talk.kiezburn.org
Sat 24 Jul 2021 10:28AM

Parking space / Free camping situation and solution offers

C Cairn (Clément) Public Seen by 157

Hi everyone,

After going on site Friday 23rd July, I was able to take some pictures and measures of the current situation on site, and parking and free camping space worries me.

To be able to visualize things better, have a look at the current map of the site.

The situation:
The last years, we were able to use the whole field North of the site as parking area, and free campers could camp on site.
We had roughly 400x100m available for parking, which we did not use fully of course. (If anyone has any inputs as to how much landspace was used, it'd be great!.
This year, around 25/30% of this area is not accessible anymore, due to the wishes of the owner.
In addition, over 50% of the field space available is currently used to grow wildflowers, that the farmer owning the land does not want us to cut, understandably.
This leaves us with overall less than 1/3 of that field available for Parking and Free Camping, leaving us a rough rectangle of 150x100 meters available.

Additionally, due to the change in space available to us this year, free campers are not planned to camp on site. The space for camps is very much limited, so the current plan is to have free campers camping on the parking area.
According to our last estimates, we are talking about around 300 to 350 people.

Finally, due to the covid situation, we are not organizing buses to transport burners from Berlin this year. Meaning that a little under 1000 people need to arrange their own transports. We can therefore expect more vehicles needing parking than in the past.

The problem
I have very serious doubts that we can fit around 350 camping people and more vehicles than usual in such a small space.

The possible solutions
1- We keep it as it is and hope for the best. Very much not a fan of this one, as I have no clarity on the repercussions of us running out of parking space.

2- Freecampers camp on site. They would need to cram themselves where they could. I would then require assistance to figure out how to make that possible, as I currently do not see this as realistic at all. Not counting on the kitchen situation that makes it necessary for free campers to somewhat group themselves.

3- Additional parking space elsewhere. Is this an option? Where could this be?

4- Free camping space South of the site. Beyond the hill there, there seem to be a 20x80m space that could potentially be usable. We would need to check if that is an area we can use, as it is on the border of the area of the land we can no longer use.
Problems include: access only through currently out of bounds space in the South East, and direct access from the road, giving people without tickets direct access to the free camping area and therefore the burn.

5- Other, if anyone has another idea?

I am very much looking forward to your thoughts and proposals on this, my brain alone is not able to think of a viable solution at this stage.

P

Purzel Sun 25 Jul 2021 1:23PM

Yes im aware of that but the free camping area is still the parking Spot as well, right?

My idea Was to make more space for tests by moving the parking Spot for cars, somewhere more remote.

C

Caroline Sat 24 Jul 2021 3:33PM

Hey

Nowhere bus experience : when we expected heavy rain on arrival in 2019, we wanted to drop people 3km (i think) from gate, in the mud

Due to the lack of people carriers we decided to use the van to carry the luggage + use the few people carrier to transport person with walking issues or children etc.

Rain did not happen but that was the plan.

I think going to the train station to pick up luggage only might be a solution for a lot of fully capable individual without endengering them by putting them in a van

If this idea is doable and accepted, i can "plan" it, advertise for it in the survival guide + maybe drive the van if nobody available and if someone can pick me up at the trainstation the 10th evening

C

Cairn (Clément) Sat 24 Jul 2021 12:20PM

Amazing!
Great to hear that the wild flowers situation can be sorted out, maybe we'll need to include planting some during Strike?
The fact of having this area of the field solves this problem entirely if confirmed, additional parking would always be really good as we have no clear expectations of the number of coming vehicles.
We might just need to mow ourselves during Build, I know a site planning realizer that could spare a day for it if needed 🙂

MT

Myriam TheWanderer Sun 25 Jul 2021 11:20AM

So far we have 63 vehicles registered, but only 14 of those are cars and need to be on parking space (though we have not yet looked into who gets a permit and who doesnt) - people with normal cars in parking do not have to register, so we have no idea how many cars will come - I only estimated about 300 because I have no idea how many it could be to be honest. Could be more or less. I like the idea of having someone helping with the luggage and we could add them to the paw patrol though it would be a very different type of volunteer I guess? Also keep in mind, if we help them get to the burn, we will also need to help them leave the burn - there need to be volunteers driving the luggage back to the train station on Sunday.

MT

Myriam TheWanderer Sun 25 Jul 2021 11:22AM

Hi @Purzel - normal cars are not allowed on the event site during the event at all. Only campervans, and we will limit the amount as well

AK

Alex Kaos Mon 26 Jul 2021 5:34AM

Not possible. There is no access for cars to that site.

We would need to put the free-campers there.

MT

Myriam TheWanderer Mon 26 Jul 2021 6:14AM

Hi @CJ Yetman - I have not yet broken down the list - the campervans have another 2 days to register, then I will sit down and look how many want to be on site during the event. Art cars and motorbikes also applied for permits. I currently dont want to have more than 2-3 campervans per Kiez, that was what site planning suggested. I also do not want to turn Kiezburn into a large campervan site.

LE

Lindsey E Mon 26 Jul 2021 7:04AM

people could also be encouraged to bring a bike with them on the train. If a van is arrranged to pick up luggage, biking might be a more appealing way than walking the 7 km and more people might go for it.

