Bernie Man

Welcome to Burning Man, a world unlike any other.  I traveled to this world on the week preceding Labor day and found Burning Man to be the most creative community I have ever witnessed.  No! Witnessed is not the right word as Burning Man is about participation, it is about community, creativity, generosity, gratitude, and spirituality...but mostly Burning Man is about fun! 

Burning Man is a new world, a dream, an experiment, a success!   It is a week long event held in one of the most beautiful but difficult environments I have ever lived in, the Black Rock Playa of northwest Nevada.  Burning Man is not for the weak or timid.  This new world is disorienting, where things are inverted from the normal world we know.  Appropriate attire is anything that you normally would not be caught dead in... or nothing at all.  Freedom of choice is taken to new limits and tolerance is expanded. 

It is virtually impossible to explain this world of 36,000 participants that exists for only one week a year, but if you follow me by clicking the images below you might just get a glimpse of what awaits you next year in this beautiful, exhilarating and surreal world known as Burning Man.

One can spend an enjoyable day observing magnificent art in a museum like MoMA but that experience cannot compare to interacting with the art of the playa.  Participation, a fundamental aspect of this event extends to the art as well and you find yourself an integral piece as cog, reflection or energy source.  You are part of the landscape, part of the scene.

There are really just three rules at Burning Man:  1) be self-reliant 2) participate (no spectators) and 3) no commerce.  What makes Burning Man a completely different society is the fact that NOTHING can be bought or sold.  Burning Man then becomes the modern day equivalent of the potlatch.  Food, drink and services are given away or bartered.  Participants are unusually friendly and outgoing and it seems that people are eager to make deep connections with their fellow man.

One part Mad Max, one part Hustler, one part Guggenheim, one part Zendo.  These are some of the ingredients that make this new world weird, erotic, dusty, tribal, strange, beautiful, loud and heavenly. 

At night, neon lights, glow sticks and omnipresent fires light your way while Techno beats thump from passing mutant vehicles and theme camps that line the Esplanade.

By Labor Day the majority of Burners break camp, pack up and depart.  The Art of the Playa has either been burned or is trucked back from where it came.  Volunteers stay behind to assure that every piece of litter and ash is removed from the desert and in short order the playa is again just as God created it. Reduce, Reuse, Recycle is the creed of Burning Man.