We’re here at the inaugural Free Form Festival, in Woodstown, New Jersey. It’s in Salem County, not to be confused with Salem Massachusetts of witch-burning fame. Closer to Philadelphia than New York, and we’re meeting a lot of locals – in this area, living within 50 miles makes you a local. There is an actual real life rodeo going on across the road in Cow Town later tonight.

Free Form obviously takes some cues from Burning Man. Perhaps we can expect another snide “they’re just copying us” post on the official Burning Man blog soon.

When we arrived, we were met with a girl in a crazy glow dress and a Russian, who greeted us with “welcome home!”. Then he handed us a cup of Cognac – the good stuff, Hennessy Privilege. “I’m trying to break the stereotype that Russians only drink vodka”, he explained. I was just pleased I didn’t have to roll in the dirt and get my ass spanked. It was refreshing to arrive at the party, after hours of diversions to stock the RV at Target, Wal-mart, CVS, and others, and get straight in – better than the 7+ hours in and out of Burning Man. Once we got through the gates, we saw signs of the 10 principles. Although I’m pretty sure last night there were only 9, today the count is at 10.

It’s a Leave No Trace event, which has permanent bathrooms and a Coke machine.

So far, so good. Our camp, Echo Collective, are great people with great music. We are next to a black light body painter and her dome of artworks. There are power hookups everywhere, not only for RVs but many tents are plugged in. This is great for the 66 feet of EL wire and 39 feet of rope lighting we bought on the way in – makes it easy to find the RV.

There are some great art cars here which have never been to Burning Man. Once again, Overkill lives up to their name, showing up in a 60-ton semi-trailer with 7 Lady Bugs (not their whole armada, BTW).

Not sure if there’ll be another live update over the weekend – there’s partying to be had! It is great to have full AT & T 4G service, makes it very easy for us to find our friends.

Overkill’s Ladybug transporter