Naughty, naughty Krug

[Updated 5/16/12 9pm – Oli from Zoo camp has spoken in their defense, analysis at the end]

Our recent post “Look daaahling, a Sparkle Pony” has been very popular, and seems to have stirred up a response from the BMOrg. And a good response at that – kudos to Evil Pippi, we support her sentiments and are glad to get some back story on the matter. Let’s be clear, Burners.Me’s position is:

Art Cars , Artists, and Art Projects should be able to do anything they want to raise the money to get them to Burning Man.

But that doesn’t mean, kill people, hurt animals, destroy Burning Man. Anything is anything within reason, and with respect to our values and our community.

In the case of the Town and Country alleged “birthday”, it doesn’t seem like the breach of the Decommodification principle, could be justified by the ends. It didn’t lead to any support for the arts, it was just blatant cashing in and over-the-top gentrificaition. And it left a trace. In other words, total commodification. And lack of respect for our culture.

It seems that the whole affair was a publicity stunt staged by Krug, and Town and Country were some of the hacks brought in for the event.

Krug, a centuries-old luxury champagne house, and its publicity machine, staged and hosted an elaborate dinner party at the trash fence on Friday night of the 2011 event. Pre-event, Krug’s PR agency pitched members of the media to photograph and report on the staged dinner for publications such as Town & Country and W Magazine. They invited society bloggers to the “exclusive” champagne dinner with the expectation of getting even more coverage, and pro photogs to shoot it. And it worked.

No harm done, right? Well, not only did they violate “Decommodification”, one of the Sacred Ten Principles; they also violated “Leave No Trace”, which really is the golden rule. Not only from BMOrg but also on the permit.

My friends and I came across the scene of the dinner on our art car, The Slug, en route to explore the deep playa late on Friday night. We slowed down to check out the remains of what appeared to have been a fantastically fancy party staged on a long constructed dinner table, lit by large hurricane lanterns. The stained tables had empty water bottles and other party residue strewn about.  And it was right along the trash fence. What a great place for such a dinner, we marveled. But was anyone going to clean it all up? Not a soul was around.  Krug just took their commodified photos and left the mess for us. 

Now just, so you know, the Slug isn’t just any old art car. In fact, it’s

the skankiest, nastiest, Mad Max-ing-est art car out here. It started life in the mid-60s as some kind of truck, and now it’s smelly and dusty and LOUD. And unbelieveably cool. It’s pretty much the only car I would want to be seen on, and that’s really saying something.

Of course, being Burning Man, there’s always another opinion

If you don’t know it, The Slug is the least “artful” “Art Car” on the Playa. It’s just an old truck with an upper deck and a really loud sound system, but it’s been kicking around for a long time and it’s TEN TONS OF FUN!!! 

Anyway, the Slug is not at fault here. They’re just pointing out the Principles Violations. Back to the miscreants, the Naughty owners of Krug. We can’t just blame Krug, this seems like the acts of a minion not an owner. Although Carl’s title is “International Brand Ambassador”. Quite the diplomatic mistake, Mr Ambassador. NYC restaurant the Fat Radish was at fault too…

Seizing the opportunity to entertain the creative spirits and bon vivants that had descended upon Black Rock Desert for Burning Man, the annual art event and temporary community based on self-expression, Carl Heline from Krug and his friends Phil Winser and Ben Towill from The Fat Radish embarked on an ambitious three-day build out for their dinner party in the desert.

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Krug might be a good champagne, but they shouldn’t have done this. Boycott Fat Radish! Boycott LVMH! We need a “Camp Town And Cuntry”, along the lines of McSatan…

[Update 8:54pm PST: Burner Oli from Zoo Camp made this statement in their defense:

Hi everyone, my name is Oli. I am the creator of the Zoo camp.

I have been to BRC for the past four years. On my first year I was still living in France and heard about BM from friends in the US. That was 2007. At the time nobody in Europe knew about BM. On 2008 I finally hit the playa with 3 friends, knowing nothing about it. We discovered the playa, its amazing people and its values… a life changing experience.

On my second year we decided to create a camp and share this experience with other Europeans who didn’t have a clue about BM. On that second year the camp had 75 members and 70 of them were virgins on the playa. Burners were saying we were crazy to bring so many virgins but everything happened perfectly… playa’s magic!

On the third year the camp had 110 people, 60 virgins amongst them, and last year 130 people with at least 50 virgins. I mention this because I want to outline our passion for BM’s values and our passion to share these values with new people. Every year we have tried to bring more to the playa, more creativity, to give more time and energy.

