By Bixyl Shuftan
Every October, fans of Burning Man, a huge real-life art and music event that takes place every late summer in Black Rock Nevada, gather at a number of sims in Second Life to hold the virtual equivalent. For the virtual world's first few years, it was sponsored by Linden Lab and known as Burning Life. After the Lab discontinued it's sponsorship, the fans reorganized themselves and the event became known as Burn2. In recent years, there have been two noteable Burning Man inspired events. In 2020 and 2021, due to the Pandemic the real-life event was canceled and moved online. So people in Second Life could attend both what was the official event and a few weeks later it's traditional virtual equivalent, or "Octoburn."
In 2022, once again there were two Burning Man inspired events close together. But the cause was not a pandemic, but a human one. As usual, the Burn2 event took place in early to mid October. But there was a second Burner event, the "Renegade Burn." It was organized by the Burn ONe group, who got attention in summer for their beach sim in July which turned into a Waterworld tribute in August.
The event got it's name from the real-life events that took place in Black Rock Nevada during the Pandemic. While Burning Man was officially moved online, some people went to the area anyway, in both 2020 and 2021.
This year, there was some trouble among the Burners, which got worse when the Deep Hole sim was temporarily closed this summer. There's been an effort to change and add to Burn2's policies. Over the months, a number of people either were dismissed or resigned, many of whom joined Burn ONe. When one of Burn2 spoke in a Q & A article for the Newser, she explained they've been trying to cool things down and be reasonable and trying to improve things for everyone. The comments were full of people stating what they experienced was very much to the contrary of the official word.
The event took place in the Capri sim.
It ran from Saturday October 15 to Saturday October 29.
There were both a number of exhibits around.
While there were a few displays of anger at the Burn2 leadership, notably the words "F**k Your Burn" near the entrance, for the most part people simply wanted to have fun and show off their art and music. A number of the BurnONe group have been reserved and diplomatic, preferring to be voices of reason.
There were also some music events.
Some people took part in both Burn2 and the Renegade Burn.
Grease Coakes had few performances there.
One of the displays was interactive: a boat ride to the Underworld.
There was also a game in which you got points for smashing pumpkins.
On Sunday October 23 was one special event.
This was when the Renegade Man Burn took place.
The figure was a simpler version of "The Man," with the word "RENEGADE" over it.
Which soon burned and crumbled to the ground.
In the end, the Burners in the Renegade event congratulated themselves for a job well done.
So what does the future hold? At the moment one can only guess. But unless there's some kind of reconciliation, as long as Burn ONe can find places to hold an event, it's safe to assume the Renegade Burn events will continue. And for some of us, that means twice the fun.
Addition: In the few days since this went up, I was approached with a couple details. Someone from Burn2 had asked that in future articles that it be more clear that Burn ONe has no connection to either Burn2 or the Burning Man organization.
The second was that I was approached by one of Burn ONe who stated that the expression "F**k Your Burn" wasn't meant to be an expression of anger, but "another way that burners say welcome home - Welcome Home! or F**k your Burn!"
Bixyl Shuftan
