“Burning Man For 1%” Gathers The Tech Elite To Nevada Desert
Look out, Burning Man, there’s another disruptive desert gathering gaining popularity: Further Future, another “transformational festival” that takes place in Nevada just celebrated its second year with 5,000 attendees and an ethos it touts as “unabashed luxury.”
The Guardian reports the Further Future has become “Burning Man for the 1%,” where it has rapidly become a must-go destination for many of tech’s elite to gather and exchange ideas, all within the confines of 49 acres stocked with personal assistants, spa treatments and fine dining. The event held its second gathering last week.
The networking and luxury will cost you: Although tickets start at $350, less than the $390 Burning Man is charging for 2016 tickets, Further Future participants can opt for luxury add-ons and attend events like Nobu’s $250-per person dinner.
“Party planners at Burning Man are careful to hide their luxury dwellings behind large walls dressed as art projects, but Further Future had no such pretension,” the paper reports.”Behind a chain-link fence was the VIP neighborhood with airstreams ($5,000) and Lunar Palaces ($7,500) – 200 sq ft, 9ft high, custom-made luxury domes with wooden flooring and furnished to sleep four.”
Ward told the paper he started the festival after he closed his online gaming hedge fund, saying he saw a need for a new desert festival dedicated to changing the way people approach networking.
“This is top-league networking and business folks are all here in the guise of having fun. It’s designed around the music, but it’s about the business,” Russell Ward, the general show runner and publicist, told the paper.“A ton of business will get done here. Entrepreneurs will get funded, investors will find their trajectories, service companies will meet and mix it up.”
Eric Schmidt, executive chairman of Google (NASDAQ: GOOG)’s moonshot projects spinoff Alphabet, is a high-profile attendee who told the Guardian he will go anywhere he can find new ideas – and that Further Future is the “cream of the Burning Man crop.”
“This is a high percentage of San Francisco entrepreneurs, and they tend to be winners. It’s a curated, self-selected group of adults who have jobs,” Schmidt said. “You can tell by the percentage of trailers.”
Ward told the paper the luxury aspect was just natural outgrowth of Burning Man’s aesthetic, with many attendees to Further Future looking for a more comfortable way to exchange ideas.
“Burning Man, and we have great reverence for Burning Man, but there’s always an element of arduousness. Here, we have spa treatments and green juice,” he said. “There’s already enough in life that’s tough.”
Robert Scott, the 42-year-old cofounder of the festival, agreed, telling the paper that bringing thought leaders together was a crucial part of why the festival is held.
“It’s important what we do here,” Scott said. “That’s what we keep saying. We’re shaping the future. These are the people who not only can do it, but these are the only people who can.”
Source: San Francisco Business Times, Riley McDermid
Photo: Google’s top officers Eric Schmidt, Larry Page and Sergey Brin are all said to be fans of the new “Burning Man for 1%” festival. (Bloomberg, Matthew Staver)