-> www.burningman.com
Thanks to all the people who sent me pictures that you can see here!
Unfortunately I can’t remember when and where I heard the first time about Burning Man. I only know that I immediately knew that I HAD TO GO! A couple of people wanted to come with me, but in the end, they all declined – that’s when I bought my ticket. The „Burning Man Survival Manual“, downloadable at the website and people who already went prepared me a bit and so the last two weeks before leaving I was pretty busy with arranging my ride, buying camping supplies, food & fabrics, making costumes & accessories and packing. Saturday afternoon, I finally left L.A., riding in somebody’s RV with 2 other cool passengers. On our way to the desert in Nevada, we went shopping in Reno - 2 hours North East from Black Rock City, the place we were heading to. On our way we saw more and more fellow ‘Burners’, excitement filled the air and finally we arrived on Sunday morning, 10.00pm. Dusty, happy people welcomed us by making the ‘virgins’ ring a big gong, hugging us, taking pictures and calling: “Welcome home!”
Once being at the playa, a nice guy from the RV (Eli) and I decided to camp together and reserved the area around our tents for some of his friends who were supposed to arrive lateron. After setting up our little camp we wandered around, got our bikes and Black Rock City was coming slowly to life, we saw people building camps, some costumes, already heard different music and had a mellow day. Eli’s friends arrived and after an awesome sunset, the star-filled sky amazed me and seemed like a big mysterious tent. My first night already showed some great artifacts, art cars and fire objects, I discovered the playa with my bike and saw people that decorated with glow sticks and all kind of lights. Then it was time to dance!!!! I realized that now I was a Black Rock Citizen.
THE MAN What was the name of the festival again? So there was a man that burned? Yes, there was a giant man who was going to be burned on Saturday night, placed in the center of the playa, but not directly in the center camp. In the night, he was glowing with blue light, and the socket on which he stood was packed with crazy installations. When I finally went there, I discovered a dance floor being turned by a man on the bike… The man was much bigger than it seems on the picture and the night of the burn was an incredibly beautiful and emotional event. First a huge circle of fire dancers and drummers surrounded him. While more and more people where gathering around the man, more and more fire dancers came out and the atmosphere was almost mystic.
DRESS CODE Contrary to a lot of the peoples’ speculation, there was no dress code. Nobody had to run around in costumes or even in their birthday suits but a lot of the people did. Since it is more creative to wear a costume, there were not so many naked people. The ‘standard dress’ consisted mostly of a costume without a shirt. I was enjoying both watching all the colorful, creative clothes and wearing the standard dress. It almost can’t get better than being half naked in the sun only wearing your self-made little costume…
POPULAR STATEMENTS: “I am soo happy!” “You look gorgeous!” “How do you do this? Can you please show it to me?” “Here you have some...Enjoy!” “You look like you need...”
FRIENDS Since none of my friends had the time to come with me, I went alone on my trip to the desert – but didn’t stay so. I expected camping alone but hooked up with a guy from my ride. Our camp was quickly expanding and in the night of the burn, we were about 15 close people, “Team Tecate” and had a great celebration. We made it through the Playa stopping at diverse locations, walking through the huge crowd without loosing anybody. On the contrary, we only found 2 missing friends, shortly before the burn – yes, we can be connected if we want to! Aside from my Team Tecate, I made other friends at diverse occasions, sometimes we hung out more, sometimes less, sometimes I just talked to some strangers for a while, hung out in a bar, jumped on an art car, was looking for something et voila – it didn’t take much to have an interesting, fun conversation. And I met a friend from Seattle – my birthday was on Tuesday, his on Wednesday – big party!
COMMUNITY & CONNECTIONS The open, friendly, tolerant, free and creative atmosphere at the playa is really amazing. The survival guide tells you that the use of money is strictly forbidden and recommends bringing gifts, instruments and everything that you can share with your new friends. This recommendation reflects pretty much the feeling of community at the playa. I was glad that I had brought some extra camping supply and nice things that I could gift to people that had make me happy or were in need. At the playa, you can discover the joy of giving. Often I got little presents from strangers, without any other intention than to make me happy. Receiving the gift, I wasn’t sure whether the giver or I was happier. Aside from material presents, people also share their time and knowledge with you. When you see somebody doing something you would like to do, ask and learn how to. It’s that easy. I remember that I was so happy about my new fire staff, was taking it everywhere because I was looking for somebody with lamp oil who could help me set it on fire. While dancing to the setting sun, I saw a dancer taking out his staff; set it on fire and making gorgeous moves. After his performance I went up to him and told him story. He showed me a move, went to his camp and set my staff on fire and were both very happy: Him, because he enjoyed my excitement and because he could show me something new. And well, I was just overwhelmed with pleasure and I fell in love with the fire.
Then, there is a “strange” phenomenon at the playa and everybody makes his or her own experiences with it: we can be so connected! It happens so often that you realize you need something (sometimes even before you realize it) and then a stranger comes up to you and gives you exactly what you needed. On my birthday a guy came up to me, gave me a ring and asked me when my birthday was. I couldn’t believe it and had to laugh and cry for an hour.
