Blog

  • HullabalU 2024 AfterBurn Report

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    Submitted by Alisha

    Event Information

    Theme

    Fairytale Forest: A New Myth Untold 

    Basic Details 

    Happened on October 4th – 6th 2024 

    at Little Tree Farms LLC 28379 Copps Chapel Road, Wooldridge MO USA for the third year at this location. 

    Event Description

    HullabalU is an all ages regional burn event held every October in central Missouri. Our smaller event size is more intimate and friendly than some larger events. We aim to be a harvest season family friendly campout where personal connection and family inclusion are the primary focus.

    This year HullabalU hosted 58 people for an intentional community camping event.

    56 attendees were adults and 2 under 18yoa.

    Land Contacts

    Emily Johnston:  1-573-529-5590  – emijohnson32@gmail.com 

    Drew Scheneman: 1-573-529-4888  – drewscheneman@gmail.com

    2024 EC Team

    Sami White, Alicia Isdes, Erika Salmons

    List of departments and brief descriptions 

    • HQ – Volunteer hub and emergency department headquarters. Distribute
    • supplies and monitor the walkies. Sunglasses and mustache optional.
    • Medic – Manage sunscreen, bug spray, ice, bandages, etc. and stationed at HQ. Bonus points for kissing boo-boos.
    • Gate – Check IDs, approve digital tickets and give out wristbands. You are
    • the white blood cells keeping the nasty viruses out!
    • Greeters – Education on the 10 Principles, event guidelines, and welcoming. Optional consensual naughtiness!
    • Parking – Placement for campers and RVs, as well as organizing where all the vehicles are stashed for the event. If you like big trucks and you cannot lie, this job is for you.
    • Fairy Tale Village – Where the Sparks work and play! Sparks are trained on how to work the event departments, and even have their own. A community kitchen area is also available here.
    • FLOW – Organizes our fire performances. Get in the FLOW.
    • Rangers – Our community safety resource. Experience preferred but not required, training resources provided prior to the event. Must be sober during your shift.
    • InFUNstructure – This department manages erections. Land prep, community work days, shelter builds, signage, and building the effigy!
    • Perimeter – Effigy perimeter Sand Cats.
    • Sound Camp – The only amplified music for the burn and a central hub for the village.
    • F.A.S.T. – Directs all things involving burning the effigy, and the scheduling of the Effigy burn night.

    Volunteering 

    30 volunteers with an estimated 300 hours were available for volunteers to sign up from all departments during the burn, 95 were completed. 

    Participation 

    • Theme Camps – 5 
    • Estimated Displayed Art – 5
    • Estimated Performers/Performing Groups – 40
    • Mutant Vehicles – 0 
    • Structure Burns – 1 
    • Scheduled Events – 13

    Art Grants 

    Total number of art grants submitted and funded this year was 6.

    Additional Information 

    • 8 ticket holders indicated this was their first time attending a MWB burn.
    • This year discounted tickets were extended to all leadership from other MWB events.
    • We always attempt to accommodate participants with medical or health concerns, such as providing priority camping at special request, exceptions for re-entry for parents with minors, and providing at least one ADA toilet. The site overall can be challenging for people with diverse abilities so we are looking at how that can be improved for next year.
    • The entire EC Team for 2024 was composed of women.
    • Most of our participants are experienced burners, they were aware of and made accommodations for the smaller size this year, and less community services were needed overall as a result. Camps provided for each other and themselves very well this year. Very low / no incidence of Ranger reports. Our volunteer morale and morale overall was very high this year.
    • Our single sound camp is a benefit for an event of our size, in that it reduces camp conflicts and it encourages community building and sharing of art. 
    • We held a fundraiser this summer and earned money to purchase our own community tent.

    Our top 3 challenges faced this year are 

    1. Accessibility to site for ADA/RV/Larger vehicles and families
    2. Attendance
    3. Training new Leads and ECs
  • Hullabalu 2024 Financial Report

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    BreakdownsActualsNotes
    Gross Revenue:
    Ticket Revenue (include breakdown)
    5 Tickets @ $30$150.00Volunteer Directed
    55 Tickets @ 60$3,300.00Gen Ad
    5 Tickets @ $5$25.00Children
    23 Tickets@ $0$0.00Gift Tickets
    Gross Ticket Revenue$3,475.00
    Itemized Misc Revenue:
    Donations$988.50donations at ticket sale & fundraisers
    Total Gross Revenue$4,463.50combine gross ticket revenue with any misc revenue
    Expenses:
    Venue Rental$2,000.00
    Insurance$1,240.00
    Art Grants$580.00
    Assoc Overhead$173.75
    Regional Development$173.75
    Infrastructure$455.00Portas
    Ticket Processing Fees$355.96Stripe/Volunteeripate
    Transportation & Fuel, On-Site$100.00golf carts
    Community Hub$718.07
    Total Expenses$5,796.53
    Net Proceeds-$1,333.03
  • HearthsO’Phyre 2024 AfterBurn Report

    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.