The Desert, The Man, and I

One Man’s Odyssey at Burning Man

By Perry Wales

An amusement park ride, burning effigies and a Russian submarine, there was no way I could have imagined these would be some of the many unusual experiences that filled my time at Burning Man 2001.

I had heard of this crazy “Burning Man” festival somewhere out in the desert, and even though I didn't know much about it, somehow it called to me. It was a secret passion that I shared with no one. Most of my friends, while interesting and intriguing in their own right, I felt wouldn't be up for this kind of experience. From what I had heard, this thing was near the outer limits of counter culture. Raised on that culture, I had turned out exactly the opposite, I was living Corporate America. But there was this voice calling, “Intriguing...” it said.

So it was with much luck and circumstance that I happened upon an old friend at a Halloween party. We had lost touch over the years, and I still had a crush on him. Now I was determined not to lose his phone number! We started the rekindling of an old friendship, spending several months getting together, going to movies, going to plays, anything I could think of to make sure we stayed in touch. It was at dinner one such evening when I shyly confessed my longing to go to Burning Man. "I've been going for the last five years" he said. I almost fell out of my seat. This was one of those friends I was sure wouldn’t participate in such an event.

I was ravenous for information. I asked him to tell me everything he knew about the festival, and everything I should expect. He waited patiently for me to exhaust my list of questions before he answered. He coyly smiled and told me "I can only tell you two things: Number one; you'll absolutely love it. Number two; you'll absolutely hate it." He wouldn't say much more about it. He just smiled that smile. He did let me know that a group of his friends, who had been going to the event with him for years, had hit upon a fantastic idea to participate for the next year. They had planned to recreate an old amusement park ride that had lived at Seattle Center for years. Did I want to help?

Flight to Mars was a crazy, weird, roller-coaster known as a dark ride. With scary monster heads decorating the outside, and little cars that took you through the dark interior, things popping out at you, Flight to Mars was the epitome of strange. The ride was long gone, having been replaced by the new Experience Music Project, the cultured version of counter-culture. For many reasons, Flight to Mars seemed the perfect object to resurrect for a week in the desert.

It took every weekend of an entire summer, and about 30 people, but we did it. Out of wood and glue and fabric and anything else we could get our hands on, we rebuilt this magical mystical mysterious amusement park ride from scratch. About half scale and with its roller-coaster cars replaced by a complicated walk-through maze, we packed it all up and headed to the desert.

Now I know why my friend just smiled at me. Burning Man is not easily quantified. Words escape its description. Burning Man is a festival that is held every year culminating with the Labor Day weekend. It's located in the Black Rock Desert in northern Nevada, and it attracts upwards of 30,000 people from all over the planet. A full-time crew takes a year of planning to build this city in the desert. Only lasting for 10 days, it becomes the 5th largest city in Nevada. Utilizing a unique "Gift Economy" approach, no money changes hands in this city. Without money, there is a tendency is to resort to a barter system. No barter system. Instead, the Gift Economy is based upon the concept "If you have something that you can give away and somebody needs it, give it away". The same will happen to you. This shift in the basic structure of society changes everything. And that's just the beginning.

Each year Burning Man selects a different theme. In 2001, it was the "Seven Ages of Man". 2002 was "The Floating World ". How these themes are interpreted is entirely up to the participants. Floating World brought on such apparitions as full-size replicas of ancient Spanish galleons (cleverly built over a truck chassis) floating on a desert sea. The Seven Ages of Man brought such spectacles as the Mausoleum. A massive looking exotic Temple built out of the reverse forms of children's wooden toys.

Taking two days to travel from Seattle to northern Nevada, we arrived at the Black Rock Desert. It's late August and the temperatures hovering around 90 degrees. The Black Rock Desert is about 10 mi. wide and about 60 mi. long. As the wind comes down through the canyons, it picks up the fine dust of the desert creating huge dust storms. Unlike what I thought of as a desert, this one doesn’t have any sand. The surface of the desert is known as a playa, a mixture of alkalis and dry bentonite clay. It's tempting to walk around in it barefoot, but it's also dangerous. Soft and warm, the alkali in the clay quickly breaks down your calluses. The dryness of the dust wicks moisture from your feet. After only a few days you end up with what is known as "Playa foot". Dry, cracking, unwalkable feet.

