The Floating Festival that is Not Ephemerisle 2011

So what the hell is not-Ephemerisle?

Are you new to this event? Here's what we're about. A simple-but-somewhat-inaccurate comparison would be Burning Man on the water. We are a gathering of thinkers, doers, artists, builders, and partiers on the Sacramento River Delta. We construct a floating city from nothing and live in it for four days, learning a lot about life on water in the... [read more]

So what the hell is not-Ephemerisle?

Are you new to this event? Here's what we're about. A simple-but-somewhat-inaccurate comparison would be Burning Man on the water. We are a gathering of thinkers, doers, artists, builders, and partiers on the Sacramento River Delta. We construct a floating city from nothing and live in it for four days, learning a lot about life on water in the process. We're somewhat connected to the broader Seasteading movement, which has the goal of creating independent nations on the ocean, free from the constraints of narrow-minded governments.

This event was originally organized by TSI, but they had to back out during the middle of the second year for insurance reasons. The event became (in the true spirit of minimal government) self-organized, yet still came together very well.

Here's the Facebook page of last year's event:

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=126532500718931

Here's the location.

http://tinyurl.com/2fvfc45

Here are some pictures from 2009:

http://www.flickr.com/search/?w=all&q=notephemerisle

This year we want to make the event even more awesome, with more projects, more floating craft, more art, more unconferences, and more experimentations with different sets of laws.

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Houseboat rentals:

Unless you build your own floating craft, you'll need a houseboat to sleep in. This means that either you or someone you know will need to rent one.

Unlike last year, there's no TSI to reserve all the houseboats for us, so we have to grab as many as they can before they're gone.

I talked to Vicki at Seven Crown Resorts about event days, and it turns out that June 9-12 is the way to go.

June 12 is the last day of "shoulder season", when prices are reduced by 20-25%. It's also the last weekend before the kids get out of school. It lies at an intersection of increasing warmth and increasing prices, a happy local maximum in the utility function.

She recommends (without a shred of self-interested bias, I'm sure) that we book our houseboats ASAP. I happen to agree with her, as the more boats we get now, the more buzz we will have prior to the event, the bigger party we will have this coming June, and the less likely it is that other people will have snatched up all the houseboats before we get our group together.

Here are the numbers:
With the shoulder season and "repeat customer" stacking discounts, a 4-day Summit houseboat rental comes to $1050. This it not bad at all split 10 ways, when you consider that each person gets 4 nights of lodging for slightly over $100. At this point, all you have to spend to get the boat is a $300 deposit. The balance is due 45 days prior to the event. To book, ask for Vicki at Seven Crown

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So book your houseboat, and let's get some cool things planned for the event!

Spread the word! Let's get some new people involved!

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Please join this google group and fill out the relevant contact info in order to help this event get organized. The main organizing activity will happen there, not here. :-)

Announcement list (low traffic)
http://groups.google.com/group/floating-festival-announce/

Discussion list (high traffic... does not contain duplicates of the announce list, do if you join this list you should join the other one as well)
http://groups.google.com/group/floating-festival/

Coordination page:
http://unephemerisle.org/wiki/Coordination_between_attendees

- Matt

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