Center
Camp Café
In 2000 the Café went from being a 10,000 square foot patchwork
of rented tents to a highly unique 34,000 square foot tensile structure,
designed by Black Rock City architects and engineers and built by an international
team of carpenters and riggers. In our first year as the Café with
a capital C we added small stages for music and spoken word but primarily
concentrated on surviving the tremendous increase in scope of the project.
In preparation for 2001 we began meeting weekly as a team in early January,
which itself represented a big change. In 2000 the Café was managed
by a single General Manager, with a couple of other key people responsible
for components of the project, but with a clear hierarchical structure
and a "need to know" information dissemination model. In 2001, after the
previous manager moved overseas, we started again with a different management
concept modeled after the Senior Staff. We created a Café Management
Team in which members would have individual responsibilities within the
whole, but would come together to share ideas, define priorities and make
decisions by consensus. We agreed that this year's foci would be:
- reducing beverage lines
- improving the efficiency of the coffee shop operation
- making the space a greater showcase for art of all kinds
- unifying the décor
- procuring carpet
- documenting our process
For reasons of ease of building and reusability, the structure was also
subtly redesigned, lowering the center height and slightly expanding
the width of the outer ring, giving us 36,000 square fee of shade to
work with.
On the Coffee Shop front, we built a partnership with the Muddy Waters
Coffee Company from Arcata, CA -- the organo-groovy suppliers of our coffee
beans from 2000. This team allowed us to rent several hundred thousand
dollars' worth of high-end, high-volume espresso machines, brewers, grinders
and ancillary equipment. Muddy Waters installed and serviced the equipment
under playa conditions (where, again, we must pass regular Nevada Department
of Health inspections), and contributed their logistical expertise to
our counter and service area design.
To reduce lines and improve aesthetics and behind-the-counter ergonomics,
we pulled the service counters out of the center of the Café structure
and built instead 110 linear feet of counter space along the back of the
circle, with dedicated lines for espresso drinks, "other" drinks and fast-service
plain coffee, tea, etc. We added several additional registers, cashiers
and barista-and-runner teams, and improved backstage storage and access
to goods. Experienced returning shift managers also helped keep their
teams fast and efficient. The changes allowed us to sell 70,000 beverages
over the course of the week -- a 40% increase over 2000 -- with very few
lines until exhaustion overtook our shift schedules post-Burn.
To improve our recycling and trash problem, we redesigned and built
24 custom signs, coded to the trash and recycling receptacles, and changed
the way these bins were placed within the Café structure. We also
created 24 signs around the perimeter, reminding citizens to leave their
bikes in the bike racks and their dogs in camp and many other signs for
"backstage" for staff.
The sound team set up two stages: a larger stage for eclectic music and
other entertainment, including the Friday Fashion Show, and a smaller
stage, called "Word of Mouth", featuring poetry, puppetry and other forms
of declamation. Pre-event preparation included assembling a team of engineers,
acquiring equipment, defining the schedules and sorting through submissions
from artists interested in performing. In 2001 we worked to make these
stages very democratic and inclusive by being responsive to the scheduling
needs of artists who submitted their work on the playa or arrived on-site
during open slots. In 2002 we are planning to provide a more diverse mix
of musical performers, some invited and some spontaneous, with a consciousness
of creating a "headliner" spot each evening while remaining within the
Café aesthetic. The spoken word stage will also expand its hours
of operation in 2002 and increase its scope to add more of a focus on
theater.
The décor team built lovely flowers and trees for the guy wires,
designed romantic "tunnel benches", re-covered sofas and cushions, procured
(and placed) enough carpet, solved our flag problem, created the beautiful
and popular "lantern trees" and worked with artists to place work within
the structure. Featured pieces included Royce Carlson's Main Portal, British
graffitti artist Banksy's stencils on the back fence, Michael Pedroni's
Booth of Reflection (and adjacent console TV featuring closed-circuit
"Buttcam" close-ups) and Cecelia Clark's Casa Azul. We also tried an experiment
with video art -- and learned a lot from the experience. As hoped, these
works were supplemented by many others, both planned and impromptu, including
all the yoga classes, hacky-sack circles, juggling and stilt-walking lessons,
European swearing training and people-watching a Black Rock citizen could
possibly desire. For 2002 we are working on a grand concept that unifies
structure, décor, and art, taking Café aesthetics to an
entirely new level.
As you might imagine, all this work requires a tremendous commitment of
time and energy from the core team -- and a very large number of volunteers
for setup, working during the event, and assisting in strike/cleanup.
Our single volunteer coordinator did a heroic job marshaling the efforts
of some 500 people in 2001; in 2002 we have promised to make this a team
role as well.
Special thanks were earned by the crack crew of riggers and builders who
erected (and took down) this monumental structure and its ancillary raised
flooring, wiring, plumbing, lighting and secondary shade under extreme
time-pressure: we all know that it's a COMPLETELY INSANE ACT to build
something of this size and complexity in the middle of the Black Rock
Desert for a one week event... and that's why we do it!
We encourage you to review the Café Documentation Project's beautiful
photo essay on the Café — An Ode to a Cafe — at
http://www.bohemianmasquerade.com/bman2001/ode.htm 
.