BURNING MAN 99 (The End Of The Twentieth Century)
©1999 L. Paul Mann 1999

Countless articles have been written about the Burning Man festival, employing endless adjectives to describe the strange and unusual event. "A Paganistic, Orgiastic, Anarchistic, Debauched, Depraved, Overindulgent, Irreverent, Spectacle. But, in reality, the festival is one simple thing, a creation of art in its' purest form. For nearly a year, participants correspond by E-mail, laying plans for exotic and intricate works of art. The fruits of their labor become reality during the week long annual event. At the culmination of the festival, most everything is burned, in a symbolic gesture of the impermanance of man, and to protest the rampant commercialism of the twentieth century. There is a clear message generated by the event, that we should reject the excesses of wealth, technology, and capitalism, that the twentieth century has brought us. The irony of the event is that many of its' proponents are veterans of the silicon valley computer revolution, and have grown wealthy from these very same excesses. Nevertheless, the experience of Burning Man for most participants, is a uniquely genuine emersion in the freedom of self-expression, that, otherwise, has been so blatantly quantified by modern society. The annual festival began in the Bay area in 1986. One of the many exotic floats at this years event, was a large motorized "living room', complete with armed guards, groupies, and bureaucrats. The entourage sauntered about hawking a book "written by Larry Harvey". As the announcer on the float screamed over and over until he literally lost his voice, the free copies of the book were also "about, edited, with pictures by and of, etc.", Larry Harvey. This whimsical parody of the publishing world served to introduce us newcomers, to the founder of Burning Man. In 1986, Larry, an injured carpenter turned videographer, suggested to a group of performance artist friends, a new way to celebrate the popular Summer Solstice festivities. "I told them we should burn a man", he recalls.The Burning Man became an annual event at the waterside, and grew ever larger through word of mouth. In 1990, the event was moved out into the vast expanse of the Nevada desert, to give people an unlimited opportunity to express themselves. The actual Burning Man, grew larger and more sophisticated every year, and is currently a 50 foot icon, loaded with all manner of fireworks. Now, at age 51, Larry tends to the "business" of the festival full-time, throughout the year. "The festival", says Harvey, "has always been anything you want it to be". The idea of the festival is for people to be self-reliant and to express themselves. The only vending allowed for the week long event is ice and coffee. Bartering is encouraged. Commercialism is flatly rejected. No sponsors are allowed. But many of the veterans of the festival are beginning to fear that the end is near for Burning Man. Every year attendance records are broken. This year there were nearly twenty-five thousand paying participants. Ticket prices range from $60.00- $130.00. Spectators are discouraged, so the longer you wait to buy a ticket, the higher the price, even up until the last day. The success of the event has ushered in an ever-increasing set of rules. Professional fireman tried to establish perimeters around the biggest "Burns", usually with limited success. The "Man" is not the only large object burned. Music is not supposed to exceed a certain prescribed decibel level. The event has been embraced by the young techno crowd and the Raves have become a larger component of the festival every year. "Shooting" has been banned from the site. According to some of the veterans "Drive by shootings", with a cacophony of weapons, were part of the original ambiance. The question now is, can the Burning Man festival survive with so many rules. A daily newspaper distributed throughout the camps, satirized the possible future of Burning Man. They foresaw a day when, Burning Man would be taken over by Disney, sanitized to meet family standards, and the Burning Man would be replaced with a safe and sane Electric Man. Speaking of families, there were some participants who saw fit to bring their children to the event. The shear sensory overload may be a bit much for children! Black Rock city, which exists only for the week long festival, is located 120 miles northwest of Reno, Nevada. The salt flat, at an elevation of over 3,800 feet, looks and feels like the landscape of another planet. The temperatures were mild this year, never reaching 90'F. The nights were cold and the dark sky was a star gazer's paradise. Shooting stars and vivid constelations were every bit as intriguing as the festival itself. Off in the distance, a huge semi-circle of theme camps glimmer like a third world desert town. Confusing sounds collide from all directions. Rock bands on mobile and fixed platforms, drum circles, traveling marching bands, and the omnipresent thumping of the countless "Techno" stages. Gigantic green lasers cut across the black desert sky and bounce off the nearby mountains. Ash from a multitude of fires mixes with desert dust and clogs your nose and eyes. The desert night chill sends groups huddling around ever expanding fires. At 3 a.m., a giant arch, lined with skulls, is burned. Dozens of naked acrobats dance around it. One masked girl asks if she can perform a milking. She explains that she is collecting a bowl of semen from as many participants as possible, to create a living art piece. By day the bright desert sun paints the landscape in fluorescent colors. Smells of cooking food from campfires emanate from the camps. A man in nothing but a pink tutu, bicycles by, waiving at a group of naked people being body painted in different colors. A motorized tea cup pulls up with two young teen girls with breasts painted like clouds. They distribute flyers describing the nearby pubic hair clipping booth. In the middle of the desert, a replica of a half sunken ship is covered with ballerinas. Behind this orwelian meets fellini meets mad max world, you can literally see the signs of the wealth of its' participants. All manner of expensive four wheel drives, state of the art motorhomes, and shiny new campers, are hidden behind literal as well as imaginative camouflage. The event itself is truly unique and is an experience of a lifetime. Spectators are discouraged. All manner of encouragement is used to persuade everyone to participate in some way. To know Burning man is to feel Burning man. It is not something to watch but to experience. To feel the choking dust and smoke in your lungs. To feel mud or paint on your naked body. For some it is a drug induced all night dance at a rave or a tribal trance. For others it is a dress up ball or a complete submission to sexual feelings. For everyone the experience is different, but you must feel the event to have a true Burning Man experience To find out more about Burning Man you can visit their elaborate website at: www.burningman.com