Yes it's true... this old man went to Burning Man. So is it a wild orgy of sex, drugs, and rock n' roll? Not exactly. It's an enormous dead-flat lake bed filled with art, music, and 80,000 dancing and bicycling people, 98 percent of whom were half my age.
Didn't see any sex or drugs, unless you count several scantily-clad folks, many of whom probably shouldn't have been, and that one good-grief parade of naked men on bicycles I had to get past to return to camp one sunny day. Not really sure what that was about, but just chalked it up to kids having fun, as Crocodile Dundee once said.
Having fun is mostly what it's about. Outlandish clothing is expected and "House" music is everywhere. Everyone camps, either individually or in organized camps, arranged in 7-square mile semi-circle surrounding a central "Playa" that is 5000 feet in diameter.
 |
| Internet photo |
For a so-called hipster event, it's remarkably structured and organized. Camp spaces are assigned on a system of streets; the radials are hours on a clock (i.e. the street running south is called 6:00) and the circles are lettered, "A Street" being closest to the center. Our camp address was 7:00 C.
It is a Leave-No-Trace event. Everything that is brought in has to be hauled out, including all trash, and even grey water. Nothing can be bought or sold, and no advertising or branding is allowed.
It is a gift-giving economy, and a large number of the organized camps give things free for the asking, including food and alcohol. Everyone carries their own cup, and a copy of your driver's license needs to be taped on it, because camps offering alcohol require ID of everyone, even 77-year-old dudes.
Drugs? With 80,000 happy dancing young people? Without doubt. But I suspect they were mostly of the "enhancing-the-experience" variety (I'm no expert) and I personally never saw anyone obviously under the influence of anything.
There are police and other emergency services there, but their presence is low-key.
The Man is located at the center of the circle, a huge wooden structure lit up at night with gaudy lights. This event started in 1986 on a beach in San Francisco when a bunch of friends added a nailed-together "Man" to their bonfire. The official explanation for this is apparently "It seemed like a good idea at the time."
The Playa, the circle surrounding The Man and separating him from the rings of camps is littered with randomly spaced art installations from the simple to the mind-boggling. Since I was trying to resist seeing the event through the lens of a camera, I didn't take a lot of pictures of the art, so I'll include some from the Internet.
 | |||||
| From the simple... |
 | |
| ...To the amazing |
 | |
| That's not paint; those are individual inlaid pieces of wood |
Our camp was called Hotel California. It was solar-powered and vegan. The camp provided two meals a day to about 60 people. We were in little ad-hoc teams (there were five of us in the group I came with) and each group provided and served the meals for one day.
 |
| Hotel California |
In addition to meals and a shady place to hang out, the camp provided music and even showers, in the form of sun-heated bags of water. One day they even served breakfast and gourmet coffee to anyone passing by, as part of the gift-giving tradition.
 |
Good buddy Brian was my sponsor, champion, and guru, and he and his sweetie Nikki took good care of me. Also in our group were Brian's friend Jesse, and Jesse's dad, Ramesh.
 |
| Jesse decided to shave off his beard, but not before Nikki had some fun "sculpting" it. |
 |
| Nikki, Jesse, and Ramesh |
Burning Man is a whole different place at night, and the kids stay out all night. I stayed up one or two nights until about 3AM, riding my bike around the Playa with Brian and Nikki.
At 12:00 on the Playa, north of The Man, they built an elaborate structure called The Temple. This was the serious part of Burning Man. A beautiful building built of wood, The Temple is a place for remembrances and reflection. Markers were provided inside for people to write personal notes to lost loved ones, memories, apologies, or whatever they were moved to write on the boards making up the building. People hung photos, drawings, and other mementos personal to them, and it all went up in smoke on the last night of the event.
 |
| Volunteers hung lanterns on these posts every night |
On Saturday night, with loud music, fireworks, pyrotechnics, and cheers, they burn The Man. He's actually ignited with an explosion in the middle of the fireworks display. Quite a spectacle.
And on Sunday night, the last night, they burn the Temple. No fireworks, no explosions, no music, and with thousands of people standing around watching, not a word. Not a sound.
It was an amazing experience, but it wasn't all fun and games. The dry lake bed is not dirt or sand, it's alkaline sediment from the ancient lake water and it's like moon dust. When the wind comes up, so does the dust, and it gets all over everything and everyone. Sometimes there are actually whiteouts when you can't see anything. Ramesh and I tried to hide out in my trailer whenever that happened.
Getting in and out is an eight-hour process as 80,000 people have to funnel to a single-lane road. We left Reno at 9:30 at night because the gates opened at midnight. We got to our camp at 5:30 the next morning. Same thing on leaving day. You really have to want to come to this event!
 |
| As far as the eye can see... |
For this old man, it was a once-in-a-lifetime experience, but I'm glad I went and I'm very grateful to Brian Anglin for making it possible.
