Midwest Burners

Harrison (Break)

Basic Details 

Happened on September 19th – 22nd 2024 

at Truckhenge Art Park 4124 NE Brier Rd, Topeka, KS 66616 USA for the first year at this location. 

Land Contact : Linda Lessman (785) 234-3486 

2023 EC Team: 

Matt Cortez (GrandPeePa), Harrison Marsh (Break), Megan Wolfe (Needles)

Theme

Forest Folk

Pixies, gnomes, fae, elves, Bigfoot, bears, beavers, spiders, snakes, you name it! If it’s a denizen of the forest, it’s a forest folk! Show us what art you’ve got to share with this year’s theme and we’ll see the forest for the trees!

Hosted at the local art park for the first time. We have a lake onsite, land includes art installations from recycled/reused materials. It rained for 2 of the 3 days but we still got everything burnt. The spirit that was shown by all of our attendees, especially the virgins, was astounding. 10th year of T.E.I.C. was definitely in the top ten of every T.E.I.C. Next year was obviously better.

This year T.E.I.C. hosted 61 people for an intentional community camping event.

59 attendees were adults and 2 under 18yoa.

List of departments and brief descriptions 

• The Art Support department assists both artists and the event administration with all art

needs before and during the event.

• Dept. of Public Works (D.P.W.) is the workforce dedicated to building and taking down T.E.I.C.
• Earth Guardians inspire, inform and encourage our fellow citizens to apply the Leave No

Trace principles to life in our temporary home and to leave positive traces.

• The Effigy is our center focus of art, from a plan to a fire it brings the community together!
• Fire Arts Safety Team (F.A.S.T.) focuses on the safe preparation, ignition, suppression, and extinguishing of all

fire during the event.

• The Fire Performer Safety (F.P.S) department is dedicated to the safety of our fire handling artists.
• The Games Warden provides direct support to attendees and theme camps with event

scheduling and sound.

• The Medic Department provides first-aid assistance to the citizens of T.E.I.C.
• Parking, Education, and Gate (P.E.G.) is the first stop when arriving at T.E.I.C. and assists with getting everyone checked in and acclimated to the environment.
• The Placement Department creates the city map for T.E.I.C. by directly working with every camp and leaders.
• The Temple is a focus of art with different meanings to different people and allows a space for those different emotions to happen separate from the Effigy.
• The Volunteer Coordinator provides direct support to the Leads with overseeing

volunteer needs for their teams.

Volunteering 

Not including leadership we had a total of 31 volunteers helping before, during, and after the burn. 

548 hours were available for volunteers to sign up from all departments during the burn, 377 were completed. 

Participation 

● Theme Camps – 4 

● Estimated Displayed Art – 20

● Estimated Performers/Performing Groups – 0

● Mutant Vehicles – 0 

● Structure Burns – 2 

● Scheduled Events – 5

Art Grants 

Total number of art grants submitted and funded this year was 4.

1. Effigy Tree
   Kaden
   Tree with an internal space for art to be added. Structure will consist of 5 walls, one will have an opening. The canopy will be made from brush found on site.
2. Forest Folk Posties and Consent Crew
   Chelsie
   The Forest Folk Posties will deliver mail within the burn and also send mail out via prepaid envelopes. In addition to a mail service, we will also be bringing Consent Crew to T.E.I.C. Consent Crew is a group of people who actively have discussions about enthusiastic consent.
3. Mushie Movies
   Bareigh
   Our idea is to create a safe space with plenty of comfortable and tactile items where burners can come to relax and watch fun psychedelic movies.
4. Temple Mushroom
   Kaden
   A Temple designed after a toadstool mushroom, Burnable momentos and such can be added by participants.

Additional Information 

• 38 ticket holders indicated that they lived in Topeka which is over half of our ticket holders.
• 22 ticket holders indicated this was their first time attending T.E.I.C., 13 of those indicated this was their first burn.
• The land itself is very easily navigable for people with mobility issues since one of the landowners herself has mobility issues.
• T.E.I.C. addressed sustainability by having an on site can recycling center, cans were given to the land owners who use post consumer goods to create art. The venue themselves take in recycled materials throughout the year.

● T.E.I.C. received a donation from Flashpoint Artists Initiative, that produces Alchemy Burn, in order to help with our operating costs so we could have T.E.I.C. this year!

