Vibecamp : Tweetup, meet Minimum Viable Burn

What would happen if the Playa had two tiers?

(Content Warning : Nonconsensual Experience)

Twitter as abuzz with talk of VibeCamp, both those who were there and those who weren’t. If the event had to be summarized, it would probably be in the form of a digital community meetup combined with being a proto Burning Man.

Burning Man itself is struggling with identity and how to exist after COVID. There’s also a question of the relevance of the event and the original format of one large gathering versus the regional burns that have emerged.

As it relates to VibeCamp though, that’s not the most important question. What happens when you insert a middle layer between the creators and the blank canvas of playa?

VibeCamp was held at a venue roughly an hour outside of Austin. Usually operating as a summer camp for youth, it’s a rather scenic place focused on outdoor activities. There are cabins for attendees to house themselves in, and some structures that serve various purposes such as a cafeteria and locations to hold activities in.

It’s that last bit of infrastructure that I want to draw attention to, as I think it’s what separated VibeCamp from the Burning Man format. Not having to worry about bringing everything you’d need to survive changes the fabric of the event such that it’s accessible to people who would be unwilling / unable to go to the more rugged BM format. I think that was a major factor in what made VibeCamp unique.

Planning for the event was mostly coordinated over Discord by the organizers, with a small amount of ancillary coordination happening on Twitter. Some pre-organized cabins emerged, but the lion’s share of attendees were assigned at the latter parts of the planning stages. Activities / locations were also organized such as The Teahouse, Femmehaus’ parlour, and many others. A series of talks (most being in the lightning talk format) also took place.

The event’s digital presence slowly took hold, with a website and logistics forming to support the event. The schedule was in flux for some time but eventually solidified.

I opted in to a rideshare with a few fellow vibers, spent the requisite day on planes from Vancouver to Austin, and arrived Thursday night to a rather interesting airbnb on the outskirts of the city. The next day I gathered my things and uber’d to our car rental location, and met my companions for the trip (we found an ice cream shop along the way and chilled out, literally and figuratively).

One thing to note about the venue is that it’s surrounded on all sides by residents, which is the reason for the 10 PM music cutoff. I would highly, highly urge the organizers to find somewhere else for next time that doesn’t have that limitation as I’m sure I’m not the only one who was expecting outdoor stages for the dance parties.

Friday

Driving into the venue, we were fairly impressed by the size and overall state of the venue. I was most certainly somewhat of a skeptic of the event being as successful as it was, and that skepticism grew when I first heard of the venue being a place that is often used as a summer camp for youth. That definitely fell away once I actually saw the venue however.

We lugged our gear to the front, running into Brooke along the way who was hurriedly walking past us in full organizer mode. We started milling about at the front, we arrived earlier than the official check-in time of 5:00 PM and socialized a bit. I was recognized by a few folks who said hello, and thoroughly enjoyed those convos even as my scene queen persona made a bit of a return.

As this is a detailed dive into the event, I will mention some of the logistical quibbles which would otherwise not be that important. I think most of them occurred at check-in, and mostly involved people being unsure of how registration would specifically work. Many seemed to be unaware of the fact that there were two lines, and I think some large placards with bulletpoint-y language on them that were more visible than the handwritten sign that was present would have helped.

Other than that, I think that the only other improvement would be with the hard copy of the schedule, the version we were handed had some misprints and structural issues and I think that might have led to some attendees not being informed on when and where events were happening.

After check-in proper, we again lugged our belongings to the cabins. I was the organizer for the female-only cabin which was named FemmeHaus. Located almost directly on the lake, it was a fairly spacious place to call temporary home given we only had 4 residents. We began to sort our things and get ready for the evening’s events.

I’ve recently developed a love for flow artistry and took my whip around the area where opening ceremonies would be held and started doing my thing. A few more people recognized me and we chatted for a bit. I was also finishing my slides for my talk later in the evening on harm reduction, which proved to be a bit difficult on an iPhone but I managed. The highlight of the weekend happened for me here in meeting Sonya (also known as @sonyasupposedly).

