Episode 06: Blazing Swan Art & Volunteering (JayJay & Wez)

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Stevan (00:01):
Welcome, welcome to the Bonzaar Podcast.
This episode we're gonna look at BlazingSwan, how it's set up, what you guys, your
roles are your, what do you guys do there?
So let's, let's introduceyourself to the listeners.
Who do we have?

JayJay (00:15):
Okay.
I am JJ Sticks.
I am currently on theBlazing Swan Committee.
It's my first year on committeeand I've learned a lot already.
And I'm also the arts admin,um, unofficial title, artsy,
artsy in administration, in oninstallation administration.
And sort of, yeah, basically I organizedall the art pieces and process the

(00:38):
applications and you ask the artistsfor more information and talk to them,
you know, artist liaison, sort of, youknow, it's, it's a work in progress
of what that role actually is as well.
'cause it's changed over thepast two years, I believe.
Um, so yeah, that's, that'sa bit of an icky one.
But yeah, basically I'm the arts person.

Wesley (00:59):
And I'm Wesley Lamont.
I'm currently doing eventmanagement here as well as being
on ranger ops and perimeter lead.
Um, I'm not currently on committee, butI was one of the original, um, founders
of, of the event about a decade ago now.
Um, so I'm just kind of still aroundhelping out as I kind of do, I guess.

Stevan (01:20):
Well, how, how has the burn been so far, guys?

JayJay (01:23):
Um, really good.
Really a bit different.
A lot of, I think a lot of new crowd.
I think we have a lot of newcrowd this year, seems like.
Um, yeah.
Yeah.
And the weather's been, everyonewas expecting it to piss down with
rains, so I think everyone's, um,prepared for like storms, but it's
actually been pretty sunny and pretty.
We've had some nice cold dayswhere you can wear like a, you

(01:45):
know, fur jacket and all that.
And today's, uh, today's probably,uh, yeah, one of the first really
like sunny days where it's, it'sall, all clear and all good.

Wesley (01:54):
Mm. Yeah, it's been, been lovely for me as well.
I've, the weather's been cold,which I've actually enjoyed.
Last year was quite hot here.
Um, this year's been probablyon the opposite end now.
It's been quite cold, butyeah, it's been really nice.
Um, so yeah, I've been enjoying it,like always do like the randomness.

Stevan (02:10):
Op ops wise, operation wise, everything was, uh,
worked out as, as it is.

Wesley (02:14):
Yeah.
It's run actually really smoothlyOperation wise, we've, we've had incident
like we usually do, but that's not dueto any issues with, um, the operations
is more due to stuff happening with someof the people and incidents occurring
like they usually do, and they'veall been handled really well so far.
Um, so yeah, it's been quitesmooth running operationally.

Stevan (02:35):
Uh, let's, let's get into the origin stories.
'cause this is what I, I, I like themost is hearing people's, uh, journey
into the community, the BurningMan or the Blazing Swan community.
JJ, you wanna go first?
What, how did you get involved?

JayJay (02:47):
I was, um, I was invited by Fire Tribe.
Um, I was, uh, I used a spin.
Spin fire with them at, um, yeah, theweekly meets in, in Perth and yeah.
And they said, oh, there'sthis thing blazing Swan.
I was like, what's that?
Um, and I said, oh, is thatlike one, you know, I know.
I've never been to, never went tofestivals or anything like that.
So everything was all new to me.

(03:08):
And I said, oh, is that like all thesefestivals that are getting popular?
I said, no, no, no.
It's not a festival.
It's not a festival.
I was like, okay, cool, cool.
Um, yeah.
So they said, no, it's an it's event.
And I was like, oh, what does that mean?
Um, so yeah, they describedto me and they said, oh.
It's, um, yeah, it's like every, youknow, like there'll be a tent, so
there'll be a tent with this kind ofmusic and there'll be a tent with that
kind of music and, um, yeah, but nothingthey said really, really, like, I

Stevan (03:32):
Sounds like a doof to me.

JayJay (03:34):
Yeah.
Yeah.
Well, I, no, I'd never, like, I, you'reprobably gonna, everyone's probably
scolded me for saying this, but I'dnever even heard of Burning Man.
Um, I'm a complete, I like to liveunder a rock, actually, so, yeah.
So that, yeah, it was, nothing couldhave prepared me for what it was.
Um, so yeah, I went with Fire Tribe thefirst year and I, you know, like, as

(03:56):
everyone says, like an emotional up anddown year, I wasn't in such a good place.
Um, but then met some reallybeautiful people that like
helped me in my bad place.
And then I had some good and badplaces and absolutely loved it.
And yeah, basically wanted to comeback the next year, so, you know,

(04:16):
but then I got, I've been with adifferent theme camp each year.
I don't know if I'm cursing them or.
Something.
Um, yeah, it might be bad luck for people.
I dunno.
But it's great.
It's good to be withdifferent people every year.
And you know, it means that you end up,

Stevan (04:33):
what year was first blaze?

JayJay (04:36):
I think it was 2, 2021.
It was, it was after there was one thatdidn't happen because of the COVID.
Um, and then I think this was likethe first one that happened after,
after COVID that we were allowed.
So they, you know, they were all sayingto me, oh no, this is, this is Jenny Craig
Blaze, this is Blaze Light, you know?

(04:56):
And I was like, oh, wow, wow.
And they're like, yeah, there'sway more people than this.
Um, but that was actually probably a nicefirst year to come into because you could,
if you did meet people, you'd still.
Bump into them again.
Um, and yeah, whereas it wasa big difference the next year
where it was a bit more full.
I was like, oh, like it's, you mightsee someone once and then that's it.
Yeah.

(05:16):
So it was actually kind of nice.
I kind of enjoyed Blaze Light.

Wesley (05:22):
Um, I'll give my backstory then.
So I used to run various conventionsprior to, um, blazing Swan,
and I knew I had quite a lot offriends in the fire spinners.
And that's basically whereI got linked into things.
I wasn't a fire spinner myself,just had lots of friends.
And a few of those came to me whenthis idea of running a Burning

(05:45):
Man event in, in WA happened.
And a couple said, I think you shouldgo along to this committee meeting.
Um, well, sorry, It wasn'ta committee meeting.
I go along to this meeting to talkabout, you know, the, this idea.
And at that time I'd just beenburnt out from running a, a another
committee with a group of like geeks.
And so I pretty much went to thismeeting, kind of expecting to say no, and

(06:08):
I pretty much said I was the first onethere at the first meeting and just said,
unless everyone here is is really good.
I'm, I'm not reallyinterested, I'm afraid.
But I said, I'm just hereto see how it's going.
And everyone was amazing.
Like I could just tell like the passion,the energy and the interest from all those
first people and I was like, okay, yep.
They all seem switched on and eagerand I'm willing to, you know, step

(06:30):
up and give it a crack and see ifwe can make this idea take off.
Um, that's kind of whereI got started on it.
Really?

Stevan (06:38):
Yeah.
That was 2013, 14 or something.

Wesley (06:41):
Oh, that, I can't actually remember when that meeting was.
So 13 we started, it mighthave been 2012, that meeting,

Stevan (06:49):
right

Wesley (06:49):
we did do initial, a little mini event up in the hills of, of
Perth, um, a little Ignite festival,and that got like 300 people.
That would've been 2013,the first blaze of 2014.
I can't remember if that first meeting or12 or 13, I really can't remember that.

Stevan (07:08):
Hmm mm That was, yeah, 2014 was, um, the first year.
Yeah.
Yeah.
That was, um, you, you were involvedin that as well, and, and you were the

Wesley (07:16):
Yes.
Correct.

Stevan (07:16):
You volunteered as the lead ranger and that's how you got your

Wesley (07:19):
Yeah.

Stevan (07:20):
Your blazing swan handle,

Wesley (07:21):
Correct.
Yes.
That, that is absolutely correct.
I was the, the lead ranger.
I did the temple design, I did thebuilt the effigy was on the theme camp.
I was the secretary of the, um,committee and various other things.
I can't even remember now.

Stevan (07:38):
Do you wanna talk about your theme camp, the insider?

Wesley (07:41):
Correct.
Yeah.
Because I had some friends that usedto basically drink cider, um, Australia
Day and sit down and just rate them all,like do a kind of actual like, um, taste
testing thing and just like, this soundslike something we can totally do it.
Blazing swan is like, go downwith a shitload of cider.
Um, and basically have a massiveboard of ratings and just let people

(08:02):
like hand outsiders throughoutthe event and people rate them.
And at the end of the event,we have the winning ciders.
And that's, that's what we didwith a group of my friends.
Um, which was, whichwas pretty good though.
I was so hectic.
I didn't really help that theme campanywhere near as much as I supposed to.
They're invariably looking after me.
Most of that event.

Stevan (08:21):
Well, I think you guys ran outta sight on the second day or something,

Wesley (08:24):
It was something like that.
We got lots of donations.
We weren't expecting thenumbers that there were.

Stevan (08:30):
Yeah.
Well, yeah, blazing swan number one.
Yeah.

Wesley (08:34):
It certainly did way better than we expected.
Like we weren't sure we'd kindof get around 300 people, um,
when we first talked about itand we ended up about 1200.
Um, so yeah, it was, it wascertainly proved that there was
lots of interest in the community.

Stevan (08:47):
And JJ for yourself, how did you get involved into the committee
and the community Blazing Swan?

JayJay (08:52):
Um, I. I went to, I look for a long time, I wasn't even aware that
there was, you know, an organization or amembership that you could be a member of.
I, I had attended Blaze, was it?
Yeah, so I started, attendedBlaze twice, and then, yeah, I,

(09:12):
someone, you know, I was datingsomeone that said, Hey, yep, cool.
Like, you know, like, who made me awarethat there was a organization, there
was an annual, the, oh, there was like aspecial general meeting about to happen.
Um, so that's when I, I joined up andI went to that and yeah, things were
said in that meeting that really hithome with me that I was like, okay,

(09:37):
I wanna be more involved in this.
I wanna protect this thingwe've created because it has
absolutely meant the world to me.
So I, I did my blazingSwan for me has been.
The, the, the doorwayinto being an artist.
So I, you know, I've made stuff andI've, I've been artsy and everything,
but I've never really had a purpose forlike, for anything, any of my skills.

(10:00):
But then, um, you know, I was with,I was with the, the, I was gonna be
with the Stygian Saloon and, um, thiswas the year that it didn't happen.
There was, yeah, there wasa year in between where the
event got, had to get canceled.
Really, really close to it.

Stevan (10:15):
2022.

JayJay (10:16):
Yeah, I can tell.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So that was the, uh, um, I was gonnabe with Stygian Saloon and I'd actually
made, I'd actually started making a thing.
I asked, um, I asked James if Icould, I said, look, it's like a,
it's a mannequin that I'm doingup to be like a, like a witch.
And, you know, because we'rethe, the swamp, the swamp saloon.

(10:36):
I said, can I, can I put herin, in the, like, near the swamp
and call her the swamp witch?
And so that was, that was gonna happen.
And so I started working onit and I was really excited.
And then the event got canceled, andthen the, it was sort of like closer to
when it was started to build up again.
I was in, in James' warehouse and Iwas talking to him and, you know, and

(10:58):
he, and he was talking about art grantsand, and he was saying, he's like,
well, you could apply for an art grant.
And I said, oh, could I, I don't,they don't, they only give them
out to people that are like, Idon't know, like, you know, like.
Money earning artists or you know,people that are, you know, with degrees,

Stevan (11:16):
professional people.

JayJay (11:17):
Yeah, yeah.
Professional art, you know, I waslike, I was like, no, I'm, I'm just,
I'm just must make stuff, you know?
Um, and he said, no, youcan apply for an art grant.
I was like, oh, I could apply.
Oh, I could be an artist.
Um, and so I applied my first artgrant with, with a swamp witch
that was gonna be in the, in theswamp, the year it got canceled.
And yeah, so that washow I started with art.
So that event, yeah, thatwas my first art piece.

(11:39):
And yeah, from there, like just, oh, theamount of people that you get feedback
from, you know, like watching peopleview the stuff you've made and you know,
and give you so much love back for it.
That really built me up and it starteda passion where I was like, okay, I
wanna start making more stuff like this.
I wanna start making props and yeah,so that was, so Blaze means a, a

(12:01):
huge amount for me as an artist,especially the fact that it was like
I didn't have any qualifications.
I didn't have, you know,they didn't ask for my.
Experience in terms of like, what, whatI've exhibited and, you know, who's, who's
PR previously said yes to me it was, itwas literally like, what's your idea?
I've got a phone call from the art leadsaying, cool, tell me more about it.

(12:21):
And yeah, and it was my, my passion forthe project that, yeah, that meant that I,
I could receive a bit of money to make thething and that that meant the world to me.
So, yeah.
So, you know, fast forward to when I'mat this, this special general meeting
and, you know, and, and I was like,I wanna be more involved and, you
know, and protect this thing that'smean, the world meant the world to me.

(12:42):
So I didn't, that was the meetingwhere I, you know, I was made
aware that there was a committee.
I didn't stand up for the committeethen because, um, to be quite frank,
someone stopped me and told me not to.
Um, and I was like, okay, yeah,I listened to that person.
And maybe that was a goodthing because when I finally
did stand up to the committee.

(13:04):
Stand up for the committee and, and, andvote and, um, nominate myself this year.
I was in a really good place to be ableto do it and to be able to take it on.
So, yeah.
So I, I sort of, yeah, got voted inthe committee in yeah, this year.
And yeah, it's been areally cool journey for me.

Stevan (13:23):
And how do you like to, you know, with, with your, with
your leading role now, what,what's your plans for the future?
How do you like to see that, uh, evolve,especially with Blazing Swan art?

JayJay (13:32):
Um, I think that, like, I, you know, look, I've, I've looked a
little bit about what Burning Man does.
I think that like this year we've, we'vekind of had a few mural artists and we've
been able to like, put up, you know,their murals on the, the marquees, um,
the, the org are using and everything.
And I'd really like to support.

(13:52):
Like murals a bit more.
Maybe even have a gallery I've been to.
Yeah.
Like other festivals where they like,where they have a proper art gallery.
Um, you know, I've, the Burning Man hasa wicked little like, mural structure,
um, because really like it's, yeah,murals are, they take a lot of work and
you know, like this year I've actually,you know, with the rise of things like

(14:13):
Temu and all this like instant art,AI art, I like, I would really like to
see us actually support artists do who,who put in so much fucking time and
work into creating beautiful things.
And you know, I'm not gonna go aroundtelling everyone they can't hang
their like, amazing Temu bought.
You know, mass produced murals on thewalls that are probably ripping off other

(14:38):
artists some, but I'd really like us tosee, I'd really like us to not do that.
Um,

Stevan (14:45):
yeah, that's right.

JayJay (14:46):
Um, so yeah, I'd like to see us really support those artists who,
and kind of stand up against ai.
And I know that there's a lot ofdivided opinions about AI in the org.
Um, but I, like I'm anti ai.
Like if someone.
Someone asked me to help create a logoand they, they sort of said, Hey, like,
here we, we've got this logo and can youjust make it, you know, black and white?

