Update: Lounge coordinates: Corner of 7:30 and Alyssum with the lovely camp Dusty Ladies

The Concept:

For Burning Man 2012 our small group wanted to bring something warm and personal to the playa. Inspired by a lovely café the previous year, we decided to bring the things we adore in our regular lives (community, wine, and food!) out to the desert in our own, homegrown lounge.

Introducing: The Pickled Jellyfish!

The Pickled Jellyfish lounge is being built to share and support three of our loves:

Community: Comfortable, inspiring spaces for a community to share experience are important. So we decided to build a large shade structure to overhang our lounge; in the shape of a jellyfish!! Jellyfish are gorgeous, mystical creatures and at the same time slightly odd and certainly inspiring. It seemed the perfect motif. The lounge will have benches, couches, chairs and space to hang and chill as the sun sets behind the horizon.

At night the jellyfish will be lit in bright, ethereal colors as it floats above the playa floor. Every night near sunset, we will invite the community into the jellyfish’s arms for libations, stories, and laughter.  Music will play and the community invited to chill as the playa transitions from light to dark.

Wine: We love wine! And thus we’ve decided to make the Pickled Jellyfish a wine bar. There is something personal and purposeful about sharing a glass of complex notes, simple fruits, and nuanced grapes. The time it takes to sit and sip requires patience for conversation. The resulting intoxication is not only from the booze, but by the comfort in sharing handcrafted goodness with your community. We have deep connections within the wine world at home and are excited to bring those to our community on the playa.

Pickles! Despite sounding like an odd couple, we also want to serve homemade pickles. Over the years in our own kitchens, we’ve crafted some very successful pickle recipes and cannot wait to bring the goods out in force to the Pickled Jellyfish lounge. There will be a variety of flavors and we hope you love the vinegary finger food as much as us.

The Plan:

We will be setting up shop with the Dusty Ladies camp this year! They have received awesome placement at 7:30 and Alyssum. In addition to the Pickled Jellyfish project, there will be art, fire, and sound installations at the camp to support the experience. The Pickled Jellyfish will be serving each night, Mon – Fri, from an hour prior to sunset until an hour after sunset. (A rumored party might occur on one of the evenings though, taking it later!) We’ve assumed a minimum number of cases of wine for the week. Even with discounts, that is going take over half of our budget. We have some of it covered, but not enough and really need help ensuring we have enough to comfortably serve the community.

The Pickled Jellyfish shade structure, bar, and lounge will be built from reused and recycled materials as possible. The lounge seating is going to be designed for reuse so that after Burning Man we’re able to reuse or donate them to other camps. We’ve already started collecting some of the major components. But we still need help making the lighting plans come to life (with a secret interactive project in the works!). We also need help covering costs for some of the hardware, bar stuffs to keep it sane and clean, and materials for the benches and lounge area. We got a great dishwashing system designed that we’d love to see implemented with the support of this project.

Anything extra we make on this will go towards a more dramatic lighting display, more wine!!!, and more pickled snack options!

Support:

We’ve been blessed with the graphic support of Sean Griffin (http://www.griffinone.com/) in logo design. With a number of support options you will get the logo he’s designed on some fun goods. Check out his work both on and off the playa. Your support here is well worth the rewards of his talents.

We have also been gifted with the filming and video creation skills of Tylor Bohlman. He graciously recorded and then edited the video on this project. His ease of getting that together was brilliance for this project!

The Dusty Ladies are integral to this project and we adore their support of this effort. Give them big dusty hugs when you visit us on the playa!

For all donors; we invite you to our Pickled Jellyfish party one night during the week! Come join for extra bar treats, longer hours, and music by some of our amazing and renowned DJs!

Who We Are:

We are a diverse set of seasoned burners from around the globe, centered in San Francisco. We have volunteered, constructed, played, shared, and grown with Burning Man through the years and find the magic of the community continually inspiring. In years past each of us in our own way has helped build large community projects, have shared very personal projects, and have enjoyed participating in the multitude of other projects the playa inspires. We are humbled to be able to put together this project with your help and deeply and truly appreciate your support.

An Extra Note:

We all know this, but in order to COA, we have to reiterate: We WILL NOT serve wine to anyone under the age of 21. State law, Federal law, and general social morality require it of us. Helps us enforce this by not asking to be served if you have not yet reached this number of sun cycles. We will have some fruity, non-alcohol options for those who cannot or would rather not partake in the wine.