Nowhere is a European arts-based event inspired by Burning Man. It is held annually in July near Zaragoza in north-eastern Spain. Nowhere embraces the Burning Man principles of radical self-expression, radical self-reliance, no commerce and leave no trace but its cultural and geographical distance produces quite a different event. The extreme conditions and harsh beauty of the Spanish landscape provide a blank and fertile canvas for participants to experiment and create. Participation is a key element of the event and everyone is expected to be involved in some way. Everything from construction and set-up, art projects and entertainment through to catering, sanitary engineering and clean-up are handled by those attending the event.
A strong spirit of gifting is encouraged and commerce is not permitted at the event. Participants are expected to organise all their food and water themselves, as well as appropriate shelter for the harsh desert environment. Many participants organise themselves into camps to share organisational resources. Camps are often themed and there is a large communal central shade structure called The Middle of Nowhere (MoN), which hosts a range of workshops and activities throughout the week. Other infrastructure includes the Nowhere Post Office (which sends letters, cards and parcels to participants on site and to others around the world), Costume Camp (where participants can borrow costume items as part of radical self-expression), an Information booth called NoInfo, a medical team, and a daily newspaper, the Nowhere Tribune.
| Nowhere | |
|---|---|
Nowhere 2009 festival site. |
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| A Regional Burn Event in Europe | |
| Location: | Monegros, Zaragoza, Spain |
| Type of event: | Arts, Music, Costumes, Participation. Inspired by the Burning Man Festival. |
| Participants: | 700 (in 2011) |
| Most recent event: | 5.-10. July 2011 |
| First year: | 2004 |
| Website: | www.goingnowhere.org |
Contents |
The roots of Nowhere track back 2002, when UK burners started to organize a decompression party in London [1]. Nowhere began in 2004, in Bardenas Reales, and has roughly doubled in size each year, to the current size of around 560 participants in 2010.[2] It has been held in several different locations in the Navarra and Aragon regions of Spain. The current location is 10 km east of Sariñena, which is about 100 km west from Zaragoza. The 2010 event was attended by participants from countries across Europe and as far away as New Zealand and the United States.
Unlike Burning Man, Nowhere doesn't include fire as a key feature of the event. Due to the dry area, it is strictly forbidden (by the municipicality) to have any open fires (including camping grills, etc.). In summer, many areas of Spain, including the Nowhere area, are on wildfire alert. In recent years rural fires have caused a number of fatalities within the fire fighting services and significant property damage.[3]. In the last four years there have been one or two nights at Nowhere with fire spinning shows, which are held within a controlled area and with fire marshalls on duty.
| Year | Exact Date | Location | Participants | Number of Theme Camps | Ticket price in Euro | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2004 | ??? | Bardenas Reales, Spain (Location 1) | 35 | - | 35 | Lots of mosquitos |
| 2005 | x - x July | Hermita San Blas, Robres, Spain (Location 2) | 68 | 1 | 50 | Very windy site, on top of a mountain plateau |
| 2006 | x - x July | Hermita San Blas, Robres, Spain (Location 2) | 120 | 3 | 45/60/80 (no tickets sold at the gate) | Very windy site, on top of a mountain plateau |
| 2007 | x - x July | Near Sariñena/Castejon de Monegros, Spain (Location 3) | 226 | 7 | 50/70/90 (no tickets sold at the gate) | Location in a beautiful canyon |
| 2008 | 9–13 July | Near Sariñena/Castejon de Monegros, Spain (Location 4) | 320 | 8 | 60/90/120 (no tickets sold at the gate) | New location: 3 km north west of previous site |
| 2009 | x. -x. July | Near Sariñena/Castejon de Monegros, Spain (Location 4) | 511 | 60/95/125 (180 at the gate) | New location: 3 km north west of previous site | |
| 2010 | x. - x. July | Near Sariñena/Castejon de Monegros, Spain (Location 4) | 585 | |||
| 2011 | 5–10 July | Near Sariñena/Castejon de Monegros, Spain (Location 4) | 645 | 22 (registered, plus more unregistered) |
In 2009, ticket prices were split into 60/95/125 euro categories: 60 euro (low income) tickets were available until 28 Feb, 95 euro tickets were available until 30 May and 125 euro tickets were available until 5 July (three days before the event). At the gate, a ticket cost 180 euro.
First Nowhere in Bardenas Reales (French Website, explaining the park:), a nature park north of Zaragoza. Creation of the name Nowhere at the event. It was beautiful site but very mosquito ridden. With 35 participants almost 50% of the population was Spanish, the rest mainly English. "We had 2 hand built toilets, a massage parlor, one sound system, a giant bicycle powered ant, hardboard life size silhouettes of everyone on site, a dispute about video use, a public board to suggest names for the event, the birth of the name Nowhere, a crazy fire show with a burning man, petrol, an almost burning human and a storm which flooded the site and washed away four tents. It was a weekend long. Middle of Nowhere (MoN) was a plastic pipe/parachute dome." - BongoPedro[2]
2005 was held near Robres and approximately 75 people attended. The location was a high plateau with spectacular views to the north-east and the Pyrenees. There was one official camp (Road2Nowhere) - a covered kitchen for about 35 people. During the day most activity happened around a large common shade structure, called Middle of Nowhere (MoN) and the Costume Camp dome for storytelling and massage. The first of two large art installations was the clock tower (built by Yulia, it became the icon of the event) and the inflatable UFO (BubbleBoy) - in addition there was a light and sound performance in a steep canyon, and conceptual land-art installation that used a near-by mountain. Birth of the costume camp dome with a sizeable amount of costumes organised by Michelle P. Many participants showed up without costumes, so costume camp played an important role in the look of Nowhere. Because of the exposed location, the site was very windy and has since been developed of a wind turbine installation. The event began with the entire population meeting at the Hermita (top of the mountain) for sunset. Events included: issuing the first Nowhere passports, a Nowhere flag ceremony, a fire show with flamethrowers and a broadsword fight and a swim in the nearby canal with the police showing up. Hagey (running the Black Rock International Burner Hostel) was brought over for his first trip outside the U.S.
