blue sparks like biting into a wintergreen lifesaver. Absolutely fascinating.
Only “Art Cars” may cruise the playa. An “Art Car” is any vehicle that no longer resembles a car, but has been transformed into a rolling party, a light show, or a flying pig of some sort. Feel free to hitch a ride and let it take you wherever it may. You’ll probably make many new friends whose names you will forget as they hand you a free drink before disappearing into the night.
At night the entire event is decorated in every color and manner of light created by man. From people in elaborate glow stick and EL wire costumes to stadium sized spotlights illuminating large installations to roar­ing displays of open fire being spun by a master jug­gler as green laser beams travel limitlessly overhead into the furthest reaches of outer space.
If the burning of “The Man” is Saturday’s climax, then “The Temple” is Sunday evening’s cuddling afterglow. Every year, a monumentally solemn and beautiful temple is expertly built deep in the dessert, further out than the centrally located “Man”. All week visitors are invited to participate in the Temple’s meaning by writing their thoughts, feelings, hopes, dreams, poetry, and things left unsaid to loved ones across the face of its incredible design. In a week that has been screaming at you from every angle in every color of the double rainbow, the profound silence of the Temple Burn is truly deafening as the deepest sorrows of thousands are released to the heavens before kissing you good­night. Until next year my friends.
This year’s unique highlights included a complete double rainbow in the dessert, a full lunar eclipse, a successful eyebrow singeing attempt at the world’s record for “largest non-military explosion”, and an act of premeditated arson on a sculpture that was going to be burnt anyway. Debate and litigation are currently ongoing.
But beyond such cold facts, such surface descriptions of things and events, what is Burningman?
What is Burningman to the people who know it, love it, and make it what it is? What are people finding here that is causing this cultural phenomenon to grow ever larger with each passing year?
“Esplanade”, the inner most ring of Burningman’s camping area. These are large public spaces that are the loudest and brightest inviting all to come join their party while attempting to create something more interesting or impressive than the other large camps. This seems to take the form of a friendly competition between neighbors with no first place, simply fueled by the mindset of “Hey, look what we can do… pretty cool huh? Come check it out.” On this inner ring you will find enormous geodesic domes transformed into 24-hour nightclubs, steel scaffolding becoming art galleries, or circus tents designed as “chill spaces”. Such as the Hookah Dome that offers a quietly lit at­mosphere with wall-to-wall pillows and water pipes containing flavored tobacco allowing you to relax the night away when the chaos outside becomes too overwhelming for your delicate senses.
The ground is affectionately and geologically known as “The Playa”. An alkaline clay like substance that is the modern day remnant of a prehistoric lake. Water turns it to mud, and walking or driving breaks it into a fine powder that can result in massive dust storms getting “playa” into every nook and cranny of everything including you. In a dark space, if you brush the playa from your heavily dusted clothing, it will make little