Burning Man

Over the last twenty years or so I have been hearing about the Burning Man Celebration, Festival, Party, Extravaganza, Orgy, held every year out in the wastes of Nevada known as the Black Rock Desert. Mostly it has had a reputation as a place where people got naked, had sex and did drugs. So when my good friend Mike Reeder invited me to join a bunch of retired teacher guys to attend Burning Man this year, of course I said “yes!” It actually wasn’t something I have ever considered attending but my retirement philosophy is. “Don’t Say No.” So I said yes.

Eight of us took off into the desert after a 5-hour drive, and it was wild. They had 6 lanes set up to accommodate the 50,000 attendees and the traffic slowed to a crawl as the dust began to blow, then the summer rains came, turning the rain as well as the road into mud. It took us six hours of waiting in an enormous mass of humanity as the evening turned dark for us, to finally enter this near mythical area known as Burning Man City. We had no idea where we were but we saw others camping so we pulled to a stop, set up our tents and screwed up our courage to venture into the “Center Camp,” in the dark, on our bicycles. It was a half-mile ride through the pitch dark where we finally emerged into what was probably the most fantastic scene of my lifetime. It was as if we really had dropped ourselves into that famous bar scene in the first Star Wars movie. In the center of it all, moving across the desert were dozens of “mutant vehicles.” Private individuals, or perhaps groups, build them all, and they light up at nighttime into the most amazing, colorful assemblage of creativity on the planet. I simply cannot describe them and when you look at these pictures you will surely think “what’s the big deal?’ Well it’s HUGE. I was Astounded! Breathtaking, Awe Inspiring. A living Dream. Pictures simply cannot capture it. Today we are home and all of us are so very disappointed with our photos as they cannot begin to recreate the experience. Nor can my words.

The second night when we ventured out into the dark we found an enormous steel beast that some wizard had built over 7,000 hours and at a cost of $70,000. It looked like an eight-legged dinosaur and weighed tons. He fired up its engine and it began to walk across the desert with these thunderous footsteps that shook the very earth. Oh it was wild.

Burning man is about art, creativity and giving. There are virtually no rules other than leave NOTHING behind. There is no trash. Much to our surprise there was no evidence of drugs or alcohol. Nothing other than coffee and tea is for sale. There are no drunks, no potheads. Oh it must go on, but we didn’t see any of it, just 50,000 folks all getting along beautifully.

Sex? Oh my. No rules for maybe 5% of the crowed meant no clothes. There were some partially nude men and women. Some totally nude. The old man (80?) camped next to us was essentially in the buff the entire time. Wow his butt cheeks sure got red! Even with all that skin showing it didn’t strike me as being as sexually oriented at Mardi Gras in New Orleans.

Folks didn’t seem to be “hooking up” as much as simply “letting it ALL hang out”. If nudity offends you don’t even consider attending Burning Man.

During the days we rode our bikes mile after mile through this temporary city looking at the creativity oozing out of ever dusty pore. There are A LOT of actual art pieces. Some were simply fantastic. The camps themselves were just so much fun to see as these folks come year after year and set up elaborate “homes.” Some build two or three story structures. Some build geodesic domes. Some just go nuts. Man it was fun.

In the evenings we would go back into the center to watch all these magical mutant vehicles cruise through the night and to attend the “clubs?” One of my friends commented that New Years Eve in Times Square can’t hold a candle to what goes on at night at Burning Man. As there are no street/city lights, everyone wears personal lighting of all colors and every imaginable description. Some of it is sexually oriented, but most of it is not, its just simply wild. These clubs (sorry I can’t think of a better word) all play modern techno music where everybody just dances. Nobody has a partner, its just 10,000 lighted bodies gyrating in the night air in the most fantastic venues on the planet.

I have images burned into my mind that I will never forget.

We usually got separated in the dark so when we all got back to camp around midnight (it went on till 7am EVERY night) we would sit and tell stories. Yeah wild.

It’s called Burning Man because in the center of it all is a giant wooden, lit up, man-statue that gets torched off the final night. We had intended to stay for it, but the day before the winds began to blow and it was just so miserable we all left early, so we never actually saw The Burn. But none of us will ever forget our week at Burning Man.

My apologies if any of the photos offend you.