Burning Man

[IrishEyes]

Nemo recently mentioned a friend that attended the Burning Man event this summer. I'd never heard of this, so I checked it out. Have any of you ever attended this event? I know it was held in the Bay area a while back, so I'm guessing Buffy knows about it. Anyone else?

It seems like a fascinating experiment in human nature. From what I've read, it's a week in the heat, with only what you bring, no stores, no vendors, just freedom. From reading the site, it would seem that drugs are very normal, and the creative juices flow quite easily.

What fascinates me most is that somewhere near 25,000 people converge on this lakebed for a week, build a 'city', share ideas, form a community, then disappear without a leaving a trace that they were ever there. I read that there are no trashcans anywhere in the city/camp, yet no trash is left behind. Nothing is for sale except ice and coffee, yet people still manage to leave with more than they arrived with. Bartering is discouraged, but people are encouraged to give 'gifts'. It just sounds like an amazing place for someone that wanted to study human nature in it's most basic and commercial free environment.

If you have any experience or knowledge of this event, or just want to comment after reading the linked page, please feel free. I just thought this was really interesting, and I of course wanted to share it with you guys, my friends.

Burning Man website

[Buffy]

Never been, but know lots of people who have (I hang out with *that* crowd I guess). It started with this guy "celebrating" the painful end of a relationship by building a wooden effigy and burning it on the beach in San Francisco for a few friends. It quickly outgrew the beach and was moved to the desert out in the middle of nowhere north east of Reno, so its really no where near the "Bay Area" anymore, although I guess most of the attendees probably hail from here. Its mostly artists who are into either installation or performance art. One of the highlights this year was they guy who's been trying for years to build a life-size working version of the famous "Mousetrap" game that we all played as kids, and this year it finally *all* worked.

Its an incredibly fluid community, and like the pilgrimage to Mecca, few people do it often, but they keep it going and fill out the structure necessary to make it hum, and hum it does. The locals actually have come to *love* the event, and the businesses and the sheriffs all look forward to the influx of money (lots of it) and they marvel at how nice and friendly and cooperative all these painted and dyed weirdos are. The SF Comical always has a bunch of stories every year but this year was special because it was the 20 year aniversary and you can find the articles collected here

Its become a truly wonderful institution, although really only for the truly adventurous. The wind blows the sand is everywhere and count on soaking in a bath for a week just to try to get it all out.

Cheers,
Buffy

[pgrmdave]

I've heard of it, but I don't think I know anybody who's gone to it. It does seem like an amazing idea, and the history of it is incredible.

[Tormod]

Man, I am on fire every day. So what else is new.

[CraigD]

A bandmate of mine is a “burner”. He keeps trying to get me to go to one of the several, smaller, cheaper burning man events that happen a couple of times a year in our region (mid-Atlantic U.S), but my lovely wife is opposed on the grounds that they have too many young naked women, so, being a loving and considerate husband, it’s unlikely I shall.

An important aspect of the whole burning man cultural phenomena is that, since arount 2001, it has no longer been a single event with a single organizer. Enthusiast from all over the States (and, I’ve heard second-hand from these folk, the EU and Australia) have produced smaller, regional festivals based on its model. There appears to be considerable cross over from the strictly non-organized Rainbow family, especially the younger folk there – my son, now 21, who went to his first Rainbow gathering at age 5, now goes to both Rainbow gatherings and Burnings, along with many of his local, similar-age friends.

Another is that, unlike Rainbow gatherings, Burnings large and small are organized. Individuals post bonds and take out insurance for them, and attendees pay for tickets. Gone are the days where a Burning Man was a semi-planned, spontaneous happening of a Temporary Autonomous Zone, with techno-anarchists showing up on bikes and ultralite aircraft in the middle of the Mohave desert to do whatever they pleased and could get away with. Gone, too, is the mystique that arose from the event having an expected casualty rate – while injuries and exhaustion still occur, as with any vigorous outdoor gathering, the past few years’ Burnings small and large have had, I’m told, 0 fatalities.

I believe Burnings have become a combination of a distributed community of like-cultured people, and a serious forum for large-scale mechanical performance artists, not, as they were once considered by many, a sign of a swelling anarchist revolution.

According to my burner friend, there’s no serious nostalgia for the anarchy of the early Burning Men. If there was, and someone were inclined to revive the old-style, unruly, let-it-happen spirit, I might prevail on my wife to go, naked mud folk or not. As is, I’m content to look at websites, and hear tales.

[Fishteacher73]

Originally Posted by Tormod

Man, I am on fire every day. So what else is new.

Only when I pee....

[orbsycli]

mescalito attends burning man. as will i next year.

[Pyrotex]

I have been hearing about Burning Man for years. Read a wonderful feature article on it in Wired Magazine a ways back. Then I learned that one of my mentors (YES!!!! Pyrotex has mentors!!!!) has been twice. From him, I got the website URL and lived in it for most of a day, daydreaming and wishing. [sigh]. It appears to be almost (as if) like a modern recreation of ancient prehistoric community, or a postcreation of what ancient PC 'should' have been like. It's high tech, it's primitive, it's barbaric, it's rational, it's romantic, it's idyllic, it's idealistic.

By the way, the sand is highly alkaline! Walking without sandals is totally not recommended!!

[orbsycli]

what do you mean?????

[orbsycli]

are you trying to tell me the sand they walk on at burning man makes you trip?!?!?!?!?