SNRG 2017 After Report

This year’s Southern Nevada Regional Gathering, aka SNRG, was a great success. Moving to Beatty, NV was a big step back to our rural roots as a regional and moving from Boulder City, NV was a big leap forward for the regional. Will the people come to our new location? Will the people of Beatty accept us? I am very excited about the response from the Beatty community. The businesses were happy about the increased business during a normally slow time. Some of the locals came out and bought tickets and immersed themselves in the event and said they would be back. The landowner, Dave Spicer, was very happy with the event and wants us back. We are going to work with Mr. Spicer to bring some permanent art installations to Spicer Ranch as well as other locations. Mr. Spicer met with the town board, the fire department and police after the event. All of them were happy with the event and look forward to having us back next year. Would the participants adjust and come to Beatty? The answer is yes. 501 tickets were purchased to the event plus another 30 for staff. We are very happy with the initial turnout since we set a cap of 500 to break in the new site. Based on immense positive feedback from the community we expect a bigger turnout next year and will cap the event at 700. A positive article appeared in the Pahrump Valley Times: http://pvtimes.com/entertainment/arts-and-culture-thrive-spicer-ranch-rural-nevada

Gate And Greeters

Gate and Greeters had their own stations. People were met at the gate by volunteer staff during normal gate hours, 10 a.m. to 10 p.m., and overnight security, 10 p.m. to 10 a.m. Attendees checked in through the gomobileevents.com app or by presenting their ID. Attendees received a SNRG event patch, SNRG wristband and a waiver to sign upon arrival at the gate. Attendees were then directed to greeters where they were officially welcomed into the event and given instructions on how to get to their camps. This is also where staging was located for theme camp placement. Both Greeters and Gate ran very smoothly with few issues. We will buy designated scanners for next year’s event to help with the check in procedure.

Insurance

This year’s event insurance was delayed because of negotiations to have art cars at the event. After getting good documentation on all of our art cars, as well as having them get their own liability insurance, art cars were included in the policy. The cost for our event insurance was reasonable for our type of event and I am very happy with our insurance provider. We had a clean event and expect zero claims.

Fireworks and burn

We take fireworks and burns extremely seriously at the Southern Nevada Regional. We have been doing professionally licensed pyrotechnic displays and burns at our regionals since 2006. We did a 10-minute pyrotechnic and special f/x display followed by a simultaneous burn of our effigy and temple. Everything was fired and lit remotely for safety. Our perimeter was anchored by 300 feet of trash fence and a large contingent of volunteers, rangers and event staff. The show, burn and clean up all went perfectly with no issues.

Ice Sales

After talking to local vendors we agreed that they couldn’t handle ice sales for the event. We worked with the local ice vendor and ordered 900 bags of ice for the event to be sold onsite with all proceeds going to a local charity or cause. This year’s recipient is the Beatty, NV Volunteer Fire Department. The ice sales were pretty smooth despite a hiccup by our vendor. Total ice sales were 850 bags, totaling $2,531 in ice sales – $1700 in ice costs = $831 in profit. We raised $850 for the volunteer dept with ice sales and look forward to doing this again next year.

Budget for Art Grants

We had 22 applications for art grants totaling $25,000. We funded 16 projects totaling close to $10,000. More than $5,000 was spent on the pyrotechnics and burn. We hope to spend more on art in the future. The late start on ticket sales made it difficult to gauge our total budget for the event. We look forward to bringing more art in the future, especially fire arts. A substantial art grant was given to Orion Fredericks to bring his large fire sculpture, “Gilly,“ to the event and it was a great success. We are ecstatic about our first round of art grants and look forward to more in the future. There was a lot of non-funded art brought to the event as well. Lots of interactive and tactile art made for an immersive environment at the event.

Leave No Trace

We did a very good job of LNT at the event. Several camps hosted different mooping events throughout the week. The DPW lead a large clean up of the burn area pre-burn, the land had thousands of pieces of broken pvc pipe scattered over a large area. Volunteers picked up over 15 bags of pvc leaving the spot better than we found it. Campers did an excellent job of taking their trash with them. We had a few people leave their trash behind and it was removed by SNRG staff. SNRG and the land owner were very happy with the final walk-through of the property. We left zero trace.

Theme Camps

We had more than 22 theme camps offering various experiences. We are happy with the theme camps overall, they did a wonderful job of creating interactive experiences. Over the last couple of years we’ve had sound issues with large sound camps. Upon implementing better placement strategies, the sound camps were well received this year and didn’t overwhelm the whole event with their sound. All the camps did a great job on leaving zero moop. We are pleased with the diversity of our theme camps.

What Went Well

• The event security and wristbands kept people from sneaking in. This changed the event because we only had committed participants on site. The gate and check-in went very smooth.
• Event placement and the new property went over very well.
• Fire and safety went very well including the new “zen zone” for overwhelmed participants.
• The new DPW kicked ass and took names.
• Staff in general kicked ass.
• Volunteers and the volunteer coordinator went very smoothly.
• Burn Night and overall burn operations were very well coordinated.
• The communication and interactions with the property owner and his staff went very well. We look forward to working with both in the future.
• The interaction and communication with the Beatty community, its leaders, and agencies couldn’t have gone any smoother, and we look forward to working with them in the future and making an impact on the city of Beatty with commerce and art.
• The trash fence for The Burn was a very good thing and helped the perimeter crew do their job.
• Ice sales and donating to the Beatty community went very well, we will be doing this again.
• Rangers did a great job and were very useful and cooperative.
• The free showers and the open-air shower/cooling station went over very well and eliminated camps with gray water.
• Electronic sign boards on the highway made it easy for participants to find the event and also let highway traffic know to slow down.
• Moving to Spicer Ranch was awesome and we can’t wait to go back.
• Sound camp placement versus open camping has been an issue in the past. Putting the large sound camps away from open camping and pointing their sound uphill eliminated the sound bleeding as well as the issue.

What Didn’t Go Well

• The offline phones and ipads for check-in were a failure. Next year we will buy a dedicated online phone for check-in and that phone will remain at the gate at all times.
• The one-way signs for the roads need to be more clear. There will be better signage and coverage next year so people understand the one-way road system.
• Better barriers for closed ponds are needed.
• We will check into natural remedies to eradicate duck mites at the swimming pond. Only the top pond will be open for swimming.
• Trash containers normally on the property need to be removed for the event so participants don’t fill them up and leave more work for the DPW and SNRG staff.
• Paying $600 to have the road signs towed to the site is grossly over-priced. Next year we will offer a free ticket and a small gas stipend to participants to have them bring the signs out to Spicer Ranch.
• We will add a few more people to the DPW crew, those guys worked hard.
• The record heat was an issue. We will be doing the event at least a week earlier next year and hopefully mother nature will cooperate with normal expected temperatures.
• One designated place for lost and found items will be established for next year.