We last did a major update to this site exactly two years ago on February 20, 2020 as we were gearing up for plans to go to Burning Man that year. Well, COVID-19 had other plans and just a few weeks later, the entire world shut down. Burning Man was cancelled in both 2020 and 2021, so we are entering our planning phase now with a little trepidation. It's entirely possible a new, nasty variant could pop up and change all of our plans again.

However, we also believe that if you don't make plans then nothing will happen. So, onward we will go.

In the past, we have served as a hydration station in Black Rock City, offering water fill ups to thirsty burners traipsing around in the heat of the playa. We will still offer water this year but in a much different way.

Much different.

During the past two years, we have had time to be introspective and to get in touch with things that really matter. We know we are not alone in that. We also live in a genuinely magical area of the world, just 52 miles from the east entrance to Yellowstone National Park. There is power in place and we intend to bring that power in the form of healing, ritual, and water to those who will join us in Black Rock City, Nevada this year. 

What exactly does that mean? Stay tuned as we reveal more about our gift and all we're doing here to shepherd the power of our place to you in another place that we all love.

​See you out there, fellow dusty burners.

​- April

It has certainly been a whirlwind of information and planning the past couple of months. As a camp, we had just made the decision to take a break from Burning Man this year. Many of our individual camp mates still plan to go (should BRC open as scheduled) but as Yellowstone Burners, we will take a year off. Our leadership team simply didn't have enough time, or personal funds, to pull it off.

Now that the coronavirus has hit, those funds have taken an even bigger hit. So everything is uncertain right now and we are finding that the more we embrace the uncertainty, and stop expecting things to be certain, the less anxious we feel. Along those lines, the entire Burning Man gathering in Nevada is up in the air right now. Nothing is certain. The Org has announced that they will still hold their Theme Camp Symposium this weekend - but it will all be done online through Zoom. They are also marching forward with plans for BRC in 2020, same time, same date...for now.

Please read this update by Burning Man CEO Marian Goodell to get the full picture as well as some links to other great burner related articles and information. https://journal.burningman.org/2020/03/opinion/serious-stuff/ties-that-bind-ties-that-burn/
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Most folks will want to know that 2020 ticketing information has been announced. As you read through the ticketing link below, it may help to know that the Directed Group Sale is for existing camps that have participated previously and may be invited by Burning Man to participate again. General tickets are now $475 and a vehicle pass is $140, plus fees, taxes, etc.

The three upcoming sales most people will want to follow are the Low Income Ticket program (application opens February 12), the FOMO Sale (registration opens March 11), and the Main Sale (registration opens April 1 - no joke). After following the link, let us know if you have questions - we are here to help you understand the process as best as we can.

Burning Man ticketing page: www.tickets.burningman.org or get more explanations on the Burning Man blog.

Each year, the Burning Man organization asks for teams/artists to submit a design for the Temple, along with details of how they would plan to bring it to fruition. The Temple is a tremendous undertaking so while there are generally only a handful of submissions, the competition is strong. Over the past few years, Burning Man has begun to request submissions a lot earlier, giving the selected team more time to to create the Temple, ensuring they can deliver on what has become such an important space for many who attend. This year's Temple has already been announced and the team is hard at work getting organized and funded: Check it out here!

The main founder of Burning Man, Larry Harvey, passed away on April 28, 2018. Right up until his passing, he was very hands-on with many parts of the event, including choosing the theme each year and the design of The Man. Last year was the first full year of planning that happened without him and the organization made one interesting change that they have continued this year; they solicited a handful of prominent Burning Man artists and asked them to submit a design for The Man. The community had not previously been involved in this way and many participants, including the veterans from Yellowstone Burners, loved the design last year. 

They have done it again this year and we love it! The theme this year is The Multiverse and you can read all about the theme and the chosen design on the Burning Man blog. We can't wait to see it in person!

We have been really behind in our updates, so April just made this video to get everyone caught up. If you prefer to read, here are the highlights:

• The Yellowstone Burners are growing and we've done some incredible things this past year. We had a fantastic Halloween party and New Years Eve party which had a big focus on art, music, food, and dancing. We will make these annual events; Voodoo on the Bayou and Steampunk Wonderland.
• Yellowstone Burners helped our friend Alison and her tae kwon do school transform our bus into a beautiful dragon for Cody's 4th of July parade. The float won Mayor's Choice and Judges Favorite!
• We participated in the Yellowstone Beer Fest, providing 170 gallons of free water to participants, and providing fantastic views from the upper deck of our bus.
• We are part of the Beartooth Music Festival taking place this August 2 and 3. We've been asked to do some art for the outdoor stage. All proceeds from the festival this year will go to veteran group Fight Oar Die, a team that rows 3000 miles off the coast of Africa in a race. In honor of them, we plan to make the stage look like a Viking ship being attacked by a kracken.
• Saddle Up! was not approved to bring to Burning Man this year. Our project did not look enough like the concept last year and so they passed on us for this year. Our plan is to finish the mutant vehicle over the winter and make sure that its done in time for next year's applications, so we will be able to apply with the finished product, rather than a concept.
• We WILL BE AT BURNING MAN this year, as a theme camp :). We have been placed at 2:15 and C; we'll be serving hydration drinks from our upper deck from 9ish to 5ish, Monday through Friday. Please come by and say hello!
• We feel badly that we haven't sent out all of the perks from our last campaign...and we need to raise money again. Please forgive us; April is okay now but had a very emotionally rough year and was not on her game.
• Much love to everyone!

