This year was my first Burning Man experience. Before Burning Man I did not understand how I was expected to live for 7 days in the desert, with out a proper shower, in a tent, and enjoy it and miss it when I finally had the amenities of the default world. I was scared that I would not be able to handle it. I did not yet realize that Burning Man is not just another music festival, it is a social experiment on a different way that you can live your life and it was refreshing after all.
Burning Man is a community, Black Rock City is the city that the Burners build for one week in Nevada, and it has grown to become the third largest city in Nevada every year when it is formed. It grows and stays alive and works because of ten chore principals.
1. Radical inclusion.
Everyone who is willing is welcome.
2. Gifting
There is no money exchange. You give things to people simply because you want to, you don’t expect anything in return.
3. Decommodification
There is no advertising in Black Rock City. Your mind is not cluttered with name brand signs. You are free to look people in the eye and enjoy what is happening around you with out subliminally being trained.
4. Civic responsibility
The wellness and welfare of others is a visible priority. There are numerous camps dedicated to making wonderful things for people such as a steam camp, multiple bars, snow cone camp, camps with blankets and pillows that you can sleep and lay on for as long as your heart wants, coffee shop camps, bike stations, play ground, a slip n slide. With all these great things, safety is always in mind.
5. Radical self-expression
The city is a huge circle. All the villages and tents and camps are in a semi circle with street signs and addresses and the rest of the playa is open space for everything creative. You want a big fuzzy bus that plays music, you got it. You want a magic carpet ride at 5AM, you got it. You want a stage that vibrates with the music, you got it.
6. Radical self-reliance
At Burning Man it is more than making sure you have brought enough water for yourself, it is about emotionally being the only one that takes care of you. You must find the strength inside yourself to be ok, to be happy, and to rely only on yourself. Once that strength is found then you can start letting other people contribute to that happiness.
7. Communal effort
Burning man is a community with its own culture and ideas. It is its own society. Everyone helps one another and looks out for one another.
8. Leaving no trace
You leave no trace when you leave. You leave the playa the way you found it. If you see MOOP, (material out of place) pick it up.
9. Participation
“Everyone is invited to work. Everyone is invited to play.” Get your hands dirty, if you want to do something then you are encouraged to do it and share it, build it, play it, make it, and invent it.
10. Immediacy
“We seek to overcome barriers that stand between us and a recognition of our inner selves, the reality of those around us, participation in society, and contact with a natural world exceeding human powers. No idea can substitute for this experience.”
During the days it does get pretty hot, dry, and sweaty. The second day I was walking down the playas sandy streets wearing a big straw hat and a man dressed in white sprayed me with lavender water. It felt refreshing and delightful. Then he asked me if I wanted to come in and have a massage. His camp was called the lavender camp. I said "hell yes" I wanted a massage and he took my name down on a piece of paper and sat me down in a chair with about 3 other people waiting for a massage as well. After 5 minutes he called me in to their camp, it was made to look like a spa. Air mattresses were aligned all over the outsides. I layed down, he put a lavender pillow over my eyes and started giving me a head massage and spraying me with lavender water. While I was lying there a man started speaking Russian to me, startled and confused I sat up and started talking back to him, asking him how he knew that I was Russian and spoke Russian. He told me that he could sense it and at that moment I knew that I was in for one wild, awe striking, and emotionally charged week. That man gave me the energy I needed to survive the harshness of the playa for a week.
People let themselves to whatever they want. Ride bikes naked, dance, sing, wear anything they want, build anything they want. On Friday I got my huge dread lock of a head of hair washed by a cute guy from New Jersey. I couldn’t say thank you enough. I didn’t know what to do to make him see how appreciative I was. It is still shocking and refreshing that people try to make you comfortable and elicit energy for someone else’s benefit and expect nothing in return. When did our society get to a point that doing something nice for someone else with no expectations became shocking?
Music plays all day and night long and not one stage or space looks the same as the next. Big purple metal structures in one corner, a giant ship on wheels in another, an octopus that spits fire from each leg over here and fire dancers over there. Art cars made to look like fish, bird cages, dragons, big magical mushrooms. There was a big tree made of cascading lights. There were lights and sounds and things to climb and things to look at everywhere. Trapeze areas, and flying bikes, and piers, and giant lotus flowers. No explanation would do it justice.
A big structure of a man stood 100 feet tall. He was made of wood and wire and color. On Saturday every resident of Black Rock City sat and watched the hour long fire work show before they set the man on fire. Seeing the man stand tall and overlook the whole city for 6 days and then watching it burn down on the 6th night was something else. For me it signified the burning down of the man who controls your life. The man that is always watching you and you can escape the government. It was the visual effect for what was inside of me. When it was all burned down to the ground and you could walk up to it and hold a piece of metal in your hand, that’s when I suddenly felt free.
About a yard away from the man was a temple. The temple was constructed of wood and when you came close to it a sense of silence and heaviness fell over you. By the last day it was written all over in pen, marker, and pencil and pasted with pictures and necklaces. People wrote their hopes, dreams, their deepest wishes, and apologies; they wrote things that they wished they could say, they wrote what they wished they could do. One passage said that they hope their dad’s cancer cells burned down with the temple, just goose bump raising, tear generating, heart wrenching things. On Sunday all 60,000 residents sat down, holding each other in silence and watched the temple burn down. There was no fire work show before the burning of the temple. With each flame you felt a sigh, with each sigh you felt a tear, and with each tear you understood that life is not about holding back, it’s not worth hoping and wishing and regretting, it is about doing what feels right to you always. Do what you want and let it be.