DU

[deactivated account] Sat 24 Jul 2021 8:53PM

I think that is a terrific idea, particularly in terms of Covid exposure. Likely you can get the luggage of 20-25 people in one van and then the walk ist just a bit over an hour.

CY

CJ Yetman Sun 25 Jul 2021 7:32PM

Does that mean there are 49 camper vans registered? 63 total -14 that are cars? What does it mean to be “registered” in this case? I hope we don’t have 50 camper vans on-site.

A

Annette Mon 26 Jul 2021 7:19PM

Update from talk with Eric/Freiland today:

He is very optimistic that it will work out with the space avaible. They used the area that is now usable for their event (500 participants + 150 team, parking and camping). If we plan to have some campervans from Kieze + 600 Kieze members at the Gelände (not camping area for freecampers), it should work out. If we are not happy with this planning, he offered 3 options of space for parking:
1. Schloß Broock (need to be checked)
2. Train station Sternfeld (need to be checked)
3. short notice mowing 2 stripes of the wildflower area.
4. maybe maybe there is another area we can use. Tbd.
In general, the wildflower area can be used, but due to further relations with the owner, a farmer that needs this area for agriculture regulations, will not be mowed.
I talked to @Cairn (Clément) on the phone about it today, but wanted to leave you this update here with the estimation from Freiland.

VRS

Veroca R. Sala Sun 25 Jul 2021 11:06AM

  • @Myriam TheWanderer Do we know how many cars were registered so far? or only the cars on site must register, so as to have an idea and do not over worry about the space at the parking.

    If the space is too small at the parking lot, we might need to assign some space inside the Gelände for free campers, will that really be the end of the world? asking from my uneducated position, 🙂

    Not all free campers are gonna be together in the communal kitchen... actually the kitchen initiative hasn't gone forward as far as I know. IMO it will be easier for the rangers to control the fire safety if campers are making fire in the Gelände than in the parking lot, no?

    Overall My advice is to not over worry much we do the best we can.

    I understand after investing so much time and energy we wish things to work as planned, but I see some things are very hard to calculate and to have under control without overstretching our own capacity, in the end, this is a burn! let's not forget about that 🔥

    if we foresee an issue maybe we could try to find some relief in the community and participants of the event. I can only offer you more human power to potentially help coordinate allocations on the spot if needed. We could have more volunteers, but probably can't have more land, or control the number of cars =/

    My not-so-magical idea is to reserve onsite emergency spots to allocate to free campers, so the cars can have the space they need at the parking lot. It might be unfair for those arriving on Thursday-Friday to have a spot onsite, and those free campers that arrived earlier will have to be in the parking lot, but well!! We might have some answers prepared for these complaints. From my personal experience, do not care much about critiques. Reach out for support during discussions if there were, the Korg is there for you❤️

    How could we execute the emergency slot allocation on site? we could open some more positions as Site Planning support/ parking support to help to escort free campers to the spots onsite assigned for freecampers (could be pinned in the map and available at the gate), to avoid these freecampers setting their tens in the wrong places!!!

    if nothing to allocate cause we are good in regards to space at the parking lot, then the volunteer paw patrol /sitel planning support could be just helping out as parking crew Paw Patrol.

    Also, Rangers could be called via radio and escort them to the emergency-free camper's spot.

    If freecampers complain they have to walk back and forth from their cars, the reality is that we never promised how things will be done upon tickets sale, this was not a condition we had committed to ( to provide a nice and practical parking space), so they can walk to their cars to the allocated spot onsite or they could also drive back home if they dont like the idea, no?

    There is my opinion around this, looking forward to reading more ideas from the korgis/participants =)

    Thank you for going back to Freiland this weekend, and for all the time you put in the site planning, you are awesome, reliable, and accountable! hugging you tight!❤️

P

Purzel Sat 24 Jul 2021 5:15PM

Answering number 4

We could use this as allocated parking space for all normal cars to free up space at the free camper area

DU

[deactivated account] Sat 24 Jul 2021 3:22PM

This is just a thought, but I came and went to Spark from Sternfeld, the closet station, which is ca. 7 km from Freiland. In the least people could be encouraged, if travelling by train, to depart there. Possibly then we could arrange - using the various vans - to have a pick up team for 11/12 August at particular times. This might help eleviate the need for parking additional vehicles. Also, it is walkable as I did it Monday morning. (ca. 2 hours with gear)

Item removed

Item removed

A

Annette Sat 24 Jul 2021 11:12AM

Just additions from site liasion: There was a misunderstand from Freiland with the farmer: The area in the north is not yet mowed as planned, but can me mowed (probably not from the farmer though, we need to find a solution). General mowing: We are in contact with Freiland about it, I will know more on Monday. But at spark it was agreed the whole site (flat areas) will be mowed for us.
On another note: The covid-team @Hanna-Maija (Animal) wants free campers to camp outside the Gelände to enforce the daily testing (they have to pass though gate @Mareike). Camps have Covid-Ambassadors, but free campers (and we have a lot) don´t have this control.

I would go for option 1 and 3 (Freiland mentioned another area they used for their event, I will find out more and they wanted to send a map).