HYGIENE The air was full of dust (playa), I had danced several times in a dust storm, and my hair was covered with playa so like everybody else’s. Even though some camps were offering foot, hair and body washings, I didn’t feel any need to use them. I didn’t take a shower for 10 days and I didn’t feel bad about it at all. In fact, I loved it and used only some handy baby wipes for the most important body parts. Other people took showers in their RV, some people brought handy solar showers, and there were a lot of different solutions for people in need. Last but not least, there was the water truck! Once a day, a truck sprinkling water drove through Black Rock City. The original purpose was to make the streets less dusty but when you saw it, the number one purpose seemed to be to provide a shower to all those people who didn’t have one. Every time this special vehicle went around, there were naked people running after it to get rid of playa.
SEX I liked the open, friendly and tolerant attitude towards sex. Everybody could do what they wanted to, sometimes people invited me to a sexual adventure and accepted it when my response was no. Never did I feel harassed in any way even though I was topless which would have looked like an open invitation to a lot of people in the 'normal' world.
ART What is art? Being at the playa creates a new idea of what art is and should be in every “virgin burner”: Art can move!! It’s so much fun to hop on an art car, for example a giant cat that meows instead of honks, preferably with music and talk to some random people or just see all the decorated bikes ride by. I even saw a camel-bike! Art loves technology! During the day, everything can be seen without much effort. During the night however, in order to attract, guide and entertain people, artists pimp up their installations with lights of all colors, fire and often the light itself becomes the main attraction.
Art is interactive! I talked to god in a lonely phone booth on the playa, climbed on a crazy stage, that looked like a giant nest, clapped to my friends’ live music, wrote messages to my friends and family on the temple, helped my friend burn stuff, painted other people and let them paint me, decorated my friends, my bike, played the drums to my favorite DJ and with a dance friend...
But most important: Art is fun!
MUSIC Generally, you can find almost every kind of music at the playa. However, most of the music that reached my ears was very rhythmic and danceable – lots of DJs showed up and made our playa life more enjoyable. Luckily for me, in most of the “clubs”, they played electronic music and people were crazily dancing. I also found lots of drum circles, jam sessions and live music.
BLACK ROCK CITY You can’t imagine how organized this relatively big city (30 000 people) in the middle of nowhere was: It was mainly organized, built and watched by volunteers and had a very well functioning infrastructure: streets, post office, toilets, recycling camp, information, message and address board, rangers, lamplighters that lit certain alleys every night, and this year for the first time, they even had set up an internet connection!!! I am sure I forgot to mention many other offers – well, just imagine a fun city in the desert with everything you need plus a lot of fun stuff on every corner. A pros pos trash: Rule number one for every burner is taking one’s trash back home and taking care of blown away stuff .
WHAT TO DO Haha, it’s hard to tell you what to do because there is SO MUCH stuff around the clock that people even forget to eat and sleep!! So when you are by chance not talking to old or new friends, dancing, exploring the playa, jamming, performing or making art, wandering around, hanging out in a bar, volunteering or helping other people, chilling out or whatever, there are tons of fun, crazy or just useful workshops. Here is a selection: “Immortalize your Titties!”, “Playa Dream Machine”, “Sunrise Meditation”, “Masks of Hope – Masks of Fear”, “Flaccid Kickball”, “Make a Button” , “Bellydancing”, “Fairy Tale hour”, “Jazz Improvisation Workshop”, “Storytime Shisha”, “Naked Misted Twister”, “Spider Races”, “Kostume Kult Open”, “How to be a Ninja”, “Orange Peel Sculpting” and so many more...
FIRE There was fire everywhere and I was amazed by the energy and excitement the fire provided. Just imagine fire coming out of art cars, art installations, fire dancers twirling around fire staffs, fire fans, fire hoolas, and just fire pits where people burned art, memories and emotions. One of my favorite installations was the Temple, a wooden construction where everybody could write whishes, thoughts and bad feelings on. Since I also wrote some thoughts down, seeing the Temple on fire was a pretty moving event.
WATER Survival rule number one: always carry enough water for you (and other people) around and drink, drink, drink! Twice I was out in the desert when I ran out of water and I realized with an aching throat that I was in the desert… The desert doesn’t care that you are thirsty but fortunately other burners who gave me some of this wonderful element called water.
KIDS Some people brought their kids with them, there was ‘Kidsville’ were they could play and hang out but basically the whole playa was a big playground: jumping on the trampoline, discovering all the art installations and climbing them, dancing for breakfast, hanging out with funny animals and fairy tale figures... Fortunately my Latvian friends had a 6-year-old son and we became friends, too. It was so much fun to hang out with “DJ Bling Bling”, dancing in the sandstorm, drumming (“ Hey Dad, look I’m in a band now...”) and discovering the playa. I’m glad I met so diverse people.
THOUGHTS ON THE WAY BACK: “Why can’t the world be so positive like at Burning Man?” “I have to come back and bring more friends!” And after having reentered ‘civilization’: “I feel dirty.”
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