Apogaea (meaning "far from Earth") is an annual collaborative outdoor arts and music festival held as a Colorado regional counterpart for the Burning Man event. Typically held in late spring (scheduled for June 7–10 in 2018) in southern Colorado, Apogaea ("Apo"), establishes a temporary autonomous zone where radical self-expression, inclusiveness, and self-reliance are the hallmarks of its participants.
Like the Burning Man event, Apogaea includes art installations, performance art, DJ-music, live music, camps, and theme camps. Apogaea has a Creative Grants program that provides financial assistance for artists wanting to create visual art, performances or events, workshops, art vehicles, or theme camps for Apogaea; this grant cycle generally begins in January. In past years, nearly 50% of Apogaea's operating budget was given out as creative grants. In 2009 a second grant cycle (the "Bonus Round") was added to allow projects that didn't need as much time or money to complete to receive grants. As of 2018, Apogaea is one of the most art-centric of North American Regionals with art grants for 2014 totaling $50,000.
Theme camps at Apogaea have included the cowboy-themed Dome on the Range, the hillbilly-themed Smokin' Bones BBQ and Blues, the cat-themed Purrfectly Pink Pussie Palace, the Green Screen Project, Hula Hideaway, Xpat Alien and The Lair of the TWRG. Like many Burning Man-inspired events, fire art plays a large part, and includes performance art, such as fire dancing, as well as stationary art that incorporates propane or wood fires.
Apogaea typically features a central "effigy" that burns on the Saturday night of the event. However, all fire at Apogaea is subject to local or regional fire bans in dry or dangerous conditions. In 2006 and 2012, Apogaea was under such a ban and had limited propane fire art and no effigy burn. Since moving to its new location in Valdez in 2016, the effigy burn has been limited to propane-fueled ignition of an effigy designed to produce no burning embers. No ember producing fire is allowed at this new site.
Celebrations
Effigies at Apogaea: 2004: no effigy 2005: Buddha 2006: Phoenix (not burned due to fire ban) 2007: Phoenix 2008: Squid 2009: Volcano 2010: Communigy (integrating pieces created by individual community members) 2011: Cocoon and Butterfly 2012: Blossom (not burned due to fire ban) 2013: Blossom 2014: Throne of the Emergent Multitude 2015: Syzygy: The Library Angel (not burned due to event cancellation) 2016: Syzygy: The Library Angel 2017: Heart of Gold 2018: Big Charles 2019: Draco's Nest
2020: [canceled by due to coronavirus]
2021: [canceled by due to coronavirus]
2022: Fire Sculpture Garden
Temples at Apogaea: 2011: Temple of Moon 2013: Temple of Transubstantiation 2014: Temple of Infinite Life 2015: Temple of Resonance (not burned due to event cancellation) 2016: Temple of Resonance 2017: Hotaru no Hikari: The Firefly Temple 2019: Temple of Death
2020: [canceled by due to coronavirus]
2021: [canceled by due to coronavirus]
2022: Archways of the Ancients
Themes for Apogaea: No themes prior to the 2008 event. 2008: Smells like Community Spirit 2009: Organized Chaos 2010: Artropolis ("Hailogaea" became the unofficial theme for the event after a hail filled weekend) 2011: Illuminate 2012: The Spiral 2013: Alchemy 2014: Emergence 2015: Synchronicity (Event was canceled) 2016: Moist 2017: Propaganda 2018: Reflection 2019: Analog 2020: Portals [canceled due to coronavirus, theme carried over to 2022]
2021: [canceled by due to coronavirus]
2022: Portals
Apogaea is organized and run by an unpaid Board of Directors and a wider circle of volunteer leads ("Apogaea Ignition") in areas such as Art, Safety, Operations, Communications, Administration, Outreach, and Volunteers.
From 2008 to 2012, Apogaea ran from Thursday noon to dusk Sunday. Starting in 2013, Apo expanded to run from Wednesday through Sunday evening. Ticket prices have steadily climbed to its 2018 price of $150 online with no gate sales. 2011 was the first year that a sales cap was in place and the event sold out in mid-May. Due to its growing popularity, tickets for the event sold out in under four hours in 2012, spawning an alternate event named "Neoformia" held during the same time as Apogaea and located at Apogaea's previous location at the Happy Ass Ranch. Attendance for 2014 was capped at approximately 2,100 attendees, then in 2015 attendance was set to 2,300. Population size is capped in 2018 at 1,750.