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Winter Burn 2025

Aurora Mystica: Lights of Connection

January 24-26, 2025

Plots: Guidelines and Information

Welcome! We're delighted you're interested in creating an installation at Burn2's Winter Burn!

Use this page as your reference while you build your installation on the playa. If you have any questions contact Magi or . You can send them a notecard inworld.

YES... plots are FREE at Winter Burn!! Read all the tabs below for details.

If you are a new artist not familiar with building- don’t worry, we encourage participation and learning, sharing knowledge and guiding each other. Fellow burners will be on hand to help!

Here’s what you need to know:

We follow the:
Ten Principles of Burning Man,
AND SL Terms & Conditions,
AND SL Moderate "M" Maturity Rating.

As with all Burn2 events, we follow the Decommodification Principle (as required by the Burning Man organization), so please refrain from putting out:

  • Tip jars
  • Group joiners
  • Club or event advertising
  • Commercial or promotional items
  • Landmarks or slurls to off-playa locations
  • In-chat promotion spam

We do encourage you to enhance your SL profile so you can direct people there for more information about you.

The following is an envisioning of the Winter Burn event theme.

Concept:
Inspired by the Northern Lights, this theme celebrates unity, connection, and the magic of shared experiences. Like the auroras, individual contributions blend to create a magnificent whole. The focus is on how individual creativity and energy come together to form a collective, beautiful phenomenon.

Visual Style:
Dynamic auroras created using particle effects that light up the sky in vibrant colors.

  • Ground-level holographic art installations and glowing pathways that guide participants to community-built spaces.
  • Light-emitting sculptures and interactive art pieces that respond to touch or movement, symbolizing the ripple effect of connection.

Activities:

  • Light-Painting Workshops: Guests use interactive tools to “paint” temporary light trails in shared spaces, contributing to a collaborative art piece.
  • Group Meditations Under Auroras: Participants gather in open areas to relax and connect beneath shimmering light displays.
  • Musical Performances Synced with Light Shows: Live music synced to dynamic light effects, creating a multisensory experience of sound and visuals.

Winter Burn 2025 Schedule

BUILD PERIOD: January 5-22, 2025
BUILD DEADLINE: WEDNESDAY 22 January at 11pm SLT (23.00)*
PLOT CHECKS & ADJUSTMENTS: THURSDAY 23 January
EVENT: 24-26 January
AFTERGLOW WEEK: 27 January - 01 February
THANK YOU PARTY: 02 February noon-midnight SLT
LNT DEADLINE: SUNDAY 02 February 11pm (23.00) SLT

We encourage you to build on the playa during the build period. 11th hour building kind of misses out on the communal feeling during that time, and if we don't see some part of your build on your plot by noon SLT Sunday 19 February, we may need to reassign your plot (we hate doing that...). Meet fellow artists, builders and campers, and make friends! Learn things, share knowledge! It's the Burner way!

* Please have your build complete and ready to be checked by the deadline (WEDNESDAY 22 January at 11pm SLT (23.00)) so that we have time to check all builds and have any needed changes or adjustments completed before we open. Thanks!

** We like to ask artists to please leave builds in place through the week after the event closes (afterglow week), so visitors can enjoy the builds when things are quieter. At the end of afterglow week, we practice "Leave No Trace" and pack everything back up. THIS IS THE RESPONSIBILITY OF THE ARTIST.

The end of afterglow week, the "Leave No Trace" deadline, is no later than 11 PM (23.00) SLT ON SUNDAY 02 February. There will be a takedown/thank you party on the same day from noon till midnight. You will have until 11 PM SLT to clear off your build. Join us at the party! Want to burn your plot build? Schedule it here!

*** Anything on plots left after the deadline **without prior arrangement with the Placement Leads** will be returned. ***

Note: In this context, when we say "artist" we are referring to both artists and camp builders.

It is a fact of life that in any big community there will be some rules to help things run as safely, smoothly, and as fairly as possible for all in the community.

Artists, please be considerate of your neighbors on nearby plots and the fact that we are sharing space on one region.

