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The Temple, framed in an amazing stained-glass doorway in the middle of the Playa.

This year, I made my first journey to Black Rock City for the annual Burning Man event. Ben had been once before, but this whole experience was completely new to me. I knew I wasn’t in Kansas anymore when, after sitting in line for nearly three hours to get in the gate, it was announced that I was a “virgin” and I was instructed to get down on the playa (the dusty ground texture is unlike anything I’ve ever seen) and make the equivalent to a snow angel… in the dust. Seconds later, I was bombarded by a dozen greeters who hugged me and welcomed me “home.” Oh… and there were no “street clothes” to be seen. The unofficial dress code ranged anywhere from naked to insanely creative costumes. Nope. Definitely not in Kansas. Actually, Vegas started to look pretty dull compared to this.

Just one of the incredible art projects you find while exploring at Burning Man.

Anyway… what is Burning Man? Hmmm, that’s hard. Technically, it is a giant week-long festival in the desert based on radical self-expression and radical self-reliance. These two things, along with the amazing art that is created for the event, are the main focuses. But that description doesn’t do it justice. I learned that it’s virtually impossible to explain Burning Man to someone who’s never experienced it. And to make things harder, no experience is exactly the same. You can make this event whatever you want it to be. If you want to go and experience unique art, while in a community environment, you can do that. If you want spend a week checking out live entertainment, or educational talks/seminars, you can do that. And of course, if you want to party and trip on god knows what, that’s there too. I pretty much did everything, minus the drugs.

This piece of art actually looked like a portal, which would be appropriate considering this year’s Burning Man theme was Rites of Passage.

Now here’s a wild thing about Burning Man. For one week, 50,000 people gather in the desert and build a city. And after that week, everything disappears. There is no trace that a single human was ever there. A city rises, and a city falls.

A Geo-Eye satellite shot of Burning Man. The little red circle shows where our camp was, Camp Nomadia. We were right at 6:00.

One of the [many] things that surprised me was the sheer breadth of it all. I learned that during Burning Man, Black Rock City is one of the largest cities in Nevada. And I believe it. The “city” takes up several square miles, and is set up like a clock, with the Man in the middle and the Temple at 12:00. The camps run from 10:00-2:00. Our street was on 6:00. For me to walk from my camp to some of the art projects out on the Playa could take hours. It’s that big.

The Man, shot from the pyramid-like structure that he stands on.

We stayed with Camp Nomadia, which was full of many other “technomads” like us. At the end of this post, I’ll add links to some of our camp-mates’ blogs about the event. We had a really nice set-up too, with a massive shade structure/common area for everyone to hang out in during the day.

An evening shot of the Temple. I just couldn’t believe that this amazing structure was built to stand for one week and then be burnt down.

The art projects are unlike anything I’ve ever seen. Most of them are very large, and they are often interactive in some way. The main installations are, of course, the Man, and the Temple. The Temple really blew me away with its size and level of detail. It was beautiful, and on the last day, it burned. The burns are on purpose, hence the name “Burning Man,” and the Temple was probably the largest piece of art to burn, the Man coming in a close second.

One of our favorite art cars came from “Bus Camp.” This thing was just so striking as it rolled around the playa, blasting music.

And then there are the art cars, or mutant vehicles. No actual cars are allowed to be driven on the Playa (with the exception of coming in or out) but art cars are more than welcome, and there were tons of them. The cars ranged from small golf-cart-sized vehicles shaped like crazy animals (or an Angry Bird, which was one of my favorites) to gigantic boat-sized rigs that were actually shaped like boats! It was just wild to see them “floating” around on the Playa. Many of them had gut-rattling speaker systems that would play at night and when the vehicle stopped, and impromptu dance party would form around it!

The art projects really looked interesting when a big dust storm would blow up.

As much as we enjoyed the event, there were a few frustrations during the week, and they mainly involved the bus. Right before we left for Black Rock City, one of the three air conditioners decided to check out. Normally, we’d just call a guy and deal with it until said guy arrived. But there are no “guys” to call in the middle of the desert. And it’s hot. So… you get the idea. As if that weren’t irritating enough, the generator started to act wonky, shutting down after an hour or two of use. Eventually it stopped working entirely. (Ben suspects it was a circuit breaker, which is an easy fix, just not in the desert.) Thank goodness Chris and Cherie were parked next to us in their new vintage bus with bad-ass lithium ion batteries capable of running two busses. They really saved our butts by providing us with some much-needed power that week.

Me, Ben, Cherie & Chris in center camp. Just love this shot!

Overall, Burning Man was, like I said, indescribable. I could talk about it and show photos all day, but if you really want to know what it’s like, you’re just going to have to go one day.

A Flxible bus we found in one of the camps. It’s a few feet shorter than the next bus we’ll live on, but the body style is the same.

Here are some links to our friends/campmates’ takes on Burning Man: 
(If anyone else from the camp has a BM post, please send me the link so I can add it!)

Technomadia (Chris & Cherie): http://www.technomadia.com/2011/09/rites-of-passage/

Lee Varis: http://blog.varis.com/2011/09/13/burning-man-adventure/

Ben Willmore: http://www.whereisben.com/whereisben/2011/09/rites-of-passage-burning-man-2011.html