1. I'll let Kapalina folks answer - or rather just go to their website and you can see all events that normally happen.

2. Weekly we practice and spin fire at night - join the Hawaii Fire Artists Tribe for details. We also practice during the day with hulahoopers and acrobats at another park - check out Hawaii Hoop Group tribe.

3. I'll let someone else answer since I've never been to BM.

4. Check out the book "So you want to move to Hawaii" - it's rather good. Basically come with an open mind, money in your pocket and be respectful to the locals and the earth... and you should be okay.

1. There are "official" Burning Man regional events a couple times a year. Because of the fragmented nature of Hawaii and the logistics of throwing a BM sanctioned event, it's not really feasible to do much more. However, there are smaller underground events on a fairly regular basis.
2. VRon covered fire pretty well.
3. If you want to do anything big you're probably going to need to stage out of Reno or the Bay Area several weeks in advance. Ka Pilina has a storage unit near Black Rock where some stuff is kept in order to have a little infrastructure at the Burn. However, don't expect to be putting up a 60' dome with 50kW of sound or anything like that. As far as travel goes, it can vary widely. Last year, I bought a round trip to Reno for $350 on the Monday of the burn leaving the next morning. I don't expect that to happen again. In general, airfare might set you back around $500. There should be people you can carpool with to keep down car rental costs. Everything else shouldn't cost you any more than it would coming from LA.
4. Approach moving here like you're moving to a foreign country--only this time your don't need to worry about exchange rates or getting a visa. To put it bluntly, the smiley happy-dappy multicultural extravaganza that the tourism people put in the glossy travel brochures is a load of crap. The reality is usually far more gritty. But in my opinion, that's 90% of the fun out here. I came here from Salt Lake and have seen the same thing in both places. People will come in from Middle America and then become utterly fixated on the fact that things don't function the same way as they do in Pittsburgh (or Tulsa or LA or wherever) while failing to take advantage of the positive aspects of their living situation. They don't last very long. Personally, I love Hawaii and will dearly miss the place if and when I leave. But be aware that things move very differently here and the only thing you can do about it is smile.

1. We are fairly active and bursting to do more. Our Rebirth event on the Big Island already has international attendance and we have plans for up to 3 more like it a year. The website has all of the details (www.kapilina.org).

2. V-Ron sums it up pretty well but there are fragmented fire spinning communities across Hawaii.

3. Airfare costs around $500, it is like going from the east coast except you can't drive or ship for cheap.

4. Most transplants (I am one too) don't stay for a variety of reasons (cost of living, cost of airfare to the mainland/east coast a couple times a year, the "local cultural dynamic", etc.) but some (like me) plan on only 2 or so years here and have been here going on many more.

Andi
BMHIRC