A Week on the Playa

“I’m interested in anything about revolt, disorder, chaos, especially activity that appears to have no meaning. It seems to me to be the road toward freedom.”

-Jim Morrison

How to explain Burning Man?  I feel like I’d like to just throw some words at you and see how that feels:  dusty, circus, steam punk, open bar, electronica, flame throwers, the moon, hippies, post-apocalyptic, boobs, art, expanse, sculpture, healers, glow sticks, sexuality, spirituality, hugs, drugs, bondage, Disneyland, interaction, new friends, porta-potties, impermanence, deviance, acceptance, tutus, unicorns.

I believe the literature touts it as an art event, though I think “art celebration” is a little closer because “event” connotes boundaries and coordination whereas “celebration” (though there were physical boundaries and massive amounts of coordination behind the scenes) feels more lawless and spontaneous.  There are of course federal and states laws that apply, but theevent puts up a good front.

There are four main components that define Burning Man:  Art, Art cars, camps, The Playa.  I’ll start with the last.  “The Playa”, as I think I explained is the semi ironic (no water) semi appropriate (lots of sand) name given the 1.5-2 mile diameter (this is a guess!) of desert in which the event takes place.  I’d estimate maybe a quarter of it is occupied by campgrounds, the rest only space and art.  In many ways, the Playa is the most central character to the Burning Man plot, alternating between being personified and revered.  You don’t pour things out on the Playa.  You do not litter.  If you see someone else has littered, you pick it up, however small.  It is ever present, always at the forefront of whatever is happening—for one, because it is such constantly unfamiliar environment, but also because it is composed of dust that infiltrates every moment and crevice whether discreetly or in the form of a raging sandstorm.  It is all dust, all the time.  To manage living in such conditions, there are three things you absolutely must have on your person at all times:  goggles, some sort of facemask, and water.  The city which crops up for one week a year on this otherwise barren desert is called Black Rock City.

This year, the population for Black Rock City was 70,000 people.  That is almost 9x as big as the city I grew up in.  There is no way to see or do everything.  I saw all sorts of things in other people’s pictures that I did not see in person.  The aforementioned art and art cars are two intragal things that make Burning Man what it is.  The art is mostly sculpture, much of which can be climbed.  Pieces are positioned all over the Playa, sometimes at great distances apart from other things.  And there is no map of where to find what, so it comes down to a bunch of walking aimlessly or folklore to find something.  As an example, one night my friend Sally and I were running around, and out far beyond the city lights, we came upon an open air diner.  There were barstools set up around, and people could sit and be attended by the one waitress on duty.  She handed us menus from the Russian Tea Room in New York…which is a REALLY swanky place with menu items like “caviar tasting”, “house cured salmon gravlax”, “paddlefish salad Olivier”…you get the idea.  I was very excited.  I went for the caviar and Sally ordered the monkfish.  A few minutes later she came with our plates, “Ok, one caviar tasting and one monkfish.  Enjoy.”  Both were hotdogs.

One night walking by myself I ran into a movie theatre.  Just sitting there.  Middle of the desert.  Fully functional and showing classic movies every couple of hours.  There were also some audio-visual interactive installations, sculptures of a wolf, giant baby doll head, the word “INSANITY”, and igloo made of CDs.  Sort of anything you could never imagine.  The art cars were vehicles big enough to fit anywhere between 2-30ish people, and they roamed the Playa day and night.  You could jump on and dance a while and jump off again.  They have no set route or times of operation, but you can bet that at every hour there will be dozens available to choose from.  Some of my favorites were a giant duck, an island oasis (with palm trees), a cruise ship, and a towering metallic octopus that shot 3 foot flames from its tentacles.

People in Black Rock City live in camps.  You must bring all your own food, clothing, shelter and water however, should you leave something behind—let’s say you forgot your fishnets, for instance—there is a popular and oft true axiom that “the Playa provides”.  I camped with 10 other people, and we sort of just had your typical awesome friendly camp group sort of place, but there were theme camps as well.  Theme camps hosted one or a number of activities during the week, and you could sort of choose your track.  There were hundreds of activities a day, only some of them listed in the event book; many were spontaneous.  My general interest was the real hippie–chique activities like 1:1 shamanic healings, inspired body art, decorating a slip to wear around, scarf-dying and wine tasting (a combined event, of course), gong ceremonies, and a workshop for discovering my super power (I am pleased with the outcome).  But one of the best ways to spend a day is just riding around nowhere in particular.  You WILL find a trampoline to jump on.  Someone IS going to call you over to their camp to join them for a pickle-back shot.  You MIGHT find a zip-line and PERHAPS a giant jungle gym that has been filled with foam in which you may climb to the top and let go to fall in.

This is basically how I spent my week.  Burning Man is founded out of 10 principles:  radical inclusion, gifting, de-commodification, radical self-reliance, radical self-expression, communal effort, civic responsibility, leaving no trace, participation, and immediacy.  These are all pretty important principles to me too, which is probably why I enjoyed it so much.  Next week, you can look forward to (or look forward to skipping!) a discourse on why I like these things and how Burning Man defined or defied them.  In the meantime, here are some links:

Pictures! (not mine!)

More info!