(15:08):
And I said, where did you get logo from?
Oh, ai.
I said, no, sorry.
Um, I'm anti-AI, it rips offartist and yeah, I won't do it.
So it's like, I'd like to see ussupport, that sort of side of things.
We're an arts event where we recognizethat it's hard, it's hard to be an artist.
You don't get, you know,support from people.

(15:28):
People won't invest in art.
Like, they'll invest in, um, likesay a brewery where they can,
everyone can drink lots of booze.
You know, they won't invest in art.
Like, they'll invest in thingsthat, you know, won't, like server.
A functional purpose.
So yeah, I'd like to see us support thatand say, this is really important to give

(15:49):
all these artists all the opportunityin the world to express themselves,
but also to get their name out thereand to be able to connect with people.
I don't wanna stop artists fromsaying, here's my website where
you can see more of my artbecause it's, it's freaking hard.
You know?
It's not, and there's been a lotof com questions this year around
Decommodification and you know, likeif an artist is doing an art piece and

(16:12):
they have a, a professional website,if they are an artist that does manage
to make a little bit of money off oftheir craft, you know, there've been
questions around is, is it okay to letthem put their website in the dust guide?
Um, I think that's fine becausethe, it's, that's the whole point.
We're here to support art.
We're not here to say, oh, you can'tput your website where you, where

(16:33):
you make art on the dust guide.
'cause that's, you know,'cause that's commodification.
It's like, no, we'rehere to support artists.
That's a big thing for me.

Stevan (16:41):
Your thoughts?
We are you, are you an AI guy?
Are you, are you a tech guy?

Wesley (16:44):
I'm a tech guy, but no, I, I agree with JJ as well that I'm, I'm
not interested in ai, AI used foranything except things that are kind
of a relevant, like any kind of likepromotional thing or public thing should
not be using ai and I certainly wouldn't,wouldn't think it should be used.
Anything to do with Blazing Swan.

Stevan (17:05):
Yeah, it feels like it doesn't belong in the community, but, uh, I
guess that's how we're progressing.
So,

JayJay (17:11):
yeah, I mean, even in terms of, um,

Stevan (17:13):
it's controversial,

JayJay (17:14):
like the, I know that people have said to me, Hey, like, look, like
you should use AI to write a resume.
And I'm like, why would I do that?
Because then I'm, I'm presenting, likeI'm presenting myself as someone, I'm
not, like if you, if you write a resumewith AI and you turn up to a job interview
and they're like, oh, it turns out youcan't say all those big words and whatnot.

(17:36):
You just, you're notbeing true to yourself and

Stevan (17:38):
no, you're not being authentic.

JayJay (17:39):
Yeah.
And you know, we've, we've used AI too.
Yeah.
There's a lot of using AI to write, youknow, our, our lovely corporate emails.
Um, you know, so we cansound very official, but I'm
like, we're blazing swan man.
Like, yes, we wanna be professional,but let's, you know, let's be human.

Stevan (18:00):
Yeah, I think a lot of people go to, to blazing swan for the, for
the, uh, you know, authentic experience.

Wesley (18:05):
Absolutely.

JayJay (18:06):
Yeah.
It's about, yeah, it'sabout human connections.
So why would we supportAI in anything we do?
Hmm.
Sorry, I have some very strong opinions.
I might give you apassionate apologies advance.

Stevan (18:20):
And what do you, what do you guys think about performance art?

JayJay (18:23):
Yeah, I'd like to see us, um, I know that there have been a
lot of, there have been a few artgrant applications for, um, for
workshops and performance pieces.
And I don't know, like, Idon't think we've ever really
defined any of these rules.
So I, like this year I wastold on the committee, I was
told, Hey, look, there's, um.
You know, we have to, we have toput some rules in place around why

(18:46):
we choose art, like art pieces.
For art grants, you have to have somecriteria and you have to have some,
you know, I was, I was told, oh, youhave to have a like a point system.
Um, straight away.
I went, no, 'cause you, you know,you can't judge art by numbers.
But I said, look, as, as the responsiblecommittee member, adva advocating
for art, but also wanting to, um,you know, appease the auditors, can

(19:11):
I please write this criteria so that,you know, my aim was to try and make
criteria for the art grants that wasboth gonna benefit artists and mean that
we weren't gonna reject applicationsbecause they didn't fit in a box.
And, but also.
You know, appease the, thepaperwork side of things where we,
we can justify that we're beingfair, um, if we reject a project.

(19:33):
So I took that on board as a project.
I think I did Okay.
It still needs work, but Yeah.
So there was, can we, sorry, go ahead.

Stevan (19:39):
Can we talk about, can we talk about some of the projects
that were, that were rejected?
I think there was, it's, I, I, I'veseen it in the, uh, in the social media.
Blazing Swan Community Page, uh, isthat the one with the, the Simpsons?
What's the title?
Quite long.

JayJay (19:57):
Um, do you want the full title because it's, it's probably about,

Stevan (20:00):
yeah, sure.
I think it's for the listeners out there.
I think, um, I,

JayJay (20:05):
I'd have to look it up because Do you have internet,

Stevan (20:07):
it's a mouthful.

JayJay (20:08):
Do you have, um, no, no.
The full title wasn't, yeah, no.
Wez is, Wez is getting the guide out.
The full title wasn't in theGuide because that, God, no, I,
hang on, see if I can remember.
One.
One was, um, you are an ugly butt faceand something, something, butt face.
And I'm a smelly butt face and Ilike to keep my kiss my own butt.

Wesley (20:27):
Yep.

JayJay (20:27):
Um, and then the other one was, what's the point in going out?
We're probably gonna end up backhere anyway, which I've been told
are both direct Simpsons quotes.
I'm not a Simpsons watcher, soI, so some of the references
might be a bit lost on me.
Um, like I kind of, yeah, I, youknow, like, I, like, like most

(20:50):
people, I probably watched TheSimpsons when, you know, when,
uh, like when it was on as a kid.
Um, but I'm not a,

Stevan (20:57):
it's still running,

JayJay (20:57):
so I don't, yeah, I don't, I don't know the quotes they're referencing
very well, but they're, apparently,they're direct Simpson quotes.

Stevan (21:04):
And what's the story behind that?
The, the theme camp or theart piece and, and the build.
Uh, so, um, there's also been adocumentary made about it as well.

JayJay (21:13):
Yeah.
Yeah.
Um, so she applied.
She applied for an art grant and yeah,basically said I wanna recreate the
Simpson's house and Moe's tavern, andyeah, and I, I sort of said like, I,
I kinda like liaise with her a bit.
Like, so as the, you know,I was like, oh, okay, cool.

(21:33):
That maybe, maybe in your application,like, you know, like put like, what's
it, you know, like what's the point?
Like what's the point of it?
And like, you know, maybe put a littlebit about, you know, I kind of guided it
through it and said like, look, maybe,um, because we, we, we kind of, we
had a, like, we introduced the idea ofhaving like a panel of people as well.
So it wasn't just, and I, I think tomy knowledge in the previous year, it's

(21:55):
just been, we've just had like the artlead and the art lead would do like, you
know, like if people applied the art leadwould cold call them and say yes or no,
and then that would go to the committee.
Um, so yeah.
So this was a part of that selectioncriteria this year where, you know,
we were told, no, you have to have a,you have to have a five person panel.

(22:16):
Assess these projects.
So I kind of treated it like kind,you know, kind of a little bit more
official, um, where I'm like, okay,like, you know, I'll be your guide to,
you know, to make sure the panel hasall the information to be able to look
at your project and say yes or no.
Like, you know, can youput in this and this?
So I, I did sort of like guide her throughthe process a little bit and yeah, and

(22:39):
she said, you know, she wanted to createit and, you know, give people that like
feeling of, you know, like, um, youknow, the feeling of what, you know, when
you were a kid and everything was safeand um, you know, like the connection
with the things that we grew up with.
And I was like, okay, cool.
Then that was, and you know, and she,she did really like, she, she gave a

(23:00):
really, um, good budget breaking downeverything that she'd need the money for.
It was quite a large budget and, youknow, and she gave her a decent plan and I
said, what's it gonna look on the outside?
And she even started to build.
Like a, like a mini model of,of what it would look like.
And I was like, wow, that's cute thatyou're going into all this effort.

(23:21):
That was cool.
Um, and I said, cool, great.
And, but it was all presented at thepanel and I was in the panel as well.
But yeah, it was there.
The five people in the panel sortof said, no, I don't think this
really, I don't think this is reallysuitable for Blaze because of the
aspect of it that it's, you know,there, there were a couple of things.

(23:42):
I mean, one, I don't, I don't actuallyknow if I'm allowed to really talk about
this, but I'm, I'm, I'm a person that'svery transparent and this is the reason
why we had the panel and everything to,you know, to be transparent about the
reasons why we, you know, we said no toa project, but, you know, basically it
was, I guess, yeah, that, that was forme personally, for me, like looking at it

(24:02):
and it wasn't really, like, there wasn't ahuge element of it that was like original
creation, if you know what I mean.
Like, it wasn't, um, for meit wasn't original design.
It was, it was.
Like, so, you know, basically likefive panel members said no, but
like, I, I can speak on my opinionpersonally is that it's great.

(24:23):
It's, it's a great thing for peoplewho love, who love The Simpsons, um,

Stevan (24:29):
or pop, pop culture that, you know, it doesn't have to be The Simpsons.
Yeah,

JayJay (24:32):
yeah, yeah.
So it's like, for me personally, artis like, specifically like blazing
swan art, you know, it's all aboutsupporting stuff that is, is your own,
like, is your own idea that you've gone,oh my God, I wanna create this thing.
And there's, um, you know, andwe all have like influences.
Like we, you know, I'm,I'm inspired by trees.

(24:53):
I make big fake trees and, you know, Iput a bit of a fantasy element on it, you
know, so we're all inspired by things andyou can combine things and other things.
But yeah, I, I kind of go, I kindof look at the element of it that
the artist has put themselves into.
So, you know, like if it, youknow, with the mural artist, you
know, there's a lot of work where.
Like they're putting, they're puttingthe paint on the canvas and they're

(25:15):
deciding where that paint goes.
Nobody, they're not using a pattern todecide whether it's not paint by numbers.
They're deciding where that paint goesand that's themselves getting put into it.
Right.
And you know, so, but with this pieceI sort of went, well if, if you asked,
if you sort of said, okay, well whyare you putting the couch there?
Why, why is the room laid out in that way?
Oh, well, the answer would be becausethat's like, that's the way it's

(25:37):
laid out in a TV show that I've seen.
And that's, that for me is whatkind of made it something that,
although it's a brilliant effort to.
To, to make something.
And of course it's going to like, youknow, everyone's emotionally connected
with it, which is really great.
But for me, that was where it wasn'tsomething that I would, I would like

(25:57):
blazing Swan to give art grant moneyto because it was, you know, I would,
you know, like, I would like to seemore of, you know, how much of yourself
are you putting into this piece?
Like, and you know, the emotions thatyou're drawing from people, are those
emotions are, are you, are you drawingthose emotions because of something
that you've, you've put into it?

(26:18):
Or is, uh, those emotions beingdrawn because they relate them
back to a TV show that they,they watch when they were a kid.
And that, that for me was why I saidno, but like, I love it as a theme camp.
I think it's really great.
It's been really successful and loved it.
Although we did.
I would, I would, it's probably better.
Like I did kind of advise her to takeofficial references to the show out

(26:43):
of it, you know, because a parody is,a parody is where you don't actually
mention the original names, right.
It's not, it's meant to be thatyou've, you've altered it a little
bit so that people can kind oftell what it's about, but it's not
directly referencing the originalnames, and that's why it's a parody.
So I think for me, it's a littlebit still using original names

(27:06):
in the advertising for it.
Um, as well as the, you know, in thedust guide, um, using images from the
TV show to advertise the fundraiser.
That was a little bit off putting for me.
But otherwise very well done.
Like so, so happy that shemanaged to fundraise, you know,

(27:27):
and, and fundraise for it.
And, you know, I'm so happythat people enjoyed it.
I just.
Yeah.
For me, I, I don't think it wasreally something that we should
be putting as an art piece.
I know there's a lot of people thatdisagree with me, and I'm not throwing
any shade towards, to Sarah or her piece.

Stevan (27:45):
No.
But sometimes, yeah.
Yeah.
But sometimes, uh, a vision of abuild or an art piece can be, can be
seen, seen differently, like seen thewrong way or, you know, it's different
categorized like, it, it probably, likeyou said, it's fantastic as a theme camp.
Yeah.

JayJay (28:02):
Yeah.
And it is, it is really hard for theartists to get across their vision.
There've been, it's interestingto see all the other beautiful
projects people have put acrossthat, um, in their applications.
We were like, oh, okay, okay.
Yeah.
And you kind of just trust that, um,that that person's gonna bring out
something beautiful and, you know, youjust kind of go with the, the whimsy that
they put into it and going, yeah, cool.

(28:23):
Like they're, they've got a cool ideaand let's see what they come out with.
And, and yeah, it's amazing to see.
The difference, like when, you know, whenyou look at the pieces out and you go, oh
wow, I never would've predicted that itwould be like that from their application.
So you've, you've gotta have such an openmind when you look at the applications to,
because, you know, we're like, typicallyartists sometimes aren't actually

(28:46):
great at paperwork as it turns out.
Who would've predicted?
Um,
so, so I think there's definitely,

Stevan (28:53):
well just like doctors not, not being able to, to hand
write, you know, just, yeah.

JayJay (28:57):
Yeah.
And, and

Stevan (28:58):
I get it.
I get it.

JayJay (28:59):
Someone actually said to me, oh, what if, yeah, what if
someone's actually like dyslexic or.
Um, you know, or, or even if they'revision impaired, I was like, oh God.
Yeah.
Like we're, we're notreally being very Yeah.
With the application process.
Like we, we need to offer a bit of help.
'cause Yeah, definitely.
If someone's not able to write their ideaout, you know, clearly, and like, you

(29:22):
know, we shouldn't be saying no to someonebecause they, they don't have the ability
to actually express their idea clearly.
So I, yeah, I like, I'd like to beable to help, you know, like in next
year, try and provide a lot more helpin, you know, with the applications.
And to do that we need a reallyclear idea of, of what we're gonna
say yes or no to, or, you know,like what, what the criteria is.

(29:45):
So that's kind of mymission for the next year.
And, you know, and if I'm, if I'mstill like, I'm, I'm definitely
want to stay on the committee.
And if I, if I do still stay on thecommittee, if the members are still voting
for me, then that's gonna be my missionis to make this criteria really clear and
it's all gonna be with the aim to support.
Artists who have really beautiful originalideas that are, you know, you know, that

(30:11):
maybe even like, that wouldn't get chosenfor what I like to call corp, pretty
small, pretty art, you know, so, yeah.
Stuff that, yeah, if they have thepassion for it and if they, yeah,
basically if they have the passionfor it, like I wanna support it.

Stevan (30:29):
Cool.
And, and what kind of art has inspiredyou out there, Wez, this year?

