Transformus 2024 Wrap Up

PDF version here

Thank you, TFAM Community for being patient for a long overdue update on Transformus 2024.

The TLDR: This year’s event wasn’t our best. It was great in a lot of ways including how fantastically people from far and wide showed up to the Stokes County event to give a new location a try. You put in many volunteer hours before, during, and after the event. You brought amazing theme camps and shared so much art of all sizes with each other. We all took care of each other as TFAM burners do. Thank you so much each and every person who participated.

But at the end of the day, there were moments that were not joyful and we are committed to doing better. With that in mind, the Board of Directors for Transformus Family has decided to put Transformus on hiatus. We wish to return with a new land and fresh energy.

This letter is starting action first and then the details of how we got here second. Many lessons were learned and considerable thought has been put into how we would like to carefully move forward in this time while Transformus is on hiatus.

Our next steps include and are not limited to:

• Resolving legal issues related to the Stokes County ALE’s appearance at Transformus 2024
• Rebuilding Community Communication efforts and fostering community during this break
  • In Person/Virtual Meet Up events
  • Town Hall
  • Ignite Fundraiser
• Reestablishing a Land Search Committee to search for a new property
• Creating a new process for vetting landowners
• Creating a process for local government and neighborhood outreach
• Financial audit to keep expenses low while searching for new property
• Getting websites and public information updated with current information
• Creating a new onboarding process for all planning committees
• Creating community discussion regarding Transformus being an age restricted event
• And more…

 

We welcome all comments, feedback, questions, memes etc - [email protected]

 

How did we get here:

(Due to ongoing legal pursuits some details will be general instead of specific. We hope to give more specific details once these have wrapped) 

On Thursday July 18th a task force from a North Carolina state agency (Alcohol Law Enforcement, hereafter referred to as “ALE”) executed a search warrant at our event looking for illegal alcohol, and seized some quantities from three theme camps, issuing five citations for violations of state alcohol laws.

On Friday, July 19th a dispute in the landowner's family resulted in a forced relocation of several theme camps from the neighborhoods of Shangri-La and the upper part of Elysium Fields.  This report documents all we know about what happened in both these situations.

This is a factual chronicle. It doesn't offer opinions or speculations. It's based on notes and recollections of the persons involved, primarily members of leadership who dealt with the situation. Where possible everything documented here is from at least two sources.

All persons involved will be referred to by a title (for example, “TLC member” or “Participant”) rather than names, although in some cases the only way to identify some individuals is with a name.  We will not refer to any Transformus participant by name. We will refer to some key law enforcement officers by the name they used to identify themselves on site.

Prior to Transformus 2024

• Stokes County Residents were organizing against Transformus in a specially created Facebook group spreading alarmist misinformation about the event and its participants.
• TFAM leaders were unaware of the above Facebook group until onsite.
• A senior TLC member contacted Stokes County officials about permits – they called on June 6 and a final reply was received June 15 saying we didn't need any county permit so long as we didn't use any tent over 800 square feet, and participants did not cook inside their tents.

Saturday July 13th

• TLC became aware of a hostile Facebook post by a county resident on the resident’s personal page, but did not reply.
• Incursions were happening from some neighbors and relatives of the landowner, occurring throughout the day.  All are intercepted and informed the land is leased and they cannot be on the property without a wristband.  They agree to abide by this, although some state that some camps are on “their father’s” land and not that owned by our landowner that we were working with, but rather his uncle. The landowner arrives and has a discussion with the objectors and they leave apparently satisfied.  The TLC believes these claims are inaccurate based on information from the landowner about where the borders of the land are located.

Wednesday July 17th

Arrival of multiple Stokes County officials at the gate. Met by TLC members and other team leads, the conversation is mainly focused on safety concerns.  Officials left apparently satisfied with TLC answers to their questions, except for one open question about a building permit that might be needed for the effigy and a mention that someone may return to discuss the effigy (no such permit was asked for in the end).

