Burn2 Call for Themes

Burnal Equinox and Conception

Burnal Equinox and Conception are two of Burn2's four official regional events. We like to have themes for these events to celebrate, be creative, and have fun.

You can review the theme ideas, descriptions and (if available) poster designs that we received at the bottom of this page. Then make your selections!

For each event, rank your choices with 1 being your favourite on down to least favourite. Please submit your vote only ONCE per person (not per avatar).

Deadline: February 21, 2026, midnight SLT. Yes, just THIS WEEK to make your selections! Results will be reviewed at the Sunday morning February 22nd planning meeting.

Vote for Themes: Burnal Equinox and Conception

THANK YOU FOR YOUR PARTICIPATION!

Burnal Equinox Ideas

Dream Machines

Dreams are not passive experiences, they are active systems. They process memory, rehearse possibility, dissolve certainty, and recombine meaning. In this sense, dreams behave like machines: iterative, generative, and strangely precise in their logic.

At the equinox, when light and dark share equal weight, we gather in a similarly liminal state between intention and outcome, rest and motion, knowing and becoming. Dream Machines invites us to inhabit that threshold consciously.

This theme asks participants to imagine the architectures that generate dreams: emotional engines, mnemonic devices, speculative mechanisms, rituals that hum quietly beneath awareness. Some may be delicate and hypnotic, others unruly or absurd.

War and Peace in the balance of things

Did you know that the first Matrix was designed to be a perfect human world? Where none suffered, where everyone would be happy. It was a disaster. No one would accept the program.. I believe that, as a species, human beings define their reality through suffering and misery. The perfect world was a dream that your primitive cerebrum kept trying to wake up from..
Is your world a paradise, a nightmare or something in between? Share your world.

Below the Surface - An Underwater Fantasy

Bubbles, light shafts, and particle effects simulate depth and motion

Everything moves slowly, fluidly, as if shaped by unseen currents. The environment reacts to sound and presence, creating the feeling of being truly submerged.

Event Structure

Duration: 4–6 hours
Format: Open, exploratory, drop-in immersive experience with rotating performances

Primary Zones

1. The Current (Main Stage)
DJ booth integrated into a glowing sea form (jellyfish, leviathan, or coral spire)
Music progression from ambient and downtempo to deep house, techno, and experimental

Visuals, lighting, and particle effects synced to audio

2. The Reef (Social & Exploration Zone)
Chill spaces formed from coral, shells, and glowing flora
Ambient soundscapes and slow visual movement
Interactive objects that respond to proximity or touch

3. The Depths (Ritual & Performance Space)
Spoken word, interpretive dance, experimental visuals
Thematic moments where the environment subtly transforms
Quiet, introspective energy contrasting the main stage

Participation & Co-Creation
Below the Surface is designed around participation, not spectatorship:
Attendees encouraged to wear underwater, bioluminescent, or creature avatars

Open call for DJs, VJs, dancers, and performance artists
Interactive elements that respond to movement, chat, or crowd density
Optional “gifting” through temporary visual effects, animations, or light auras
Everyone present becomes part of the living environment.

Alignment with Burning Man Principles
Radical Self-Expression: Creative avatars and performances encouraged
Participation: Interactive design with no passive audience
Communal Effort: Built and performed by a collective
Immediacy: Fully immersive, real-time experience
Decommodification: No branding, vendors, or advertising
Leave No Trace: Entire build removed after the event

Technical Considerations
Optimized Second Life build (script limits, LOD control, performance testing)
Streamed audio with redundancy
Clear landing and orientation area
Cam-friendly design for accessibility and exploration

Promotion & Outreach
Teaser visuals featuring bioluminescent sea life and submerged architecture
Short lore-based announcements (e.g., “Something is moving below the surface…”)

Listings in BURN2 calendars and in-world event notices
Closing Moment

As the event reaches its final phase, the ocean subtly changes—lights intensify, sound swells, creatures gather. Then, slowly, the glow fades. The sea grows quiet. The space dissolves.
Nothing remains—except the shared memory of what existed below the surface.

Indulging Our Senses (no poster)

Sight, Taste, Touch, Sound, Smell, Time, Justice, & my favorite... Humor 🙂

Conception Ideas

The Alchemical Now

Alchemy was never merely about turning lead into gold. It was a disciplined practice of attention in an attempt to understand transformation as something lived, embodied, and immediate. Its true material was the present moment.

The Alchemical Now is that catalytic instant when change becomes irreversible. This is not the future imagined at a distance, nor the past mythologized, it is the moment when intention meets action, when raw material enters the fire.

The First Spark

The First Spark

Before form, before flame… there was an idea.

Cosmic ignition, primordial chaos

Fire as the moment of “yes”

Birth of stars, worlds, stories

Installations that activate suddenly

Chaos! (no poster)

Predict it, corral it, or celebrate it. Lets explode with random creativity.