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September 3, 2013 10:45 pm GMT

Burning Man Founder Is Cool With Capitalism, And Silicon Valley Billionaires

“We’re not building a Marxist society,” jokes Burning Man Founder, Larry Harvey, in response to a series of recent stories detailing the annual festival’s multi-million dollar balance sheet and its buddy-buddy relationship with Silicon Valley billionaires. More seriously, he says, “you can make a lot of money and do good with it. Elon Musk has a made a lot money.” Musk and his elite brethren have become part of the changing face of the week long rave fest in the Nevada desert, known for its principle of “radical inclusion” and the tens of thousands of Bohemians who load up broken campers to let their inner free-spirit out during a week-long retreat from the button down corporate world. Mark Zuckerberg reportedly helicoptered in to hand out grilled cheese.Larry Page, who was spotted one year donning a skin-tight silver onesie, saidhe hired Chairman Eric Schmidt, in part, because he was a Burner alum. Musk reportedly first dreamed up the solar-powered project that would eventually become his idea for the super-fast transit system, Hyperloop, on a road trip to Burning Man in 2004. In recent years, Burning Man ticket prices have soared and Silicon Valley-themed camps are awarded with sizable real-estate on the desert campus. So, what does an art and music festival - made famous for its drug-fueled 24-hour mobile dance clubs and its elaborately dressed half-naked artists — want with millions of dollars and the tech elite? I sat down with Harvey on the last day at Burning Man, surrounded by the hymn of de-toxing party monsters deconstructing their themed camps with fork lifts. Burning Elite “The opportunities of all these folks coming out who have command of wealth is to help us in extending our culture throughout the world,” explains Harvey, “A typical pattern is that they might stay for a day or two and then it dawns on them that there’s a manifold of profound things to be gained.” Harvey and Google execs are known to wax philosophical over dinner at his personal camp. As sappy as Harvey’s perception sounds, the experience evidently inspires tech founders’ affinity for radical experimentation. Maybe we can set aside part of the world, Google CEO Larry page recentlymused. I like going to Burning Man. As a technologist maybe we need some safe places where we can try things and not have to deploy to the entire world.” To that end, Harvey’s friends in

Original Link: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/SW1l9BTFsCU/

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