Wesley (30:34):
Um, I'm always a passionate lover of all the lights and
the special effects stuff.
That's certainly a, a big one.
And really, they're very obvious andvery, like, they're very apparent on site.
I also love finding random thingsin random corners, and I haven't
done that search this year.
I've just been too busy.
Like, invariably you'llfind someone set up some.

(30:55):
Like some little scene or somethinglike, you know, behind a couple rocks,
which I adore immensely when peopleput f into this like, tiny little
thing that has like almost no visual,uh, awareness until you find it.
So I've only really seen the big flashythings, which I do love, but there's
probably other things out there I probablylove more that haven't even found yet.
Um, so that's kinda where I am this year.

(31:16):
I guess.

JayJay (31:16):
There's been a few, like, like, um, like yeah, I
love renegade, art, installation.
Yeah,

Wesley (31:21):
absolutely.
Um,

JayJay (31:22):
there's been a few little like where people have like arranged twigs
and rocks and, um, I feel like someonemade like a wedding arch out, like
near the, near the Sound Camp Alley.
There was like, yeah, there was like,it looked like it was, there was
an aisle and a wedding arch there.
Mm. Yeah.
So I love seeing the things that peopleactually create while they're out here.
Or maybe they're, they'rebrought as a kind of a little
bit of a secret renegade thing.

(31:43):
Mm, yep.
Yeah.
Little.
That's cool.

Stevan (31:46):
What about this year's effigy and Temple?

Wesley (31:49):
What do you wanna know about it?
Or what, what, what's your question?

Stevan (31:51):
Well, what, what do you guys, uh, think about it and what
was your, um, and, uh, yeah, how,how did it compare and like, um,

JayJay (32:00):
as a, as a tree lover.
I loved and hated this year's temple.
So, um, yeah, so this year's TempleDesign was a, it was a, I think it
was a, it was a beautiful, um, likethe whole, like, it had like a kind
of wall around the outside of it.
And on the inside was thissort of garden of trees.

(32:23):
And then there was sort of like a, Ithink it was based on a tomb design.

Wesley (32:28):
I think it was Celtic.
Yeah.
Celtic Monument style.
Yeah.

JayJay (32:31):
So kinda had like a garden tomb element.
Um, and like he.
Like a lot of like naturaltrees, I'm guessing, um, obtained
from the nearby property, fromthe, you know, with the, yeah.
Collaboration with the farmers.
So, yeah, I, I absolutely loved itto see a beautiful, like a natural
element put into the temple.

(32:51):
I loved the, the, like there was a, therewas a definitely a artistic twist on it.
Um, absolute fan of Joe's.
Work and his, you know, his theme campis probably my, is my favorite, a blazing
swan, you know, it's got, you know,

Stevan (33:06):
what's the theme camp?

JayJay (33:07):
Uh, the Magical Frontier.
And they're, so they're kind of, they'reright up the back of the, like the whole
sort of city where they utilize the rocks,um, to, you know, with candles and they
have actually have like a live musician.
And it's, it's such a small, like,it's, it's like a walkthrough space.
There's no, or there's a tinybit of structure, but it's,

(33:28):
it's all just utilizing therocks and the natural landscape.
Bit of like, yeah, the saloon.
Saloon feel, live music.
Lots of candles.
Lots of lanterns.
It's so, it's beautiful andsoulful and romantic and I've
always loved going there.
Um, so yeah, and his, the templedesign really reflected his style.
Um, I think it had like lots ofsalt lamps and Yeah, the tomb was,

(33:53):
it kind of, it kind of looked tome like, yeah, like they've used,
um, they've created like fake rockwalls with some render and, um, yeah.
So, and as you walk through, likethey've used, uh, like there was
a, well there was a well with likewhere they've used mirrors to make
the, well look like it was deep.
And then it was, you know, like, youknow, created like fake caverns using
mirrors and oh, it was so beautiful.

(34:16):
And yeah, so it was kind ofbittersweet for me watching that burn.
'cause I was also like, I lovetrees and it's using trees.
Oh, now I'm watching trees burn.
And that makes me feel sad.
But, um, but yeah, it wasso beautiful and like the.
The, the best thing was, um, yeah,someone put, someone, put a wedding
dress up as as, so you go, as youwalk through the garden into the tomb,

(34:40):
someone put a wedding dress up on thewall with a note and it's, it's really
like I, I've heard people saying,oh, did you see that wedding dress?
Like, it was really like,impactful for people.
Um, and when I went to look at thetemple I walked through and when
I walked through, Joe was standingthere looking in this wedding
dress and I, I said, oh, cool.
Temple design, bro.
That's really, really, I can really seeyou and your, like, your style in it.

(35:04):
And yeah.
And I said, did, did youput that dress there?
And he said, no, I,someone else put it there.
And he was just, he sortof seemed mesmerized by it.
And yeah.
So that was really cool as wellto actually kind of see the, the
artist's, um, reaction to people.
Yeah.
Other people's input into their thing.
And yeah, it's like a beautiful,like, it's just a beautiful little

(35:26):
emotional connection circle.
It's, I love it.

Stevan (35:32):
Yeah, that's very impactful.
And the, and the effigy.
Can you describe some ofthe, uh, designs features?

JayJay (35:39):
Um, it was a, oh, it was like a giant egg.
Yeah.
Yeah.
It was a, it was agiant egg, but like the,

Stevan (35:48):
a giant egg.

JayJay (35:50):
Um, I, I kind of, my, my reaction to it is I looked
at it and went, this is great.
Someone's made like a better orb tobasically just like stick it to the house
of orb that it's actually a better orb.
But that's 'cause like there's,yeah, there's just this giant rivalry

(36:10):
going between the house of orb andthe church of belligerence, which
I think is hilarious to watch.
Um, so that was my.
Yeah, I don't know.
Like did you, did you lookat it like that way, Wez?
Or is that just me?

Wesley (36:23):
Um, no, I, it certainly came across more sphere than an egg.
There's no denying it.
They, they didn't quite getit having a point at the top,
so it looked like a sphere.
And once you got up close, you couldsee that laid logs around the bottom of
it, and then you kinda go, ah, right.
It kind a nest with an egg.
Um, but it took a bit to get there,but it was all done of triangles.

(36:43):
Like it was a beautiful geometricshape, the actual sphere.
It was, um, egg sphere,

JayJay (36:50):
I think it was pentagons and hexagons.
I was staring at the design when Iwas in there and I was like, oh, okay.

Wesley (36:56):
Yeah.
All triangles stacked togetherto make Yeah, to make the shapes.
Yeah.

JayJay (36:58):
Yeah.
But did you notice thatthere was a pattern?
Yes, there was a pattern where it waslike, I think it was like a Pentagon in
the middle and then the other ones, yeah.
It was a really cool, real, really coolfor, yeah, like to use patterns like that
as well in the designs of things for,um, you know, like, yeah, people that
like to stare at things for a long time.

Wesley (37:16):
They made an event space as well, which I've done the last couple years.
They've made the effigy and event space.

JayJay (37:22):
Yeah.

Wesley (37:22):
So this year say the same.
It had basically a, a, a dropdown bar orwe could pull it up and have a DJ deck.
And so there's quite a lotof different theme camps.
Took it over for one night and basicallydid a bar or a, or a dance or something.
So it gi gives a different vibe.
Like I'm still a bit mixed aboutusing the effigy event space.
Um, why?
Because we have a lot.

Stevan (37:43):
Why?
Why is that?
Um, why is that?
I always, is it sacred?

Wesley (37:47):
No.
No.
I don't think the effigy sacred, butit's an effigy is always something
large and visually impactful.
Like it doesn't need to be event space.
We have loads of event spaces around,so I don't think we need another one.

JayJay (38:04):
I think the part in that where it's really important though that
it's an event space that like all theother spaces Yeah, the theme camps and
the theme camps do their own thing.
This is an event space where BlazingSwan can say, okay, this is what we
wanna do this year that supports.
The idea or the theme orwhatever we want to put across.
So.

(38:24):
Mm-hmm.
Like, my favorite thing was thefact that they had Billy, who is the
head of our DPW, like the, you know,department of Works building the place.
Um, we had Billy's band playthere, um, which is awesome.
'cause he's like, he's such a, africking pillar of the community and
you know, I've heard about Billy's band,Billy's band, and I was like, oh man.

(38:45):
And I finally got to seethem play well, kind of.
I kind of missed itbecause I got distracted.
Um, but I, yeah, I do that artist whowould've guess, but yeah, I finally
gotta see him play and that was amazing.
And I, you know, and then we had,um, Tim stepped up and started
singing and playing on the guitarand yeah, Tim another, another cool

(39:06):
guy from now our setup crew and yeah.
And that for me really hit home.
I was like, I, I would love to seeus actually support a live band every
year, because that's another thingthat live bands are dying out and.
You know, it's clear by, like, you cansee like the love of like the magical
frontier where they have a live musician.
Mm-hmm.
Like you can see the clear support for it.

(39:28):
And it's hard for bands.
Like you think about like a dj, okay cool.
You have like a lot of expensiveequipment, but you have one person
generally that you know, andsome equipment that's, you know,
could, could probably stack fairlyneatly into a neat little package.
Um, you think about a band and you thinkabout, you usually got like, you know,
like three, three to five musicians.

(39:49):
You've got a huge drum kit.
You know, Mike stands all that.
Um, it's not a neat little package,but it is a really beautiful thing
that's dying out in this age of, youknow, electronic AI and, and, and yeah.
All the programs and stuff.
I would love to see us say,yeah, pick one band a year and
say, look, here's a local band.

(40:10):
We wanna give them five free tickets.
'cause that's, that's a lot of money.
Five people buying a ticket to an event.
That's a lot of money.
So if we can just gift.
Free tickets to a band and a, like, youknow, give 'em help to get out here.
And I think, like, you know, whenyou think about it, the idea of the
effigy being the effigy is life.
And the temple is like, you know, thequiet, you know, the effigy is the

Wesley (40:31):
soul, often the soul.

JayJay (40:33):
Yeah.
The soul, yeah.
So the temple's, the soul, the effigy islike the, like the real, like the high,
the high spirit and the you like Yeah.
Like the yeah.

Wesley (40:43):
I's even the tip of the heart as well.
So I was thinking about, I'm not sure whatyou call the effigy, it's kind of like the

Stevan (40:49):
Yeah.

Wesley (40:49):
The head of the, the event.
Almost like the brain.
The brain doesn't give theright vibe though, either, so.

JayJay (40:55):
Yeah.
Yeah.
It's, it's like that's the funeffigy the fun and, and the crazy.
And the temple is,

Stevan (41:02):
it's a climax.
Yeah.

JayJay (41:03):
Is the heart and the emotion.

Wesley (41:05):
Contemplative

JayJay (41:05):
and the, yeah.
Yeah.
And the effigy like, let's get fun.
Have fun and yeah.
So it's like.

Wesley (41:11):
Yeah, so we have had live, live, um, camps before that.
That's, they basicallyjust do support live bands.
Um, yeah.
And back at the start, we also had acenter camp, which was actually a place,
and we did deck it out with stuff forlive bands because the, one of the
original founders, he has a band as well.

JayJay (41:28):
Yeah.

Wesley (41:28):
So actually brought down and played it.
So that I thought worked quite well.
You almost have thatas well as a, an effigy

JayJay (41:33):
yeah.

Wesley (41:33):
Um, or it can be linked to the effigy I'm not necessarily still sold
that the effigy has to be an event space,but that, that's, that's my, my feeling.
That's all.

JayJay (41:42):
I think, I think the main thing that, the important thing is the tickets
to be able to be able to give the ticketsto the band because like, so last year
I was a part of Valhalla, um, and we,we had a, yeah, we had a live band.
And the only reason we were ableto get that light band there was
because Friger, who, um, you know,she volunteers for DPW every year.

(42:06):
She, uh, like last yearwe actually offered.
A lot more.
Yeah.
Free tickets.
So for all the setup crew, if they weredoing a lot of hours, they would get extra
free tickets to give to their loved ones.
And because she got extra free ticketsfor all the hours of work that she
did for us and all the, all theeffort that she went to, she actually

(42:27):
gifted them to the band for Valhallaso that we could get the band there.
And, you know, in terms of thisyear's Blazing Swan, I think that if,
if Valhalla had come this year andasked for free tickets for a band,
they Yeah, it would've, they, theywould've had to sort it out themselves.
And so that, that wasthe point that, yeah.
So like, if Blazing Swan couldoffer, just offer the free tickets

(42:51):
to, to the band to say, yep, cool.
We want you here, come and giveus your beautiful gift of music,
whether or whether they playin a theme camp or whatnot.
I would just like to see that happen.
And I, but I just think that effigy isa good way to see that happen because
it means that we can, yeah, we can.
Say, cool, we've got aspace that we can offer up.
And yeah.

(43:12):
Like, you know, we Yeah.
We're in.
Yeah.
We, we, yeah.
Basically, so somewhere weneed more than Yeah, yeah,

Stevan (43:18):
yeah.
We need more than Def Punk and Carl Cox.
Yeah.
Yeah.

JayJay (43:23):
And again, it's all about supporting art, even musical art.
Yeah.
It's, yeah.
It's, it's,

Stevan (43:27):
well, you're absolutely right.
Artists that are coming orburners who, who are performing.

JayJay (43:39):
Yeah.
And it's not to say that like livemusicians, it's not to say that if
you have a five person band thatyou're worth any more than someone
who's electronically creating music.
It's just saying that we acknowledge thatit's a lot harder when you've got five,
physically five people and a drum kit.
The and five musicians.
Yeah.
And all the gear that's a, you know,it's, you know, physically, visually it

(44:02):
is a lot harder to transport that andget the tickets than one person with
similar, some techy gear that like,that is a lot smaller and compact.
But, you know, it's still, it's like yeah.
Effort wise and, um, you know, value,you know, we're not saying that it's.
Worth more, or you know, they,any, either one of those artists

(44:23):
puts in any more or less effort.
It's just saying that werecognize that it's harder.
Hmm.

Stevan (44:28):
Yeah.
And, and I do like the idea ofhaving the effigy, you know, catered
for to, for it to be interactive.
So if, if, if an event wants to, ifsomeone wants to host an event there.
Yeah.
I think it, it, it brings people tothe art as well as, uh, familiarizing
and just sort of like gettingconnected to the art as well.

JayJay (44:47):
Yeah.
And I think, you know, it's important toacknowledge as well that like, like even
though yeah, we are a beautiful acceptingcommunity, there is still going to be.
Like social and political circles.
Um, you know, and, and because we'resuch a beautiful connective community,

(45:07):
people have, you know, some, youknow, everyone's gonna know everyone.
Everyone's gonna haverelationships with everyone.
Um, there's still that thing thathappens where people will go, no, I
don't wanna go to that theme camp,because those people are involved.
Whereas like the, yeah, the Effigyand the Temple or something.
It's like, it doesn't matter who youknow in the community or what gripes you
have with who or what experience you'vehad with who, everyone gathers there

(45:31):
because that is what it's all about.
You know?
It's like you put aside all your bullshitand all your, your social stuff and
you go, yeah, we all love this thingand we're all here for this thing.
So it's, yeah, it's a neutralspace that we can all agree
on that we are here for this.
Rather than kind of being like, Iwant to, you know, I wanna go see

(45:52):
that thing, but it's in, you know,that person's house and you know Yeah.
Like, you know, that you havesort of things with, and Yeah.
It's like where the effigy, it's no one'shouse effigy and it, it's no one's house.
It's everyone's house.
It's a cool neutral spacewhere we can all connect.

