How was your slight smidgen of experience? Let us know! Each year after the event, Balsa Man staff play video games, read books, and generally procrastinate as a means to avoid having to do anything to do with Balsa Man. This year we promise to at least think about it a little, maybe when we are in the shower.

This year our theme of “Growing Pains” became quite literal what with the chaos of ticket sales, our very hastily trained Gate staff, and the necessitated moderately dramatic relocation. There are may questions and small hurdles for Balsa Man going forward and we would like to hear your feedback — as long as it isn’t excessively loquacious.

A general response highlighting the most prominent feedback will be posted later on the Balsa Blog. We want to hear from new and old Balsars alike. Please email your comments both good and bad to gro.namaslabnull@kcabdeef or in the comments below.

Thanks for taking the tiny amount of time to contribute your thoughts. We promise our intern will at least glean what you have to say. Looking forward to 2012!

After getting rave reviews and plenty of thank you intoxicants for last year’s issue of Dress Warm, the Dress Warm staff has decided to release an issue for Balsa Man 2011! They had this to say:

Really this is the last time — we swear on our grandmother’s grave. We worked are asses off on this issue so you all better actually read the whole thing this time!

In case you missed last year’s issue of Dress Warm here’s a PDF of the issue! Dress Warm, September 2010 [pdf]

Pre-release copies of the 2011 issue of Dress Warm will be available at tonight and tomorrow’s Balsa Social! Of course, Dress Warm will also be available at the Balsa Man event and the Balsa Black Rock Regional.

And here is a exclusive sneak peak at the cover for the 2011 issue of Dress Warm!

The Balsa Man organization has been going through some “Growing Pains” itself. After much discussion, consternation, and deliberation we have decided for the first time in the history of the event to require participants to have tickets to gain admittance.

I know many will cry “Balsa Man Has Sold Out!” — this is simply not true. We have made this decision in the best interests of the community. We feel that the optimal way to grow a stronger, better, more inclusive community is to restrict it to people who are willing to put their money where their participation is.

Tickets to Balsa Man 2011 are 10¢ and are available from any official Balsa Man representative — do not buy tickets from unofficial sources! Donors also receive complimentary tickets as part of their donor reward package. Tickets will be also for sale at the gate on a first come first served basis. We encourage you to buy early in case we run out!

Ticket Policy Addendum: No ticket is required for kids 12 and under since as tiny humans they are considered art.

We wanted this ticket to be a beautiful collectors item, but unfortunately due to the last minute nature of this decision our preferred designer was busy. As a result, we are stuck with this tragically mundane ticket design — seriously copperplate bold?!? We apologize and plan to design a better ticket next year. Don’t worry we won’t feel bad if you just throw out your 2011 ticket after the event is over.

Balsa Man Ticket 2011

UPDATE: So it turns out that the “designer” we got to do the tickets—some guy’s nephew’s cousin’s roommate or whatever—decided to surprise us my sending a completely different “hella cool” design to the printers. It’s too late to change anything. The following is the resulting ticket design we are stuck with misspellings and all… I’m at a loss for words… or at least at a loss for words I’m allowed to post here.

The actual ticket design, ugh… growing pains indeed

The theme of Balsa Man 2011 is “Growing Pains”. This year we will focus on growth — it’s fits and starts, it’s pains and pleasures, it’s mistakes and triumphs that are the fuel of growth.

For more info on this year’s theme please visit the home page.

Info on this year’s art grant submission and stickers and patches will be forthcoming.

We’ve just heard the news that after a couple year hiatus, Balsa Man’s favorite alternative newspaper Dress Warm is back! Here’s the word direct from the Dress Warm staff:

“We stopped writing Dress Warm because it was just too fucking hard to write and produce multiple issues out on the beach in the space of only a few hours. But then we took a couple years off and got bored with not having an outlet for our snark. We were thinking of changing the name to the Balsa Village Weekly but that just sounded lame. There will only be one issue this year, but we promise it’ll be the best issue of Dress Warm you’ve ever read.”

And we have a exclusive sneak peak at the cover for this year’s Dress Warm!

Get your copy at this year’s Balsa Man! Also, this is the first year Dress Warm will be delivering copies to the Black Rock Desert Balsa Man Regional! So if you are stuck out in the desert make sure to stop by Fandago during the Regional on Friday 5-6pm for your copy of Dress Warm.

Craigslist Counterfeit Balsa Man Ticket

Looks like our previous post about counterfeit Balsa Man tickets don’t reach out to enough people. We’ve unfortunately found two people on craigslist who didn’t get the message and are looking for Balsa Man tickets.

More alarming we ran across one scammer trying to hoodwink the small minded by selling an obvious counterfeit ticket (see photo).

Also, in our search, we found someone looking for a ride to Balsa Man—we do recommend ride sharing.

Remember folks THERE ARE NO BALSA MAN TICKETS. Balsa Man is purely DONOR SUPPORTED.

Truly Support Tiny Art Through Donations

I know that the utter amazingness of the Balsa Man event can seem unbelievable at times. With all the hucksters online it’s hard to know what to believe these days.

However, know this: we truly do use the proceeds from donations and the sale of patchs, stickers, and engraved x-acto boxes to support tiny artists…

• Every Donor get’s an official letter of donor recognition and a gift depending on their level of donation (see donor award gifts)
• Every Tiny Artist who is awarded a grant is sent a letter of confirmation along with their grant award money and a gift of a Balsa Man sticker (see tiny art grants).
• Donations also pay for materials and supplies for Tiny Art Build Parties.
• The BPAF Art Grant budget relies on you the donor to support tiny art. The more you donate the more tiny art we can support!

Remember last year there was such a high demand for patches that we ran out a couple weeks prior to the event. This year, we made more swank limited edition patches but we still expect to run out and once they run out we won’t make any more. So to get yours donate today!

Tonight, the BPAF will be mailing out all art grant awards and the gift packages to all the donors who’ve given thus far. If you donate today your gift package will be included in this shipment; next shipment won’t be until next week.