This much I know: Harley K Dubois, Burning Man Founder

Burning Man is not a festival. There is no festival format, says Harley K Dubois.

Our tickets sell out. All we do is create the vessel. The people who attend bring the content.

It’s reasonable to be a little frightened of going to stay in a place with harsh conditions in the middle of nowhere, where nobody is telling you what to do and where there is no profit motivation, but I can’t think of a safer more loving place. The average age is 33.

Burning Man started with 200 people meeting in the desert for the weekend to burn their artistic creation of an effigy of a man. Now, attendance is capped at 70,000.

No one ever foresaw this growth. We were astonished. We now have 68 sanctioned events and are also involved in all kinds of initiates from disaster relief to art projects for kids.

It was Larry Harvey’s vision. The difference between the summer of love and flower power of the 1960s and Burning Man is that they didn’t spend the time analysing and protecting what they were doing.

We’ve always been conscious of preserving what we have, ensuring that the soft spirit of investigation which Burning Man allows is not killed by commodification.

I come from a very artistic family of musicians and painters and always thought I’d do something in the arts that would have an impact on the world.

Growing up, I was a mess. But I’ve always been good at making decisions based on my intuition. My true skill lies in understanding and loving people.

My advice to others is to be brave enough to ‘jump off the cliff’ - that’s when you are in the flow of life. The first time I did this was when I was 17.

I went to art school in France, my first time out of Jersey, knowing nobody there and having little clue of what I was letting myself in for.

Later, I completed a degree in performing arts and went on to work as a fitness instructor and then in the fire department.

I found meaning in all the work I did, especially the waitressing. My daughter is 13 and I’d encourage her to waitress: you learn so much about people.

Eventually Burning Man became a full time job for me. I met my husband there in 1997.

I’m optimistic yet pragmatic. I work in the space where the rubber hits the road.

The trait I most admire in others is intelligence.

My idea of misery is feeling isolated in a crowd.

My idea of bliss is feeling love and happiness and connection.

If I could be reborn as someone else for a day I’d like to experience being a black man living in the South.

I believe that things do happen for a reason but you have to nurture them, you can’t simply sit back and do nothing. I also believe that humanity has the ability to get to a better and more spiritual place. If we don’t kill ourselves first.

I try to convince myself that I’m a night owl but I’m not. I prefer waking up with the sun.

If we could get outside the game of money the world would be a better place. I understand that we need money to survive on a practical level, but if you can change the way you view money, as being bound up with status and power, then you can change the way you play the game.

Focussing on what fulfils and satisfies you, rather than focusing on how to get to the top, brings liberation and confidence.

Our greatest strengths are also our greatest weaknesses. Mine is my moral compass. It can make me appear rigid and dogmatic and allow others to perceive me as being holier than thou.

I believe in reincarnation. Our bodies are only temporary vessels. When we die our energy continues on as something else.

I’m unhappy with our archaic education system and would like to see changes in the curriculum. I’m interested in the way in which children are taught. It is not the way that I learned things.

I learned things by doing them. Watching my daughter and watching people at Burning Man convinces me of this further. We learn by trying to do things and from making things out of necessity.

So far life has taught me to be very honest and brave and to go for what I want. It is too short to do otherwise.

Harley K. Dubois, Founding Member of Burning Man is one of the iconic keynote speakers at Best in Fest ICON, a first time ever gathering in Ireland of truly iconic founders/organisers from the Global Festival and Events Community.

Best in Fest ICON runs Thursday April 27th 9am - 6pm at the Aviva Stadium.

Tickets from €289 at www.bestinfest.ie