Celebrating Community At Summer Festivals

Smart City's weekly radio show features the organizer of the famous "Burning Man" project, and how festivals build community.

2 minute read

June 21, 2002, 1:00 PM PDT

By Chris Steins @planetizen


Larry Harvey is the founder and executive director of "Burning Man," the project founded on a San Francisco beach in 1986 that has grown into the annual making of a town called Black Rock City in the Black Rock Desert of Nevada.In addition to chairing Burning Man’s senior staff, Larry co-chairs the organization’s Art Department, scripts and co-curates Burning Man’s annual art theme and collaborates with artists in creating aspects of the art theme and the design of Black Rock City.Larry lectures on subjects as diverse as art, religion, civic planning and the rise of cyber-culture in the era of the Internet.Diana Parker is Director of the Smithsonian Folklife Festival - an annual cultural presentation on the National Mall that attracts more than a million visitors over a 10-day period. She has worked on the Festival since 1975.She has served as a consultant on the presentation of living culture to an array of public events including the Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games - Cultural Olympiad, the Smithsonian 150th Birthday Party on the Mall, the Los Angeles Festival, and every public presidential inaugural celebration since Carter's in 1976.Sheila Hughes is the Festival Producer of the popular Bumbershoot, the annual Labor Day weekend festival in Seattle. She also in charge of marketing and design with One Reel, a Northwest nonprofit arts organization trying to make an impact on arts audiences and have fun doing it.Founded in 1972, One Reel's mission is to invigorate broad and diverse live audiences through imaginative and creative arts events of all disciplines – in traditional and non-traditional venues. One Reel produces arts events in collaboration with a wide spectrum of artists of all traditions and cultures. Listen Sunday, 9 a.m. on the WKNO-FM Stations and again Tuesday, 9 a.m. Or you can hear the show streamed live on the Web.

Thanks to Sheila Edmundson

Thursday, June 20, 2002 in Smart City

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