This post is about VibeCamp, and not name dropping, but I have to take a few sentences to talk about how meaningful this was for me. Sonya and I have known each other for 5 or 6 years now, and have been through the highs and lows of the culture war (and other things) together. She’s also been overwhelmingly supportive and kind during a very chaotic and scary part of my life, and it was so great to finally get to hang out in person. I’m also sure this is a feeling many people who were at VibeCamp share with their particular treasured mutuals.

Opening ceremonies were cool and one portion invited us to turn to someone we didn’t know and do some icebreak-y activities which definitely helped many with some social lubrication. After that people began to head to their particular activities, I barely finished my slides in time and did my talk which seemed to go over quite well, a few audience members asked some questions and people mentioned how they enjoyed it to me over the remainder of the weekend.

I went to the dance party for a bit and did my thing, and most of my cabin called it a night early. I was definitely on festie time at that point and couldn’t sleep, so instead I grabbed my whip and practiced some combos and some new moves by the beach. I was hit on a few times, and a group of a few people eventually came by and we had a chat about a few things, the main topic being consent in relationships.

I eventually was able to tire myself out and went back to my cabin and rested up for Saturday.

Saturday

I woke up late, as is my want on Saturday, and milled about / did some light whipping to practice a few of the moves I had uncovered the previous night. I also had a busy afternoon with hosting the Femmehaus parlour, so was only able to stop in to speed friending briefly. It was before any friending actually happened, due to a bit of a delay in them getting started.

Parlour started slow but turned out really well thanks in part to my cabin mate Diana who is a very skilled makeup artist. I carted some of our things back to the cabin and got ready for the evening. I got to Aella’s Descent Into Dance Hell event a little while after it started, and peeked in for a bit. It was a really cool event that got a lot of people out of their shells dance wise and the type of programming that festivals would definitely be interested in.

I was added to the Teahouse signal group (probably owing to my harm reduction talk) and mentioned I had a lot of extra water I needed to get rid of, and went back to my cabin to get it and cart it over to the Teahouse. I don’t think any of the TH organizers were around so I just mentioned to the room that I was dropping it off, and got a really chilly reception and ‘the stare’ I have become accustomed to as a non-passing trans person so quickly left.

A teahouse organizer mentioned that another harm reduction space was being constructed so I headed there to help but was told everything was in hand so then just kind of hung out until the dance parties started in earnest. This is unfortunately where things took a very sharp and dark turn which impacted me for the rest of the weekend.

The dance parties were a bit slow so I headed to where alcohol was being served, chatted a bit and waited for a drink. This is where I was groped by an obviously intoxicated viber and just kind of absorbed that as I got my drink and immediately left.

This is probably where a lot of people are going to say this is just what happens, that I’m too sensitive, and I should just get over it. I really don’t know what to say to them, but needless to say I did not do so. I thought about going to the teahouse, but the earlier chilly reception made me think twice. Those who know my cinematic universe know that nonconsensual touch is a big trigger for me and I was really not in a state to be around people.

I also thought of the conversation I had on the beach as I was doing light whip tricks around 1 AM. Essentially, one of their group was arguing against a lot of communication during sex using a logical paradox. It’s the one where you can never measure a point of light on the wall because you’re just dividing the distance in half to infinity, which kind of just… made me feel weird during the conversation. There was no discussion during my experience, obviously, but it did seem like it was a portent for what happened the following night.

I found a secluded corner of the beach, sat down and cried for a bit. My whip was still on and attracted some of the insect life of the beach which I found kind of beautiful in an odd sort of way. This was also probably the point at which VibeCamp was over for me as I spent the rest of the weekend mentally checked out to a degree.

Eventually I finished and wandered over to some of the people doing flow, somewhat in a daze and joined in for a bit. At that point, which might have been around 9:30 I just really felt drained from everything so I headed back to my cabin and sat in silence for a bit before deciding it was just best to sleep and try and forget about everything. I at least slept better than I did on Friday and got up pretty early.

Sunday

I got up early, took a shower and headed to breakfast and chatted with a few people including a few long time mutuals I hadn’t been able to find, which put me in a better state for the day. At a certain point someone said they were really excited to meet me and I felt really bad for kind of ignoring them but I was still trying to deal with what happened the previous night. My transition is kind of at the ‘barely able to dress yourself’ stage still and I just had a lot of nerves touched resulting in being less than cordial (if that person is reading this, I’m really sorry).

