Creeping Through the Cosmos
Basic Details
Happened on September 21st, 2023 – September 24th, 2023, at Conesville Event Grounds & Dragway in Conesville, IA for the 8th year at this location.
2023 EC Team: Ashley Watson (Smashley), Kara Dornbusch (Slutcicle), Kandi Black, and Natalie Goodspell (Natty Light)
HearthsOPhyre is a hometown burn right outside of Iowa City, IA. The majestic property that we hold our burn at is Conesville Event Grounds & Dragway. We pride ourselves on being a family friendly event, with humble beginnings in the backyard of one of our beloved community members! We are a 4-day camping event where effigy burn is commenced on Saturday night!
This year HearthsO’Phyre had 636 people this year, 575 attendees were adults and 61 under 18yoa.
List of departments and brief descriptions
- Art – Art grants
- A.S.S. – Art (graphics), Signage, Swag.
- D.P.W. – Infrastructure setup/teardown, Event ground support, Effigy cleanup.
- Earth Guardians – Clean-up and MOOP patrol.
- Effigy – Planning and building of effigy.
- F.A.S.T. – Effigy and fire safety.
- Conclave – Fire Performance before Effigy Burn.
- Fluffers – Volunteer Support
- Gate – Entrance and waivers
- Greeter – Education
- Medic – First responder for medical issues.
- Mobility – Community Transport.
- Placement – Makes placement map and regular map, early entry list.
- Parking – Handles on-site parking.
- Rangers – Building Social Capital and De-escalation.
- Sound Marshall – Assure all sound camps follow Noise guidelines.
- Sanctuary – Handles emotional support.
- Town Cryer – Spread Community Announcements.
- Volunteer Coordinator – Make volunteer sign ups online, recruit volunteers for shifts before the burn and on-site.
Volunteering
This year we had a total of 331 department volunteers. 1,864 hours were available for volunteers to sign up from all departments.
Hours per department
- Medic = 528
- Greeter = 90
- Mobility =48
- Earth Guardian = 186
- Fluffers = 70
- Signage (ASS) = 42
- F.A.S.T. = 20
- Conclave = 30
- D.P.W. = 128
- Parking/Gate = 90
- Rangers = 436
- Sanctuary = 196
Participation
- Theme Camps – 18
- Estimated Displayed Art – 12
- Estimated Performers/Performing Groups – 20
- Mutant Vehicles – 2
- Structure Burns – 1
Art Grants
Total number of art grants submitted and funded this year was 9.
Additional Information
- How HOP is helping make our community more diverse and radically inclusive:
- This year we created a new Mobility, Town Cryer and Fluffers Departments to ensure inclusivity!
- Placement made sure that Theme camps were more accessible and provided the necessary accommodations (power, porto placement, water close by, etc).
- DPW assisted with Theme camp setup/tear down as needed, also distributed firewood to participants.
- Center Camp utilized for potlucks and community art projects.
- Fire lessons were held for humans of all ages to experience!
- HOP is contributing to environmental sustainability by utilizing structures already in place to host department headquarters. We started aluminum can collections on-site this year as well to help cut down waste.
- Challenges from this year include:
- Volunteering issues = We are hosting a training session this year to help combat this issue!
- Weather is temperamental = We host our burn in September so weather can be variable and hard to predict!
- Interpersonal Conflicts
- Solutions used this year:
- Sharing golf carts between departments that utilize at opposite times or combined efforts.
- Greeters helped incoming participants sign up for open volunteering shifts, emphasizing critical shifts first!
Financial Summary
| Revenue | Actual Sales |
| Ticket sales | $41,430.00 |
| Donations | Unknown (burner tickets down) |
| Total Revenue | $41,430.00 |
| Expenses | |
| Art Grants | $2,330.00 |
| Land Rental / Storage | $8,000.00 |
| Equipment Rental | $6,380.00 (Portos), $1,325.00 (Golf Carts) |
| Insurance | $401 |
| Security | 0 |
| Departmental Expenses | $5,921.24 |
| Ticketing Fees | $1,868.61 |
| Association Overhead and Regional Development | $4,143.00 |
| Total Expenses | $30,386.85 |
| Net Income | $11,043.15 |
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