Now please allow me to clarify the incident that you are talking about as I think it is worth explaining. You have shared what you saw and felt, please let me share with you what really happened.

Ben and Phil, two 27 years old amazing British guys who created a restaurant in New York (The Fat Raddish as you mentioned it), are our friends. They proposed to take care of the food of the camp, budget which has been divided within the camp members, as many other camps do. Everyday they prepared the food of our camp and also organized the dinner on Thursday night for my birthday. My birthday dinner on the Thursday night has been always been a tradition of our camp.

Carl, who is also a friend for many years, proposed to bring champagne to celebrate my birthday. The champagne he brought was shared at the beginning of the dinner with everyone who was there. The dinner lasted all night and over 700 people joined what was a great night.

Unfortunately it happened that Carl decided to publicize the fact of having bringing his Krug to the desert. When Carl offered to bring the champagne he clearly stated it would not be with any promotional intent. This has been done without Zoo’s approval. Had we known it was going to be used that way we would have refused it BIG TIME!!!

And yes, I personally saw photographers who were friends of Carl and who were taking pictures all night. I never imagined pictures would be used for press. In fact it was only after BM, once we saw the article in the press, that we learned they were used in a commercial effort.

In regards to the location, we were granted a permit for the construction of this incredible table at this location. Everything was cleaned up after the dinner and the rest was finished in the morning light. The only thing not removed immediately was the dinner table.

The table was incredible, it was built by Phil who is a fantastic architect. On Friday afternoon, when we came to dismount it, it was being used by dozens of burners who were using it to have lunch and dinner so we left it there until the end of BM. Over four days hundreds of people used this beautiful table. Phil and Ben even received a medal from the BM organization for its construction.

Now, how can you say that our Art cars were Krug art cars? Our Art Cars had nothing to do with Krug… nothing at all! They were built by the members of our camp, amongst them many burners who participated in the construction of the Waffle. That’s why it had the look with the wooden sticks that many people on the playa recognized.

I am deeply sorry for this incident. What was supposed to be my birthday dinner gathering friends on the playa has ended up being used outside of BM for commercial purposes. This was completely unknown to me and to the Zoo and the concept of it is against our will. We are sorry and can only regret.

However, I do not think the Zoo camp should be blamed as much. For 4 years the Zoo has integrated hundreds of virgins, coming mainly from Europe and the 4 corners of the world trying its best to promote the values of Burning Man.

Our camp is deeply in love with Black Rock and respect its values. To condemn hundreds of people who have participated in this camp because one person has crossed the borders seems very unfortunate.

I am the creator of the camp. Blame me if you must, condemn me if you must, ban me if you must. I take full responsibility. But please, do not deprive the rest of our members. During the last 4 years they have brought happiness and color to BM and it would not do justice to put on them the blame created by the act of one person.

We understand your concern, we agree and deeply regret that a border has been crossed. We have been living with it since last year and I tell you it has been a heavy burden on our shoulders.

We have always striven to do our best for burning Man, but sorry to have fucked up on that one.

PS: After four years and a lot of sweat for BM… I didn’t get tickets at the lottery this year…. maybe justice has already been done!]

I have to say, I feel for Oli. And it’s not just me – dearly departed Action Girl thinks so too:

It is not fair to say that the entire camp nor the art car’s organizer’s were necessarily implicit in the connection with Krug. Don’t really have that information. It could even be possible, I suppose, that few in the camp outside of the Krug representative & hired guns knew much about the commercial connection or thought the “birthday party” was anything but a birthday party.

Did they really SIN? When we see all the things that happen around us with war, crime, politicians – in the scheme of things, is this really the worst thing that’s ever happened at Burning Man? Can we blame everyone at Zoo Camp? Isn’t Burning Man about love, a world without hating and blaming? Sure, it’s clear someone hooked up PR and sponsorship for this party. And it wasn’t BMOrg. But it seems like they did get permits and approvals. And no-one’s saying money changed hands on the Playa. It was a way to fund a party, it seems like a great dinner, wish we were there.

That doesn’t excuse pollution, though. I don’t care if you’re on the streets of Manhattan or you’re a darktard speed bump on the Esplanade. Pollution is the biggest problem in the world. Burning Man should be a way to teach everyone to live in harmony with Nature, no matter how harsh. Burner Oli doesn’t really address the LNT…just saying “we cleaned up”. But, I’m not sure the Slug would lie. Then again, I’ve never heard a truthful word from a slug before. Have you?

So what you gonna do, Burners? Hate? Judge? Other negative emotions? Or forgive, love, include…and learn? 

[…more coverage over at Laughing Squid]