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Burning Man: The Craziest Festival On The Planet

 

Posted on October 19, 2009
Emmanuel Vivier

 

Always on the cusp of discovery, Vanksen never gives up trying to find innovation and the most surprising events in France and internationally. This time, the destination was in the Nevada desert, not far from The Valley of Death, for the Burning Man festival of free expression. It was launched 20 years ago underneath the San Francisco bridge by a few hippie-ish, artistic, and visionary people.

In early September, we joined 40,000 participants (a.k.a. "burners") in the middle of the desert over 60 miles from the next town, for a week of experience like no other. Try to envision a one week, 24/7 festival that mixes music, art, live spectacle and over 600 fantastic machines ("mutant vehicles") and you still wouldn’t be able to totally grasp it...

The first task is to acclimate oneself to the spectacular climatic conditions of the desert. The temperature fluctuates between 30°C in the day and 16°C at night. During sandstorms, it is difficult to see more than 10 meters ahead, and goggles become indispensable.

You can forget about modern comforts: there is no running water, no electricity, no mobile network and no Internet connection. In the spirit of "leave no trace", each participant must be completely autonomous and come with their own food and water, as well as leave with all their trash. One must plan for any event, as the nearest town is over 100 km away and there are no stores. Thankfully, help between "burners" is standard, and you can always count on your neighbors to help you out. We are still dumbfounded by the capacity of Americans (80% of attendees are Anglophones) to take charge and not leave any garbage behind (not so sure it would be the same in France...).

Based on free expression, Burning Man is full of unbridled creativity. You will be tempted to stop every 10 meters to photograph the eccentric clothing of the participants. Here, everyone can dress and undress to his or her liking, in an atmosphere of Moulin Rouge meets Mad Max, a giant gothic influenced techno party, or a hippie gathering.

Here there are no spectators, everyone is supposed to participate according to their tastes and possibilities. No stage, but a succession of events, parties and shows organized by the camps themselves. The more ambitious camps install dance floors that bring together 3,000 clubbers and DJs as reputable as Carl Cox. Other create more cozy artistic spaces, other create Zen spaces for yoga and meditation... there is something for all tastes and all styles.

Given the span of the encampment (3 miles in diameter), to move around the "playa" you may want to opt for a bike or one of the 600 mutant vehicles: double-decker bus turned into a boat with a dancefloor, mechanical mouse, robot spider, rolling penis, or a rolling skull that light up at night using LEDs and flame throwers (pyrotechnics is a very present art form at Burning Man).

Evolution from Delrious on Vimeo.

No need for bus tickets for a week, as money no longer exists. Everything functions using the concept of donation. From the open bar at parties, the access to the giant sculptures, the live spectacles, the French fries of the Quebec camp, the objective is to make others happy... After living a few days at this rhythm, one feels like simply collapsing from the new discoveries, stimulating exchanges, sounds and images, lack of sleep and climatic conditions.

In the end, many characterize Burning Man as a gathering of half naked eccentrics under the influence of drugs (which also exists in Burning Man’s diverse population), but the Festival is so much more than that. True creative debauchery, it shows that 40,000 people are crazy enough to leave everything behind for a week to celebrate sharing with strangers, partying and creation. If you want to live an incredible week, or a break far from Twitter, Facebook, or your Blackberry, reserve your spot at Burning Man 2010 at burningman.com.


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Sources
- My BurningMan photos
- The official BurningMan festival website
- The original post on culture-buzz.fr
- Translated by H. Turner


 

Comments

1. Thursday 22 October 2009 attime 21:25, by Phil :: jetsetplumbingbrisbane@gmail.com

This is one festival that I have known about for a fair few years now and ALWAY marked it on the diary to attend - however I’ve never been able to get there. So maybe 2010 here I come!!

2. Tuesday 3 November 2009 attime 07:24, by Mack :: http://www.travelfront.com/the-burn...

Very nice post and pics. Burning Man Festival in Nevada desert lasting for three weeks, its start from september. In festival you can enjoy mammoth wire-cased effigies, jazz coffee bars. Black Rock City is metamorphosed into the most sphinx-like cities in America. The camp site spans eight kilometres across and is organised in a horse-shoe shaped manner about the neon-veiled, close to twelve meters high Man effigy.

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