Midwest Burners

Submitted by Ashley (Smashly)

Event information

Theme and Description

Beyond Belief!

New friends and experiences await you when you let go of knowing and participate in that exact moment. Let go of conforming to your group or surrounding yourself with what you already know. Become an apprentice of new thoughts and practices and find the joy of vulnerability, of being in those joyful heartbeats and truly experiencing without filters or opinions.

Event Description

HearthsO’Phyre is a hometown burn right outside of Iowa City, IA. The majestic property where we hold our burn 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!

Basic Details 

Happened on September 26th – September 29th 2024.

at 18745 IA-70, Conesville, IA 52739 USA for the 9th year at this location. 

Land Contact : Steve Tomfeld – 563-299-2721

2023 EC Team: 

Ashley Watson (Smashley), Kara Dornbusch (Slutcicle), Holly Marie, La Homa Simmonds (Momma Homiefey), Natalie Goodspell (Natty Light)

This year HearthsO’Phyre had 355 people for an intentional community camping event.
336 attendees were adults and 19 under 18yoa. 

List of departments and brief descriptions 

• Medic  First-Aid, CPR, AED, and more!
• Ranger incident responding and support
• Art Art grants and Art Tour
• A.S.S. Artwork, Signage, and Swag
• Conclave fire performance
• Earth Guardians LNT & Lost & Found
• F.A.S.T. Fire art
• Fluffer team of cheerleaders, caregivers, camp moms and pops, and friendly little helpers to provide snacks and drinks, moral support, breaks, and company to volunteers on-shift
• Gate Ticket check in
• Mobility Mobility Assistance Cart
• Sanctuary promote relaxation and mental well-being
• Greeter Contacts everyone that passes through the gate to make sure they are well-versed in the 10+1 Principals, knows the layout of the grounds and the basics of the event policies, and has signed up for volunteer shifts.
• Placement designs the layout of the event
• Volunteer Coordinator helps promote participation through volunteering prior to and during the event.
• Sound Marshall Verifies sound levels throughout the event
• CoC Center of Communication (CoC), creates the Survival Guide, Event Guide and manages Center Camp.
• DPW set up and maintain infrastructure prior to/during/after the event.

Volunteering 

HOP had around 228 volunteers this year who completed 2,054 hours of volunteering.

Participation 

● Theme Camps – 29

● Estimated Displayed Art – 10

● Estimated Performers/Performing Groups – 20

● Mutant Vehicles – 2

● Structure Burns – 3

● Scheduled Events – 51

Art Grants 

Total number of art grants funded this year was 11.

1 of those was an Honorarium

• Food for the masses – Cordell 
• Spice pirates – Mike E
• Longer Table food – Mattie H
• Star Gazing2024 – N Goodspell
• Biscotti – Erin K
• Messages to future self – Patty
• Double D – Deb B
• Foam party 24 – Homie
• Antisocial Labyrinth – Angela E
• Gondola Art Car – Scott B
• Low tech – Jamie R (honorarium)

Additional Information

• We improved our mobility department this year by adding more visible stops and separate mobility cart. Attendees with disabilities were given priority placement and access to power and handicap portos as needed.
• The entire EC Team for 2024 was composed of women.

HOP addressed sustainability in the following ways

1. We placed can and bottle collection bins around the event for recycling. 
2. We encouraged attendants to bring their own plates/cups/silverware to cut down on waste. 
3. As a waste reduction initiative this year, we took a collection of unused food items to the local food bank. 
4. Our effigy team made a point to exclusively use reclaimed/recycled materials and natural dyes to create our beautiful effigy this year!! 
5. Per Landowner request, any damaged metal objects/structures can be donated for salvage. 
6. Landowner is installing additional permanent toilets on the premises so the number of portos will be reduced moving forward!

Things that happened this year that gave hope and inspiration

1. We had some new burners this year seeking assistance with decompression – we encouraged them to write down their experiences so that they could bring those experiences back into their home community. Their passion and excitement to be able to do this was inspiring to us individually but also as a community! 
2. We as an EC team have encouraged and experienced a copious amount of growth this year! This growth has really set this event up for a successful future and we are excited to see it all unfold in these next upcoming years! 
3. Our effigy team needed some assistance with erecting the structure due to sheer size and volume of pieces and our community came together immediately to make sure the job got accomplished! 
4. Our grounds hold several different types of events throughout the season and we have officially converted several of the grounds crew into our community. They have taken on leadership roles and provided community support throughout the event these past few years. 
5. The vibe was positive overall and people are excited to come back next year! Everyone is inspired to make this a special burn and say that they come because they know that it’s a fun and safe event to come to!

Our top 3 challenges faced this year are

1. Volunteer Engagement
2. Communication systems and fine tuning our methods
3. Need more visible art!!

Out-of-the box ideas or solutions used this year

• We had our leads apply for their position and state why they felt like they were a good fit for the job. This really defined who was interested vs felt obligated to fill the role and sparked passion and interest.
• Operation SmartAss – education initiative to help drive inclusivity and involvement in the community. Also helped bring the community together based on similar interests. 
• Our effigy team reached out to the community to ask for involvement with decorating the effigy space. They provided parameters and restrictions for these materials. We had several attendees bring crafted items that were then placed within the effigy space for viewing before burn night (whimsical sparks, colored drawings, and wooden creatures) 
• We included art grants for food this year and encouraged theme camps to feed leads throughout the event. 
• We encouraged the Rangers, Medics, Sanctuary to provide coverage of the event together during time periods where shifts were not completely filled. 
• Established directed tickets for next year for any volunteers that worked 12 hours or more during the event. We also added additional weight to volunteer shifts that we deemed crucial (overnights, perimeter for effigy) to ensure these volunteers would get directed appreciation tickets. We also toggled off our less crucial shifts to encourage more crucial shifts to be filled.