Ban Vashek aka Gordon Freeman and Tribal Spirit from Burning Man forever
- Angela Lau
- Closed on
- Target:
- Burning Man
- Region:
- GLOBAL
This petition is now closed
This is pertaining the camp, Tribal Spirit, at Burning Man 2018 and the leader of the camp who scammed many with promises of basic providence of infrastructure such as water, food, electricity, shade structure and a habitable "RV/Shared RV" experience. He collected camp fees ranging from US$350 - US$2000 for these purposes and failed to deliver; arrived late to Burning Man; did not deliver on the camp - Tribal Spirit is a sound camp and the whole camp/sound dome was not up - and when people from the camp were looking for him to ask for what they were promised, the response was a straight no, or a shrug.
As a second time Burner, I had the sense to bring my own water, and some food which required hot water but electricity/food/gas/water were not available at the camp until Thursday/Friday (30 Aug/31 Aug) which we all know to be a little late.
The point of this petition is, if this man did what he did, he'd have been reported to the police or to some consumer watchdog, because it is certainly not legal; let alone letting him get away with what he did at Burning Man, abusing many Burners' trust and the cause of a dent in our otherwise beautiful Burning Man experience. There were some chatter on how he also owed some members' money - but I will let them report that in their own time.
This man represents everything Burning Man preached against, this man represents everything society despises and it is in the best interest of future Burns that Tribal Spirit or any other camp that Gordon Freeman aka Vashek be banned.
Hi Burning Man committee,
I'd like to bring to your attention the actions of a particular individual; he's widely known as Gordon Freeman (on Facebook) or Vashek (his real name) and he is the camp leader of Tribal Spirit which was given placement at (2:30H) at this year's Burning Man that concluded some two weeks ago.
He amassed a total of more than 100+ people for this camp, and collected various camp fees with a promise of basic infrastructures like water, food and a generator that could provide electricity to the camp. In the spirit of self-reliance, we all contributed with ideas on our survival for the camp (so food planning was done by camp members - and we all signed up for kitchen shifts) and it was promised that our camp fees (varying from US$350 to US$2000) would get us access to water, food, electricity and shade structure for those camping and shared RV/bus as sleeping arrangement. The reality was far from the promise, in fact so far, veterans in the camp called for a refund after Burning Man only to be shut down. This was done through our Slack channel - Gordon started a Tribal Spirit Slack channel so all of us communicated via that platform.
Many of us from this camp would like to put our names behind this petition to the powers that be at Burning Man, to prohibit this man from ever attending Burning Man on a simple basis that he represents everything Burning Man is not; he represents everything Burning Man preached against and he represents everything a decent human being is not. This man profited from many Burners, failed to deliver, and was sadly unrepentant. Many members took to the Tribal Spirit Slack channel to voice their concerns/feedback but have had their account either deactivated or their posts deleted by Gordon.
Tribal Spirit is meant to be a sound camp but this was not the reality. Our sound dome/sound camp was not built on time. All of the activities that we said we would conduct as a camp, did not happen. Gordon did not arrive at the camp till Wednesday 29 August. He secured a few volunteers from the camp to arrive early for the camp build but provided very little tools to allow them to do so, and only arrived on Wednesday. Water was not available for some of us who arrived Sunday/Monday. I arrived on Monday night and couldn't locate our camp because it wasn't built. The campsite was a mess - RVs parked wherever they could find a space, The shade structure provided for approximately close to 20 tents - certainly not enough for a camp meant to accommodate 100 people. When approached for electricity, the response was a very nonchalent "figure it out". This same attitude was felt by many in the camp.
Those who paid US$2000 camp fees also paid for sleeping arrangement on a bus without aircon with 20 people - this was positioned as a "shared RV" experience which couldn't be further from the truth. Many resorted to sleeping everywhere on the playa since that arrangement was inhabitable.
I urge the committee to look into this - communication from many people from the camp would reveal the truth contained in this petition - and the hope is to make sure this man does not get to profit from Burners again; does not get to enter the playa as his spirit, soul and heart do not belong there; and lastly, so justice can be served.
Thank you.