 We are very excited to announce a redesign of our mutant vehicle project, Saddle Up! We tried a version of it last year but we were working with a very small local team of just three-four people. We are now thrilled that our team has grown to over 10 incredibly talented folks who are eager to work on the project every weekend. We have drawings that are to scale, we have a welder, a machinist, and several talented artists working with paint, wood, and fabric.

One of the key differences with this design is that the saddle sits lower on the bus and the saddle itself is a different style too; it has a longer seat and lower cantle. Where you see the beautiful scroll work on the saddle - that will be sheer fabric with the details painted on. This will allow guests on our upper deck to still see through the fabric and get a good view, but gives us the beautiful saddle aethetic on the outside for others to see. 

We have also purchased all new fabric this year, at a fraction of our cost last year. This new fabric is called scrim and it is used in theater performances. In our lighting tests, we see that it diffuses the light nicely, giving it a soft glow and yet it is also breathable, making it helpful for outdoor winds and weather. We will be able to dye the fabric to the exact colors we want and that process will be starting next weekend.

Watch this space, check our Yellowstone Burners Facebook page, or follow Saddle Up Art Car on Instagram to see our progress!

We are so thrilled that our events have started to create such a wonderful community of talented folks! We're putting on one more event for a non-traditional Valentine's Day and then our next event will likely be on 4th of July. We also have a lot of enthusiasm around Saddle Up!, and we're confident that we can make vast improvements in time to have it in this year's 4th of July parade in Cody.

We've also had a lot of questions from folks about the gathering that has so inspired us; Burning Man.  To help explain that and how it's inspiring our activities here in Wyoming, we're starting monthly meetups just to talk about that. We had an introductory meeting in January and now we plan to meet the last Friday of every month around 6pm. We'll start with a little socializing and since it's close to the dinner hour, please bring something to eat for yourself or something you may want to share. We'll have nonalcoholic drinks but bring something stronger for yourself if you'd like.
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In February, we'll meet on Friday the 22nd at 6pm and we plan to talk about the silly side of Burning Man. It is known for pranks, joking, and generally messing with people in some fantastic ways. After we give our little talk and tell some funny stories, we'll stay as long as people would like to get to know each other and answer questions one-on-one. While Burning Man is often silly, no question is too silly for us to find an answer. Everyone is welcome! You'll find us at 2537 Frank Court, Cody, WY in a large shop space on a cul-de-sac behind Reno Collision, Beartooth Inn, Gunwerks, and Wyoming Authentic Products. Look for the big brown bus.

Contact us if you have questions before.

Wow! We have been so busy posting on social media that we have neglected our website updates. So sorry about that! This update will be hefty, so read on.

Saddle Up! is not yet complete but we are making solid progress. We have the steel beams in to support the upper deck and the base frame on top of the bus, to also support the upper deck. Lots of our cozy furniture is complete; benches, chairs, tables...most of which we've made ourselves. The interior ceiling painting is complete and lookin' mighty fine with some old west flair.

For the saddle pieces, the cantle and fenders are complete although we'd like to add some decorative elements to fancy them up! We are now working on the seat and the horn and its all going well.

We completed our minimum round of fundraising and brought in just over $8000 in donations! We are so grateful to everyone who contributed to our project. The team is spending as much of our personal money as we can, so every extra dollar really helps. We now should have enough to make it look like a saddle for day time and be able to have enough money in gas to get to Burning Man...and back...at the end of August.

We were able to show off our progress during Cody's July 4th celebrations and let people come on board with the interior all cozy like a western lounge. This Saturday, we'll be at Cody's Yellowstone Beer Fest where we'll be serving free water to all participants.

Our next round of fundraising will go toward lighting so we can drive her around at night! Next year, we'll do more foundational work such as adding insulated walls and flooring to the interior to better control temperature, allowing us to have the bus at winter events and still keep folks warm.

We also had a local mechanic take the bus for a drive and the news was that she's in great shape! There should be no problems taking her to Nevada and back again. We've been dealing with a non-functional gas gauge though and he'll be able to get that in working order before we head out. Whew!
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Questions, comments, curiosities? Let us know: april@yellowstoneburners.org.

We want to give a big THANK YOU to the Powell Tribune for their coverage today of our project, Saddle Up! We are so honored that it made the front page.

If you want to know more, you can watch this video or go to our Projects page. We'll be at our shop pretty much every weekend until this is done. We have 11 weekends left until 4th of July...let us know if you can lend a hand or consider making a tax deductible contribution at ​https://www.hatchfund.org/project/saddle_up.

All kinds of great things have been happening for us the past couple weeks and now we've got two big announcements.

First, we have a shop! We are renting a fantastic space at 2537 Frank Court in Cody, Wyoming. We had a lot of trouble finding a place tall enough and with enough other space to really be a home for all that the Yellowstone Burners need to do. We finally found it! We will be working on Saddle Up! at the shop most weekends from now until 4th of July. But we will post specific work days and times so folks will know when to come by. 

Second, we have finalized our partnership with Hatchfund so our fundraising has now begun. You can help in three ways;

1) Organizations or businesses who want to sponsor our art car for certain events can contact us to discuss details. Your donation will be tax deductible.

2) Individuals can make smaller contributions to our crowdfunding campaign and get fun thank you gifts from us. Go to this link for all the details: www.hatchfund.org/project/saddle_up

3) Spread the word! Crowdfunding works when lots of people donate small amounts. So please, if you like our project, ask your friends to help us by making a contribution. $25 buys one piece of plywood so every donation is important.

Thank you for helping in any way that you can!