April at Marthrown - all in favour 🙋♂️
CB 2026 where on earth shall it be 🤷♂️
Please head over to the AP telegram chat group thing and read the feedback from 2024 if you haven't already then please voice your opinions here.
I will close this AP on 30th August as we will need to inform Pam and Mike of our plans, at which time I'm sure we can take the conversation further over on telegram to share more in the moment.
Yours harmoniously,
Rachel Liberty Sun 4 Aug 2024 5:26PM
Thank you for this summary Victoria, I agree.
I would like to stay at Marthrown 2025 and consolidate.
Form a build group for 2025 and do a "mini build" to get the skills for this started for 2026.
Form a scouting group for 2026
Sprite Sat 10 Aug 2024 1:55PM
I'm strongly in favor of Marthrown for 2025. We're already 3.5 months out from CB2024, which means 8.5 months until CB2025, and that does not strike me as enough time for current membership to develop the skills, raise the money, and get the infrastructure in place to be the Burn we want to be in April of next year.
I also believe that place and time of year factor into the demands we place upon ourselves: a week of camping in Scotland in April is a very different kettle of fish to a week of camping in the Nevada desert in September. Radical self-reliance is beautiful... as is knowing ourselves, our needs, who WE are. Personally, I don't feel any compulsion to be a particular kind of Burn, just because that kind happens elsewhere or is more famous. That doesn't make them any more real or more glorious! xx
Jakub Hajko Tue 13 Aug 2024 9:56AM
I support the current plan of staying in Marthrown in 2025 and looking elsewhere for 2026. We've already done some research and exploration and I don't think it revealed as many options as we were hoping for. Finding more will be even bigger challenge, so having more than a year for it is vastly better than having a couple of months. However, this is coming from one of the careful people who haven't been to other burns yet.
I'd very much like to commit to be part of the build group, it'll just require more planning on our side. I shall deliberate on this and scheme in my own time.
Rachel Thu 5 Sep 2024 5:02PM
Just realized the deadline for this AP has passed, do we have any conclusion?
Richard North Tue 10 Sep 2024 8:32PM
Thought I'd give it an extra week to see if any more comments came up but that's it...AP is closed.
Victoria B · Sun 28 Jul 2024 4:40PM
@fox of light I think there's a lot of assumptions being made here not based on the conversations that were had- in-person with the energy of the burn around us- that suggested that many people wanted to stay at the current site. The reasons they gave were that they didnt think we had the energy/experience/infrastructure/core organisation to make it happen at the moment. We didnt even sell out tickets, and this was expressed that we'd like to have done that, and to have another year of returners to solidify and then push for 2026 to a new site.
The assumptions being made are that Sam is the main instigator/contributer which I think is quite alienating to lots of others who have put in a lot of time and energy doing/thinking/developing this event.
Another assumption is that the celtic burn community wants to grow/ 'mature' as you put it. I think we are quite unique as a community in that many of those who have been involved since the first CB in 2021, havent been to many other burns. As such, there is no comparison or reference point for many of the things the culture decrees as defining a 'burn'. We dont have an effigy, we dont do temple burn. We have lots of infrastructure and I think a lot of people like that aspect of this burn and don't want to rock the boat just to be 'more of a burn'.
I don't doubt that we will grow and mature gradually and naturally; there will always be cautious folk among us, and those pioneers who bring ideas and new angles to the planning. However, for the moment the feeling I have is that the wider community has already expressed some reticence/worry with moving too fast and I think thats telling.
I say, we need to use the next year to solidify ourselves, gather intel on other sites and work on refining our general structure to call people to action- or else the same people will be doing the same work time and time again. And then make the move to an interim site in 2026.
@Rachel in answer to your question about what are the next steps, I think we need to focus on the following;
-Set up a scouting group/ channel to find alternatives to Knock with the specifications above for 2026
-start to raise funds through events, year-round memberships/dues or other means to buy infrastructure and find somewhere to store it
-establish a 'build' working group/get people to commit to turning up before the event in 2025. This will tell us what we need to know about availability and what people have capacity for.
-once we have an idea of site and have raised some cash/bought some tents and generators, we can start to budget and work out potential membership costs for the event.
-website will be crucial for making sure we sell memberships
- use 2025 at Marthrown as a launchpad for some of the infrastructure/ do a 'mini-build' to give people a taste of what it could be like and what can be acheived.
In summary, I think there are voices in our midst who are really experienced and knowledgeable about burns and have all the blueprints after which to model CB. But we can only go as fast as the community wants to go and we have to meet people where they are at. CB is special and has a lot going for it not found at other burns- or so i'm told- so its important to preserve that.