Thursday, July 18th 

• Arrival of the NC ALE task force at 8:45am, met by TLC members and on duty leaders.
• Closing of the gate by ALE, not allowing people into the event.
• ALE Special Agent serves a search warrant based on  “sale of alcohol without NC permit” based on information from the Stokes County Fire Marshal’s Office, information from the Transformus Survival Guide, and Facebook Page (screenshots of website and ticket sales post from Transformus FB page are included on the warrant)
• ALE leader serves search warrant, has discussion with TLC, on duty leaders, and hired safety team members present, explains search procedure and that they are all being detained. Their bodies and personal items were searched. They are asked to not use their radios or phone to communicate at this time.
  • Task force members are armed and have body armor.
  • TLC explains no sales are permitted at Transformus but ALE says charging a ticket price is de facto sales of alcohol if it is available at the event.
  • Search procedure will primarily target “vendors” identified from social media and ALE’s goal is to be “least invasive as possible”.
  • ALE states they will allow a personal amount of alcohol and are required to seize the rest.
• ALE begins the full search procedure at about 9:45am, searching the tents of several participants nearest the gate area.
• TLC members are released from detention and accompany the teams of ALE agents on their search.  The search soon changes to target not all tents but only those theme camps identified as “bars” from information available online.  At some point agents remove the body armor.
• The car of a participant is searched and alcohol found but is determined to be a “personal supply”.
• ALE searches the tent of a TLC member they had identified from social media as being the leader of the event.  A citation is issued not related to alcohol
• Two theme camps are searched, alcohol in quantities determined to be “for sale”  is seized with the containers it is in. Citation is given.
• Two other targeted theme camps had not arrived at the event yet.  At the first camp, agents issue a citation and said it would be left with the president of the board, but this citation is never delivered to him.  At the second camp, no citation is issued.
• The search procedure ends. A meeting between the main leaders of the task force and the TLC and on site Board members ensues. ALE explains how TLC can avoid searches in the future by obtaining a special state permit. They promise not to return unless something “catastrophic” occurs.   Two additional citations are issued, one to a TLC member for signing a contract with a security agency not licensed in the state, and one to the board president for signing the contract with the landowner, thus “promoting” the event.   An intention to issue a citation to the landowner is stated.  ALE compliments the Transformus leaders present for a cooperative attitude and promise to state that to the judge at any trials.
• Once this meeting ends ALE leaves and the gate is re-opened.
• The citations issued to the parties acting on behalf of the Transformus LLC are still being worked through with legal counsel and updates on this are still pending.
• TFAM reached out after the event asking for information on all citations that were issued at or around the event. TFAM is actively following these cases and updates are still pending.

Friday, July 19th

• On Friday morning, TLC and BOD on site learned through communication with the landowner, Jimmy, that his sister-in-law was trying to involve law enforcement to dispute the ownership of a part of the landowner’s brother’s land that Mysteria occupied. It was eventually determined that Shangri-La and a section of Elysium Fields was likely on the brother’s land.
• TLC learned from our legal council that the sister-in-law couldn’t call the police on the basis of trespassing, because she didn’t own the land. Still, she was pressuring Johnny, the brother, to take action. Some members of the BOD and TLC worked with Jimmy to try and resolve the issue. Jimmy was initially protective over Johnny’s contact information, however, he did eventually relinquish Johnny’s phone number. We never got in contact with Johnny directly but communicated with this side of the family through Jimmy.
• According to Jimmy, the actual boundary between the two properties was in dispute. In the afternoon, Jimmy made an agreement with Johnny that, without agreeing about the actual land boundary, if we moved Mysteria past a specific spot, Johnny would take no action that weekend.
• The BOD wrote a contract to that effect, however, Johnny never responded to direct communication about signing it.
• Around 3pm on Friday, the TLC, BOD members, and rangers met to discuss options. Ultimately, all agreed that we needed to move two full theme camps and all open campers out of the disputed area asap.
• Leadership worked with City Planning to help find spaces for camps and campers as much as possible.
• Word was spread throughout the burn to get all hands on deck to help move affected camps and campers.

As you can see, a lot was going on in the background of the burn. The BOD and TLC worked very hard to make sure that people still experienced the magic of Transformus. Still, we can’t accept how things turned out. We are currently working through legal challenges as well as evaluating the state of the world and having extra eyes on all things that don’t fit the mold of normality. We will be moving slowly and extra cautiously with Transformus in the future.

A huge part of the magic of Transformus is the community. We don’t want to lose that while Transformus is on hiatus. With that being said, we need your help. We are forming a land search committee. We will have various town halls to listen to your ideas regarding the organization. We are supporting the efforts of Ignite to help bring our communities together outside of the burn with events like Ignition Durham. And we hope to see you at Ignite in May.

It’s been said many times before, but right now it’s more full of meaning than ever: you are Transformus.   Without you this gathering of our folk together can’t exist.  We all need your help.  Join the land search committee by filling out the form at the link below, and be thinking of ways to add your own special magic to the rise of Mysteria once again.

-Transformus Board of Directors

Signup for the Land Search committee here:  Land Search Questionaire 
link, in case the above misfires: https://forms.gle/Xxz4q7zp2AoGtbZd9

Thank you Paige Havens for this fantastic art

-- Transformus Family of Events Board of Directors