Stevan (46:10):
Yeah.
It's a centerpiece.
Let's talk about, do you guys wannatalk about the burning of the church?

Wesley (46:18):
Sure?

Stevan (46:19):
Literally

JayJay (46:19):
it took too long?

Wesley (46:22):
That was, that, that was, how

Stevan (46:26):
were you both there?

Wesley (46:27):
Yeah,

JayJay (46:27):
yeah, yeah.
I, um, yeah, so I was, I was down.
Did you, did you do the perimeter Wez?

Wesley (46:34):
I, no, I wasn't, the perimeter was done by the, um, fire tribe.

JayJay (46:37):
Yeah.

Wesley (46:38):
I was there just supporting and checking and, and making
sure things went smoothly.
That was my job at that.

JayJay (46:43):
Yeah.

Wesley (46:43):
Particular thing

JayJay (46:45):
I was, I was on the, and so the burning of the church, the church
burn was actually, it was an art piece.
They had their, the themecamp, which was separate.
And so the burning of the churchwas an art piece this year.
Um, so I, yeah, I guessI was like, I was there.
Um, I knew, like, I knewit was gonna happen.

(47:06):
Obviously the process, the application.
It was apparently meant to be a secret.
I don't think anyone was reallytold it was meant to be a secret.
Um, there was a little bit of a, um,that, that, you know, like the, it
was literally called Burn the Church.
Um, and they changed the name last minute.
So sorry guys, if it wasn't asecret, 'cause nobody told me.

(47:28):
Um, but yeah, so I was there at the front.

Stevan (47:31):
It wasn't a dust app, wasn't it?

JayJay (47:33):
Uh, so yeah, with the Dust app and the WTF guide, they, they
changed the name of the, the artpiece for at, you know, at the stage
where the Dust app and the WTF guidewere being collaborate, um, compiled.
They changed the name of thepiece, but originally it was
just called Burn the Church.
So, and, and I, nobody reallysort of said, oh, it was meant to

(47:55):
be a secret, but yeah, nothing,they changed the name to, uh,

Wesley (48:01):
I dunno.
Change name to,

JayJay (48:06):
um,

Wesley (48:06):
whip Up my WTF guide again.
Yeah, I

JayJay (48:08):
think it was like, yeah, yeah, yeah.
The handy beautiful WTF guide whereyou can look at all the names of
the art pieces and, and give all theartists the recognition they deserve.
Yay.
Sorry.
Sound really Shit, because I don'tactually know the name of it, but
to be fair, I've been looking atthe Burn the church the whole time.
I think it was like, firebe, might be thy name or

Wesley (48:29):
fire Walk with me.

JayJay (48:30):
Oh, I was so close.
I was so close.
Um, yeah, so Fire Walk with me.
So they, so they wanted it to be a secret.
They didn't want any photosof it because they said no.
Oh, you asked one of the guys,why don't you want photos of it?
Um, you know, because the majorone, the one thing I've got from
feedback from all the artists is, ohman, we never get any photos of, we
spent so much time making this stuffand we never get any photos of it.

(48:52):
So I kind of came out with my camerabeing like, yes, I'm gonna, I'm gonna
do the deal right by all of this.
And, and I was all ready tolike, take photos and then they
had to sign saying no photos.
I was like, oh, okay.
But yeah, so he sort of said, oh no,we don't want photos of it 'cause
we don't want it going up on socialmedia because then people will see
like, it's location, we'll giveaway the fact that it's burning.

(49:14):
Um, and I kind of went, oh,um, is it meant to be a secret?
Um, so yeah.
So, um, the actual,

Stevan (49:25):
what were some of the comments?
What were some of the commentsaround, um, with the crowd?
Um, were people, did peopleknow about the backstory?
About the, the whole, you know,uh, meaning to it as well?

JayJay (49:36):
I feel like, I think the,
like the judging by thepeople standing around me.
I think, yeah, I think there are alot of people that like, you know,
we have a lot of people that don'tknow, like, that aren't like the,
there's probably their first year ortheir, the sort of travelers or Yeah.
So the don't quite understand.
I don't know.
Wez, can you comment?

Wesley (49:57):
Um, I, I was not with the crowd.
I was down at the, the, theperimeter, so I don't actually
know how they reacted to it.
Yeah, I assume people probably got anidea it was gonna burn 'cause where
it was, 'cause then we have areaswhere obviously we, we put things out
to be burnt that aren't, you know,near the edge of the event in a kind
of area that if the wind blows, it'sgonna blow them into an empty paddock.

(50:20):
So it was out in that area, likekind of down from the temple area.
So I think anyone that went out therewould've had a probably pretty good idea.
It's the odds of it burning werehigh if they had any knowledge
about what we normally do here.

JayJay (50:31):
Yeah.

Wesley (50:32):
For some people may have been new, they might have just gone out there
going, oh, this is just an event I've,you know, seen on the thing I'll come
out to, but what they actually said.
Yeah, that would've beenactually quite interesting to
hear what people in the crowd,

JayJay (50:42):
even if it was your first year Yeah.
You'd have no idea.
Correct.
You be, oh cool.
This is a big thing.
Um,

Wesley (50:47):
there's a event happening out there.
I'll just go and watch.
Yeah.

JayJay (50:49):
Like for, for everyone.
I mean, I think that like from,from the years that I've been,
the church has always been, um,up the end of the, the Sound Camp
alley and I've, I I've heard that.
Yeah.
It used to be down by greeters, soit kind of has moved around a bit.
Mm-hmm.
So, so maybe some people might nothave clocked that it was gonna burn.
'cause they go, oh well it's moved around.

(51:09):
You know, it used to be down, down bythe GR gate and you know, and there,
so they might have been like, oh,cool, it's just moving around again.
But yeah, like it's, I I thinkit was really cool to see.
I know they wanted to do abig performance and Yeah.
I think they collaborated with Fire Tribe.
I saw some wicked sword swordwork by, um, Jed and Shay, and
that was really beautiful to see.

(51:31):
Um, and I'm sure it was, itwas really important for them.
And so, yeah, for me, I was, I waslooking on it going, yeah, this is really
cool how it's, um, I'm sure for thechurch it symbolizes sort of a change
in their direction and a change, youknow, it's all the hard work you've
put into something over the yearsand, and you're kind of letting it go.
I, I guess I can'tactually speak for them.

(51:52):
Mm-hmm.
Um, but I, you know, yeah.
Like I have friendships withthem and so, but I can't speak
for what it meant for them.
But this is what I saw.
I was like, Hey, this is really cool.
They're really putting, um, youknow, it wasn't just burning it
because fuck it, we're getting ridof it 'cause it's old and molding
and it's gonna break down anyway.
Mm. It was like, it was like a ceremony.
It was, you know, we hada beautiful performance.

(52:12):
There was a, um,

Wesley (52:13):
there was several different bits

JayJay (52:14):
chanting.
Yeah.
Um, I, you know, I yelledout a few comments because
as you do, that's what we do.
Um, you know, I needed to pee reallybadly and I was like, fucking hurry up.
Um, fuck if someone's hadby all, um, and I'm sure

Stevan (52:30):
so you're belligerent?

JayJay (52:31):
Yeah, exactly.
Exactly.
They, you know, that's the thing.
Yeah.
Like, you know, like Yeah.
They would've understood.
Um, I was just like, hurry up.
Yeah.
Like, you know, you'redoing this deliberately.
Some of us need to pee, becauseI'm sure they would've been
like, ha, we gonna drag this out.
You wanna watch it burn, we gonnadrag it out with big performance.
Fuck you.

(52:55):
Um, yeah.
So, yeah.
Fun was had by all, andjokes will be had by all.
Um, I'm sure.
Yeah.
Like it's yeah.
Sparked much joy and, and.
Beligerence in the community already.

Stevan (53:09):
Yeah.
I think there's a little bit ofchurch in, in us, in all of us now.
It's been burnt down.

JayJay (53:14):
I like to try and out belligerence for church, you know, like, yeah.
Get, yeah.
Yeah.

Stevan (53:21):
What's, what's your, what's your favorite, uh, stories of going the church?

JayJay (53:24):
Ah, ah,

Stevan (53:26):
just, just trying to get a drink and get fucked.

JayJay (53:30):
Um, look, uh, I have probably only ever stepped inside the church once.

Stevan (53:40):
You don't, don't wanna get converted.

JayJay (53:42):
I can tell you my favorite story about going to the church belligerence's
photo shoot, where they were, where,um, so they were putting together the
calendar, having a photo shoot of thecalendar where they were, um, yeah, so
they can, you know, another bit of a.
The, uh, fundraiser for the theme camp.

(54:03):
And this was, um, yeah, probably afafter, no, before it was actually,
no, it might have actually beenbefore my first year of Blaze.
Yeah.
No, yeah, this was actually beforeI'd even been to Blaze before
they were having, yeah, they'rehaving the photo shoot for their
calendar and yeah, this was the one.
Yeah.
So, um, Hannah from Fire Tribe was in it.
Friend Brie was in it.

(54:25):
And um, yeah, so I went along,I got invited along with them.
Um, I got invited along with by Brie tocome with her and to this photo shoot.
And obviously I knew Hannahas well, so I like, yeah.
Cool.
And yeah, my fun favorite thingto do is when I know I'm gonna be
going out with a bunch of peoplethat like to be a little bit like.

(54:47):
Gothy and dressed in black and tell meto fuck off is turn up in a beautiful
floral outfit with like, you know,like basically the most, like damn
sure it's the most sweet, bumpy pumpkinlooking, you know, curly hair that
like, basically just be the brightestlittle fairy, artsy fartsy pants I can
just to annoy the crap out of them.

(55:08):
And so that's me being belligerent.
And I, I went to their photoshoot and, you know, they
were so incredibly welcoming.
And then I played on a bunch of chains.
There was some chainshanging down from the celing.
It was like a warehouse with like, youknow, where they hoist cars up and stuff.
And they had some chains thatwere like, you know, for hoisting
cars up and working them.

(55:29):
And of course I went, I'm gonna jumpon these and twirl around on them and
do some little fun things on them.
So I did that and um, Sarah fromthe church was taking photos of me.
Doing that.
And it was just fun by all.
And that's my favorite thingabout it, is that it's like,
yeah, it actually doesn't matter.
Like despite the whole wehate and hippies thing.

(55:49):
Um, honestly, I think thechurch loves the hippies.
I think they really secretly love.
Yeah, they secretly love the hippiesbecause let's be honest, I think I
might be a giant hippie and they,

Stevan (56:01):
they're actually nice people actually, you know?
Yeah.

JayJay (56:03):
Yeah.
They're just trying to hide the focus.

Wesley (56:05):
I won't, I won't tell them.
You said that
they'll come for you.

Stevan (56:12):
What about you Wez?

Wesley (56:13):
Um, I, my favourite memory is, is going up there one night, um,
around midnight just before they didthe blood ritual, which is where they
basically turned all the sprinklers andspray, um, sort of blood on everyone.
And that to me was one of my favorites.
Watching people hang around to, todo that, the people that knew in the
pill that didn't know was probablythe, the highlight of seeing some

(56:34):
people deliberately not get told.
Um, I knew, so I kind of decided Iwouldn't step in at, at the midnight, um,
bell and just watch other people step in.
But yeah, that, that what theydid, I mean, they've made this the
stunning, like the whole atmosphereof what they do is, is superb.
They've always done a great job of that.

Stevan (56:55):
Yeah.

JayJay (56:56):
I think what's really beautiful about the church as well
is that it is this, um, I think Craigsaid to me once that, um, you know,
it's like we'll be so belligerent,like we'll be we'll belligerent,
belligerently comply with things.
So, you know, it's likeyou would think, oh yeah.
Like, oh yeah, if they tell youto do paperwork, Craig, you're
gonna tell 'em to get fucked.
He said, no, we'll do the paperwork sowell that it'll piss people off because

(57:21):
we're gonna be so we'll belligerently,do the paperwork that we'll do it
better than they wanted us to, andit's actually gonna piss them off.
Yeah.
So I was like, I fucking love that.
Great.
It's, yeah, it's, it's not actuallyabout, um, you know, just being
like, yeah, get fuck cunts.
It's actually, yeah, I don't know.
I think there's an artto belligerence and Yeah.

(57:42):
It's the fact that you can

Wesley (57:43):
know where to push it, I guess.

JayJay (57:45):
Yeah.
Yeah.
You can, you can, you can shittalk, but like, they are the most
caring, beautiful people thatI have met in the entire blaze.
And, sorry to disrespect anyone thatisn't in the church, actually, there's
probably, there's probably, there'sa few more caring, beautiful people.
But as a group, if I was to kind oflook at any group as a whole, they

(58:09):
are the sickest cunts of the bunch.
So,

Stevan (58:16):
well, who, who else, who else are sick cunts?
Any shout outs?
If things don't work out,I mean, blaze doesn't run.
So who are these peopleand what do they do?
And like starting from, you know, all theway down to, from the, uh, gates to the
sanitary, to rangers, to all these people.

JayJay (58:39):
Okay.
Is this, is this basicallylike shoutout hour?
We're basically Yeah.
Go shoutouts to people thatwe think are important.

Stevan (58:46):
Yeah.
Let's, let's go, let's, let's,

JayJay (58:49):
okay, so just give

Stevan (58:50):
give out some shout outs.

JayJay (58:51):
Alright.
Um, alright, so already, look already,big shout outs to Billy and Friger.
Friger has recently changed hername from Kirsty, so if anyone
knows her, it's, she's Kirsty.
Yeah.
So shout out to Billy and Friger Billy.
Like Billy is reallyYeah, really well known.
Like setting up the event.
He's, uh, the hand of God is his nickname.

(59:15):
Oh no.
Was it?
No.
The Hand of God's the machine.
He is the, I think he's the voice ofGod because he is the one that can tell
people to, to take the machine places.
So he's the voice of God.
Um, um, yeah.
And yeah, so Friger has beenthe, you know, the person on
the ground at DPW last year.

(59:37):
She like, she's so beautiful and solike, so many people open up to her
'cause she's so comfortable to talk to.
And our crew, like, the big thingwith the setup crew is they, like,
when you think about it, like a lotof them are, you know, they're not
people that, I mean, some of them,some of them earn a lot of money.

(59:58):
Some of them might be, you know, somemight be low income earners either
way, like taking off, you know,three or four weeks of the year.
Um, like if you didn't think aboutit on a typical person and on a
typical full-time wage, you know,that's your whole holiday time.
That's like, you know, I'm like,shout out to low income earners
because, you know, we all wannaconnect and enjoy this experience.