As a matter of fact, before going down to the desert I checked out the web site for Burning Man. It was full of all sorts of recommendations for first-time attendees. One of the strongest statements was how harsh the desert can be. You have to be responsible for your own well being for one week. Despite the gift economy, if you don't have water, it's going to be hard to come by. You need to bring all of your own provisions, a first-aid kit, food, and whatever you need to survive for a week. This information was repeated over and over again in many places on the website. I figured they were serious.

Upon arrival, everyone is greeted with a hearty “Welcome Home!” and we were checked in. We picked up our guides to the city, complete with maps and events calendar, essential information like where Center Camp is, and how to find ice. Ice and Coffee are the only exceptions to the no money rule, and somehow I found this telling. I remembered the words “Ice is civilization!” ranted by the troubled Allie Fox from the novel The Mosquito Coast and I too believed it.

My guide has the words “Welcome to the Middle of No Where”, emblazoned on the top, but its printed to look like “Welcome to the Middle of NowHere”, another telling moment. On my ticket was the one advertisement I saw the entire time. Clearly printed on the ticket is the simple word; PARTICIPATE. Burning Man wants you to be involved in the here and now, it’s one of the few things they ask you to do.

After we had shown our tickets at the front gate, the next challenge was to find where we were camped. Because the city is built entirely from scratch, the city engineers can build it anyway they want. Not constrained by at past history of square grid shaped roads, this city is built in a circle. From above, imagine the face of a clock. From 2:00 till 10:00 are a series of concentric rings, roads. From 10:00 till 2:00 there are no roads. Now imagine it about 3 mi. across. At the very center is the focus of the entire festival, The Man himself.

Our address was 2:00 Enlightenment. This meant were on the spoke of 2:00, and since this was the Seven Ages of Man, the concentric rings had each been named for the Seven Ages (In this case, Infant, Child, Lover, Soldier, Enlightenment, Justice, and Pantaloon). We were on Enlightenment, six streets in from the first circle; always referred to as "The Esplanade”. Because of this system it was incredibly easy to find our spot.

Several of the group had already arrived, and Flight to Mars was halfway up. By the second day we had completed the entire structure and were "Open for the masses". At first we were a little concerned about our placement. We had wanted to be on the inside circular ring, Esplanade. This is the one road that everyone can see from virtually anywhere in the city. The road is considered prime real estate and because of all the hard work we had put in, we figured we were deserving of that placement. But, we were stuck a little bit out in the middle of NowHere. It turns out that the placement was perfect. One of the organizers who helped pick out our placement, believed if we decided to participate the next year, we could get Esplanade (It turns out we did come the next year, and we got mobbed).

After taking about a day to get used to the new surroundings and having finished our structure, it was time to start looking around. By day, Black Rock City is a dusty cacophony of people and places. At 6:00 Esplanade is Center Camp. The heart of the city, where people come from everywhere to relax and lounge under the nearly 1 acre of shade cloth. This is the “Town Hall” or “Downtown” of the city. Ice and Coffee are found here. Since most of the rules of our daily lifes are null and void out here, virtually anything can happen. After walking around for several hours I found myself on precisely the opposite end of the city. By this time it was starting to reach into the high 90s. I had a walk of about 3 mi. ahead of me and I was getting tired. Not to worry, I thought, Drakka wasn't too far away. I made my way to Esplanade, waited at a dragon stop for a few minutes, and caught a ride on Drakka. Yes, Drakka is a dragon. About a city block long, Drakka is the creation of someone who thought public transport should be interesting. Made of steel and fabric it’s an impressive way to get across town.

I quickly fell into the natural cycle of being out on the desert, and so did everyone else. I got up late for breakfast, after staying out as long as I could the previous night. Lounging around, not doing very much from Noon till about 6:00. After 6 or so, when the sun goes down there’s a palatable feeling in the city. An “Aaaahhhhhh” as the temperature quickly drops. It wasn’t uncommon for the mercury to rise to 110 by midday. Once, it briefly rained at about 6:30. Imagine a city of 30,000 people over a distance of three miles uttering a single orgasmic sigh of relief. Incredible.