● Our top 3 challenges faced this year are 

a. Funding 

b. Midwestern weather fluctuations

c. A lot of other burns in our area also happening around the same time as T.E.I.C.After Burn Report By Harrison (Break)

Basic Details 

Happened on September 19th – 22nd 2024 

at Truckhenge Art Park 4124 NE Brier Rd, Topeka, KS 66616 USA for the first year at this location. 

Land Contact : Linda Lessman (785) 234-3486 

2023 EC Team: 

Matt Cortez (GrandPeePa), Harrison Marsh (Break), Megan Wolfe (Needles)

Pixies, gnomes, fae, elves, Bigfoot, bears, beavers, spiders, snakes, you name it! If it’s a denizen of the forest, it’s a forest folk! Show us what art you’ve got to share with this year’s theme and we’ll see the forest for the trees!

Hosted at the local art park for the first time. We have a lake onsite, land includes art installations from recycled/reused materials. It rained for 2 of the 3 days but we still got everything burnt. The spirit that was shown by all of our attendees, especially the virgins, was astounding. 10th year of T.E.I.C. was definitely in the top ten of every T.E.I.C. Next year was obviously better.

This year T.E.I.C. hosted 61 people for an intentional community camping event.

59 attendees were adults and 2 under 18yoa.

List of departments and brief descriptions 

• The Art Support department assists both artists and the event administration with all art

needs before and during the event.

• Dept. of Public Works (D.P.W.) is the workforce dedicated to building and taking down T.E.I.C.
• Earth Guardians inspire, inform and encourage our fellow citizens to apply the Leave No

Trace principles to life in our temporary home and to leave positive traces.

• The Effigy is our center focus of art, from a plan to a fire it brings the community together!
• Fire Arts Safety Team (F.A.S.T.) focuses on the safe preparation, ignition, suppression, and extinguishing of all

fire during the event.

• The Fire Performer Safety (F.P.S) department is dedicated to the safety of our fire handling artists.
• The Games Warden provides direct support to attendees and theme camps with event

scheduling and sound.

• The Medic Department provides first-aid assistance to the citizens of T.E.I.C.
• Parking, Education, and Gate (P.E.G.) is the first stop when arriving at T.E.I.C. and assists with getting everyone checked in and acclimated to the environment.
• The Placement Department creates the city map for T.E.I.C. by directly working with every camp and leaders.
• The Temple is a focus of art with different meanings to different people and allows a space for those different emotions to happen separate from the Effigy.
• The Volunteer Coordinator provides direct support to the Leads with overseeing

volunteer needs for their teams.

Volunteering 

Not including leadership we had a total of 31 volunteers helping before, during, and after the burn. 

548 hours were available for volunteers to sign up from all departments during the burn, 377 were completed. 

Participation 

● Theme Camps – 4 

● Estimated Displayed Art – 20

● Estimated Performers/Performing Groups – 0

● Mutant Vehicles – 0 

● Structure Burns – 2 

● Scheduled Events – 5

Art Grants 

Total number of art grants submitted and funded this year was 4.

1. Effigy Tree
   Kaden
   Tree with an internal space for art to be added. Structure will consist of 5 walls, one will have an opening. The canopy will be made from brush found on site.
2. Forest Folk Posties and Consent Crew
   Chelsie
   The Forest Folk Posties will deliver mail within the burn and also send mail out via prepaid envelopes. In addition to a mail service, we will also be bringing Consent Crew to T.E.I.C. Consent Crew is a group of people who actively have discussions about enthusiastic consent.
3. Mushie Movies
   Bareigh
   Our idea is to create a safe space with plenty of comfortable and tactile items where burners can come to relax and watch fun psychedelic movies.
4. Temple Mushroom
   Kaden
   A Temple designed after a toadstool mushroom, Burnable momentos and such can be added by participants.

Additional Information 

• 38 ticket holders indicated that they lived in Topeka which is over half of our ticket holders.
• 22 ticket holders indicated this was their first time attending T.E.I.C., 13 of those indicated this was their first burn.
• The land itself is very easily navigable for people with mobility issues since one of the landowners herself has mobility issues.
• T.E.I.C. addressed sustainability by having an on site can recycling center, cans were given to the land owners who use post consumer goods to create art. The venue themselves take in recycled materials throughout the year.

● T.E.I.C. received a donation from Flashpoint Artists Initiative, that produces Alchemy Burn, in order to help with our operating costs so we could have T.E.I.C. this year!

● Our top 3 challenges faced this year are 

a. Funding 

b. Midwestern weather fluctuations

c. A lot of other burns in our area also happening around the same time as T.E.I.C.