(01:00:20):
And a lot of us give up so much of our,our freedom and opportunity to come here
and, you know, we are going, fuck, I'mgonna be paying for this, you know, in
the, in the next few weeks while I'mtrying to, you know, like budget my, my
food shopping and everything around itand make sure I've got enough fuel money.
But it's all worth it when you comeout here for the connection, right?

(01:00:40):
So these, these guys, the, oursetup crew, they're giving up
three weeks to come out here andflog it and, you know, like, yeah.
Exhaust themselves because ofthe, like, the connection with
each other and the comradery.
And last year Friger had like, youknow, she's such a beautiful person
that people go to for support, thatit really, it took a lot out of her.

(01:01:03):
She, you know, she, she was there tosupport people and to a lot about her.
So, shout to Friger.

Wesley (01:01:11):
Um, we've got like over 200 volleys, um, this year, which is kind
of nuts from back when we started.
So, yeah, I, I, I, I couldn't starta shout out I think, but one thing
is my memory gets completely fried.
Usually when I'm activeand out here and stressed.
I think my brain getsa bit wiped in memory.

(01:01:32):
Um, so yeah, I certainly couldn't doany, um, go through a list of people
would, I guarantee I'd forget people.
I wouldn't wanna do that, so I'dprobably, yeah, probably prefer not to.
Um, what was your other question, Stevan?
Around, around the people.
Oh.
What do they do?
What do they do out this?
I honestly don't know out of most of them.
I think we have an interestingmix of people coming from all over

(01:01:52):
the place, which is actually onepart that makes it so, so amazing.
You know, we, we go from.
We seem to get a hoard of hippies.
A hoard of geeks.
A hoard of nerds.
We seem to get some professionalpeople come out here like we have
some, I dunno, just the, the range ofpeople is quite incredible, I find.

(01:02:14):
And I, I think that's, yeah.
That makes it part ofwhat makes it so amazing.
You've got this weird mix of people.
They all bring their different

JayJay (01:02:21):
Yeah.

Wesley (01:02:22):
Backgrounds and interests together.
So this, this boiling pot of stuff.

JayJay (01:02:26):
You know, I actually think it's really important to recognize our,
like, like, so Hannah's our fire lead.
And Angus is, um, Angus has done the,the effigy design this year, and also a
part of the, um, the pyrotechnic crew.
Um, you know, and these two people,powerhouse, powerhouse people

(01:02:49):
used to be in a relationship.
Um, still have a great, youknow, a great friendship.
So, so oppositely different, youknow, and I just, yeah, I just wanna
appreciate that, that we've got ourfire lead who is, um, methodical,
won't put up with bullshit.
Very, very strong independent woman.
And then we've got our, our, ourcrazy dude that loves to do all the,

(01:03:16):
the, um, I had a wonderful conversationwith Angus recently, where he is, you
know, he is talking about wanting to get,um, the kids involved as, as everyone's
getting older now and you know, thekids are growing up to be teenagers
and the kids wanna get involved in.
Planning stuff and they're, yeah, they'renot allowed because they're, they're
not allowed on site before, while itstill works site, but, you know, an

(01:03:37):
said, Hey, I wanna get them, you know,basically like send them out to, um, get
them involved in planning the effigy.
Like as in like, you know, they haveto go talk to the farmer and find out
how much, you know, how much it would,you know, if they could trade for
this much wood and stuff like that.
And.
Send the kids out on a mission,and he's all about like, you know,

(01:03:58):
breaking the rules, but in the rightway, like bending the rules, like
trying to get around the rules.
And I just look, I just fucking love that.
I love that we've got two reallypassionate people around fire and
the, but they're so, so different.
But yeah, it, it's like that's part ofthe magic of Blaze is that it's not,
you know, nobody's looking down uponanybody for being different or being a

(01:04:22):
certain way, you know, it's like, yeah,we can be absolutely immature little
dickheads, but we still come togetherto make this magical event happen.
And, you know, and that's a part oflike the, the harder blaze is that
you don't have to fit in a box.

Stevan (01:04:38):
Oh, sorry.
Are you there?

Wesley (01:04:39):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
We seem to have lost you for a bit.

JayJay (01:04:42):
Yeah.

Stevan (01:04:43):
I was gonna ask you Wesley, uh, the early days of Blazing Swan,
do you wanna talk more about that?
Um, like 2014, 2015.
Um, uh, with also building that, thatrelationship with the Kulin community.

Wesley (01:04:55):
Yeah, I, I can go back and talk about the kind of start of
the, the, the Kulin relationship.
Um,

Stevan (01:05:01):
and also God said no.
How did that come about?
Ah, not just as a theme camp.

Wesley (01:05:06):
Okay.
Yes.
That there, I can tell a bit of theorigin story of how he got to Kulin.
Um, I can go through.
So when we got our community together,like we basically started to decide
where we wanted to put the actual event.
Um, some of the people were very keento do it, a bit like Burning Man in the
States where we go out in the desertsomewhere like way away so people can't

(01:05:26):
come to and from the city, which isfair enough, I wasn't as convinced,
um, that we, we wanna do it like fiveto eight hours out in the desert and
make it incredibly hard, which ispart of what Burning Man's about.
But, you know, it's not asthough we have to follow that.
So we basically came up with thiswhole, like, looking for venues.
Um, one of the venues a couple ofthe committee found was down south,

(01:05:50):
like the southwest corner of, um, WAIt was on the property of, um, a, a
couple that was basically, I neveractually went to this property, but
it was basically basin down in a kindof a bushy grass cold area that was
really quite amazing from all accounts.
And they were basically starting to,to talk to these people about, um,

(01:06:10):
using this space, um, to run the event.
And during that discussion that itlooked like everything was going ahead.
And then after a couple weeks.
That they had a summons to talk tothese, this couple, and they said,
I'm sorry, we can't live anymore.
Um, God said no.
So obviously they were quitereligious and obviously they had

(01:06:32):
some decision was made that they,

JayJay (01:06:35):
I've never heard this story,

Wesley (01:06:36):
that they decided that, um, that they weren't gonna go
ahead, which was convenient.
That happened, well, welladvanced event ever happening.
So we didn't actuallystart commencing the event.
In any regard before it happened,but that then led to a theme camp
here, um, called God Said Yes.

(01:06:57):
God said yes.
There was, there wasGod said yes, there was.
God said no.
Um, here theme campsopposite and eventually,

Stevan (01:07:04):
and one of them was at, on, on the, on the Salt Lakes.

Wesley (01:07:07):
Correct.
So that, that was God said,no start on the Salt Lake.
That was a sound camp.
And God said yes, was up thisend where we're sitting now.

JayJay (01:07:13):
What happened to God said yes?

Wesley (01:07:15):
It, it never really took, it was kind of part of the joke, but God
said no became the actual actual thing.
So that was first.

JayJay (01:07:24):
Yeah.
So actually, so you actually couldsay that God said no is actually
the most belligerent theme camp.

Wesley (01:07:31):
Yeah, true, true

JayJay (01:07:32):
of swan because that's like a giant finger to the original

Wesley (01:07:35):
Yes.
The original potential venue.
Yeah.

JayJay (01:07:36):
Well my god, dunno what we're here.

Stevan (01:07:38):
Well if, if God was Aussie he would say
Yeah, nah

Wesley (01:07:44):
very.
Yeah, that's a cool, absolutely.
So after that,

Stevan (01:07:47):
but there's more.
Yeah,

Wesley (01:07:48):
there is more.
So then it was like, well we,we still need to pursue venues.
So my plan was basically start totalk to the various shires and local
councils to basically look for farmland.
So we pretty much started ringingcouncils, um, out in the wheat belt.
We kind of divided up amongst thecommittee to ring different groups.

(01:08:12):
But I think I might've beenthe only one that actually rang
anyone in the end of that time.
Um, so I had to strip out into the wheatbelt, and of course this was like post a
whole sort of whole set of massive fires.
So when you ring up a shire in the wheatbelt or out in our hills and we say,
we'd like to bring a festival out toyou and burn massive wooden structures,

(01:08:32):
you pretty much heard them like hangup the phone, like on the spot either
if they said so they actually did that.
But Kulin was, was not that.
So when I actually talked to Kulin, um,the person I talked to was like, oh yeah,
we, we actually like burning things.
They actually hosted an event in the samelocation, um, called the Kulin and Bush

(01:08:53):
Races, and they make a big like horse kindof out of, um, hay bales and they burn it.
Like, not, not a massivestructure, but they do burn it.
Um, and then she came back that theshe actually knows about Burning Man.
So it kind of seemed rather.
Fortuitous that they, they were interestedand they were keen, um, unlike most
of the other, other Shires we'd talkedto, um, another one nearby Kondinon.

(01:09:16):
And we, we had a chat with themand they actually did end up
showing us some farmland as well.
A couple big, like a farm had somemassive big plots of land that he was
rotating and he was happy for us to use.
And then we came out here and if peoplehaven't been to Blazing Swan before, um,
it's on basically a racetrack, which iswhere Bush races is, but it's surrounded
by facilities for those Bush races.

(01:09:38):
So there's a whole set of,um, commercial kitchens.
There's showers, there's toilet blocks,there's some demountables, there's
a couple other blocks of toilets outin the, kind of the paddock area.
And there's another demountableout, like on the other side
of the, um, the racetrack.
There's a massive big rock on oneside, which a Jilikan Rock, and

(01:09:58):
there's massive big salt lake on theother side, which is the Jilikan Lake.
So the site is stunning.
Um, and with all this infrastructure,like it's kind of like it was
ready to go and it was just, itwas pretty much a perfect site.
You know, we went to look to Kondinon,and Kondinon was basically just farm
paddocks and it was like, well, dowe want to do the plan of bringing

(01:10:20):
everything in or do we basically want touse this gorgeous kind of pre-made site?
And it was pretty much a obviousconclusion that yeah, it made
perfect sense to go with.
Um, Kulin.

JayJay (01:10:32):
So did, did it take much convincing, um, to get
the, like the landowners here toagree to use it for this event?

Wesley (01:10:40):
No, not really.
So the, the landowners, um, actuallyrent this, this Bush racers block
to the Shire and the Shire's lookingfor other events to run here.
So they, they run theirbush races once a year.
And when someone rocked up saying,we'd love to run another big festival
at your location, that's for events.

(01:11:02):
They were, they were totally stokedand lu's the, the, the, the landowners,
um, Surge and Mary and their son Mickas well, who's kind of taking over.
Um, they have been so, in fact, theentirety of Kulin has been super
supportive, but it's, they're a phenomenalcommunity and coming out here as well,
that, that was another kind of like bitof the icing on the cake was they've
actually taken the entire highwaysaround this area and put tin horses on

(01:11:27):
them, which is kind of where the, oneof their things, so when you drive, um,
out to Blazing Swan, you actually drivethe last like section across the Tin
Horse highway, which is their art thing.
So they print to have tinhorses, like down the highways.
It was like, this just seems so,

JayJay (01:11:43):
so freaking cute and,

Wesley (01:11:44):
and so correct as well.
Like the, the art, the randomnesslocation, the people like, it
just, it just felt perfect.
It really did.
Um, the Kulin location, so here weare and have been for like 10 years

JayJay (01:11:55):
and people still call it a Playa..

Wesley (01:11:59):
Ooh.
That's an interesting thing.

JayJay (01:12:02):
I had to, I had to ask, I was like, why do people keep
saying, see you on the player?
And they're like, no, no,it see you on the Playa.
It's, it's because BurningMan's in the desert.
There's a playa, and I was like.
But this isn't a desert.
And so apparently, apparently, if youtell people it's not a player that's
really like, they get really upset.

Wesley (01:12:23):
So my interesting thing that the first year I actually
invited my dad down to give a talk.
So my dad's a professor of ecology.
Um, and in his talk he pointedat the Salt Lake and he said,
oh yeah, that's, that's a playa.
And I was like, what?
And he goes, yeah, it's aSpanish word for Salt Lake.
And I went, oh my God.

JayJay (01:12:44):
all, this time we've been telling lies

Wesley (01:12:48):
the playa is a salt lake.
So the, the term in playa in, um,burning Man is the actual event is on
a giant Salt Lake or flatbed Salt Lake.
It's based in Ancient Lake.
We have one, we're not onit, but we're next to it.
So we do.
So we indeed have a Playa

JayJay (01:13:04):
I have a solution.

Wesley (01:13:05):
Oh yes.

JayJay (01:13:06):
Have a solution.
Okay.
Um, in Rockingham, weRockingham, which is, uh.
Can, how do I explainRockingham to No, do we need to?
Okay.
We, no, we don't need to explain.

Stevan (01:13:18):
It's an hour, it's an hour away from Perth.

JayJay (01:13:20):
Yeah.
Okay.
So you Coast,

Wesley (01:13:21):
coast, coastal, coastal town.

JayJay (01:13:23):
Hour away from Perth, you know, where everyone like, you know, like
drinks, Jack Daniels and, um, you know.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah, definitely.
Yeah.
Anyway, basically, you know,like, yeah, yeah, yeah.
You get away, get away from Perth.
'cause you, you can'tafford to live in Perth.
You live in Rockingham.
Rockingham has a salt lake thatlooks exactly like Burning Man does.

(01:13:43):
I've seen the pictures.
So, solution, solutionfrom now on Rockingham.
I vote.
I vote.
I would like to pose a motionthat we hold Burning Man.
Uh, sorry.
Blazing Swan.
On salt lake of Rockingham.
What say you?

Wesley (01:13:55):
Well, I still love Kulin.
I still vote for Kulin.
Can't get over it.
I'm sold.

JayJay (01:14:01):
It might be a bit smaller, but I just, I feel like we can, you know,
like it's, it could solve this problem.
Everyone's saying, see you on the playa.
And we like, Hey, they can,

Wesley (01:14:09):
we did consider doing the event on that Salt Lake.
That salt, like it's actually ownedby the federal government, not owned
by WA so we're actually not allowedto, it's actually a, a reserve, but
it's like a federal reserve, whichis very, I didn't even know we had
those, but yeah, it's a federal reserve

JayJay (01:14:23):
damn paperwork.
So

Wesley (01:14:24):
can't even touch it.

Stevan (01:14:26):
Well, I, I don't mind stepping on double G's.
It's, it's okay.
Get used to it.

Wesley (01:14:31):
That's another story.

JayJay (01:14:32):
Well, we actually, we actually had a beautiful art piece this year.
Mm-hmm.
I dunno if you noticed it, Wez,but it's a, it's a, it's a giant
light up double G structure.

Wesley (01:14:42):
I have not noticed that.

JayJay (01:14:44):
Yeah.
Yeah.
It's um, it's up the, yeah, up up theend of the sound camp alley and Oh yeah.
Yes.
So he is actually designed to look likea giant light up double GI love that.

Wesley (01:14:54):
I have not tweaked to that.
Oh, love that.
Of course.

