FWIW, the first time I went a bunch of long-term burner friends were all "Man, this all gotten too big and has sold out! You should have been here 5 years ago!".
There were about 7,000 people there that year, 1998...
Repeatibility is hard. I'm in the same mountain town, two summers in a row, and it's a completely different experience. Many things are identical, in fact I'm surrounded by it. But the experience I'm having is very different. I think sometimes there's too much attachment to replicating things of the past.
