It’s 3am on Wednesday night or I guess it would be Thursday morning. Days have lost their meaning. The desert air is cool and clear. The dust storm from earlier today has cleared to form a crystal sky. I can feel the structure swaying under the weight of all the people. I’m standing atop 10 meters of scaffolding with far too many people than what the manufacturer would have intended. I’ve just climbed a steep ramp to get to the top of an enormous slide. Like a kids’ slide from a playground reinvented by a mad scientist with no regard for public safety. In front of me the slide starts of at a reasonable angle before dropping away to near vertical for 25m and finally leveling out at the bottom. I should be scared that the whole contraption is going to implode. I should be scared that I’m going to get run over by some overzealous overindulged slider. But the truth is all that is the least of my worries. In truth I’m terrified that the catholic schoolgirl outfit I’m wearing – complete with micro-mini skirt - will offer me no protection from the inevitable rug burns from the Astroturf slide surface. Before I launch myself into oblivion I take one last look at the horizon. I can see fountains of fire bursting into the sky, full scale Spanish galleons sailing around the desert, the Thunderdome from Mad Max in full combat mode and countless other weird and wonderful things exploding around me. I tuck in my skirt, say a silent prayer to the god of rug-burn and go for it. Welcome to Burning Man.
Before I went to Burning Man all of my friends were asking what it was going to be like. In truth I didn’t have much I could tell them. Using the vernacular of the event I was a virgin – it was my first time. I was full of questions, unknowns and a genuine curiosity of what this thing was going to be all about.
So what was it all about? The week long event finished a fortnight ago and in many ways I’m still trying to figure out what the fuck it was all about. I look back on it now and it’s still a blur. Moments wrapped up in emotion, lit by fire and nurtured by love. People assume that Burning Man is some huge debaucherous party or some aged hippy love in. Or that it’s some raver thump-thump e-fest. Maybe it’s some oversized art festival with more cash spent on large scale art then I care to imagine. Maybe it’s just a huge social experiment with 40,000 people living together for a week in relative harmony. Maybe it’s normal people leaving normality behind for a week. Maybe it’s a playground for adults where flamethrowers, giant slides, contraptions with names like The Teeder-todder of Death are commonplace. Maybe it’s a place of unbridled creativity running wild for all to see. It’s a city, it’s a family, it’s anything you can imagine and some things you can’t. It’s all that. It’s none of that. It’s all a dream. It doesn’t exist. Don’t believe what you’ve heard. Run away. Forget what you think you know. It’s ok. Come closer. Sit a while and take it all in.
Burning Man is something that I will never forget and it’s something I’ll never really be able to fully explain.
Before I went to Burning Man all of my friends were asking what it was going to be like. In truth I didn’t have much I could tell them. Using the vernacular of the event I was a virgin – it was my first time. I was full of questions, unknowns and a genuine curiosity of what this thing was going to be all about.
So what was it all about? The week long event finished a fortnight ago and in many ways I’m still trying to figure out what the fuck it was all about. I look back on it now and it’s still a blur. Moments wrapped up in emotion, lit by fire and nurtured by love. People assume that Burning Man is some huge debaucherous party or some aged hippy love in. Or that it’s some raver thump-thump e-fest. Maybe it’s some oversized art festival with more cash spent on large scale art then I care to imagine. Maybe it’s just a huge social experiment with 40,000 people living together for a week in relative harmony. Maybe it’s normal people leaving normality behind for a week. Maybe it’s a playground for adults where flamethrowers, giant slides, contraptions with names like The Teeder-todder of Death are commonplace. Maybe it’s a place of unbridled creativity running wild for all to see. It’s a city, it’s a family, it’s anything you can imagine and some things you can’t. It’s all that. It’s none of that. It’s all a dream. It doesn’t exist. Don’t believe what you’ve heard. Run away. Forget what you think you know. It’s ok. Come closer. Sit a while and take it all in.
Burning Man is something that I will never forget and it’s something I’ll never really be able to fully explain.
have a look at this amazing time lapse video and get a taste...
No comments:
Post a Comment