Vacation #4: Burning Man

Last push of liberty and leisure! Don and I had plans to meet up with his friends at Burning Man, an art festival-cum-temporary city built out of nothing in the middle of the desert in Nevada. Burning Man is currently in its 27th year, and is bigger than ever (about 70,000 "citizens").

Describing Burning Man is like trying to describe a dream. It's wonderful, makes no sense to others, and lends itself to childlike storytelling ("and then we met up with our friends, then we swung on a trapeze, and then we took a nap, and then we wandered the desert for three hours, and..."). It was a week of Constant Fun, no holds barred. There is physical activity (plenty of it), music, art, beauty, nature, and lots of kindness. Using currency is not allowed; all experiences are in the form of "gifting," or giving to others without an expectation of compensation. An example: Ashram Galactica serves cold drinks to strangers every evening. They run out of beer the next day. We have lots of extra beer, so we give them some to serve at their bar. New friends, fun had by all, everyone wins.

We spent a lot of time trying to figure out how to apply these wonderful concepts to a sustainable model in the "default world." Gifting is impossible when you have mean people, money, and an uneven distribution of wealth. Hmmm.

There is also a slightly alarming disregard for safety ("safety third!"), incredible music, lots of dust, and most of all, sincerity and effort. The sheer amount of time, money, and elbow grease it took everyone to prepare their camps and art pieces was astounding. Want to build a giant fish covered in LED scales? Why not! Want to put some flame throwers on top? Sure! Now let's add the best subwoofer we can find.

Unfortunately, I have no night pictures -- I took a couple with my disposable camera, but they just looked awful and didn't really develop. Just imagine a misty black sea filled with colorful moving parts: schools of fish (people on bikes), sharks (mutant vehicles), beachcombers (Esplanade partygoers). Eventually there is just the black desert, unlit and unpeopled.

In Haight-Ashbury, San Francisco

View from Golden Gate Park

The pre-Burn crew, in Palo Alto

Driving over the Sierra Nevadas

Reno (a sad, sad city...)

Nevada scrub

Our solar concentrator, with John and Javed

Across the playa at sunset

The road to the Man

Best camp! Don learned how to use the cyr wheel while I got hula hoop lessons

Just your average shipping container movie theater in the desert

The Photochapel

Howling Wolf, the Man in background

Sunset over the giraffe