I went to the 2013 gathering in black hills sd, it was pretty stupid but also a lot of fun. I think location has a lot to do with the crowd, for example the Florida gatherings are usually a lot more gross than more remote areas.
Some highlights
- honestly a lot of littering, there were garbage bags set up around but pretty much zero effort to sort it properly. Probably my largest disappointment. I didn't stay for cleanup though so can't comment on that.
- dogs running everywhere.
- every fucking child is named "Eli".
- the coffee is always a perpetual twenty minutes from being done (since the people who waited at the pot kept drinking it)
- hippie girl screaming as her pet rabbit got shredded by some crustpunks unleashed dog, at dinner circle.
- getting hit on by a 70 year old gay man, who in his defense looked pretty good for being 70. He handled the rejection well too.
- Friend caught mono.
- someone got shot.
- people getting sick from eating wild mushrooms.
- free food everywhere.
- free weed everywhere.
- honestly a lotta free shit if you looked hard enough.
- all the crazy ass kitchen contraptions, cooking pizzas in trash cans.
- nightly drum circles, always fun.
- just walking around seeing all the crazy camp setups, log towers, tree forts. Crazy industrious for a buncha bums.
- odd memes, "watching this movie", "fuck yeah fuck yeah", "blissing out", "your mom's box", "SHOW ME YOUR BUTTHOLE". Kinda fucking awful honestly.
- and I could never muster the courage to use the public shitter, just walked deeper into the woods.
- the water pipe surprisingly remained uncontaminated the entire time.
I'd say about half the people there were average working class people, a third were tryhard overdramatic poseurs, and a tenth were legitimate down to earth people. All in all, pretty good time. If I ever go again I'd definitely stay for cleanup and meet the more authentic crowd.