JayJay (01:14:57):
I imagine being inspired by this thing that causes us so much pain and
broken bike ties and saying, I'm gonnamake a giant light up Ode, do this thing.

Wesley (01:15:07):
Yeah.

JayJay (01:15:07):
That we all despise,

Wesley (01:15:10):
have experience at some point.

JayJay (01:15:11):
So much.
Yeah.
That, see, that's beautiful.
That art.
That's art.
That's love.
Yeah.

Stevan (01:15:20):
Have you guys been to any of the East Coast Burns?
You guys should come and, and visit.

Wesley (01:15:25):
I still haven't.
I've been to burning Man.
Mm-hmm.
I'll probably go across to,um, the Aurora Burn this year.
Um, assuming things go to play.
And that's the new Tassie Burnjust 'cause they came across here.
And

Stevan (01:15:36):
that's the new Tassie burn.

Wesley (01:15:37):
New tasie Burn.
And I, I actually adore spending timewith them and I'm very keen to see what
they're gonna set up, um, over there.
So I'll probably head across for that.
To still not gotten to seed or to theunder lands or to meta, um, metier

Stevan (01:15:50):
modifyre.

Wesley (01:15:51):
Modifier.
Modifyre.
What else am I forgetting?
I'm forgetting something else.
Another one,

Stevan (01:15:56):
there's a new one third degree.

Wesley (01:15:58):
Oh, yep.
And there's another one.

Stevan (01:15:59):
Yeah.
Third degree.
The Central Coast

Wesley (01:16:01):
feel as like, there's another one missing, burning seed.
Yeah.

JayJay (01:16:04):
I'm, I'm not much of a traveler.
Um, 'cause to be honest,I'm, I'm too Povo to travel.
Mm. Um, but I have got an invitationthat if I want to go to Burning Seed, I
have a, have a, a beautiful, wonderfulfriend that said, come to Burning
Seed and you have a place to stay.
And, um, yeah.
So maybe I'll go to Burning Seed.

(01:16:24):
Um, but yeah, very, very much love tohear about all the other events and
how they handle their stuff and howthey do all the, like, all the, the
backend secret, secret business mm-hmm.
Or the behind the scenes stuff.
Yeah.
Like I, I, we've got some beautifulpeople here that are like, you know,
they've been learning from so far.

(01:16:45):
You know, we've got Safety shas andVida, um, Vida's, our event manager
and Safety shas, you know, she's, youknow, does all the, the safety stuff.
And Yeah, for me, particularly like, youknow, in learning how to do all the art
pieces and organize all the, the stuff.
They've been really amazingwith their advice to me.
Yeah.

(01:17:05):
So, but yeah, I'd love, I'd love ifanyone wants to get in contact with
me and gimme advice and perspective.
I, I would love that.
I'm all about hearing people's stories.

Stevan (01:17:15):
Yeah.
The reason why I ask is that, isif you guys could compare what,
well at least talk about what,why Blazing Swan is unique or
different to, to the other burns.

JayJay (01:17:24):
I, I think, um, I guess you'd, you probably just compare it with, um,
like, you know, WA in general, it's, youknow, like where everything is, is so
very distant where, you know, you know,the whole of East Coast is, you know,
like you can travel from al like, youknow, one state to another and Yeah.
No worries.
Whereas wa yeah, it's a, yeah,everyone's traveling so very far.

(01:17:48):
And I, I dunno, maybe that getsreflected in like what, like, you
know, how hard it is to organize.
Um, like I think it's.
Yeah, no, I, I can't really commenton that, but I like, yeah, I generally
probably, probably just think about ingeneral, the, the population of WA I
think makes it harder when you thinkabout like event numbers and stuff.

(01:18:11):
Um, you know, people buyingtickets, like, you know, so like
burning seeds Adelaide, right?
It's, um, um,

Wesley (01:18:17):
not big.
Um,

JayJay (01:18:18):
is it?
Yeah.

Wesley (01:18:20):
Victoria.

JayJay (01:18:21):
Victoria is it?
Oh, okay.

Stevan (01:18:22):
It's in New South Wales.
Yeah.

JayJay (01:18:24):
Oh, okay.
Yeah.
Well,

Wesley (01:18:25):
Victoria, new South Wales.
It like

Stevan (01:18:26):
Wagga Wagga.
Yeah,

JayJay (01:18:27):
yeah, yeah.
So it's like

Stevan (01:18:28):
in between,

JayJay (01:18:29):
you know, like all the like, like the capital cities of those
states, you know, like everything'sa little bit more compact.
So I guess you got like a lot morepeople living in a more compact space.
And so in terms of like everyone buyingtickets, you've got a lot more people.
And then if you got a smallerevent capacity, there's more.

(01:18:50):
People that are likely to buytickets, it probably fills up faster.
I don't know.
That's the kind of thing I'd look at andgo, yeah, like there's this, the, I dunno.

Wesley (01:19:00):
I, I feel as though WA is kind of a bit unique in the factors when
we have unusual events or slightlyout norm, because we don't have
cities nearby, there's no alternative.
I've often found that a lot of our,

Stevan (01:19:15):
you guys are isolated.

Wesley (01:19:16):
Yeah.
And I often find like the factors,um, blazing Swan took off like it did.
I don't believe any other eventBurning Event in Australia has
taken off at the ex at the ratethat, um, blazing Swan has done.
And I think that really comes downto quite, in, in part our isolation.
The fact is when there's, to goto anything else is really hard.

(01:19:37):
So, you know, if you're over in likeSydney or, or Melbourne, yeah, you
can, you could probably hop acrossa Tassie or hop across to Adelaide
or hop across to like Sydney,Melbourne, whichever one you're not at.
And it wouldn't be too much of a drama.
Where for us to go fromeast to west is enormous.
So when there's somethinghere, I, I feel as though the
WA people seem to jump on it.
That's something I've seen tobe always felt that if it's, if

(01:20:00):
it's unusual that we seem to.
Be quite ready to Yeah.
Accept something, uh,and get involved in it.
That's seemed to be my, um, feeling.

JayJay (01:20:10):
Yeah, yeah.
No, that's a really good point.
'cause it's, um, yeah, likethere's not, yeah, there's not
as much like big entertainment.
Um Oh, oh yeah.

Wesley (01:20:20):
You can't just drive across the east when you feel
like it, you know, can't.

JayJay (01:20:24):
And it's like, it's like, um, when like, even like bands and stuff, like
when like bands and shows and stuff cometo Australia, they always hit up the East
Coast and then they're like, they get toWA and they're like, oh no, fuck that.
Yeah.
And they quit.
So WA like Yeah.
WA doesn't see as much out there stuff.
And yeah, we're almost like thekind of like, we're kind of like

(01:20:45):
the country Hicks of Australia.
Really?

Wesley (01:20:47):
Yeah, that's true.
That's true.

JayJay (01:20:48):
Yeah.
Like we're, you know, everyoneelse is, we hick vibe.
Yeah.
Everyone else is, um, evolving.
Mm. Yeah.
I feel like, yeah.
I feel like WA lags behind.
So, yeah, so people, when they cometo, uh, blazing Swan, it's like,
hey, like, yeah, this is, like,this is what we're looking for.
So it's yeah.
A little bit more of a, yeah, a littlebit more of a punch to, to kind of

(01:21:10):
come to Blazing Swan and go away.
Okay, cool.

Wesley (01:21:13):
Yep.

JayJay (01:21:13):
Um, I think it,

Stevan (01:21:14):
I think it has a lot of local flavor as in Perth
Fremantle also, also Kulin.
Um, we got the, THE camp.

Wesley (01:21:22):
Yeah.
Correct.
They've got two camps.

Stevan (01:21:24):
They've the library.

Wesley (01:21:25):
Yep.

Stevan (01:21:26):
The library where you are, which is from Albany, uh, from where John is.
Um,

Wesley (01:21:30):
yep.

Stevan (01:21:30):
And some local where the pool room from.
We've got some locals as well.

Wesley (01:21:33):
Um, the pool around the area the pool room's, not local,
but I'm not sure where they're from.
So it's the tin horse experience,

Stevan (01:21:42):
local WA.

Wesley (01:21:44):
It's Tin
Horse, um, experience is obviously oneof the Kulin crews and they've actually
broken out to Sound Camp as well.
So they've got Tin Horseinternet or, or THE internet or
THE for Tin horse experience.
Um, so I've got internet and yeah,basically a, a um, tin horse making like
a craft camp as well, which is phenomenal.

(01:22:04):
I absolutely love it.

Stevan (01:22:05):
Yeah.
We spoke to will earlier, will and Erin.
Yeah.
And Will is the, the next generationof Burners of Blazers Yeah.
So it it's, it was interestingto hear his thoughts, you know?

Wesley (01:22:16):
Yeah.
In fact, I would, I would be interestin hearing his thoughts as well.
I have to look to the podcast afterwardsto see what they think because I,
I've, I've talked to Erin a lot, um,'cause she's been here from the start.
Um, so I know her, her interest.
But yeah.

Stevan (01:22:29):
What do you guys think about, do you guys think about
the future of Blazing Swan?
Say, what's your outlook in fiveyears or where do you see heading
and stuff like that Because the, uh,it's important to get burgeon in.
It's important to getthe younger people in.

JayJay (01:22:42):
I like, I think it's so amazing to see.
That.
Yeah, like the, the people are like,people are growing up in the community.
Like, you know, you've got peoplewho, um, oh, was it like Ollie?
Ollie is, um, I met, like, I met Ollieon my first first year at Blazing
Swan, and his mom has been a Blazerfor a while and Oh, I think he was,

Wesley (01:23:09):
he was, he was one of the original, original crew
one the founders as well.
Yeah.
Yeah.

JayJay (01:23:12):
So, oh, so I think he was like, he said he was like nine 19.
Is he?
I dunno.
But like, basically, you know, when, whenthey're, they've, they've grown up with
Blazing Swan and then they've, they'vestarted to attend themselves, like as
adults and I think that's fucking amazingthat we have like, families that are
taking their kids to this stuff and Yeah.
You know, because it's like introducingthem to the world and, you know,

(01:23:36):
being free and stuff and Yeah.
And then, and then thekids are growing up and.
I, I think that's amazing.
I like, I, I, you know, because you have,um, you know, like there are other like
events and, and bush doofs and stuff, andit's, it's really funny how blazing swans
kind of like, it's, it's kinda like themiddle ground between a bush doof, which

(01:23:58):
is like ultimately a bunch of hippies,like real, like real hippy hippies.
And then you've got like commercialfestivals where it's um, I guess what
we would call sparkle ponies or youknow, like a lot of people that are,
that are, yeah, like party, party party.
And yeah, I think blazing Swans likethat beautiful in between where it's

(01:24:18):
like, um, yeah, it's like that, thatcommunity element, but it's, it's really.
Yeah, it's still like a big party element.
I think that's something really specialto hold onto that we've managed to create
this environment where people feel safeto bring their kids to an event where
people are also gonna be getting nakedand, um, you know, getting altered.
'cause you know, that's funand sometimes, you know,

(01:24:42):
um, in a safe environment and,you know, like it's, yeah.
So that's really cool that we've managedto create a safe space and I think
that's the most important thing we needto hold onto, because yeah, we do want,
we don't want people to go, fuck, we'regonna have to stop bringing the kids to
Blazing Swamp because, you know, like.
I don't know, because itbecomes that, you know,

Stevan (01:25:03):
it's not safe.

JayJay (01:25:04):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
It's not safe as the kind ofenvironment that you don't want your
kids to grow up with, as an exampleof what a community should be.
It was really funny, like last year,this last year, maybe the year before,
um, it was ba it was, it was pissingdown with rain, and I was in the middle
of it, you know, it started raining.
I was trying to take some cool photos.
I, I'm trying to do some long exposureshots, and I was like, man, like,

(01:25:24):
oh crap, my camera's not waterproof.
Um, and these beautiful girlscame over and said, would you
like a lift back to your camp?
And, and I was like, yeah,yeah, now that'd be great.
And I said, oh, hang.
I was like, and I was really puzzledbecause I was like, how old are you guys?
Because they, you know, they wereso like, you know, like sweet and
young and, but just like, chill.
Um, and they're like, yeah, no, we're 15.

(01:25:44):
I was like, wow.
I was like, aren't you like, you know,because I like, like, as a woman, you're
like, fuck, the world is scary, man.
And from like, like from what I'veseen, like, you know, like young women,
like, we're generally, generally like.
Little bit, you know, like these girlshad such confidence and such, such
openness that I was like, generallyyou don't see that in, in girls.

(01:26:10):
'cause we, you know, like you go throughsome shit, you know, like it's, I think
that's worth recognizing that girls gothrough stuff when they're growing up.
And I was like, this is amazing.
And yeah.
And they said no.
Like, you know, I said, aren't you like,aren't you a bit worried about, you
know, being out here like in the dark?
And, and they said, no, no, no.
Like, yeah, we've been, we've beengrowing like yeah, our parents have

(01:26:31):
been taking us to Blazing Swan, youknow, since we were like two years old.
And I was like, wow.
I was like, and yeah, I thinkthat's, that's so beautiful.
And yeah, like, it's likelet's keep that going.
It's, yeah.

Stevan (01:26:43):
Well, Blazing Swan does give you confidence, you know, it does
give you a different perspective.

JayJay (01:26:47):
Yeah.
And it's, and it's a safe environmentwhere yeah, you can be like, Hey,
like I'm a 15-year-old girl and.
I actually feel safe around allthese people and all these adults.
Yeah.
And

Wesley (01:27:01):
really is saying something.
Yeah.
In this day and age for that,for that to be a, a thing.

JayJay (01:27:04):
Yeah.

Wesley (01:27:05):
Yeah.
That's quite impressive.
Hmm.

JayJay (01:27:07):
Yeah.
I mean, I felt like I, like I did not havea unsafe upbringing, but even, even in a
normal, like middle class to Birminghamupbringing, I would still say, I was
like, oh, I was a bit uncomfortable,you know, if my parents had friends
around and they were getting like, alittle bit, you know, too heavy on, on,
you know, again, drinking and stuff.
So, you know, so I kind of likeworry a little bit, but like, these

(01:27:29):
girls were just like, no, it's cool.
Like, it's, yeah.
Like, I think that's really great.
Like you, you know, you're like, froma young age, you're saying to your
kids like, look, yeah, this is, it'scommunity, but also like, people are
people and there's gonna be, there's gonnabe emotions, there's gonna be out there
things, um, there's gonna be differentthings that you haven't seen before.

(01:27:50):
And all of that is okay.
That is a fucking huge message to besending, and that is so beautiful.

Stevan (01:27:58):
Yeah.
One of the, one of the main thingsI like to tell people, uh, about
experiencing the burn is a lot ofskills that you take away from it,
especially when you're volunteering.

JayJay (01:28:08):
Yeah.

Stevan (01:28:08):
And particularly when you're doing it in rangering as well, so you're
not just your first aid skills, but youknow, just common sense, uh, skills.
Uh, well,

JayJay (01:28:16):
yeah, yeah.

Stevan (01:28:17):
How to deal with people.

