The first Talk to God phone booth installation was created by members of the Ojai Bureau of Pleasure (OBOP) in 2003. Beyond Belief was the theme of the burn that year.

The idea was simple: would you like to talk to God? What came of the idea is one of the longest running art installations existing on the Playa. No one knows how many calls were answered, but many remember the experience from either side of the line.

We thought it was a cute little side show, and developed several bigger projects for that year. So we were all surprised when the phone booth was an immediate hit. The moment we put it up just inside the Esplanade, it became a photo op. When we plugged in the phone and God began to answer, a line instantly formed, and didn’t go away for the entire week. As we took down our camp on Labor Day, we made sure it was the last thing we disconnected.

Particular thanks go to Michael Shevchuk for the initial inspiration, Steve Jeffre (may he rest in peace) for building the actual phonebooth as well as a comfortably shaded throne for God and friends, Kurt Albershardt for knowing how and arranging to wire up the phones, Scott Seidman for coming up with the creative signs over the phone booth, and Darakshan Farber for communication. Many others were involved in building, decorating, installing, and operating the installation.

OBOP hosted the phone booth for five years. Since then, shepherded by Jaye Hersh (Yay!) and Miles Eastman, a number of camps took turns hosting it: DOTA (the Department of Tethered Aviation), Empire of Dust, Red Lightning, and most recently, Destiny Lounge 3D. The phone booth has also made an appearance at a number of festivals and events over the years.

A plague forced Talk to God to go virtual in 2020. Perhaps in some sense the plague was a God-send, as it made the experience available to people all over the world, many of whom might never get to the playa. It also helped us grow our community, reconnect with old friends, and prepared us to get out into the broader world in a big way! We continue to run several online openings a year.

Nowadays we are celebrating over 20 years in continuous operation, and have started to show up at multiple events across the continental US and a few international regional burns. We are working to have a much wider reach this next decade, give it our all every time, and leave without a trace.

Here’s a podcast interview from 2017 with some of the creators and shepherds of the phone booth.