Nowhere 2006 was about 120 people and had four theme camps: The Burrow (Helen and DougalDutch), the Pirates (Big Ed, Kat and MonkeeMel), Hotel Palas (Enrique and Carlota), and Fight Club (Josh, Sam and Adam). For the first time, Nowhere gave out a few small art grants. Nurse had people wearing badges that indicated which languages they wanted to speak (or learn to speak better) so that people could speak to each other and learn more of another language - it was brilliant and loads of people took advantage [4]. There were four hand-built toilets, and the hole digging was done by hand with pick and shovels. Each toilet was decorated differently. There was an informal postal service (No Post, one postman in uniform) with postcards from people at Fourth of Juplaya in the Black Rock Desert, Nevada. There was also a supervised fireshow version of Singin in the Rain with firespinning and stage pyrotechnics.
Nowhere is built on the following key principles, inspired by Burning Man:
The freedom to be in a creative and liberating space.
You are responsible for yourself.
Bring all you need because you can’t buy it there.
Create something from nothing, and leave nothing behind. (This means you take all your trash back with you, there are no trash bins or recycling.)
Get involved – this is not an event for spectators.
In 2004, at the first Nowhere event, there was a public board to suggest names for the event. Out of it came the formalization of the name Nowhere. According to Bongo Pedro, the first mention of the name Nowhere occurred in a thread discussing names for the event. Armand wrote that he couldn't wait to meet us all in the "middle of nowhere". Three people liked the idea of Nowhere as a name and none of the other ideas got more than one vote each.
The following story is a lucky co-incidence about the origin of the name: it was suggested the name came from a sign showing Welcome to Nowhere outside the only store and gas station in Empire, Nevada[7][8]. Empire (Gerlach-Empire, Nevada) is the second last town on the way Burning Man, it consists only of a few houses and is literately in the middle of Nowhere, the Nevada desert.
The landscape in the region of Monegros near Zaragoza is very dry and has a desert-like feel. Some canyons around Nowhere resemble the desert in Nevada. There is a lot of agriculture close to the Nowhere location, but it depends heavily on a well-developed irrigation system with water from the Pyrenees. The areas south of Nowhere are not densely populated at all - there are a few farming towns far apart from each other.
[9] Central shade structure which is a public space for relaxing, dancing, workshops and socializing.
A Barrio is a group of people who camp together, have a common infrastructure (kitchen, shade structure) and typically provide a certain service or attraction to other participants. Theme camps are a vital part of Nowhere.
One of the first European camps was Cult of Alice. It had about 35 people in it from across Europe in it and was led by SnowStorm.
Returned to the playa in the place of Cult of Alice. They brought dancing to your party and British sweets to your palate.
(2006–present) Started by the London couple Emma and Monty in 2005. In 2005, it was a 20 ft x 40 ft enclosed stage made of scaffolding and tarpaulin, with a borrowed sound system and the world’s finest 50-buck homemade lighting rig. In 2008, the camp had over 80 participants and has its own storage facility in Reno, NV. The camp featured a cabaret featuring a Burlesque Show in 2005 and 2006 on two nights.
Camp/Installation at Burning Man 2009. The Nowhere Omnibus was simultaneously an interactive art experience and an actual service. It combined physical installations around the Esplanade, in the form of idealized bus stops, with a traditional London Routemaster bus, which circumnavigated the playa, to a tight schedule, every day of Burning Man.
Hagey (Reno NV) operated the burner hostel for nine years. In the later years he was assisted by Kiwi and Irish. The burner hostel created an amazing space for travelling burners to go Burning Man - many travellers could stay in days before Burning Man at Hagey's house in Reno, where many burners stopped to take the travellers at the hostel to the playa. The BRIBH was also home a number of European first time burners. In 2008, the burner hostel did not operate due to a combination of a number unfortunate factors. [13]
The London decompression party lasts one long night and everyone dresses up in costumes.
| Year | Exact Date | Location | Participants | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2001 | ??? | Room above the Dogstar pub in Brixton | 50 | - |
| 2002 | Dec 20-22nd | Epping Forrest YHA, three-day event | 80 | - |
| 2003 | Didn't happen | - | - | - |
| 2004 | 4th Dec. | 491 Gallery | 150 | - |
| 2005 | 3rd Dec. | 491 Gallery | 311 | - |
| 2006 | 2nd Dec. | 491 Gallery | 400 | Fire & pyro show in the backyard |
| 2007 | 1st Dec. | Synergy Centre, Brixton | 550 | 2 dance floors |
| 2008 | 5th Dec. | Arcades/former parking garage under a train bridge, South London | 1100 | Several party spaces |
"We had about 400ish and really pushed the limit of how many people we could get in that place. Decom tickets sold out two weeks before the event." , Dave B.[1]