MATURITY RATING

In keeping with the "M" (Moderate) maturity rating of Burn2's regions, adult (sex) animations are not permitted.

PLOTS

  • Plots are square, 20m x 20m. They are clearly indicated with plot markers. Your build footprint ends at the outer edge of the marker for your plot.
  • Total height of the build cannot be more than 20m high (from the playa floor).
  • Maximum Land Impact of your build is 300 LI.
  • No terraforming or underground building permitted.

TECHNICAL DETAILS

OBJECTS

  • Minimize the use of lag inducing physical objects.
  • Megaprims and prims larger than your plot size are not allowed.
  • Plants are perfectly fine as long as they are winterized. Snow banks can count as planters.
  • Make objects phantom wherever you can. One exception would be an object that is meant to be walked on.
  • No items may be set for sale for greater than L$0 (zero lindens).
  • Mesh is allowed, but please use it wisely.
  • No Temp-on-Rez objects

TEXTURES

  • Please keep texture sizes as low as possible (512x512 or its equivalent) and reuse textures when possible - this makes your build rez quicker and "pop" for visitors.

SCRIPTS

  • Also to minimize lag - do not use sensors or collision scripts.
  • Do not use any scripts that require interacting with the region server or external servers/databases, such as scanners, visitor logs, etc. Keep script times to .02ms or less, if possible.

MEDIA

  • We are not using cut parcels for this event and the entire region is on the same stream which means media can be heard for long distances and interferes with the audio at other art plots and at the stage, so because of that we don’t allow:
    • Plot radios (or anything setting the audio stream).
    • TVs and prim media
    • Sound camps

SOUNDS

  • No continual or repeating sounds that interfere with the music at the stages.
  • Plots near the stage should plan on being sound free.
  • Regular sounds in objects may be used, but should have their distance limited so as not to be audible in neighboring plots. Please use the llSetSoundRadius() where applicable. For more information: http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/LlSetSoundRadius.
  • Each builder is part of our community and responsible to build in a manner that does not adversely affect others, so check in with each other.

LIGHTING

  • Use glow sparingly. The effects of glow multiply in an area, so if few sources, strive for a maximum of 0.05, if a lot of glow sources, a total maximum of 0.02.
  • Lighting should also be kept within the boundaries of your plot wherever possible. Control the brightness and radius so that you accomplish this. If you need assistance, ask one of the event staff to help you.
  • Think about how your build looks at various times of day. Is it visible at midnight? How about midday?

BOUNDARIES

  • Please keep all parts of your build inside your designated plot.
  • Objects that slightly overhang your plot boundary are fine, so long as the overhanging items do not prevent movement under them (make them phantom). They may not encroach on any neighbor’s plot. Objects outside the plot boundaries ("MOOP", or "Matter Out of Place") may be returned to you - but we will make every effort to first contact you and ask you to make adjustments if needed.

BURNING YOUR BUILD

  • YES! Before you take up your build on LNT day, you can BURN YOUR BUILD!
  • We encourage this as part of cleanup on Leaving No Trace day. It actually makes cleaning up easier!
  • If you are interested in doing this, keep it in mind when you build, because you will need to make sure that the parts of your build you want to burn, are those where you can add the burn scripts.
  • There are team members who are experienced in working with the burn scripts who will be happy to assist you.
  • You can burn down your build at the end of Afterglow Week - any time during the LNT weekend (31st of January thru 2nd of February 11pm SLT).

YES YOU CAN BURN YOUR BUILD YES YOU CAN BURN YOUR BUILD YES YOU CAN BURN YOUR BUILD

GOT QUESTIONS?

If you do not understand something that is stated in these guidelines, please ask.

Not sure about something you want to do on your build? Ask us.

We love people to be better informed and feel better about what we do and why.

CONTACTS

Creative Vision, Can I Have/Do: Wondering if your idea will fit in? Want to make a placement request, or just have a question? Ask Event Placement Lead Magi.

If you haven't signed up to volunteer and would like to: Volunteer Registration.

For info on Burn2.