Wichita Burners, inc
Hey there, dusty dreamers and enthusiasm enthusiasts! We’re the heart and soul behind Resonance, a Wichita-based regional Burning Man extravaganza. With our hosts now in Wilson County Kansas, we go a little out of our way to get home, but the destination is totally worth it.
Our Vision
The heart of our Burn began beating in Nevada’s black rock desert at the very first Burning Man, nearly 40 years ago. Since then, the sparks have jumped across the world through hundreds of smaller annual events, all guided by the same 10 principles.
The Burner Philosophy
Burning Man co-founder Larry Harvey wrote the 10 Principles in 2004 as guidelines for the newly-formed Regional Network. They were crafted not as a dictate of how people should be and act, but as a reflection of the community’s ethos and culture as it had organically developed since the event’s inception.
Resonance is not a festival. It is an experiment in Community and part of a global cultural movement. We embrace the each of the 10 principles of Burning Man, striving to radically express ourselves engage meaningfully and responsibly with each other, our surroundings, and also within ourselves.
The 10 Principles
Radical Inclusion
Anyone may be a part of Burning. We welcome and respect the stranger. No prerequisites exist for participation in our community.
Gifting
The Burn is devoted to acts of gift giving. The value of a gift is unconditional. Gifting does not contemplate a return or an exchange for something of equal value.
Decommodification
In order to preserve the spirit of gifting, our community seeks to create social environments that are unmediated by commercial sponsorships, transactions, or advertising. We stand ready to protect our culture from such exploitation. We resist the substitution of consumption for participatory experience.
Radical Self-Reliance
Burning Man encourages the individual to discover, exercise and rely on their inner resources.
Radical Self-Expression
Radical self-expression arises from the unique gifts of the individual. No one other than the individual or a collaborating group can determine its content. It is offered as a gift to others. In this spirit, the giver should respect the rights and liberties of the recipient.
Communal Effort
Our community values creative cooperation and collaboration. We strive to produce, promote and protect social networks, public spaces, works of art, and methods of communication that support such interaction.
Civic Responsibility
We value civil society. Community members who organize events should assume responsibility for public welfare and endeavor to communicate civic responsibilities to participants. They must also assume responsibility for conducting events in accordance with local, state and federal laws.
Leaving No Trace
Our community respects the environment. We are committed to leaving no physical trace of our activities wher- ever we gather. We clean up after ourselves and endeavor, whenever possible, to leave such places in a better state than when we found them.
Participation
Our community is committed to a radically participatory ethic. We believe that transformative change, whether in the individual or in society, can occur only through the medium of deeply personal participation. We achieve being through doing. Everyone is invited to work. Everyone is invited to play. We make the world real through actions that open the heart.
Immediacy
Immediate experience is, in many ways, the most important touchstone of value in our culture. We seek to overcome barriers that stand between us and a recognition of our inner selves, the reality of those around us, participation in society, and contact with a natural world exceeding human powers. No idea can substitute for this experience.
The "Unwritten" Principle
Radical Consent
Consent is the overarching principle. We respect the autonomy of the individual’s whole self. The importance of consent is ubiquitous; Burners thrive when we hold Consent in a place of immutable priority within each of our other core values.
Why Volunteer?
Our organization is run entirely by unpaid volunteers who believe in the spirit and potential of Resonance. We have an elected Board, as well as appointed department leads for the various volunteer factions at the Burn. If you’re interested in becoming a board member or a department lead, please email wichitaburners@gmail.org. In election years, ballots and submission forms can be found on this website, as well as our facebook page.
Our New Home: Atlas Ad Astra Missile Silo Adventure
During the late 1950’s, the US Government spent billions of dollars on strengthening our military in defense against Soviet Communism.
As a response to Sputnik, the US began, in earnest, to develop a rocket and nuclear missile defense program. During this period, rockets quickly evolved. As they evolved, these massive and expensive missile installations became obsolete and were quickly abandoned. Over 70 Atlas F Missile Silos were built in the United States, many of which are in the great plains.
The site now known as Atlas Ad Astra was built in 1959 and was active until 1965 during the Cuban Missile Crisis. Back then, it cost $12.8 million to build the structure alone. In today’s dollars it would be over $120 million!
Most of these facilities are in private hands & closed to the public. Our host is excited to invite us to experience, enjoy and learn from their site.
“I have quite a unique story…
In 1990 I was 10 years old hiking through the Flint Hills of Kansas with a friend, in the middle of rolling hills we found a decommissioned Cold War era Atlas E Missile Base. The place looked abandoned and we ventured through an open high security gate with barbed wire on top, into a “Top Secret” decommissioned underground Air Force Base.
The paved road in the middle of the countryside turned and disappeared into an underground bunker through a 47-ton blast door built to withstand a Nuclear explosion.
To the side was a personal entrance, when I tried the handle the door opened to reveal a tunnel leading into darkness. Realizing we needed flashlights to properly explore the bunker we felt like we were in a Indian Jones movie.
The next day I met the owner who was converting the abandoned bunker into an underground mansion called Subterra Castle. Over 30 years I have watched as the site has been developed & featured on National Geographic, Home & Garden Network even Oprah. Years later I helped building stones up one of the Castle towers.”
Donate now to further these efforts.
Our Sponsors
Want to Join The Club?
We’re pretty cool, we think.