Burning Man is a community, Black Rock City is the city that the Burners build for one week in Nevada, and it has grown to become the third largest city in Nevada every year when it is formed. It grows and stays alive and works because of ten chore principals.
1. Radical inclusion.
Everyone who is willing is welcome.
2. Gifting
There is no money exchange. You give things to people simply because you want to, you don’t expect anything in return.
3. Decommodification
There is no advertising in Black Rock City. Your mind is not cluttered with name brand signs. You are free to look people in the eye and enjoy what is happening around you with out subliminally being trained.
4. Civic responsibility
The wellness and welfare of others is a visible priority. There are numerous camps dedicated to making wonderful things for people such as a steam camp, multiple bars, snow cone camp, camps with blankets and pillows that you can sleep and lay on for as long as your heart wants, coffee shop camps, bike stations, play ground, a slip n slide. With all these great things, safety is always in mind.
5. Radical self-expression
The city is a huge circle. All the villages and tents and camps are in a semi circle with street signs and addresses and the rest of the playa is open space for everything creative. You want a big fuzzy bus that plays music, you got it. You want a magic carpet ride at 5AM, you got it. You want a stage that vibrates with the music, you got it.
6. Radical self-reliance
At Burning Man it is more than making sure you have brought enough water for yourself, it is about emotionally being the only one that takes care of you. You must find the strength inside yourself to be ok, to be happy, and to rely only on yourself. Once that strength is found then you can start letting other people contribute to that happiness.
7. Communal effort
Burning man is a community with its own culture and ideas. It is its own society. Everyone helps one another and looks out for one another.
8. Leaving no trace
You leave no trace when you leave. You leave the playa the way you found it. If you see MOOP, (material out of place) pick it up.
9. Participation
“Everyone is invited to work. Everyone is invited to play.” Get your hands dirty, if you want to do something then you are encouraged to do it and share it, build it, play it, make it, and invent it.
10. Immediacy
“We seek to overcome barriers that stand between us and a recognition of our inner selves, the reality of those around us, participation in society, and contact with a natural world exceeding human powers. No idea can substitute for this experience.”
During the days it does get pretty hot, dry, and sweaty. The second day I was walking down the playas sandy streets wearing a big straw hat and a man dressed in white sprayed me with lavender water. It felt refreshing and delightful. Then he asked me if I wanted to come in and have a massage. His camp was called the lavender camp. I said "hell yes" I wanted a massage and he took my name down on a piece of paper and sat me down in a chair with about 3 other people waiting for a massage as well. After 5 minutes he called me in to their camp, it was made to look like a spa. Air mattresses were aligned all over the outsides. I layed down, he put a lavender pillow over my eyes and started giving me a head massage and spraying me with lavender water. While I was lying there a man started speaking Russian to me, startled and confused I sat up and started talking back to him, asking him how he knew that I was Russian and spoke Russian. He told me that he could sense it and at that moment I knew that I was in for one wild, awe striking, and emotionally charged week. That man gave me the energy I needed to survive the harshness of the playa for a week.
People let themselves to whatever they want. Ride bikes naked, dance, sing, wear anything they want, build anything they want. On Friday I got my huge dread lock of a head of hair washed by a cute guy from New Jersey. I couldn’t say thank you enough. I didn’t know what to do to make him see how appreciative I was. It is still shocking and refreshing that people try to make you comfortable and elicit energy for someone else’s benefit and expect nothing in return. When did our society get to a point that doing something nice for someone else with no expectations became shocking?
Music plays all day and night long and not one stage or space looks the same as the next. Big purple metal structures in one corner, a giant ship on wheels in another, an octopus that spits fire from each leg over here and fire dancers over there. Art cars made to look like fish, bird cages, dragons, big magical mushrooms. There was a big tree made of cascading lights. There were lights and sounds and things to climb and things to look at everywhere. Trapeze areas, and flying bikes, and piers, and giant lotus flowers. No explanation would do it justice.
A big structure of a man stood 100 feet tall. He was made of wood and wire and color. On Saturday every resident of Black Rock City sat and watched the hour long fire work show before they set the man on fire. Seeing the man stand tall and overlook the whole city for 6 days and then watching it burn down on the 6th night was something else. For me it signified the burning down of the man who controls your life. The man that is always watching you and you can escape the government. It was the visual effect for what was inside of me. When it was all burned down to the ground and you could walk up to it and hold a piece of metal in your hand, that’s when I suddenly felt free.
About a yard away from the man was a temple. The temple was constructed of wood and when you came close to it a sense of silence and heaviness fell over you. By the last day it was written all over in pen, marker, and pencil and pasted with pictures and necklaces. People wrote their hopes, dreams, their deepest wishes, and apologies; they wrote things that they wished they could say, they wrote what they wished they could do. One passage said that they hope their dad’s cancer cells burned down with the temple, just goose bump raising, tear generating, heart wrenching things. On Sunday all 60,000 residents sat down, holding each other in silence and watched the temple burn down. There was no fire work show before the burning of the temple. With each flame you felt a sigh, with each sigh you felt a tear, and with each tear you understood that life is not about holding back, it’s not worth hoping and wishing and regretting, it is about doing what feels right to you always. Do what you want and let it be.
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