SeaCompression
See you in October!
That's a wrap on 2024... and a goodbye to the Seattle Center
Now we get to decide what 2025 will bring! The Events Committee is made up o people from the community just like you. Get involved and you won’t just have a voice in deciding our new venue, you’ll have a vote!
Want to help us find a home?
Check out the INW town hall on 11/17, or join an Events Committee meeting on the 2nd Wednesday every month! All INW members are welcome.
It’s tough to return to earth
Just as the weight of the world begins to take a toll once more, we gather together for a magical day and night surrounded by art, music, and friends. It’s a chance for our community to reimmerse ourselves and reconnect, and for the curious to get a tiny taste of what Burning Man is all about.
It doesn’t matter if you’ve returned from your first trip to the playa, your twentieth… or you’ve never been at all. All are welcome to join us at Seacompression and experience all the creativity and joy that our community has to offer.
There are Decompression parties all over the world. Since 2002, ours has been SeaCompression.
The 10 Principles
The Principles aren’t a list of rules or commandments. When Burning Man founder Larry Harvey wrote them in 2004 they were a reflection of what already was,nthe organic culture that was beginning to spread beyond the playa and into what would one day become the Regional Network.
So while we’re technically older than the principles, we’re also not, since they were born of events just like ours.
Consent– in Seattle we embrace the 0th principle, the foundation on which all other principles rest. Without consent it becomes meaningless words.
Radical Inclusion
Anyone may be a part of Burning Man. We welcome and respect the stranger. No prerequisites exist for participation in our community.
Gifting
Burning Man 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 wherever 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.