2024 Youtopia Census

178 humans completed a four page paper census form at Youtopia 2024. 

Favorite Thing

Census takers were asked to describe YouTopia in five words or less.  Below is a word cloud of their responses - really captures the event!

Fire Extinguisher

Some questions on the census are serious, some are fun, and some are designed to get you thinking about the world.  One example of the last category is the question below, which is designed to get folks thinking about fire extinguishers (a high priority item in San Diego in October).

Most participants did not know, and fully 31% responded "I don't know and I'm OK with that."  Alarming!

In order to increase fire extinguisher awareness we need to explore the underlying causes.  To do this we built a machine learning model (gradient boosted tree) to uncover the root causes.  The most predictive features were:

• "Are you now considering spinning in a circle to improve your answer?"

• "Do you have a plan to vote in the November elections?"

Unsurprisingly, folks who know where fire extinguishers are are voters who actually spun around when asked to.  Fucking rule followers...

With just those two features we can predict fire extinguisher knowledge with 76% accuracy! 

Age

Median age was 41, which is older than the Burnining Man census median of 36. 

However, it's important to remember that the Burning Man census is carefully conducted and statistically controlled, while the Youtopia census is literally conducted by a group called the Dada Scientists who seem primarily motivated by lengthy, absurd forms and biased, foolish data analysis.

Burning Man

x% have attended another regional burn, with the most popular being Bequinox, Unscruz, Love Burn, Soak, Saguaro Man, and Element 11.

Y% were in theme camps. The theme camps with the most census completion were Anarcamp (where the census was hosted), Satanic Drug Thing, Baby Seal Club, Bottoms Up, Pink Heart, Filament, Deep Sea Kingdom, and Rabbit Hole Refresh.

Drugs

We asked about consumption of mind altering substances, including alcohol, cannabis, tobacco, at Youtopia.  94% of youtopians reported planning to use at least one of those substences.

Politics

differences between Democrats and Republicans in these areas:

Ways of Contributing to YOUtopia:

Democrats are more likely to participate in varied ways, particularly in making art, organizing a camp, and volunteering.

Republicans show a narrower range, with a higher percentage focusing on volunteering and organizing a camp, with less diversity in other options.

Spinning Before Dizziness:

Democrats report a broader range of responses, from low to high spinning tolerance.

Republicans have a higher proportion of specific counts (e.g., "5-6 spins", "9.5 spins", "74 spins") but appear less diverse in responses overall.

Here’s a breakdown of reasons for attending YOUtopia and intended contributions, with notable trends by party:

Reasons for Attending

Democrats:

A broader variety of motivations, with high representation in art-related and community-building responses.

Common reasons include phrases like “to be with friends or like-minded people” and art creation.

Republicans:

Less diversity in responses, with primary focuses on art-related experiences and specific interests in event play and exploration.

Unique motivations include responses like "to see/experience the art" and “to experience gifting.”

Contributions to YOUtopia

Democrats:

More likely to mention making art, organizing a camp, and volunteering.

Higher representation in roles that involve creative engagement and community organization.

Republicans:

Focus on providing food and direct event volunteering (e.g., "Volunteering for the event, Organizing a camp").

Unique entries include “feeding burners” and specific art-oriented volunteering, showing a preference for more structured roles.

These insights suggest Democrats lean toward diverse, community-driven activities, while Republicans emphasize structured roles, often centered around event support and specific contributions. 

Other surprising correlations:

• articipants' tolerance for spinning before getting dizzy shows a surprising correlation with beliefs in freewill ethnoracial group, and fire extinguisher awareness

• Belief in freewill correlates significantly with disability status, spinning tolerance, income spent on housing, and planned activities at YOUtopia.

• There is a significant association between disability or impairment status and gender identity (p ≈ 

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•  ), suggesting possible trends or commonalities among participants with disabilities.