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Re: Phoenix Festival July 3-7 near Portland OR This talk about BurningMan reminded me I should mention an event of potential interest to those in the Pacific NW that appreciate BM. Phoenix Festival is a regional festival partly inspired by BM. This is the 3rd and last of a 3 year run for the organizers. I went last year and had a great time, and will be there this year as well. It happens on July 3-7 about an hour east of Portland, in Southern Washington State not far from the Columbia River. Although the intent of the festival is open ended and encouraging of 'make-your-own-fun' theme camps, most of the people show up with just camping gear and dance and party at one of the several DJ sound stages. As a result its a lot more sedate than BM. Last year had attendance of at least 1000. Some folks do make a nice theme camp out of it though. We had a 30' diameter dome in which I hosted a lot of music jams last year. We had a generator, small PA, electric looping gear as well as acoustic instruments including lots of hand drums. It was a ball, partly because by happen-stance some other musicians were there and we jammed a lot. That's the catch. The number of people attending is a bit below critical mass, and like I say most people are going to party, not to create an art happening. But enough do create some artistic mayhem of one sort or another to make it a worthwhile experience. This year I have been planning on not even taking electric looping gear, focusing rather on trying to make some drum circles happen. That has been well received and I expect some good drum jams to happen. I also do plan to bring acoustic instruments in the event other musicians are floating around. I would love to see somebody create an electric looping theme camp of some kind. I would bring gear to participate in that if it happened, but am not planning on organizing such. The environment is much saner than BM, very dry, fairly warm, but no dust storms or anything :). An electric looping village would require some kind of shelter, generators, and such. (That's why I'm expecting to just go acoustic this time) Anyway, if you live in the Pacific NW and would like to attend a mellow regional festival with a 'wee bit' of the Burning Man vibe, this is well worth considering. Here are some links : main: http://www.phoenixfest.com/ description: http://www.phoenixfest.com/about.html FAQ: http://www.phoenixfest.com/faq.html anybody wants to know more or hook up around this, drop me a line off list. Bob Campbell Seattle area rcc@nwlink.com