Because I hadn’t packed the previous night I missed closing ceremonies but made it out in time and did the ride back with one new companion in our group, which was fun. I did ‘the afterparty’ which was really fun, but things did catch up with me in the middle and I almost left really early but was really glad I didn’t. When I did get home, I again cried for a bit before falling asleep, and made my flight the next day. I was really glad to get back to Vancouver.

What Was Vibecamp?

On an objective summary of the event, Vibecamp was a really well planned and executed event which seemed to be a proto-burn and model for bringing together digital communities to touch grass.

Quibbles about that were some of the logistics and timing of programming (ie: my makeup event was at 4:00, and pool time was at 5:00). The venue was a little too large for the amount of people that were there. Other than that, there’s not much about this particular incarnation that I would change.

My personal summary is obviously a different story. This is not where I’m going to blame the event or organizers for creating an unsafe space, what happened to me is unfortunately all too common in hospitality and events. There’s also the fact that some will likely not view it as a problem. It’s a consequence of men being in proximity to an unlimited supply of alcohol.

Bass Coast started bar service in 2019, and the stories I’ve heard from female attendees point to that being a big mistake. People obviously wanted to drink at Vibecamp though, and I guess I just have to try and be more ‘resilient’ as I’m sure there’s a good chance this will be a possible consequence of ‘not being careful’ as I get back into the festival circuit after transitioning.

I’m a little hesitant to even mention what happened because I don’t want to get a reputation as a girl who screams about consent whenever anyone comes near her, because I certainly am not. Cuddling has been talked about in other Vibecamp summaries, and I engaged in a bit at the end of the afterparty with a long time mutual which was therapeutic bordering on spiritual. I also don’t want to get a reputation in those circles.

With all that being said, I know how I felt and how I feel now, and in both cases it’s violated. I learned a lot about doing event programming in doing both a talk and an activity, and I’m very grateful for that. I’m sad that the payoff to co-creation in a very fun ‘main’ night of the event was taken from me. To some degree so was the rest of the weekend as I was definitely not myself, and I’ve had a problem focusing since I’ve got back. I’m really hoping writing about it will help.

I wish I had gone to the teahouse at a different time and not gone to the bar at all, but I also don’t think I should place blame on myself for the actions of others. I did feel like there were perhaps some people who were not fans of non-passing trans people there, which is why I made a fairly passive aggressive tweet about Hereticon being more welcoming, because it definitely felt like it was. Some of it is my fault as I did let my scene queen persona come back in a bit.

I came for different reasons than many others did though, I needed to recharge and clear my head on a lot of things, and wanted to meet some people I might otherwise never see. Some people could tell something was wrong and I did my best tapdancing around why, but their concern kept me going when I just wanted to be home more than anything else.

I told one of the organizers it was one of the best weekends of my life and it was for some of the reasons above, but it was also kind of a dark initiation into further aspects of womanhood.

It’s also always going to hold special significance for me as the first festival-y thing I was out at, but both in good ways and bad. I thought about saying that it taught me to be more careful in the future, but I’m not sure how to be ‘more careful’ when standing in line for a drink. I avoid men as much as I can but that’s also not an option, so maybe being ‘more careful’ is always having somewhere or someone to run to, I’m not sure.

One regret I do have is not branching out from my side of the camp more, I was starting to do that on Saturday night but those adventures were cut short. So next time I will probably start doing that from the beginning. Otherwise I would/will definitely go again with perhaps making sure I connect with the harm reduction space early and not placing the kind of sacred expectations on the event that I may have this time.

The Quick Summary

So, the quick tl;dr summary is that the organizers should be congratulated immensely. I might have been one of the biggest doubters, and actually feel bad for some of the low expectations I initially had. It was a really wonderfully executed event that I predict will have the same kind of staying power / cultural offshoots that Burning Man does. It offers an alternative to the harshness of the Playa of the Black Rock Desert by having a safety net and a much lower barrier to entry for those who want to attend.

Personally, I think I made a few mistakes of not trying to engage more with people I didn’t know and expecting human nature to suspend itself. I think I know how to fix both for next time, and I don’t think I had a ‘bad experience’, but a good one which became bad due to the actions of one other (I really couldn’t tell you who the person that groped me was). Vibecamp was good, actually, even if I did feel ostracized at times for various reasons.