Wesley (01:28:18):
Communicate with people.
Yeah.
Hmm.

JayJay (01:28:20):
And like, you know, for the setup crews where it's like, Hey,
we're, you know, we're offeringyou a chance to get training.
You know, like, so some, you know, some ofthe setup crew, like they might work in.
You know, like in, is it like bluecollar jobs, high-vis shirt jobs?
But then we go, Hey, like wouldyou like to get your certificate
to use the tele handler?
Cool.

(01:28:40):
Like that.
Like, that's fucking awesome.
We wanna support training, we wannasupport, like, yeah, here's, here's some,
like we'll get you a certificate for this'cause you're gonna help us on setup.
And then suddenly, you know what?
That person can go and apply fora job in the real world where
they can use that certificate.
Fuck.
That's amazing.
You've just helped that person's likefurther their, further their life

(01:29:02):
and actually make a better thing.
And you know, that applies tothe artist that applies to,
um, you know, even like myself.
Like I, you know.
Yeah.
Cool.
I made some cool art.
I was excited.
I don't have formal artqualifications, I don't have
qualifications in administration.
But being the arts, you know, like beinggiven the position of arts administration

(01:29:25):
and you know, that it's a safe place forme to learn how to, I mean, you know,
like, I don't know how to send emails,but like, you know, I've started and being
on the committee, I've started developingmy own professional language repertoire.
Um, you know, like I've starteddeveloping my own professional confidence.

(01:29:45):
I don't think, I stilldon't think I'll ever.
Get a real world jobwhere I have to do that.
Um, I'm a, I like, I work in,

Stevan (01:29:55):
but you're ready for it.

JayJay (01:29:56):
Yeah, exactly.
Yeah.
But, you know, I work in, I work inparks and Garden main maintenance,
but hey, like maybe if I talk to myboss and I say, look, I would like to
liaise with you on creating Opportunitywhere, um, some people can come and use
our gigantic, um, you know, botanicalpark for a space to hold an event.
Yeah.

(01:30:16):
Maybe I'll be way better atspeaking to my boss about that.
And yeah, it is all about, like, I,I've been given a massive opportunity
for personal development and like yeah.
So that is, yeah, like my life has beenbetter because Blazing Swan has helped
me to gain those skills and given me thetrust of saying, yeah, here's a position.
We wanna give you a go andwe're not going to look at you

(01:30:39):
on paper or put you in a box.
It's like you have the passion.
Cool.
Come and learn how to do it.

Stevan (01:30:44):
And for you, Admiral, what, what kind of.
Acquired from Rangering.
And why do you love it?

Wesley (01:30:51):
Um, I think it's kind of just part of who I am, tell the truth.
I mean, I've always been kindof the person that likes fixing
things, helping people, and I seethat in lots of ranges as well.
You very find people that step up tobe rangers have that type of mentality,
um, as it is in terms of skills, Ithink it's just more just the more
times you do things, the more in, init gives you just little different

(01:31:14):
bits you find out about yourself.
Like I was, I suppose, if anything,I had a couple today, it's a couple,
this blazing swan that kind of mademe, I suppose, if anything reminded
me how I deal with people is.
Probably better than I realize.
If anything, I just had a couple ofpeople pull me aside, like after some
things and, and just like, just thankme on how I, how I dealt with things.

(01:31:37):
And I suppose I've never really thought ofmyself doing things unusual, but obviously
'cause, and now I'm realizing the moreI get into these things, that probably
isn't as, as usual as I realize there'ssome, this may be more innate rather than,
than being taught I suppose, or learning.
But it's, it's time to use thoseskills and, and apply those skills is

(01:31:58):
I suppose the more chance you have toapply them, the more chance you get to
reinforce them, um, and improve them.
So I suppose that's kind of how thingshave just slowly evolved or improved.

JayJay (01:32:07):
It's actually, this is actually a great time for me
to segue into appreciating you.
Um, I, so I've rangered for the first timethis year and I did the burn permit on
the effigy, and I'm a very fidgety person.
I often cop a bit of flack for, you know,swaying or, you know, being fidgety.
'cause people kind of go, oh, areyou, um, are you, like, are you, you

(01:32:31):
saying, or you, or you know, are youin, are you in a, a sober state of mine?
I'm like, yeah, man, it's cool.
I just, I, yeah, I liketo fi, I like to rock.
I like to rock.
I like to fidget.
So, um, yeah, on the burnperimeter, you know, watching
everyone doing the right thing.
But, um, you know, tribal Tribewas going and I was having a bit
of a jam and like, you know, doing,you know, doing a little bit of

(01:32:53):
dancing while I was doing my duties.
And admirable kind of was, youknow, admirable was walking past,
making sure everyone was okay.
And you just pointed at me whileI was dancing and jamming, like
on the spot and you just said yes.
And that like, I don't know,like maybe for you, you probably
just, yeah, like, but for me,that was a huge fucking moment.

(01:33:15):
I was like, hmm, yeah.
I was like, huh, I've been givenpermission to be myself and I will
not be looked down on for, you know,on my abilities to keep everyone
safe because I want to have a littledance on the spot while I'm doing it.
And that was the best thing.
Yeah.
That was the best thing for me.
So thank you so much for that.

Wesley (01:33:36):
Well, thank you for saying that.
See, that's another thing I would, yetagain, I would've not have picked that,
but of course someone dancing on theperimeter, I'm totally up for like, you
know, doesn't stop you being able to doyour job or do what you're required to do.

JayJay (01:33:49):
Yeah, I guess it's, I mean, you don't know.
You don't know my history and you don'tknow, um, you know, we don't know each
other very well, but for me that was ahuge fucking awesome thing that you did.
And, and that's more, yeah, like that.
Like let's keep that energy aliveof, of expressing that kind of stuff.
Yeah.

Wesley (01:34:08):
Yeah.
Well,

Stevan (01:34:09):
well admiral, you, you also have been known for excessive
volunteering, so how would you, howwould you try to recruit people to
get more involved in, in blazing swan?

Wesley (01:34:20):
I usually find it happens automatically.
I mean, that, that to meis one of the beauties of

Stevan (01:34:26):
what happens if, if I'm introverted or extroverted or not
talented or don't have any background.
What, what would you say to these people?

Wesley (01:34:34):
Well, I mean, e everyone can find a role or something they can do, but what,
what I was alluding to just before is thatusually people, when they come to these
events, like I think this is across theboard, any of the, kind of the burning
esque events is they see everyone doingstuff, and usually they get inspired.
Mm.
And that, that's what I've, I'veseen countless years is that

(01:34:57):
they come the first year andthey go, wow, this is amazing.
Look at all these people doing stuff.
I wanna do stuff.

Stevan (01:35:03):
Yeah.
Guilty.

Wesley (01:35:03):
I want help.
I want to get involved.
I always seem to find like secondyear you suddenly get this influx
of people that are like, wanna jointheme council, wanna do something or
wanna help out with some art piece.
Wanna bring something next yearto to, to gift out to people.
So it kind of almost happens just aspart of the culture of these events,
rather than actually happen to say like,you know, would you like to volunteer?

(01:35:25):
People invariably lookfor things to volunteer.
Mm. Rangers, I suppose is a bit bit,oh, I suppose it's a two-edged sword.
We're more obvious the rangers,you know, we're obviously tr
you know, we walk around the

Stevan (01:35:37):
but you got, you guys got stunning, sexy uniforms

Wesley (01:35:39):
and we have sexy uniforms.
Exactly.
Right.
You know, we have to justforce people away from us.
It's really hard.
Um, but do, yeah.
Doing lots people see us, so, soit's, I suppose we're very obvious
and people know we're there to helpand, you know, support the thing.
So I suppose we have probably haveit a bit easier if people look for
something to volunteer and they go,well, you know, I, I'd like to do that.
I, I'd happily help with that.

(01:36:00):
Where there's certainly some groupsthat aren't as, as visible that would
probably struggle more than, than we do.
But if people wanna volunteer at,there is no shortage of things to do.
Like, like we've got 200 volunteersthis year and there'll be pro, it'll
keep growing through the years.
There's always room for more people.
There'll always be a role for someone, nomatter how you feel or what you wanna do.

(01:36:24):
I mean, I've seen complete.
Introverts, like running stuff.
Um, you know, they can be hidingaway in a corner, just plotting
away and doing their work.
You know, there's, there'salways jobs that anyone can, can
get involved in if they wish.

JayJay (01:36:36):
I think that's like, that's a fantastic attitude, but I, I do
think we have a lot of work to goto keep that going, to keep that
like reinforcing that attitude.
And I think the key thing is tosay to volunteers, you are welcome.
We want you here.

Wesley (01:36:51):
Absolutely.

JayJay (01:36:52):
And you are welcome.
And, but we do have a bit of work to doin reinforcing that attitude and, and
keeping that, that vibe within the org.
Um, I think like, you know, likeyour attitude's fantastic Wez, and,
you know, and safety shaz has saidto me, you know, like when we were

(01:37:14):
going through the art application,she was like, look like, you know.
When, when we're assessing thesafety aspect of it, we, it's not
about saying, you know, this isnot safe, so we don't wanna do it.
It is about like, just, just helpingthem to, to find a way to make it happen.
And also to say, look, you know, it's,it's not about saying it has to be a
hundred percent and you know, if it, ifyou, if you haven't secured it properly

(01:37:39):
and it falls down, we don't want that.
But also, and we're gonna giveyou the best advice possible to
make sure that doesn't happen.
But also we are not going to kickthe shit out of you and put you down
if, you know, 'cause mistakes happen.
And it's actually about giving someonethat safe space to like, to learn who they

(01:38:03):
are and to learn the skills and experimentwithout going, ah, that went wrong.
Now we are going to, you know, youknow, like, hold that against you.
Um, yeah,

Stevan (01:38:14):
it's funny how.
It's funny how we humans learnmore from mistakes than successes.
So,

JayJay (01:38:20):
yeah.
Yeah.

Wesley (01:38:21):
Very much so.

JayJay (01:38:22):
Yeah.

Wesley (01:38:22):
Yeah.

JayJay (01:38:22):
Education and acceptance is, is a really big thing, you know?
So, yeah.

Wesley (01:38:28):
Yeah.
Absolutely.
And support, we have, well, let's, wehave so many people in, in the org now.
We have layers on layerson layers, a support.
Mm-hmm.
Which makes things really good now.
Like, you know, the, the factis we have an entire art team,
you know, backed by safety.
Mm. Backed by DPW.
Like, you can just come hereand go, I would like to bring
art here and do something.

(01:38:50):
And there are teams thatwill back you to do that.
Yeah.
I, which is something we certainlydidn't have at the start, you know,
there was basically six of us trying torun everything, but now it's phenomenal.

Stevan (01:39:01):
Let's, let's talk about,

Wesley (01:39:02):
now it's

Stevan (01:39:02):
al Yeah.
Let's talk about another volunteeringkind of a lead is the Exodus crew.

Wesley (01:39:08):
Yep.

Stevan (01:39:09):
Where they make sure that you leave, you know.
Safely, I guess, that you are able todrive that you are fully nourished or
whatever, like you're not too sleepy.

Wesley (01:39:17):
Yep.

Stevan (01:39:18):
Stuff like that.
Yeah.
As well as just getting your way outof the, the, um, probably the, the
Kulin as well, you know, could bea traffic jam and stuff like that.
So

Wesley (01:39:27):
see that's, that's a new thing that's come about.
Um, I actually don't know when,what year that started, but that was
something that, you know, you realizethere's holes in the system, uh, and
you kind of go, well actually, you know,when, when we wrap up there's these
cues of cars that might be going out.
They might not be able to all get out.
They may not be all in, inthe, um, state to drive.

(01:39:50):
So, you know, they need some support.
Um, so yeah, that's whywe got the, the Exodus.

Stevan (01:39:55):
Yeah, that's, that's a good initiative.

Wesley (01:39:56):
Proof for that.

Stevan (01:39:57):
Okay, let's, let's end with more shout outs.
Let's, who else do youguys wanna mention with?
Without these people?
Blazing Swan cannot happen.
Oh, well what about, what aboutyour team leads, uh, in, in Rangers,

Wesley (01:40:09):
the crew?
Oh, I mean, I maybe goingthrough different crews.
So, I mean, Rangers is led by, um,gov. Um, we, we've got, uh, entire
ranger ops teams now, um, that, thatbasically decide how things work.
Um, we've got the green dots,um, run by Kelpie who basically

(01:40:32):
look after mental health.
We've got medics, um, I don't think I knowthe name of the medic lead at the moment.
Um, we have got.
Firies led by Gareth.
We've got the fire team led by Hannah.

(01:40:52):
Uh, I'm gonna forget something.
I gu guarantee consent.
Um, led by Mel.
There is the forms led by Paul.
Paul, it was an ex committeemember, but he stayed on to help
out doing forms and that's becomehis, his life is doing forms.
He's a form king.
Um, got the kitchen staff.

(01:41:15):
I'm trying to think.
All the different groups.
Social media.
Social media.
Um.
Um,
the art team led by someone,I can't remember the name of,

JayJay (01:41:29):
no, I'm not sorry.
Clarification.
I'm not the lead of the arts department.
Oh, you're

Wesley (01:41:33):
not the lead arts?

JayJay (01:41:34):
No, no, I'm, I'm, I'm the artsy installation administration, which
is the title I basically gave myself.
Oh.
I'm a, a co arts administrationwith Russell Cherry Bomb.
Or Kerry.
Kerry or Cherry Bomb is the, asthe head of Department of Arts,

Wesley (01:41:49):
right?
Yes.
Okay.

JayJay (01:41:50):
Which includes our new I vehicles and, and Temple and Effigy.

Wesley (01:41:54):
Yeah, there you go.
It's a temple crew,effigy crew, um, DMT crew

Stevan (01:42:00):
and all the theme camps.
All the theme camps.
How many were there this year?

Wesley (01:42:02):
I mean, that's absolutely true.
Like the, the, the org supports thetheme camps doing most of the work.
I mean, the, the, the theme camps providethe bulk of what happens at the event.
Not, not the org, you know, theorg does the temple and the effigy
and basically make sure things run,which is admittedly an enormous task.
But the theme camps providethat, the guts of everything.

(01:42:25):
And they all put their, they put their,their butts on the line and their
people on the line, their money on theline to, to, to come here and do that.

JayJay (01:42:33):
Actually, I think we have to, um, I think we have to decide who is
the, who is the heart of Blazing Swan.
Um, so a big thing I've, I've been hearingis everyone's sort of saying, oh, like
without us, the event wouldn't go ahead.
And it's like, hang on a minute guys.
Yeah.
It, it's, it's withouteveryone, it's, it's, right.

(01:42:54):
It's absolutely,

Stevan (01:42:55):
it's too interconnected now.

