I started the morning with Afrikaburn on my mind. Around midday I heard about some power issues from people I was hosting here in Lisbon, but didn’t think it was anything widespread and hopped an uber to the airport for my 2pm flight to Cape Town via Dubai. I’d be in Afrikaburn soon enough.
On approach, traffic had slowed to a crawl so I walked the last 400m only to find the airport closed, with no one allowed in. There were already thousands of people stuck and waiting outside. My phone stopped working soon after, and I realized there was no chance my flight would go. What then? No uber, no metro, no bus schedule, no Google maps, not much cash and taxis were being taken quickly by families and people with lots of luggage … I walked the 8km home from the airport, hitchhiking for about 2km in the middle after a conversation with Nathalia, who filled me in on her favorite conspiracy theory: a Russian spy network had been recently discovered in Portugal; surely they were involved. I logged that alongside the one I heard at the airport: China was doing this as a means of negotiating tariffs, because they own the electricity providers in Portugal and Spain.
It seems to have been mismanagement of infrastructure, possibly coupled with some strong solar flares. Was sort of hoping for aliens… solar flares aren’t far off.
If it was anything nefarious, anyone looking for suspects beyond the US/Israel/imperial axis of disruption in the service of capitalism needs a propaganda cleanse.
The walk home was really fascinating. I saw a long queue for the only working ATM in a bank that must have a backup generator. I noticed that the quickest shops to adapt and improvise were migrant-owned. My mind frequently reminded me that without water, food, cash or a connection, the facade of civility can quickly crumble. Home would offer respite, but having just returned from a 4 month trip, it wouldn’t offer much food or many other essentials. I also thought about hospitals, and hoped that unlike the airport (which I would have previously been sure of having its own backup power source), we wouldn’t hear tragic stories about hospitals going offline. It wasn’t long ago that my dad was on a ventilator, and we’ve heard stories for over a year of hospitals getting bombed, going offline, and babies on life support simply expiring.
Back in town, I took a needed nap and had vivid dreams that the situation had resolved, only to wake up once again in Lisburn. I opened the window to check the streets and soon after heard my name being called by Maria, out for a walk with Pablo, her dog who is also an incel. We live in a movie. Perfect timing.
Maria, Pablo and I walked to Praca dąs Flores which turned out to be center camp, full of improvised revelry, live music and other offline games (altho still lots of cellphone videos … content creation is fully imprinted on society these days). There we heard about a street BBQ in the making nearby which led us to more friends. Several people observed that Everywhere had come early, and they were right. It was an unplanned, unexpected pop-up, and I was happy not to miss it.
At the burn, you pack for each outing knowing that you may not be home again for 24 hours. It was starting to get dark and I once again felt unprepared. It was a new moon, would be (very) dark soon, and I had not packed well for this day to night transition. So I swung past my apartment to grab a headlamp, candles, matches and batteries. I also broke into my neighbor Holger’s apartment to find a flashlight. Then I hit the streets again, curious how the vibe would change in the dark.
Having seen so many stranded families at the airport, I imagined some of them still wandering around town as it started to get dark, in search of a place to sleep. Now that I was prepared, I wanted to see if anyone needed help. But thankfully, this part of the city at least seemed housed. I walked past another friend’s house and saw candles flickering in the window, 4 stories up. I tried getting their attention with my flashlight, and settled for yelling up. I paused to consider how some people might take advantage of this darkness — no CCTV, no light, no witnesses. I heard what sounded like a gunshot and a scream. Two guys approached me curious of my headlamp. I thought about how easily they could take it off me, knowing they didn’t have one and it would soon be useful. Every moment is one to choose between fear and love.
Eventually the neighbors in the floor below my friend heard me, and agreed to go knock on their door. Soon I was inside, chilling in candlelight with hot chocolate, sharing stories from the day.
Not long after, alerts and notifications started sounding from our phones. We were coming back online. Then the lights started coming back. The city cheered.
I again hit the streets, curious if the BBQ was still going. Back in Praca das Flores, a few people remained. Someone I met earlier in the day was sculpting mushrooms from clay, then hiding them around the park. We decided to call this workshop Reverse Foraging; I hope we can do it again at the Everywhere event we are planning for May.
We walked home. One of the girls had not been able to get in her house all day because the keypad was offline. Yesterday was for analog.
And yesterday felt alive. People read, wrote, crafted, rested, made the best (or worst) out of the situation. Played games. Improved, innovated. It was easier for some for sure. Those with kids, with health issues, the elderly, those with expectations and “important” meetings likely suffered (although some realized those meetings weren’t going happen and handed out ice cream instead).
Our Lisbon crew is considering a 12 hour monthly offline day to bring in each new moon. That would be very Everywhere.
Today is the day to prepare for the next burn, be it planned or unexpected. It was better next time anyway.