Permaburn – a full-time alternative to Burning Man

Stumbled across this community, 640 acres over 1 square mile, which is located 120 miles from Gehrlach, close to the unlikely-named town of Likely.

Here’s their idea: “Leave a Trace

The magic of Burning man seems to have an effect on every person that attends. Breathing in playa dust for the first time, experiencing the overwhelming amount of color, light, and sound. Realizing whole new meanings of the words freedom, creativity and expression. Understanding just how limitless life can really be when you open your mind to new possibilities.

Many who find themselves consumed with the immensity, splendor, and energy of this one week event, often wonder if its possible to have a permanent black rock city. Imagine a place where burners can come and visit, or even stay, for as long as they liked. Art would never have to be torn down, or burnt up at the end of a week. Cost and effort could be channeled into something that would last for years. Projects could be developed and expanded each year to create something vastly larger and complex than there could ever be on the temporary surfaces of the playa.

Every city is founded on its people. For such a dream to become a reality it requires enthusiastic and energetic participants with the drive and dedication to make this dream a reality. Visionaries who could see the all the potential that this permanent city could be. Builders and artists who love the thrill of participating and creating a place limited only by imagination.

Taking the concept of burningman, removing the temporary and limited boundaries – PermaBurn is that city!

Here’s how their financial model works.

PermaBurn’s physical land will be owned by eight non-profit organizations (tribes) each consisting of 80 acres. Each tribe would be run by elected members, so that no one person will ever have control of the land or be able to sell the land for their own gain.

The land will be sectioned into 1/4 acre plots, with 2,000 plots in total, and rented to PermaBurn members for $500 per year, per plot. These plots could be used for a members own personal use to build art, a theme camp, or even a residence. The land could be used for storage of materials, mutant vehicles or tinkering workshops. Membership is not limited by plot size as multiple plots may be rented by a single member or members. However, all members of a camp must first have a PermaBurn membership.

Lifetime membership can be obtained for only $200 which will include unlimited camping, use of all common areas, and full voting rights for how Permaburn will live and function.

All the proceeds are invested directly back into the city to continue building infrastructure and striving to make this city the most unique city on the planet.

Every camp will be a proactive part of the community which means even if your just using your camp area as storage for burningman, it is expected that each camp should have something to offer the rest of the community. This may be in the form of an annual (or more often) organized event. The idea is that if there are 500 active camps, there would be an average of 10 events going on around the city every weekend.

PermaBurn is capable of supporting over 1,000 camps and 10,000 members and for major events the more the merrier, as the surrounding BLM land can also be used for camping and parking if required.

Sounds great! Is it for real? Well, the Facebook group has 600+ members, but their events calendar hasn’t been updated since they became an LLC in 2010.

Although they promote it as a great place to store art cars and equipment, it sounds like the access might not be quite so easy

If you haven’t been out, there is 5 miles of gravel road, some of it has dips that would challenge anything with a flat exit angle, such as a long over-hang RV.   But there have been trailers as long as 24 feet, a full-sized Greyhound bus and one fully loaded Geo Metro, so any normal car will make it if you dodge a few rocks.  High clearance or trucks, no problem at all.

It’s not exactly Las Vegas. But it could have potential…

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