Parking space / Free camping situation and solution offers
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.
Veroca R. Sala Sun 25 Jul 2021 11:06AM
Hey there is an initiative from @Caroline to ease the transport so people might choose to take the train instead of car rental if we promote it well (?) not sure, but maybe! https://talk.kiezburn.org/d/cP8niEDv/proposition-organize-a-luggage-pick-up-at-the-closest-train-station-so-people-can-walk-to-freiland
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@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!❤️
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
Deleted User 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)
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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).
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.