By night, Black Rock City really shines. With the heat of the day gone, with the glare of the sun vanquished, the night literally hides a multitude of sins. Suddenly what looked like a dusty pile of columns and tents becomes the most incredible nightclub you ever imagined. With its glowing floors and lush gardens, the nightclub Xara tempts you to pleasures you never thought possible, beckoning with a gyrating, never-ending primal beat. Next door, In the middle of Now Here rises the glittering emerald green column of what seems vaguely familiar. You begin to realize, you’ve been here before, but not really, it’s the mythical city of OZ. By day, a dusty set of fabric-clad tubes rises into the sky. By night, glowing with emerald green neon, the familiar spires of a fabled city. Not to be satisfied with recreating something that might seem even vaguely familiar, OZ is complimented with an incredibly powerful emerald green laser. Arching over your head and shooting low toward the Black Rock mountains 6 miles away, the laser beam draws moving objects of wonderment using the mountains as its canvas.

As you walk around the Esplanade at night, you behold an amazing array of distractions. A giant 50 ft tall structure with four illuminated beams defines an open aired pyramid with a center pole. Drawn inexplicably nearer to it, one wonders what it is. Walking inside the pyramid reveals nothing until you wonder aloud what it is. As if in answer, the center pole beings to pulse with light. The light climbs farther up the pole the louder you wonder. With enough people gathered around it, and with everyone yelling as loud as they can wonder, everyone is rewarded with a flash of light and spinning beacons as the light reaches the top of the pole. You see a group of people headed toward you, inexplicably drawn to it (Or was it the large group of people yelling at a pole for no discernable reason) and you walk away with a smile on your face. Let them figure it out.

Ahead in the distance is a phantom black shape, half submerged in the playa; it is the disturbing shape of a Russian submarine, the ill-fated Kirsk. Light spills from a hatch open on the side, you enter and two Russians offer you premium vodka. You climb up the conning tower and overlook the city. Another club beckons, you read the nightclubs name, Illumi Naughty. An open-air nightclub, steep walled steps illuminate the dance floor with thousands of candles. You stop by a bar on your continued journey. A friend orders a beer, you order a rum and coke. The bartender cheerfully hands you your drinks – it’s a gift economy - the drinks here are a gift, no obligation. It takes a while to get used to this.

In the center of it all, the reason why everyone is here, tall and patient, is The Man. A forty-foot tall, stylized effigy of the human form. Glowing with neon on a huge pedestal. Is been there since you arrived, silently watching over the entire city. As you make your way towards it, you realize looks are deceiving out in the desert; it’s a long way out there. You pass more wonderment, a harp, made out of light, waving a hand through its laser strings activates its lyrical notes. The aforementioned Mausoleum, an exotic spectacle of a temple. People are gathered around it placing little effigies all over it, signing the wood structure, only later will you learn it will be intentionally burned to the ground in ten minutes flat.

As you approach the Man, you notice a ring of lights, like giant LED’s in the ground. About 500 feet around it, there are four gates in the ring of lights. There is nothing to prevent anyone from walking over the lights but everyone seems to go through the gates. You pause and notice that just by going through the gates, the pattern of the lights around the Man changes, you don’t know why but they just do.

It stands there motionless, faceless and inspiring. Looking closer you see the man is a complicated structure artfully engineered. But what’s it all about? Why is it here? You know it’s going to be burned, but why? Endless questions abound about your journey here, your journey next, your journey Now Here. Some people experience the burn as an epiphany, some as an ending; some as a beginning, what will you feel? Unable to find an answer to your questions its time to head back home… But what is that on the horizon away from the spectacle and wonder of the city… a pair of… red dice?

You begin your walk to the horizon, to those dice, you’ve remembered your water and use it often. Goggles are a must as wind can pick up the dust at a moments notice and whip it into your eyes. The vision ahead of you becomes clearer; it is a pair of dice. An enormous pair of dice. There’s a door on the side, you enter a casino. A casino? Complete with roulette table and blackjack, the Casino shares a door into the other dice. A jazz club. smoky, with a sultry dame on the piano singing the blues. Is it real or are you just to tired, letting your mind play tricks on you? When was the last time you ate? Now you really have to go back home.

Home. You search the horizon for the flashing red beacon. Your interplanetary space ship, Flight to Mars. Its 6:00 am and the party is still going strong. Somebody in your group has figured out a way to get people to the top of the structure. People are dancing on top, but you’re to overloaded to care. Sensory input has been at its maximum, concepts have been jolted, familiarity challenged. Did the Fire Truck that went by really spit a long flame of Fire? It is a fire truck after all…