New map and quiet/loud zones

There was camp in those zones last year - the idea was that those camps would not be sound camps. I will update the map as soon as I have a second.

Awesome, thanks :)

The map has been updated! Should be good to go!

I needed to add a little more area to the yellow zone to accomodate one more camp/car.

Can we have an updated map link please?? This one re-directs too many times

We had a sound conflict in 2019 that would be good to be handled better in 2020. Here I try to document it to have it ready when 2020 orga gets started.

The two Kieze involved (Saloon, Salon Leobard) are aware in the conflict and know they have to work on it, here is what happened from my view:
- Salon Leobard did intentionally place itself in a "Semi-Loud Zone" to have less sound when sleeping and because Salon Leobard did not intend to play anything louder than chillout atmospheric soundscapes
- Saloon did placed itself about 50m away from Saloon. They were unaware of Salon Leobard popping up in front of them, as Saloon was there last year but Salon Leobard is a new camp.

• The Soundsystem of Saloon was 2 speakers pointed from the Saloon DJ towards their Dancefloor, in the general direction of Salon Leobard. The soundsystem was clearly noticable from 50 meters away.

• The Soundsystem of Salon Leobard was 4 speakers placed around the central stage of the Hammock Reactor, all 4 pointing inward to the center. The soundsystem had perfect and loud sound within the camp but was barely hearable when outside of the inner circle of the camp.

• The sound from Saloon interfered with the sound from Salon Leobard.

• Especially tragic were 2 live concerts of Hang/Steeldrum players, who needed a silent atmosphere. As it was live music recorded with microphones and amplified, Salon Leobard could not "crank it up and play louder than Saloon" because the live music microphones at the stage would pick the speakers up and go into feedback loop (Rückkoppelung). So the first concert was quite a fail, the second hang player tried to improvise his own music and using the sound of Saloon as background noise.

The situation was impossible to improve during the burn as both camps had their lineup fixed. Both camps tried to change their soundsystem, turn it up/down, etc... after multiple attempts, both Saloon and Salon Leobard gave up, knowing that this is something we have to get better next year by better planning beforehand. Thanks to Jan from Saloon for his cooperative approach!

Suggestions I heard from Salon Leobard camp members (some of them are conflicting/some work in addition, I list them all to have more input for brainstorming):

• A semi-quiet zone should also be semi-quiet during the day and it should be possible to play live music there and be able to hear it. All camps in semi-loud zones should only play music up to a level that is needed for within the camp boundaries and not make art/workshops impossible in neighbouring camps. Sound camps must not be placed within Semi-Quiet zones.

• All camps: Point all your speaker systems to the dancefloor/stage, use 4 speakers and surround the dancefloor/stage, to focus your audio power and not spill over to other camps

• All Camps: Point all speaker systems towards "the art plateau/hill". There is already a cacophony there from Zerzura and Underworld, so more systems adding to the cacophony won't matter

• Place all soundcamps around the hill/art plateau and let them point their speakers towards the hill

• Have inter-camp communications about live music acts that need silence from surrounding camps ("we have a hang at Friday 16:00-18:00, can you turn off your soundsystem during that time?")

I know not everyone agrees, but I think its good to have this out in the discussion: I see no reason why we need loud amplified music until 6am everywhere.

I personally do not see any purpose or need to have many soundsystems running all night, but I rather prefer a setting where there is a handful of selected sound systems who do a great work and are placed in a way that lets everyone else go sleeping.

That said, what underworld did was fantastic: great art, a great bar, a great soundsystem, a cosy atmosphere, in a location that did contain their sound excellently and only minimal spill of sound happened. For them, playing 11am-6am is fine!

In opposition, here is a typical situation I hate: "1 DJ and 5 frantic dancers at 6am, all on ketamine, gathering around one boombastic sound system to keep those 6 partying but 300 people from sleeping". This is not art, nor self-expression, but something selfish (you induce a good trip for yourself) but that works against communal spirit.

I propose to change the sound rules to only allow loud music until 06am for a few selected soundcamps where it can be guaranteed that they provide a good environment for it and don't fuck with everyone's sleep.

I personally am a fan of art pieces that play with your senses: Coffee wonderland and their rabbit hole. Bee hive. Spießer's Gartenzwerg. Monkey's gate. The deli. The decoration and bar at Underworld. Pirate Camp and Pink Peark. Zerzura. Saloon. Monkeys. Lemon Camp with their ritual. ... . This is art I want to see more! As artist myself, I prefer to be able to sleep a few hours to not kill myself and my crew during build during daytime.

It needs dozens of people and months of preperation to generate such great art that can inspire a whole festival --- this is what I want to see more!

From personal experience, I know that "normal" people who may sometimes contribute to such artwork are put off and dislike our Burns because of the tons of drugs&loud music all night long. Drugs & Loud music induces a trance only in the person doing both. It does not help anyone "outside" of this elusive circle.

There is no right / wrong in this discussion and the positions are myriad, and I am both dancing all night long at Underworld and at the same time wanting to sleep later on.

I also believe that "you can camp in freecamping" is not an answer. Camps where the artists sleep & live next to their artwork carry a good atmopshere. It's easier to build such camps, it's easier to "guard" your laptops and soundsystems against weirdo's at night if you sleep next to your artwork.

So if anyone thinks about "hey, maybe we should chnage the sound policy and allow less loud stuff and restrict times", maybe this contribution by me helps.

I totally agree with leobard. We all talk about get consent before fuck somebody. Who is asking before spilling the landscape with noise? That is a real downer and does not comply with civic responsibility. I will not return to Kiezburn if that issue does not get addressed!

This is super unfortunate for Leobard. I really feel for them and I did hear this from a couple of people.
This was the first year as a decentralised org so together we're bound to make mistakes. There were also alot of roles not filled or people stepping up to do too many roles and as a result not truly fulfilling what was required of the role... or maybe this just wasnt addressed/thought of through lack of support.
@klauskobald Maybe one way that the issue can be addressed is that you (or someone who was affected by this) be kieze placement lead for next year? That way we can assure that camps agendas, sound limits and purposes are fulfilled and this doesnt happen again?
There was a massive thread on it here to openly discuss this prior to the event also. I can see leobard and saloon discussed this: https://talk.kiezburn.org/d/PwbV1q5o/kieze-placement

My 50-100 cents to this very valuable discussion:

a) Our Welfare team is also not too happy with its placement close to Underworld, since we cannot provide people 24/7 with the calm space the might need when being under distress (especially in the Sa/Sun night). So we certainly strive for a different placement in 2020, possibly in the area of Saloon Leobard / Saloon, somewhere close to the gate, where we expect to have only a semi-loud zone.
b) An obvious solution to have a semi-loud zone there is to place all loud sound Kieze (apart from Underworld) "beyond the mesa" (on the southern part of the area only). With clever speaker placement, 3 different floors should be possible there without producing cacophonia
c) @klauskobald I was kinda semi-sound lead in Kiezburn 2018 and have found to be all camp people to be very cooperative.