More mythbusting. sounds like Techie loser wannabes have
ruined BurningMan for the hippies:
?We used to have R.V.s and precooked meals,? said a man who attends Burning Man with a group of Silicon Valley entrepreneurs. (He asked not to be named so as not to jeopardize those relationships.) ?Now, we have the craziest chefs in the world and people who build yurts for us that have beds and air-conditioning.? He added with a sense of amazement, ?Yes, air-conditioning in the middle of the desert!?
His camp includes about 100 people from the Valley and Hollywood start-ups, as well as several venture capital firms. And while dues for most non-tech camps run about $300 a person, he said his camp?s fees this year were $25,000 a person. A few people, mostly female models flown in from New York, get to go free, but when all is told, the weekend accommodations will collectively cost the partygoers over $2 million.
JOB CREATORS!:
For those with even more money to squander, there are camps that come with ?Sherpas,? who are essentially paid help.
Tyler Hanson, who started going to Burning Man in 1995, decided a couple of years ago to try working as a paid Sherpa at one of these luxury camps. He described the experience this way: Lavish R.V.s are driven in and connected together to create a private forted area, ensuring that no outsiders can get in. The rich are flown in on private planes, then picked up at the Burning Man airport, driven to their camp and served like kings and queens for a week. (Their meals are prepared by teams of chefs, which can include sushi, lobster boils and steak tartare ? yes, in the middle of 110-degree heat.)
?Your food, your drugs, your costumes are all handled for you, so all you have to do is show up,? Mr. Hanson said. ?In the camp where I was working, there were about 30 Sherpas for 12 attendees.?
