SunBurn is a regional gathering held in Florida. Although SunBurn has its roots in the annual Burning Man festival in Nevada, it is not an official Burning Man event because the organizers of SunBurn do not condone the direction that the Burning Man Organization (BMorg) has taken over the years. The original fall weekend on which SunBurn was held has been usurped by AfterBurn, which itself is a regional BurningMan event sanctioned by the BMorg. The real SunBurn is now a random, privately held, invitation-only party. Like the original Burning Man before it became political and bureaucratic, art, music, fire and other forms of creativity—including performance art, large-scale temporary constructions and alternative engineering—are welcome at SunBurn. Radical self-expression are the goals, and community is emphasized. There is no vending on site (not even ice) -- gifting among participants is encouraged, but cash transactions are forbidden. In the past, proceeds were collected from participants to cover event expenses. SunBurn is a leave no trace event. All attendees are encouraged to participate in some way rather than being spectators to others' participation. History The first SunBurn was held October 2003 at Wallaby Ranch near Orlando where many of the participants went nude hang gliding. The year after, Wallaby's owners, after realizing what a great crowd the participants were, tried to gouge them by jacking up the price for land rental. In response, the participants found another location, Maddox Ranch in Lakeland, where the 2004 event was held. An admission fee was charged to cover the event expenses and to contribute to the work that Maddox does with autistic children. Two years later, a group of participants decided that the event should be an official Burning Man event and applied for sanctioning. The original organizers, dismayed by the corporate structure imposed on the event, pulled out and took the name with them. Thus, the official fall event is called AfterBurn, and the unofficial, unsanctioned event is still called SunBurn but is not publicly advertised.
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