Hear the words Burning Man and most people envisage naked people running around the desert, high as kites.
That does happen. However, that’s minor compared to everything else at this yearly US event in the middle of nowhere
Burning Man (BM) is synonymous with a number of things, not any I would ever have identified with, but then again, all I knew about it was what the media told me. A bunch of naked hippies in the middle of the desert, off their heads? No thanks.
When the chance came to attend the 2015 Burning Man Carnival of Mirrors I agreed without giving it much thought. Tickets are hard to get, so what was the worst that could happen? At least I would have some entertaining stories for dinner party conversations.
Anyone gearing up for BM spends a lot of time preparing. A lot! A week in the desert and you need to take everything you need, from water to bicycles. Get online and read every packing list going, as well as reading about what BM is, and – more importantly – what it’s not.
Burning Man is a radical annual festival that takes place at Black Rock City (BRC)- a temporary community erected on “The Playa”, a flat, lifeless, sunbaked, dusty, alkaline bed in the Nevada desert. An experiment in community and art, BM is founded on ten main principles, number one being “radical inclusion” followed by community cooperation, “radical self-expression”, “radical self-reliance”, “gifting and decommodification”, and “leaving no trace”, among others. Lack of commercialism is a big thing: no sponsorship, no branding, no trading stalls and no money changes hands – the one exception being coffee and tea in the central main village.
Black Rock City is not a hippy commune, rather, it’s an ephemeral city in the middle of the desert for 70,000 citizens with a post office, emergency services, a volunteer police department, roads, houses, bars, clubs and hundreds of art installations and participatory “theme camps”. After the BM week, the town is completely dissembled – much of it burned – leaving the stark white desert exactly as it was.
First held in 1986 on Baker Beach in San Francisco as a small function organized by Larry Harvey and a group of friends, it has since been held annually, spanning from the last Monday in August to the first Monday in September. In 1990 it moved to its current location. BM takes its name from its culmination, the ritual burning of a large wooden effigy “The Man” that takes place on the Saturday evening of the event.
Upon arriving to BRC, amid the dust and excitement, Burners are handed a booklet (and lots of hugs and ‘welcome home’s’ by people covered in dust with huge smiles) with all the activities for the week and a map of the city to help them navigate their way around. The city has its own radio station, and is in the middle of nowhere, with only one road in and out.
So, what happens when you remove money and power from the equation and let a bunch of like-minded people run around the desert for a week?
Much like your eyes adjust to the available light when needed, one slides into desert mode rather seamlessly. More precisely, Black Rock City mode.
Seeing people dressed like a two-year-old raided the wardrobe and dressed themselves after a tantrum (that would be my own outfits I refer to) becomes the norm, as does the fact that those not dressed like a Max Mad character, drunk clowns, or warriors – are generally naked. The “anything goes” atmosphere of personal freedom and personal choice is infectous.
But it’s worth repeating that you are in a desert, where it’s boiling hot during the day and freezing at night, so remembering to drink water every time you are not speaking, takes a little getting used to. Fail to hydrate and you will find yourself in the emergancy tent in no time.
There are a myriad of activities on offer all day and night – if you want to meditate and drink green tea all day and do yoga at sunrise on an empty desert bed, you will find hundreds of like-minded people. Want to dance to rave music and stay up all day and night? Check. Fancy a TED Talk? Make sure you get to the tent on time. Want to feel closer to your other half and partake in a workshop to learn methods to help you find new ways to communicate? There’s a tent with your name on it. Feeling dusty and in need of a good wash? Head over to the Human Carcass Wash and make new friends as you all stand in a glass box and get hosed down, give each other a good scrub and get washed off again. Refreshing. From sex to soul searching, BRC is home to Burners and offers a safe and kind environment where people really are free to express and explore.
Bicycles and art cars are what people use to get around and the latter really merits a story of its own. Simply put, they are basically the manifestation of peoples’ imagination on wheels. It’s hard to express how surreal it is to be standing in the middle of the desert and seeing a giant ship on wheels moving past in the distance. Or a scorpion, a rhino, an octopus shooting fire (Burners are pyromaniacs), a denture, a unicorn…2015 had it all and more.
Out in the deep playa is where the large artworks are found, sculptures and installations pepper the landscape surrounding The Man, who stands in the middle of BRC like a sacrificial lamb until his burn. The Temple is a place of reflection, and strong emotions ripple through the beautiful wooden structure in the middle of the desert. People walk though reading the messages left for those who are no longer with us; photos, tokens, the sound of people wailing in pain and the sight of people embracing leave many with tear trails on their dusty faces. It’s an incredibly powerful experience to feel so close to so many strangers.
So who goes to an event like this? From the aged to babies, from the famous (Leonardo di Caprio was there this year) to the person who lives next door, if the principles resonate with you, BRC is your second home.
I remember sitting on one of the artworks, giant letters spelling out the word DREAM. I was sitting in the letter A for a photo, when I looked at the letter M next to me I noticed a group of people standing around, laughing and talking. But there was something different about their tone, it was more focused, more intense. I then saw a man in a wheelchair in the middle of the group, he was dresssed warmly in the morning chill. He had an oxygen tank next to him. He looked at his friends with a peaceful contentness as the sun washed his face with a golden light. This is where he wanted to spend his last days on earth.
