Based in Naturita, this new nexus for art will bring together music, art, pyrotechnics, meditation, creation, and community.
By Helen Olsson
Top photo by Scott London
Kicking off Friday, Sept. 3, Camp V in Naturita, Colorado, is hosting its first-ever Burning Van event, featuring a diverse lineup of music, art, creativity, and community. This public event will run seven days, through September 7.
Camp V, which opened mid-pandemic, is a groovy new art-focused camping and glamping outpost set on 120 acres of private space, with luxe cabins, Airstreams, RV hookups, and canvas Lotus Belle Onion Tents set on a bluff and riverfront camping sites down below. Spread around the property are art installments, including an abandoned water tank that serves as space for Sound Bath Gong Immersions.
“It’s been an amazing collaboration of Telluride artists coming together,” says Camp V founder Natalie Binder, who transformed a 1940s mining town into a space to inspire creativity, discovery, and play—or to just unplug and connect with nature.
Burning Van will feature Denver DJ Option4, whose house music incorporates tribal rhythms, intricate melodies, and fierce low-end to produce a mesmerizing style. Option4 will perform on The Pariah Express, an art car built by Howard Moffett that once rolled around Burning Man in Nevada’s Black Rock Desert. The Pariah has come to rest at Camp V.
Another Burning Man relic, The Prairie Wind Chapel, built by artist Robert Hoehn, can be found at Camp V. It’s mostly repaired in time for the event after a devastating catastrophic 90-mph windstorm and microburst all but flattened the iconic art piece. “We’re working closely with the community, and we’ve had incredible volunteers help us prepare for the event and get the property back to its beauty after the storm,” Binder says. “It’s an amazing example of an event bringing people together to celebrate art and community. (See more at the Prairie Wind Chapel GoFundMe campaign.)
At Camp V’s Burning Van this week, two featured artists will be creating with fire. Anton Viditz-Ward, the founder of Deep Creek Experimental, an artist collective located in a decommissioned limestone mine near Telluride, brings his pyrotechnics to Camp V. In past years, his large-scale steel-welded fire wheels have been on display at the Burning Man festival.
Artist Scott Harris, who describes his work as “part sculpture, part electronics, and part mad scientist’s daydreams,” has built a pagoda that will burn on Saturday. And Violet on the Rocks, a dancer, fire performer, burlesque artist, and singer, will bring her sizzling pyrotechnic performance, complete with fire eating, to Camp V.
In the festival’s Unknown Zone, look for an art installation from Brooke Einbender, a Telluride artist known for her augmented reality enabled oil paintings. Einbender is a leading pioneer in the exploration of XR art (extended reality art) and community-based VR collaboration.
Live music will include Birds of Play, a multi-instrumentalists collaboration that weaves together a tapestry of blues, bluegrass, folk, and funk into a blend of humor, honesty, and harmony. Using wireless headphones for an immersive experience, artist Zendo Stereo will guide a journey of music meditations to accelerate and optimize flow states, relaxation, and creativity. (Bring your yoga mat.)
The Burning Van lineup also includes singer-songwriter Emily Scott Robinson, DJs Beatrixx Kiddo and Posh Josh, live music from Joint Point, and artwork from Sara Ward, who works in acrylics and plaster on large scale canvases to create abstract work defined by bright colors and bold lines. Amy Inspiral will perform Hula-Hoop dancing, and Caitlin Stolley, founder of Lily Guilder Design will bring her one-of-a-kind fashion pieces to the festival.
Tickets for this week-long Burning Van adventure are $150, and camping for the week starts at $100. All the proceeds go to the artists and production of the event.
