We headed out the Playa this year with Octavius strapped down to a bunch of flatbed trucks, ready for the experience of a lifetime. Earlier in the Spring we had practice setting him up for the Reno Sculpture Fest, so we had an idea of what setting this monster up would be like out there, but once we arrived, well, it became a different story. There was more dust on that Playa then we knew what to do with. Dust blowing everywhere, blowing in our food, in our ears, up our skirts... more dust than you could ever imagine. Sometimes all we could see was Octavius directly in front of us and those things at an arms distance away. It was a struggle to try and put our beast together in these conditions, but slowly we got used to it and were able to get him in place. Octavius attracted quite the attention from other early arrivers, and we knew early on that he would be a major hit and attraction. As we were putting Octavius together the lighting elements were quite tricky and we all started to completely panic at the amount of time it was taking, but thankfully our lighting guy came to the rescue and made Octavius light up like a kid's face at Christmas time. It was pretty amazing seeing Octavius light up like he did for the first time; as we definitely had our doubts putting it together whether we’d be able to pull it off. Thanks again Luke!
“YOU- campmates- made this burn a redemption year for me, the past two burns had been muddied for me with gnarly "camp drama" and harsh attitudes that lead me to believe the only way to enjoy the playa is camping out on your own. But you guys, you guys blew me out of the water!!! This camp was such a lovely group of giving, positive, funny, whacky, clever people that it MADE MY BURN and I CANNOT WAIT to come back and camp with you all next year” – Sarah Rubin
Our Octavius team camp, aka as "The Slippery Tentacle" was surrounded by trailers, RVs, and Mike’s crane truck. The crane was holding up parts of our shade structure to the top of the other RVs. The crane also held up our 50 gallon water jug for the whole camp to use. I believe we had three of those jugs for the week. There were a couple couches and a coffee table in the middle. It was definitely like our little home away from home for the week and it became a super rad place to lounge and hang out. The energy in our camp was very welcoming. Our whole team was able to bond and get to know each other better than ever before! We had a couple people who were friends of friends that stayed at our camp and we made them feel right at home. It was like we knew them already. Really, it was an amazing community type experience, for all of Team Peter Hazel, and even the new recruits and fans that came through the camp. After Burning Man we had a really touching email thread going on for a while, with everyone sharing memories, and thanking each other. Burning Man has this really insane effect of bringing strangers together, and fostering these great relationships that probably wouldn’t be able to happen in “the real world”. We let our guards down and left all of our pretenses out in the Man’s world, and really had an amazing Burn.
“The team effort and chemistry within our camp made my first Burning Man such a special experience. One that will standout in my memory for the rest of my life.” – Morgan Picoy
"And Hats off to Mike, for without him this burn would have been much different. He provided the muscle to get " Phil" onto the Playa, the shade structure that made our lives easier and the umph for Craig and Page's hanging water art project; but most of all - his inspiration for turning "Boombastic" into an art car by just adding water and will so everyone could see the burn from the perfect vantage point.” –Bruno Rocca
"And Hats off to Mike, for without him this burn would have been much different. He provided the muscle to get " Phil" onto the Playa, the shade structure that made our lives easier and the umph for Craig and Page's hanging water art project; but most of all - his inspiration for turning "Boombastic" into an art car by just adding water and will so everyone could see the burn from the perfect vantage point.” –Bruno Rocca
Octavius was extremely well received. Due to his massive presence out at Burning Man this year, we’ve gotten quite a bit of media attention, and even several offers to buy and permanently place him. Not spilling any details yet on where he might wind up, but trust us, it’s big!
“What touches me the most, is the unselfish support everyone gave each other (even before we all arrived)!! I met most of you for the first time arriving at camp and felt so at Home right away, like you were all family.” – Alexis George.
Overall, our Burning Man experiene was one for the record books. We really all grew together as a team, and really hope to have the same team, and even some new folks out this year. It was quite the event!
Best,
Team Peter Hazel
Best,
Team Peter Hazel
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