JayJay (01:42:57):
So one, one thing we did this year was, um, we, yeah, we introduced, like,
we had the, like, we had an arts marque,like in previous years there hasn't been
like a artist hub or a, you know, likefor, for art installations or everyone.
We've all just used, like, we'veall just had one center kiosk.
Um, so this year we've, we've hadquite a few changes to the org where

(01:43:18):
we've had like an official mutantvehicles department and the arts
department has their own marqueeconsent, has their own marquee.
Um, previously a lot of these mm-hmm.
Um, you know, if people would take,pick up their photography passes, I
think they still pick them up from,but like, yeah, we've, we've had
a big of expansion of here's yourown little marquee in your hub.
And, you know, yeah,

Wesley (01:43:38):
the services have been expanding like every year and
it's just growing and growing.
It's really nice.

JayJay (01:43:43):
And the one thing that we, um, with the art art marquee here
is we decided, or, you know, Kerrywanted to call it the Hartery.
And, you know, and we, weput in the description Art
is the heart of blazing swan.
Now this, I actually found thisin a documentary, uh, document
on our, our file storage.

(01:44:05):
And I'm not sure where that's comefrom, but I just picked it up from
there and said, Hey, look, look at this.
Beautiful.
It tells a beautiful little story.
I'm not sure who's written it, but,okay, this is, this must be our thing.
So artists are heart of, blazing Swan.
And then, um, I've, I've since then beentold actually, um, we've always said.
Kitchen is the heart of Blazing Swan.

(01:44:25):
Um, so now, so now I think we're justgonna have to, like, every year we're
just gonna have to, it's been decided.
We're gonna have to claim that somethingelse is the heart of Blazing Swan.
I think we're all just gonna haveto have our turn every year to that.
We're the heart of Blazing Swan.
So yeah, pretty much like you, youget one year to be the most important
thing and then we'll let you have that.

(01:44:47):
And then, yeah, I don't know,like that's an, that's an idea.

Stevan (01:44:52):
I've been told that psytrance is the heart blazing swan

Wesley (01:44:56):
that'll get you in mixed responses.

Stevan (01:45:01):
Yeah.
Thanks.
Thanks very much for coming onthe show guys and having a chat.

Wesley (01:45:04):
Yeah, you're very welcome.

Stevan (01:45:05):
That was, that was entertaining and good information
and a, a lot of good stories too.

Wesley (01:45:10):
Mm Oh, thank you.

JayJay (01:45:12):
Thank you.

Stevan (01:45:13):
Anyone, anything else you wanna say?
Last mentions how, you know, likehow would you rate this burn?
Maybe it's recency biased, but.

JayJay (01:45:23):
It's interesting.

Wesley (01:45:25):
Yeah.
I, you know, I've, I've loved it.
Um, but everyone's different.
Every single blaze is always different.
Mm. And they're differentin different ways.
And, and even every individual'sexperience of every blaze
is gonna be different.
Mm. Like, you know, becauseI've worked most of the start
I had one day off so far.
Um, so I've missed a lot of it.

(01:45:46):
So even what I haveexperienced has been fantastic.
But yet again, other people may have hadcompletely different experiences than me.
Um, so, and that's gonna betrue approach across the board.

JayJay (01:45:56):
I feel like's.
It's not about what actually happensat the burn, it's, it's whatever place
you are in your life and you know,different things are gonna speak to you.
And I think as long aswe have different things.
You know, allowing all thosedifferent things to come to
the burn, then that's great.
You know, including bureaucracy.
Like, that's, that's a really,

Wesley (01:46:15):
I loved it.
Yeah.
I've got a pastor cosuspicious salmon, I'm a fan.
Yeah.
So
everyone knows I, I'mlegitimately allowed to now.

JayJay (01:46:22):
Yeah, yeah.
So we, um, yeah, so wehave the, the bureau.
The bureau camp.
Yeah.
So we can all pretend to be, youknow, indulge in bureaucracy.
It's, it's basically, we've got our ownlittle, let's pretend to be in the real
world thing, but like, it's, it's fun.
It's fun and it's, it's not, um, yeah.
So we've had the, the high court ofpetty grievances this year, which

(01:46:43):
was an art piece, and it's, um,yeah, we, we, a place to argue and,
um, argue about things in court.
And I would like to say that, uh,like a case has been resolved where
I, it has been ruled that I will now.
Receive a cup that was, you know,that was taken from me two years ago.
And, uh, and, and the, the highcourt ruled in favor of me receiving

(01:47:06):
a replacement for that cup.
And I'm so happy for that.
So grateful for them to that.
And it absolutely had nothing todo with the fact of any favoritism
about the fact that the artsdepartment funded their art piece.
Mm-hmm.
Um, so I just wanna say that straight out,that there was no funny business there.

Wesley (01:47:19):
No corruption at all.

JayJay (01:47:19):
And that ruling was, yeah, it was absolutely true.
And, and yeah.
And there was, there was no, nounder the table dealings at all.

Stevan (01:47:30):
We might have to get, we might get rowdy in, we might have to get,
we won't have to get Hamish in andtell us his, his side of the story.

JayJay (01:47:36):
Oh, oh, oh, oh.
Hamish, my good friend.
Rowdy Hamish.

Stevan (01:47:42):
Yes, of course.
Yeah.
Our good friend.
Yes.

JayJay (01:47:45):
Okay.
So, no, um, rowdy was actually witnessto this cup, um, which was, which
was given in, in, it was lended.
In good faith, um, with thegift of coffee I might add,
um, to my, my fellow camp mate.
And the cup disappeared, rowdy, actuallywitnessed the cup in a crew vehicle.

(01:48:05):
Ooh.
And the, the court, uh, the courtactually said, we like rowdy.
He's a reliable person.
We like him.
The story must be true and ruledin my favor, so fuck you, rowdy.
I love you.
Yeah, rowdy.
Rowdy was the witnessand that dude is awesome.
And yeah, I, I'm all in favor of gettingrowdy on here to tell the account of

(01:48:27):
the cup, but you know, I don't thinkit's, I don't think it's important.
The important thing is, the importantthing is that now Steen has to buy
me a, you know, a beautiful cocktailshaker with a, a paisley pattern that's
silver and shiny and pretty, um, toreplace the one that he took from me.
And maybe, I dunno, maybe he cangimme, like the coffee that I gave
him as well back, I don't know,might be a nice little charge.
But, you know, the court didn't rule that.

(01:48:49):
If he wants to, that's completely fine.

Stevan (01:48:53):
Well, the most important thing I think is that we have a new segment here.
It's probably like the Blazing court.

Wesley (01:48:57):
Blazing court?

Stevan (01:48:58):
New segment.
Yeah,
exactly.
Yeah.
Every episode we can, yeah.
This disputes and grievances.

JayJay (01:49:03):
Yeah.

Stevan (01:49:03):
Let's air it out.
Yeah.

Wesley (01:49:05):
I was tempted to go to that court and, and argue why the
fact is rangers and ranga are speltthe same way and get a ruling.
I, I was tempted to go tothat court and, and argue why.
The fact is Rangers and Ranga arespelt the same way and get a ruling.

JayJay (01:49:20):
Oh, no, no.
Isn't it?
Oh, isn't Ranga spelt with a W Oh, oh,
no, no.
You know what?
No.
Ranga spelled.
It's is Ranga.
It's R-A-N-G-A-S.
Ah, that's no, you spelled Ranga.
And if you're spelling it thesame as Rangers, then you clearly

(01:49:40):
need to be up with the program.

Wesley (01:49:42):
Oh, right.
Well, there you go.

JayJay (01:49:43):
Yes, because it's a Ranga, like a O-Ranga Tang.

Wesley (01:49:45):
So now we need to, now we need to go to court.

JayJay (01:49:47):
You gotta get like professional with your slurs and
know the origins of your slurs.
If you're gonna call someone a ranga,it's because they're an orangutan.
Get it.
Right.
You know what I mean?
Like, you're gonna dis someone.

Wesley (01:49:57):
Well, there you go.

JayJay (01:49:58):
Make sure you know the origin of the diss.

Wesley (01:50:00):
So we, we got the first part of your segment there, Stevan.

JayJay (01:50:02):
Yeah.
Yeah.
And I, I would like to state,I'm no way dissing ranga.

Wesley (01:50:07):
No, not at all.

Stevan (01:50:11):
Or, or rangers.
So

Wesley (01:50:13):
or rangers.

Stevan (01:50:14):
We love rangers, right?

JayJay (01:50:15):
Yeah.
All rangers.
Yeah.

Stevan (01:50:16):
Yeah, yeah.
We love rangers.
Alright, cool.
Let's, let's end it here.
Thanks very much.

Wesley (01:50:24):
Thanks Stevan.

JayJay (01:50:25):
It might be dangerous if we keep going.

Wesley (01:50:29):
See ya.

JayJay (01:50:30):
Thank you so much for having me.

Stevan (01:50:32):
Yeah, no problem.
It was, it was, it was a good chat.

Wesley (01:50:35):
Yeah.

Stevan (01:50:37):
Thanks again to JayJay and Wesley and Erin and Will and
Oly for coming on the podcast.
Thanks everyone.
See you In the next episode wherewe review the cosmic coincidence
burn and stay listening if youwanna hear some more outtakes.
Wait, wait, wait.

(01:50:58):
Recording.
Have we got other people joining in?
You got

Wesley (01:51:01):
No, just, just me.

Stevan (01:51:03):
J Yeah.
JJs coming.
Is it Arts Director?

Wesley (01:51:07):
Um, maybe, I don't know.
I mean, I was rocked up because Iknew you once on this afternoon, but I
didn't really see any, like actual time.
You may have sent it to me,but I might have missed it.

Stevan (01:51:16):
Yeah, it was, it was about, yeah, an hour ago I think.

Wesley (01:51:19):
Yeah.

Stevan (01:51:19):
Well, we finished, I was speaking to Erin and Will.
Oops.
So that was good.

Wesley (01:51:24):
I left my shoes on.
Let's do this.

JayJay (01:51:29):
Had a good, I've got,
what are we still talking about jissing?

Wesley (01:51:37):
Uh, maybe are.
Um, so, so JJ has popped in now.
Oh yeah.
Cool.
Yeah.

Stevan (01:51:41):
Yeah.
Cool.

Wesley (01:51:42):
Sick.

Stevan (01:51:42):
Alright.

Wesley (01:51:43):
Cool.
You want me hop off?

Stevan (01:51:45):
No, grab microphone.
It should be multiple's

JayJay (01:51:47):
actually, I'm actually, um, I'm actually jj.
Cool.
Cool.
Yeah.
I haven't been to find JJ all day.
Hey, disappeared.
Like she always does.
What?
You want me to sit down here?

Wesley (01:51:58):
Yep.
Alright.
Actually,

Stevan (01:52:03):
can you guys hear me?

Wesley (01:52:04):
Yep.
Oh, I can hear you.
Won't able yet first,

JayJay (01:52:13):
basically,

Stevan (01:52:17):
yeah.
So I, I had a chat with uh,Erin earlier and that was good.
Yep.
We talked about, we talked about Kulin

Wesley (01:52:24):
Yeah.

Stevan (01:52:24):
And Blazing Swan and their experience, which is
different to ours, you know?

Wesley (01:52:30):
Absolutely.

Stevan (01:52:30):
We're from the city.
And they're from right There

Wesley (01:52:38):
was before when I came up here,

Stevan (01:52:42):
and they've been to every single one except one, I think she said.

JayJay (01:52:51):
And

Stevan (01:52:51):
it was good to see the next generation.
Ooh, yeah.

JayJay (01:52:54):
Oh, um, hello now.
Oh, hey jj.
Jj, come here.
Um, yeah.

Wesley (01:53:25):
Just floating, floating, floating mics in your face.

Stevan (01:53:30):
I can hear some, uh, preparations going on.

Wesley (01:53:33):
Yep.
JJ trying to get rigged up at the moment.

Stevan (01:53:36):
Yep.
Cool.

Wesley (01:53:39):
That's what's floating noise.
Isolation.

Stevan (01:53:42):
So did you, did you enjoy the Grundy walk?

Wesley (01:53:45):
I didn't see the Grundy walk, I'm afraid.

Stevan (01:53:47):
Oh, you missed it?
Okay.
Yeah,

Wesley (01:53:49):
I'm involved in some other things.

Stevan (01:53:52):
Right, right.
But you're off duty now, you said off?

Wesley (01:53:54):
Um, no, I'm on duty currently.
I admit, I just turned my stuffoff for this and let people know.

Stevan (01:54:01):
Yeah, sure.
Yeah, yeah.

JayJay (01:54:03):
Brand or I don't remember.
I, I, yes.

Stevan (01:54:09):
Hello?
Can you hear me

JayJay (01:54:12):
that now though?
Because now I can hear myselfand be distracted by my
own voice, but that's cool.
We'll deal with.
Steven do a sound check, man.
Slacker

Stevan (01:54:23):
sound check.
Can you hear me?
Sound check?
Yep.
Sound check?

JayJay (01:54:26):
Yep.

Stevan (01:54:27):
Yep.
Check 1 1 2.
Yep.
Can you hear me?
Cool.
Hello?

JayJay (01:54:32):
I feel like I need a cushion.
Oh, that's loud.
Have you got a cushionto put my uncomfortable?

Stevan (01:54:41):
You guys sitting on the comfy on couch?

JayJay (01:54:47):
It's sort of like right attacking my face, but apparently
that's, that's how we need it.
Um, and the couch doesn'thave back cushion, so.
Oh, yellow Lion.
Excellent.
Hang on.
Oh, mate.
Oh, mate.
Yeah, yeah.
Hang on.
Can I just touch that?
Yeah.
Okay.
Cool.

Stevan (01:55:12):
Okay, so you guys can hear me sound,
we

JayJay (01:55:26):
sick.
Cool.

Stevan (01:55:29):
JayJay, how you going?

JayJay (01:55:33):
I'm good.
I'm good.
A ratbag day?
It's, it is not quite ratbagenough though, actually, sorry.
I'm, I'm aiming to get there.

Stevan (01:55:43):
You're gonna have to introduce yourself to listeners, uh, in a second.
Um, so yeah, get comfy.

JayJay (01:55:49):
Who's listening?
Who is it?
I like Who is this for, by the way?

Stevan (01:55:53):
Well, this is for the burn community.
So you have some, uh, some fans overthe East coast, maybe, you know.
Oh, sure.

JayJay (01:56:02):
Oh, so she put my responsible persona on

Stevan (01:56:05):
Yeah, of course.
Yes.

JayJay (01:56:06):
Okay, cool.
Done.
Nice.
I'm there.

Stevan (01:56:12):
Have you done something like this before?

JayJay (01:56:14):
A podcast?
No.

Stevan (01:56:16):
Yeah.
Cool.

JayJay (01:56:17):
I have, I've had, I've given my, um, opinions out.
I've given my opinions out a lot before.
Mm-hmm.
I'm very good at that.
So, um, yeah,

Stevan (01:56:24):
I think that's, that's why you're invited.

JayJay (01:56:26):
Oh, nice.
Yeah.

Stevan (01:56:29):
Yeah.
And Wez, are you there as well?
Are you all comfy?

Wesley (01:56:34):
I'm still here, I think, considering of things.
Yeah.
So, yep.
Okay.

Stevan (01:56:40):
Are we waiting on.
Are.

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