Spiro Boursine
| Died | October 2018 |
| Nationality | Australian |
| Known for | Founder, Earthcore festival |
| Active | 1993–2018 |
Spiro Boursine was the founder of Earthcore, the foundational event of Victoria's bush doof tradition and one of the most significant events in the history of Australian doof culture. He established Earthcore in 1993 at Toolangi State Forest, Victoria, inspired directly by the Spiral Tribe warehouse rave scene in the United Kingdom - specifically, the Castlemorton Common Festival of May 1992, which drew an estimated 40,000 to 60,000 people over seven days before police intervention ended it and the UK government drafted the Criminal Justice Act 1994 in response.[1]
Boursine ran Earthcore for over two decades, surviving the event's near-collapse after the catastrophic millennium event of 2000 - which attracted 15,000 people over seven days and left the organisation approximately $5 million in debt - and rebuilding it as a viable annual event. The event collapsed permanently in 2017, a year before his death.[2]
Boursine died in October 2018. The archive notes his death alongside the closure of inthemix.com.au in the same year as the end of the foundational generation of Australian doof culture. The archive also notes that he did not stop until he had to.
Notes
- Earthcore founding 1993. Spiral Tribe / Castlemorton influence: documented in Boursine interviews. Criminal Justice Act 1994: widely documented.
- Millennium event: 7 days, 15,000 attendees, $5 million loss. Multiple contemporaneous sources. Earthcore collapse 2017: documented.