After Burn
Introduction and Thanks
NYC Decom 2022 was a success! Another all ages large scale NYC Decompression with an exploding man as our event’s centerpiece. We are honored that the diverse artists, theme camps, performers, volunteers and participants came together to create such a joyous expression of our culture. New York City is a large community and we are proud to say that our population and our event was varied in age, race, orientation, expression and interests. Thank you everyone for your participation.
Team
As your regional representatives (current and former), we would like to acknowledge the following team leads for their volunteerism and dedication:
Shiny, Producer
Ali Luminsicent, Performance Lead
Rohan & Todd, Volunteer Leads
Manon, Ticketing Liaison
Firecracker, Ranger Lead
Erik Slavin, Kidsville
Harmony, Conclave
Elena & Sage, Fire Leads
Meg-O, Greeter Lead
Theme
“Dreamy” was a lighthearted play on Burning Man’s 2022 theme. Paying homage to The Waking Dream while softening it for hard times we have all recently been through.
LEO, Sound Complaints, Reported Injuries
Once again we are proud to report that we had no issues with law enforcement, no sound complaints, and no reported injuries! The venue continues to be elated and surprised with our efficiency and our ability to leave no trace.
Venue & Ticketing
Our venue (The Knockdown Center) continues to require and raise their substantial and insurmountable bar guarantee in return for holding our event. We chose to set adult ticket prices at $50 (announced in May and raised to $60 during the last month of sales) to cover our production costs and inevitable bar guarantee shortfall. We arrived at those numbers to thread the needle between a reasonable price for a large scale event and being fiscally responsible to our newly formed Not For Profit, New York League of Arts Ltd (NYLoA). For comparison, most marquee burner and burner adjacent events in the month of October price within the $100 to $300 range. In lieu of a reduced price or low income tickets, a substantial number of community members were awarded free tickets to the event in return for their volunteer efforts. Additionally any minor (under 21) that wanted to attend was offered a free ticket if they attended with an adult.
In 2021 The Knockdown Center signed a contract with dice.fm to handle their ticketing. This is not our preferred partner and led to many hours of phone calls and website adjustments with this vendor leading up to and during the event. Despite that, we are happy to report that in 2022 we had 1725 paid attendees at NYC Decompression. This number is 190 people less than it was in 2019. We believe this drop in attendance was due to the weather leading up to and during the event. Rain and bad weather from Hurricane Ian forced us to move the event indoors.
Decompression Art Grants
Decompression awarded over $24,000 in grants to participating art projects. Our art grants were directed to theme camps to fund their spaces, art installations and programming.
Financials
The moment you have all been waiting for. Where did my ticket money go!?
Profits
New York’s 2022 Decompression event profited $26,558.04.
>10% will be donated to the Burning Man Project to further support their mission.
>18% will be donated to Burners Without Border NYC Chapter.
This will bring the not for profit bank account balance to $51,048.43. After accounting for the art grants in the amount of ($6,305) that were distributed in 2022. More information on those awardees and grant process can be found at https://burningman.nyc/arts/art-grants.
NYLoA plans to set aside $30,000 of the current bank account for the 2023 Decompression event so that we don’t have to rely on an outside fiscal sponsor for that event. We plan to use the balance for the 2023 grant cycle as well as a nominal portion for administrative accounting and filings.
Grants
New York League of Arts, the not for profit that runs NYC Decom plans to hold their 2nd set of art grants in 2023. More information on those awardees and grant process can be found at https://burningman.nyc/arts/art-grants. The art grant program is aimed at helping to facilitate the creative process through public art, education and events. The art grant program will be open to applications by the community for any New York City based artist/educator who is building art to be brought to Burning Man, building art for Decompression, or building art for BM-related events in NYC. The application form and criteria will be published in January. We will prioritize funding of highly interactive, community-driven, collaborative works of art that are accessible to the public and civic in scope. We expect to have applications open until just before the Annual NYC Playa Arts Preview event, artists will be notified in the late spring and funds will be transferred in early summer. If you are interested in being on the review board, you may apply by filling out the form at: https://burningman.nyc/arts/review-board
Daniel Zen, Decom Producer & NYC Regional Contact
Stefan Pildes, Decom Designer & Former Regional Contact