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Burning Man
Burning Man
Tomas Loewy, Photographer, Florida
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There is one thing that needs be said about the Burning Man festival – who hasn’t experienced it, will never believe. And even those that have experienced it in person will look for evidence in the form of photographs and other souvenirs long after the festival has ended, in order for them to be completely sure that it was not all just a dream. Perhaps you are thinking that we are exaggerating, but do believe that Burning Man is not just another random festival. It’s a mixture of all the things a person could imagine under the word festival. Music, art, entertainment, unrestrained sex, new friendship, complete isolation from civilization,… - all of this and more awaits you in the middle of the Nevada desert for one whole week. But do not be fooled, even this form of entertainment has its rules, making Burning Man that more valuable and attractive. You can find out more about the course of the festival and its participants in the reportage by Tomas Loewy, who experienced the festival first hand. In the end, what could be more inviting than an interpretation of a man who in no way is a Burning Man rookie. (WoL)
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As a European living in Miami Beach I went to Burning Man for the first time 5 years ago. I met a (very) nice American girl from Brooklyn. She had been at the event seven times. As we were getting to know each other closely Jill would spend hours talking to me about the unique spirit of the entire community that touches Burners in the desert, what a magical and communal element makes this kind of a better-world place. How relaxed everything is and how the principles of a gift economy make people better. You give gifts to others. You don’t buy, don’t trade. And you often receive gifts.
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Contrary to widespread opinion Burning Man is not an event where people exchange things, services or friendship. It is an occasion where the good nature of people rises and gifts are given to others. A small souvenir for some, big parties for others. Everyone the way they can or want to participate. Whether a pizza from the Pizza Sluts on grounds of friendship, human kindness and principle into someone’s lap falls, whether you attend the Jivamukti Yoga course (daily at 11am in Duck Pond) or learn something new for life at the Greater Intimacy with Hypnosis (11am-1pm in Poly Paradise), no activities offered in the 80-page small print brochure What/Where/When are paid or exchanged, everything is free. The only price one has to pay is co-operation.
The Motto at Burning Man: Radical self-expression, radical self-reliance. Be a participant, never a spectator, a tourist. You are part of it, so bring to it whatever you believe to have to give.
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„A small souvenir for some, big parties for others.”
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Bystanders are also undesirable, just like boring clothes and sometimes clothes in general (but everyone can make their own decision and change every hour). Co-operation is the motto, under which people meet for one week commencing on the last Monday in August in the remote Black Rock Desert. Old-timers excitedly talk about the long gone days when everything – allegedly – was more authentic, personal and spontaneous. It could be that as Larry Harvey built and set a wooden model fire on a beach in San Francisco in 1986 and named this time-honoured event devoted to the nature gods the Burning Man, the world was better. Last years of the previous century might have been more authentic and thanks to a much lower number of participants at around 4,000 also more personal, just like everybody knows everybody in a small town. The dynamics developed at the Burning Man during the five years since I was there for the first time compensates for the transformed everything-was-better-back-then romance.
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It is fascinating how you can enjoy a week in the style of a better world and yet have an endless personal feel of experience. Yes, there are parties, alcohol, nudity, drugs and sex in quantities that would please every hedonist. However, at the same time it is a festival of self-aware people who are practicing and learning how to deal with themselves and others, who often break up the endless night on their bikes having only the Moon and the surrounding mountains as guides, and who simply lay on their back two kilometres before the rush, relax, watch the black sky if it is night and meditate.
„The Burning Man is an event which changes lives and draws a certain positive addiction.”
| The valley of the Black Rock Desert is so endless that the 50,000 people camping in a ¾ circle represent only a point in the universe. The width of the landscape, the long distances when you are visiting friends at the other side of the circle and (fortunately) no cell phone signal let you forget in 1,2,3 days, where what we call Civilisation starts and where it ends. Mostly people move on bikes (which they brought with them), sometimes by foot or one can use the opportunity to enjoy a ride in the crazy Art Cars. Here, the following is also true: everybody is welcome, there is always a free space on the Mad Max-like vehicle moving at 8km/h. Joe, my friend and art manager (the one who does most of the work, and also has the most fun) from Camp Overkill managed to get sixty-one (yes, 61!) people on his Space Orgy, a miracle piece, on a body of a Cadillac from the seventies. |
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I was brought to Overkill by my then flatmate in Miami. Nick is a 34-year-old attorney who went to school in Reno, Nevada (where you fly to if you only want to have a 3-hour drive to the Burning Man) and by whose father the Dodge Ram that becomes my home during the Burning Man is standing. As we were driving together for the first time in the direction to the small town of Gerlach, which is the nearest city to the Burning Man, through the moonland of Northern Nevada, Nick used the long ride to prepare me for the Burning Man, including the fact that all Burning Man Virgins are whipped (very gently) on arrival. The funny thing: Even though both of them had been at the Burning Man seven times, Nick’s vision of the festival was very little similar to Jill’s story mentioned at the beginning.
And as I was then watching the first round myself with my eyes wide open and childlike enthusiastic (I also based my photos on this naive curiosity), I knew that my Burning Man would only meet Jill’s or Nick’s at several points of contact.
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And that is the way it was. The Burning Man is an event which changes lives and draws a certain positive addiction: As there the good-bye from new and old friends always goes: Next year at Burning Man!
Weeks of Tomas Loewy
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