By Selwyn Harris
Roughly one week after the Pahrump Town Board gave its blessing to a Burning Man festival at the Pahrump Fairgrounds site, the event was unceremoniously canceled.
Billed as a regional, miniature Burning Man, the four-day festival was set to occur over the Memorial Day weekend. Organizer Dirk Schmidhofer said at least two Nye County ordinances not discussed during planning stages abruptly put the brakes on it all.
“The ordinance was regarding dust abatement. You could either pave the area, or put down gravel. Just paying attention to our legal counsel, we received some guidance that we probably could not comply with that ordinance at the location the way things currently are there. We have a board and we all voted on that and decided that we would be better off probably not pushing that and it was also recommended by legal counsel and that’s the primary reason,” he said.
The organizer said the fairgrounds would have been an ideal location for the event.
“It would have worked for us, for what we call a regional burn, which is a small burn. The one up north, the big Burning Man attracts 56,000 people. We were at about 350 to 400 people with the regional event,” he said.
Nye County’s Air Quality Control Officer George Bernath said he informed Schmidhofer of laws pertaining to dust abatement in Nye County.
“I told him if vehicles are parking on the grounds, there needs to be at least two inches of gravel put down. If they’re not parked on the paved parking lot, they need to have two inches of gravel under them. Water is a requirement beforehand, but in order for them to park vehicles on it, it needs to have two inches of gravel. If you are going to generate dust, you need to control it,” he said.
Town Board Chair Harley Kulkin, who championed the event, said he made every effort to bring the festival to Pahrump, but the timing became an issue.
“We were rushing to get this thing through so they can get out there and start selling their tickets to make this a successful event. I think that this thing could have grown into something pretty big. It would have been a significant revenue enhancer for our community. It’s a tragedy what happened. It really is,” he said.
Kulkin also commented on the possibility of inviting the festival back in the future.
“There is always the opportunity to persuade them to bring the event here next year. Boulder City didn’t make them jump through hoops. They just welcomed them with open arms and said ‘hey, you got it.’ They didn’t put them through all of that. I don’t feel our town board was that bad on them because we did approve it,” he said.
Local resident John Pawlak has been to numerous Burning Man events over the years.
The self-proclaimed “Burner” said he was surprised and disheartened by news of the cancellation.
He noted that the event has been demonized by some area residents who are not at all familiar with the festival.
“It seems ironic that certain individuals in this town can demonize and prejudge the folks at the regional Burning Man group who were asked to come to our town at our request and then define them as homosexuals, nudists, drug addicts, hedonists and so forth. Are we blind when we in fact have all of those traits and more as a community , but we choose to hide those facts from the general public? Maybe we don’t have the nudism, but we have our brothels, swingers’ club, drug addicts, meth labs, plus we carry guns. We continue to slam shut the door on change here in town. If we are to make this a better place to live, we’re going to have to start someplace. We constantly complain of nothing to do here and when something or someone comes knocking at our door to begin the process, we shut it in their face,” he said.
Schmidhofer, meanwhile, said he thought the town was fair when listening to his presentation, even though discussions appeared to be contentious during the last town board meeting.
“I’m not sure if I felt like I was being grilled. They asked some pretty pointed questions. I felt they were looking after their constituents and looking out for their neighborhood because they didn’t want some disorganized band of people coming in and perhaps not conducting themselves or the festival in an appropriate manner,” he said.
He also addressed rumors that the festival would have brought about a certain degree of debauchery.
“There’s always comments about any kind of event like that. Like the Burning Man up north, if you get 50,000 people together, there’s going to be some exhibitionists,” he said.
The day following the town board’s approval for the event, tickets were to go on sale online.
Schmidhofer said he wisely chose to hold off on the sales.
“We were set and ready to launch that. It’s just a website that we have and we do this every year and everything is already assembled and the website is already in place. We just had to push the go button, but we chose not to do that until we actually had a signed agreement with Pahrump. We did not sell any tickets. We did not put the tickets up for sale,” he said.
In a press release, Town Manager Bill Kohbarger said there were other reasons that Schmidhofer declined to hold the festival in Pahrump.
“The Burning Man board read the ‘Blogs’ around Pahrump and was upset that they were being called drug users, Satan worshipers, nudists, and a freak show. Nye County advised Mr. Schmidhofer that they must submit a plan to obtain a dust control permit, which would most likely require them to place two inches of gravel on the property where vehicles will be traveling and/or parked. A Nye County Sheriff’s Office representative contacted Burning Man advising them that everyone who gave away alcohol needed to obtain a liquor permit through their office. It is a common practice at the Burning Man for those who attend the event to possess and give away alcohol to others of legal drinking age.
