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.

We invite your ideas because these are YOUR events! You are also encouraged to send in a poster with your theme idea, and you can submit ideas (and posters) more than once. You can send themes for Burnal Equinox, or Conception, or both!

Poster Guidelines

1. Your design should be related to the theme idea you are submitting.
2. You can submit a poster to go with your theme idea. Total max per file 8MB.
3. Texture dimensions can be 512 x 512, or 1024 x 512.
4. The Burn2 logo* and event dates should be on the texture.
   Event dates: Burnal Equinox: April 17-19
   Conception: July 24-26.
5. Filename should start with "BE2026 or C2026" followed by whatever you name it.
6. Graphics should be original work, or using creative commons non-commercial, or public domain images.
7. By submitting, you grant us permission to use your poster graphics in world and on our website, and we will acknowledge you as the creator of the artwork when we display it.

Deadline: February 14, 2026, midnight SLT.

Burnal Equinox Ideas So Far

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 So Far

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.