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There is no rule. Any attendee is free to barter! I will say in my experience (and second-hand experience with hundreds if not thousands of participants), that
by bdcs 8y ago
There is no rule. Any attendee is free to barter!
I will say in my experience (and second-hand experience with hundreds if not thousands of participants), that there is literally zero* bartering. And, furthermore, many (cf ~all) people would be aghast at any sort of quid pro quo exchange.
Read the last paragraph from the parent stating they would not return without a large presentation/gift. This captures the spirit/zeitgeist/culture of burning man!
* I have seen some bartering with illicit substances to prove one isn't a law enforcement officer, but the barter amounts to "show me you have some money, even a few cents, and I'll trade you immeasurable money"
- taurath 8y agoThat’s funny, but goes to show that everyone’s experience is what they make of it. My camp one year traded a bunch of alcohol for a keg and first dibs on some grilled cheese. For each it’s own.
- wjnc 8y agoIn a recent EconTalk episode, the CEO of Burning Man [1] says otherwise. They even try to police bartering, based on tips from the community. [1] http://www.econtalk.org/archives/2018/01/marian_goodell.html http://www.econtalk.org/archives/2018/01/marian_goodell.html
- mgce 8y agoMore context from your link: "it used to happen more in the early years--certainly in the early 2000s when, frankly, when the dot-com concept was coming to life, one of the things we would see which was a little related to Gifting and a little related to Decommodification is, we would see camps have logos from their start-up in front of their camp." The point is that Burning Man's community is not built around transactional experience, and that value shines strongly throughout the experience.
- rhizome 8y agoI have seen some bartering with illicit substances to prove one isn't a law enforcement officer Yeah that's not a thing.