“Considering the time constraints Mr. Schmidhofer faced for producing a May event, it is understandable that the decision was made not to accept our invitation to host it in Pahrump for 2013. While we understand their concerns, the town regrets their decision, but is hopeful that these issues can be resolved to their satisfaction and that they will consider Pahrump for their 2014 event. We believe this event can be a success being hosted during 2014 in Pahrump, and that it is one we intend to pursue for the positive tourism and economic development impact it will have for the community,” the release stated.
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- Harley Kulkin
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- Dirk Schmidhofer
I suspect that common sense happened so therefore dust abatement was used to justify stopping this event.
Now it is time to consider how to improve community.
New businesses won’t help. They will happen with or without support of community. Economics rule the roost there.
You can however promote events effectively.
Further you the people can elect normal and reasonable people to your local elected offices. Stray from that and pay the price.
I like the previous comments on having the Boy Scouts events, concerts and the like.
When i read different comments, the only negativity seems to come from the likes of those that attend events like Burning Man.
From Harley World to Burning Man: Can you find any middle ground in there Harley? How about something that the community really needs and wants, like a movie theater? I would take back every negative comment I have made about you in the last several years if you would just get it right once.
Some businesses such as movie theaters, which in the past almost happened (old Terrible’s Town) don’t come to fruition because the town hasn’t the population to support such a venture. Back in the day when T Town and the Herbst family were planning the theater, after much thought and investigation by both the casino and theater operators the money just wasn’t in Pahrump to support such a gamble. It takes a significant amount of capitol to fund such an investment, which in turn, requires a significant amount of people with expendable funds. It just wasn’t going to happen and in today’s economy the chances are even less.
I’m going to have to disagree with you here. As a former banker, I’ve loaned money to many movie theaters & have reviewed feasibility studies for them. Generally, to be feasible, an area nees a population of between 10,000 – 15,000 per movie screen. Given that, our town could support several movie screens. Did you know that Overton has a movie theater? They are tiny! Mesquite has over 12 movie screens!
The Brenden Theater people were ready to put in a state of the art theater system in a building that would be built by a local owner, but twice it fell through. The first as at Terrible’s on 160. That failed to come to fruition because the Herbst family over extended themselves when they bought the casino/hotel in Primm. It was a contributing factor in them divesting themselves of the two Pahrump properties. The other was going to be a multi scree theater across from the ACE Hardware store, but that never developed because of the economy going in the tank and the eventual failure of the store itself.
Actually, there was a theater here some time ago, in the auto parts building on Calvada Blvd. That was closed when I moved here in 2003. I tried to put together a group to buy it and re-open it, but the costs then were onerous to the point as to make it unfeasible. Theaters now use digital equipment and projectors that don’t use film, it’s all downloaded from a satellite dish, kind of like Netflix. Of course that equipment is very expensive.
Also, please stop comparing Pahrump with Mesquite. Yes, we have more population, but they have a major interstate highway running through their town, whereas we have two minor state highways that bisect our rural burg.
One day we will have a theater, but not until the economy gets much better and the naysayers all die out and are replaced by those who actually want to see good development here.
Isn’t that tolerant of you, you are looking forward to the “naysayers” dying off.
I got news for you, many of us “naysayers” are a whole lot younger than you think and have a long long way to go before dying off.
Good day You Know Who. I agree with you and I was not trying to compare Pahrump to Mesquite. I hate when people do that. They are two towns in different parts of the state and in different counties. Differnt assets and different challenges. I was simply pointing out that they do have movie theaters and have a smaller population, as does Overton.
We have been over this a million times. NO ONE is going to build a movie theater because they are going the way of the dinosaur. When everyone has a 60 inch high definition TV with surround sound, and they can get a movie for $1.29 at Red Box, just who exactly is going to go drop 40 bucks at a theater?
Now if you want build a Drive-In theater, that of course is a whole different thing. I would go to the drive-in.
“I would take back every negative comment I have made about you in the last several years if you would just get it right once.”
I wouldn’t. Not unless I got a tax refund check from the Town. Every time that man has opened his mouth it has cost you and me money!
I can’t help but wonder what all the negative comments from our local BANANA’s (Build Absolutely Nothing Anywhere Near Anybody) had to do with this wonderful idea going down in flames?
While I think we can all agree that we need real companies to come here, not just another place to shop, one must keep in mind that that is highly unlikely until we get some solid infrastructure built. Companies want high speed fiber optic internet. They need more than one road going in and out of town. This is why an industrial airport is a good idea. It would also help if we could get the train to come thorugh Pahrump. Until we tackle the problem of the lack of infrastructure, NOTHING is going to change.
