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.
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
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 🙂
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
Deleted User 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.
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.
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.