For the unexposed, the Opulent Temple is a self funded theme camp at the annual Burning Man arts festival that takes place in the Black Rock desert of Nevada the week before Labor Day. We throw nightly parties showcasing underground, world class electronic dance music in a setting of art and creation we've made ourselves. Our community and fund raising events are based in San Francisco, but our production exists one week a year in the desert. We bring it all out, put it up and take it down ourselves.

The Vision of the Opulent Temple is to gift a space for sacred dance to world class dance music at Burning Man. It is our intention to create the space for peak experience, community creation and development, and inspiration that serves as a road map for what's possible in the so called 'default world.' The effort is self generated by the tribe, ie., no one gets paid to create our production. On the contrary, key members put a lot of their own time, effort, and sometimes money all year around to to bring it back every year.

For us, it's not just about partying.

After a very successful but difficult 2007 year, we ended badly in debt. As part of a collective of sound camps we asked the BM org for modest help to help us and sadly they said no to most everything. (They have $100k+ to give to designated art projects, but they won't even give us some discounted tickets. - We find this RIDICULOUS).

Through a lot of hard work and great help from music artists and the community we're able to be back in 2008 with a more elevated production than ever before. We do look forward to the American Dream (Nightmare?) theme: We like it, actually.

"The reason they call it the American Dream is because you have to be asleep to believe it." - George Carlin

In that regard, we start with the premise that for our country, and for our world, these are scary times. We are living in an unsustainable fashion, with the repugnant, short sighted immoral gangsters in charge of our nation acting from a place of unfathomable selfishness and greed. The last 8 years have left us sickened by our American character at home and in the world. There are precious few sources of power we can rely on to lead the change to stave off wide spread calamity of every level of nature. The cliche is true -- it must come from the people, and obviously in an election year that is more important than ever.

It is our view social change will not happen without the individual elevation of our collective spiritual center of gravity. Thus, it is our responsibility to nudge our own evolution to catch up with the outpaced growth of technology without the soul getting left behind. Sometimes we have to be asked. We might even ask you as we ask of ourselves.

To create a space for Sacred Dance is to create a playground for connection with the Eternal but still infused with the need for social action in the real world. Big beats and community are the launching point for insight to remind us we are not alone, life is more than the accumulation of stuff. And though the word is full of turmoil, hope is not dead as long as the human consciousness can touch and embody it's greater, root Spirit, the Suchness and the Isness of all things. It might sound like hippy New Age shit, but in this case that doesn't mean it isn't true...

It will take a rare form of fearlessness in the face of the evil at home (ie, not terrorists abroad) to make America great. That fearlessness usually includes a lessening of the fear of death because of the insight into the eternality of Spirit. Let the dance bring out our Spirit for ourselves and all to see, and to relish in, and to draw strength from.

The Musical Vision:
We're obviously firm believers in the beat, the transcending properties of mind blowing electronic dance music (EDM), both to open the heart and make the ass shake depending on one's preference and the moment. Within that umbrella of EDM, we're not associated with any one form of dance music. You'll hear a range of house, breaks, progressive, trance, downtempo, world, and the like. We value diversity in the range of world class artists that play our camp, as well as the camp dj's who build it so get to play what they feel. Most nights are fairly cohesive unto themselves, but day to day it can be all over the place. Our past line ups speak for themselves.

We'll see you in the sweet spot, under the stars...

~Syd Gris