Mrribbet – I’m going to agree with everything you said here. Our infrastructure is aweful. And, site selectors at companies do check out comments in the local papers. The BANANA’s (mentioned above) and CAVER’s do have an impact on the overall potential for economic development of our fair town. I love the rurality of Pahrump. I love being able to see the stars at night. If I wanted to live in a big city with a Nordstrom’s or JC Penny’s I would. We’ve got some great businesses here in Pahrump (Front Sight, Spring Mountain, Pahrump Winery). What we don’t have is enough “middle market” type businesses that can create good paying jobs. I believe that some would look at Pahrump but are afraid to because of our infrastructure issues, town/county red tape and very vocal minority that are always screaming about “our precious water” or some other nonsense.
There are many things to do in and around Pahrump. It’s not Las Vegas, and it’s not Los Angeles, and that’s why I live here. If you want the attractions of the big city, move to or drive to the big city.
I absolutely agree with your comment. The grow, grow, grow crowd, really should find a place they would be happier in. Then maybe the town could stabilize or even shrink, which would be great in my opinion.
I have been saying that for years, but this “grow grow grow” crowd no matter how bad things get, seems to stay.
Perhaps they are getting a check from the powers that be to transform and gentrify this town?
Any sane person, as unhappy as they are with Pahrump, would have moved long long ago. I suspect there are bigger powers behind this push to grow than just a few flies that need to be swatted down from time to time.
It is not the job of the Town Board (Harley) or the county to open a movie house or any business……if you wish to have a movie house then open one !
Sad day for the Pahrump community.
Kudos to people in Pahrump that were visionary enough to attempt to get this event to town.
This is a cultural art event that could have brought your community together, created more income for the businesses in Pahrump, brought more visitors to your tiny hamlet who may have returned another time, and added something international to your tiny town.
Dust abatement? Folks travel to this event, park their cars, set up camp and sit around. Driving around is not an issue. You get more dust from a dirt lot sitting unused, and items on the store shelves not selling.
This event was a gift of love to your town.
If you take some time to make that space usable for another group to come in with the gravel already in place, documents and forms that need to be filled out etc. and make it easy for an event producer to consider using that spot, you could get something good to happen there.
As it stands, you turned this event down and made it clear to a world wide community of 1000′s of event producers that you are a difficult community to work with. (Was this your intention? If so, well done!)
In regards to other comments- movie theaters are not the future- they are the past, just like where Pahrump is now, stuck in the past. Down and out with with the meth, whores and dust!
Best of days for Pahrump. You see, we succeeded in putting a stop to an event that would have drawn the likes of you, and yours to our town. As a whole, the town could care less about adding “something international” or attracting any large events.
Based on your tone, I’d say that you are just upset that you won’t get your little burning man freak show just over the hill from Las Vegas. Too bad for you, ladylv. Good for Pahrump.
Absolutely, let’s stifle any attempt to expand horizons. Let’s make sure we stomp on anyone who wants to bring something different to our stagnating little town. Have fun? HA! Not for you! Bring potential visitors to our town? What for? Do you suppose any of those who would participate in an event like this would find the area interesting and come back for a visit? If any of them read the outlandish comments iin this forum, I suspect they would think, why bother? Yeah, why bother?
Something to ponder. Perhaps those outside of Pahrump reading “outlandish” comments might be attracted to a town with residents opposed to wild growth at any cost and crazy burning man festivals. You call Pahrump stagnant. I call it a nice, quiet, place to live and visit. I’d like to keep it that way, in spite of people that have a new idea every month for how it can grow and change.
- desert cat (aka: hamlet cat)
Actually it was a great day for Pahrump, now we don’t lose water to a mindless meaningless event, we don’t get stuck with the weirdos, the traffic, the congestion, the crowds and progressives checking out Pahrump for a place to live. This is NOT a progressive town and never will be.
We dont need “international” events to feel important about ourselves. Most of us have traveled the world more times than you, and now live here for some peace and quiet. The world these days has nothing to offer that we want, we like things right here as they are.
This was not a gift of love, it was a potential problem, tons of police and fire overtime, traffic, and chaos. We are a difficult community to work with. We dont have much use for this kind of BS here, and if you think the rejection of your event was not a coordinated effort by many in this community, you really have no clue.
The “past” that we are stuck in, is a whole lot better than any “future” your group has to offer there ladylv.
Oh and for the record, I have been to burning man 2 times, Yes it was fun, yes it was entertaining, but it wasn’t in my back yard. I could leave whenever I wanted and not be stuck in the middle of it. We are not all old people out here, many of us just want a simpler lifestyle and events such as yours and those that seem to attend these types of events always seek to destroy that.