Midwest Burners

HullabalU 2022  Rip Van Winkle

Community, Progress, Change

October 14-16  2022

Moonflower Valley:  1400 Savana Springs 

Wooldridge, MO

This was our first year back after a hiatus imposed by the pandemic, and we had an additional challenge of finding new land to build our Burn.  One of our community members stepped up and introduced us to this beautiful property, and the property owners were ready to take on hosting their first ever event.  So many firsts for our community!

Our total population was 113, with 103 general admission and 10 Sparks.  

The Land:

Moonflower Valley is simply gorgeous.  There are no less than three springs, feeding creeks that meander all throughout the property.  We were able to utilize the unused field for the effigy burn, and held a few work weekends to clear, mow, and build the effigy.  We are looking to work with the property owners to raise funds and crews to build a bridge over one part of the creek to an adjacent field, which would allow us to expand our number of participants and have the community a bit more space to spread out. 

The Sparks:

This was the inaugural year for Fairy Tale Village!  A family oriented theme camp that is the hub of our new vision for Hulla.  We had an adult and child Lead for the camp, and activities were planned all day each day for Sparks.  We introduced the concept of Spark departments for greeters, rangers, and Sunday effigy site cleanup (coordinating with our Infrastructure Lead), which will continue into the future.  Fairy Tale Village featured a communal kitchen, handwashing sink (a necessity!), and a hot water heater to properly clean dishes.  The Sparks held a parade to a bubbles and beats brunch at the center sound camp, and built and placed their own small effigy for Burn night.  Our goal for Hulla is to be the Burn entire families can easily navigate and enjoy, and it was a big success this year!

Central Camp:

As sound camps have been the source of much past hubbub at Hulla, we experimented this year with limiting things to one central source for sound and dancing under the Big Top.  This way we were able to test the way we impacted our new home with how much wattage we put out, and keep the hours of operation strictly enforced so that there were much needed quiet hours for rest and conversation. The sound leads did a phenomenal job on building the stage and areas for projection, and all members of the community were able to share their musical gifts.  This camp was also home to cotton candy making, a wine and cheese happy hour, and brunch on Saturday!  A firepit was just outside, keeping us warm and offering a place to sit and share stories, etc.  Theme camps were placed nearby, and this suited everyone very well.

Art Grants:

All art grant funds requested were used for projects designed to serve the community as a whole.  We gained a pizza oven for the communal kitchen, and Fairy Tale Village organizers were able to get transportation to the Burn covered when half of their crew (the ones with the truck!) contracted Covid, among other things.  Our Art Grant Lead was new to us this year, and has plans to get the community engaged early for next year and award more funds.  We were somewhat limited by our budget, as well, as we reduced the number of participants so we could really evaluate the new Land.

Volunteers:

Volunteer participation at Hulla seems to be a bit of a struggle, and this year was no exception.  We all came together, though, and got shifts staffed and tried to prevent fatigue on the part of the few work horses Hulla is fortunate to have that work all Burn!  Next year our planning can start much earlier, as we have our site secured now, and Leads will be working more closely with their Volunteer Coordinator.  The message to the Community is, and always will be, we cannot expand without support!

**Add financial summary**