Light sabers 2006 - The battle of Innocence Light sabers 2006 - The battle of Innocence

In the man of our burn, 2006, Thursday night,
three armies of between 3000 and 5000 Jedi's descended toward the Man.
Three separate armies, good, evil, and silly, went to discover their destiny....


Evil won.

But in so doing, the participants also created the largest art tribute to Burning Man's theme. Three lines of color, could be seen from space.

One line was red, with the evilist of evil Sith poised to rule the galaxy, inspiring unbearable fear.
 One line was blue showing the power of protectors and believers of hope.
 And from the center, a green line of the other.
Those that see beyond how life is, and dream to what life will be,
Transcending the battle of morality, holding faith in the future.


Special thanks to Darth Anadair, and Kenoshi-San, the leaders of the good and bad Jedi.
Thanks to Bear, and the other younglings, who fought so bravely.
Thanks to BM, The Black Rock Rangers, and all departments Law Enforcement, who helped make this a successful and safe performance.
Thanks to the not-a-theme-camp theme camp, who provided stealth prior to the event.
Thanks to all others I did not name, who helped in so many ways.

But most of all, thaks to all of you, the Jedi, who took a weapon and fought for what you believed in.
Gratitude and love to you all!












Beginning
In Burning Man 2005, I made one of those statements: Next year, I will have 3000 light sabers in three armies to fight eachother. Be careful on what you say.

Planning
Found a website in China. Found an import export contact in Hong Kong, Wired a heap of money to purchase 5000 light sabers. It took one month to build, one month to ship, and one month for customs. It seems that homeland security was a bit suspicious, and proceeded to open up every light saber package and look for illegal drugs. :)

In the meantime, I used my programming skills to extend the database of 1000 jedi names to 6000, and wrote a system to print out dossiers on each individual participant. Got a laptop with personal oracle 8. Perl with oraperl, apache, and tied it all together.

Pre-setup
I rented a 24 foot truck to get the boxes - 42 boxes!. They were huge. Dinged the corner of a truck on a tree -- and the insurance didn't cover the roof. Darn! $700.00 extra bill!

The light saberd filled my studio apartment from floor to ceiling. I only had a small crawlspace to get to the bed.

Hired 2 teenage friends to take 5000 plastic sleeves off of 5000 light sabers and apply 5000 individual stickers to them, and then repackage 5000 light sabers. I made the mistake of leaving some light sabers outside. This caused about 10% duds once on the playa.

My ex-girlfirend moves in for a week causing more drama than a truckload of lightsabers.

Working every day straight - including weekends at work.

Rented a 17 foot truck. Filled floor to ceiling. Brought a motorcycle as well, so I coud go to and from town easier -- turned out to be a big mistake.

Borrowed a walgreens shopping cart. A lady saw me lift it -- with the groceries right into the truck and shut the door. She asked "are you going to give that back?" I bolt "yeah, yeah, I will bring it right back.". After a pause, she says "Ooooooh Kaaaayy". :)

Time to drive to the burn.

The Gate
You cannot bring a motorcycle to Burnng Man unless it is a registered Mutant Vehicle, unless:

  • It is your sole transportation to Burning Man
  • The gate attendants know that you didn't try to drive in a truck earlier with the bike in the back and then come back with someone else driving the truck and you driving the bike.

    The gate attendants are diligant...

    I had to unpack 42 boxes of light sabers and roll out the motorcycle at the gate, then reload the 42 boxes of light sabers, then go into the event, and unpack the 42 boxes again.

    Saturday
    Set up the light saber boxes as a makeshift pair of walls. Got the stereo and the posters up. Got power, backup power. and the disco ball working. Test fired the Tesla Coil.

    Sunday
    Tested the distribution speed by gifting away 1800 light sabers. Wore pink speedo swimsuit. It went well.

    Monday-Tuesday-Wednsday
    Monday was the day off. Went out and had fun, and more fun, and then some, and then the sun came up.

    Built a piramid in the outskirts with friends of Kate. Got very dehydrated and almost died. Put togeter a friends art car.

    Tueday night

    Got help from Carol Lay, who happened to stop by. We did a massive takeover of the Whiskey and Whores saloon who were whooping and hollering next door while I was trying to get some sleep. Last call came 5 minutes after the battle. Win!

    Wednsday morning

    Before I got so sleep, the Not-a-theme camp theme camp rolled in. I scared the begeisus out of them by opening the truck door naked. Helped set up the camp,

    Wednsday

    Huge dust storm wrecks the camp. My RV friends sleep in their RV and I go nuts from a lack of sleep. Fail on three mini excursions. The tesla coil wrecks the Disco Ball and the computer printer.

    Battle of the Pirates versus the Ninjas versus the Cowboys versus the Jedis

    I went out with a bunch of light sabers for the battle. All of these guys in orange shirts came and joined in and left. We couldn't find any cowboys or ninjas or pirates.

    I ended up alone with an empty shopping cart.

    Turned out that the battle was a setup by the Carrots, who felt left out because some rouge member of my organization supposedly armed all the Bunnies and Animal Control.

    Loss.

    Takeover of First Camp

    I hand an army of 100 people to take over first camp. Spies in my organization were used to tip off the camp so that they would be preparedfor the siege.

    Camp Jolly Rodger had only 1 person there. It was a waste.

    Loss

    Thunderdome

    No one has ever taken thunderdome, and no one ever will. I was too tired, and undermanned and wen to take the thunderdome, cam out at the wrong time, lost my phone and stuff.

    Very bad Loss.

    Very sorry guys. The Jedis will never attack thunderdome again.

    Parked In

    The RV's had me parked in. I had to move three cars to get the truck out and free.

    Drop off Darth Anadair and Kenoshi-San at 9:00 and 3:00 Set up shop at 6, about 200 feet before the Dickey Box.

    The Battle

    I saw it all, from the bunnies marching armed with pink light sabers, to the rise of the army and screaming of thousands with their sabers in the air. I was buy answering questions and giving out the green light sabers, and got many many volunteers to help me. (Thank you). and many presents(thank you).

    Bear came in for reinforcements. I helped him out. A wedding ceremony got light sabers to be married. Every once in a while, I would fight theose around me. It was really really fun, and then it was over. I got a ride with the unga-bunga art car (thank you) and started the cleanup/inspection of the events.

    Mini-Burn

    While cleaning up, I met two guys who helped me clean up at 3:00. It was an amazing experience. We turned the drudgery into a performance. They found alot of good light sabers in the bunch. At the end. We burned the boxes in a dark burn pile, and about 50 people came to get warmed up. It was amazing.

    Lessons Learned

  • This costs alot of money. Try to get help from others next year.
  • No fun until you are done. Going crazy because of lack of sleep was not very cool. [I'm better now]
  • Provide a place. This is what my brothers temples will act as, places to meet and greet Jedis.
  • Align to Kidsville. Make sure that the black rock kids can enjoy the light saber fun