We tried out the three of the cubes in probably one of the last bigger burns of 2020. The event is in a castle and lasts from Thursday to Sunday so it was a bit tricky set up to find a spot for the cubes where people can have the peace to share a story but we got a few and next time for shorter / indoor event we know a ton of stuff how and where to position some of the cubes and revise the question setting from beyond “Share your most transformational story”. Below are some stories from 2020 Zum brennenden Bären 
Enjoy!
Castle story example 1
Length of recording: 7 minutes
Transcription notes
|S:|Speaker|
|wo-|an unfinished word|
|(word)|an uncertain passage in speech or an unrecognised speaker|
|(-)|an unrecognisable word|
|(–)|unrecognisable words|
S: Hello, I would like to share my story. I don’t know if it’s anything super dramatic or specific, but I definitely found Burner culture to be transformative, and I think my journey, my story of transformation starts with my first Burning Man in 2010, and what specifically I think affected me the most about it was how generous everyone was. It was realising how all the art and the camps and so many amazing experiences and gifts and things were all made by the blood, sweat and tears of people for no reason other than to make other people smile and make other people happy, or give them a unique experience or help them grow, or just take care of their basic everyday needs so that they can focus on all that fun stuff while they’re there, and to me that was the most touching. Obviously there’s a lot of creativity and art and beautiful things, and those are amazing, but I think what’s – you can see some pretty amazing things at mainstream festivals too, but what’s most special is that – is knowing that people are gifting all of this to you and to each other, and they’re doing it for total strangers just out of generosity, and there’s a sort of cycle where people go and they receive wonderful things from people, and it inspires them to then go on and give to other people so they can receive wonderful gifts. And the people who really get it get that pretty quickly, you know, they’re excited to think of all the amazing things, and people wanna do bigger and better, and they spend hours and hours and hours making all this amazing stuff. So that’s what really touched me the most about Burning Man and made me want to check out regional events, and so I think on an emotional level the biggest transformation came at my Burning Nest in the UK in 2014, I believe, and that was particularly transformative – maybe not so much because of the event itself, although it’s a lovely event, but because I went there barely knowing anyone and showed up early to help build, and the very first Burner I met on the way there was someone on the train who I’d met briefly months before during a pre-Burn event looking for volunteers. And he recognised me from that event, and kindly offered to let me stay in their cabin, even though I’d booked a bunk bed for myself because there is infrastructure at this event, back then there was. And I kind of just never left, I just got adopted by this lovely group of people who didn’t really know me but they were all embracing me so easily, and I just felt so welcomed, and people were so trusting and caring, just inviting me, and just made me want to be a part of it and give back to them, and made me – it shifted me from being kind of not sure how to connect, not knowing hardly anyone, and being someone who’s an introvert, wondering if it might be difficult to connect with people, and just being embraced so quickly helped me open up much faster than I normally would. And being there for over a week just – it was like I opened up more and more and more everyday, easing into it, becoming more and more confident to talk to people and hug people and be playful with people in ways I really wouldn’t normally in a normal event – and I just loved the way Burners are so platonically affectionate. You get so many offers for hugs and things like this, which just feels very caring and loving, and a lot of the hugs, you know, they’re really safe, they feel really genuine, like they just want to connect with you as you, (into) [05:13] a human and not because they want to have sex with you or something. I mean, some of them might, but that’s not really what it feels like most of the time. So yeah, there’s nothing too specific or dramatic, but that’s my story of how I feel Burner culture has transformed me and helped me become a more open person, more capable of trusting people and connecting to them and not being afraid to give as much as I can to people, to not fear that they’re just gonna take but to trust that if I give a lot of things to other people that it will lead to connections that will enrich my life. Thank you for listening, bye.
Castle story example 2
Length of recording: 2 minutes
Transcription notes
*|*I:|Interviewer(s)|
|S:|Speaker(s)|
|wo-|an unfinished word|
|(word)|an uncertain passage in speech or an unrecognised speaker|
|(-)|an unrecognisable word|
S: Today I gave workshop that I had intended for that to connect people more to the earth than to themselves so to life and to what is so precious in what flows through us and what we must protect. And I was very anxious before doing it and I connected with the earth through some of her helpers. Just a tiny bit of mushroom grown on this earth and I was guided beautifully through what I think was a very unique and memorable experience for all the participants and for myself. And I’m very grateful to have received this, yea it have been a bit of channel to have receive this guidance from the earth to what is needed to connect us through singing, through our voices, through our own instruments of life.
[recording ends]
Castle story example 3
Length of recording: 1 minute
Transcription notes
|I:|Interviewer(s)|
|R1:|Respondent 1|
|R2:|Respondent 2|
|wo-|an unfinished word|
|(word)|an uncertain passage in speech or an unrecognised speaker|
|(-)|an unrecognisable word|
|(–)|unrecognisable words|
S1: The way we met-
S2: (What’s) difficult.
S1: It was at-
S2: A peculiar time-
S1: Where a man encouraged us to-
S2: Travel the road together.
S1: By tinder not, not a (virtual) one, (-) a tinder.
S2: In real life.
S1: We did body shots, kind of.
S2: We did not do body shots, but-
S1: But they were free though
S3: This is a trio, love triangle.
S2: And we did the shots with our bodies, our hands-
S1: And our mouth, redefining body shots, redefining love.
S2: Redefining life.
S3: Redefining tinder.
S2: Tinder trio, out.
Castle story example 4
Transcription notes
S1:Speaker 1
S2: Speaker 2
wo- an unfinished word
(word) an uncertain passage in speech or an unrecognised speaker
(-) an unrecognisable word
S1: It actually smells like a sauna.
S2: It (used to be) [00:04] a sauna.
S1: Good. Are you hiding from the (cabaret)?
S2: Yeah, so much stimulation. Needed a break.
S1: Cool. Sorry for disturbing.
S2: It’s okay.
[pause 11 s]
S1: What happens if you press?
Castle story example 5
Length of recording: 1 minute
Transcription notes
|I:|Interviewer(s)|
|S:|Speaker(s)|
|wo-|an unfinished word|
|(word)|an uncertain passage in speech or an unrecognised speaker|
|(-)|an unrecognisable word|
|(–)|unrecognisable words|
S1: By pressing the button you consent that your contribution can be used for scientific research purposes and maybe shared for non commercial research. Okay, hello. Share your stories. What language? English right? Okay what do you want to share?
S2: Press the button.
[recording ends]
Castle story example 6
Length of recording: 1 minute
Transcription notes
|I:|Interviewer(s)|
|S:|Speaker(s)|
|wo-|an unfinished word|
S: This was my first burn and I immediately felt so welcomed by all the people that was very touching and very nice and I also really liked the participating idea cuz it gives me a sort of co-creation feeling. I co-created this face, I made this face. Yea it’s a really amazing concept and I feel very home-
[recording ends]