Story: A Burning Passion

A BURNING PASSION

For the last 5 years I have been longing to attend the Burningman Festival in Black Rock desert about 150 miles north of Reno, Nevada, but every year either work or family obligations prevented me from going. For a middle aged Midwestern mother of two teenagers, trapped in suburbia, the obstacles for attending Burningman seemed formidable. Could I talk my husband into going with me? Could I trust my two teenage daughters not to throw their own “burningman festival” in my home while, Mom and Dad were partying in the desert? Could I withstand the rigors of camping in the crushing desert heat, not to mention the crazy dust storms that spring up from nowhere? My husband DID go with me and loved it, and I’m sure my teenage daughters threw a party while we were gone, so what? As for the desert heat………..it’s a DRY heat. And the dust washes off eventually. Burningman was challenging, spritual , exhausting, envigorating and JUST what I needed. I experienced moments of utter hopelessness and transcendent beauty all in one day and saw some of the coolest art installations imaginable.

As the saying goes, “trying to explain Burningman to someone who has never been there is a bit like trying to explain what a particular color looks like to a blind person”. Now over 40,000 strong, this art party of free-wheeling nonconformist, intellectuals , uninhibited artists, and ravers from around the world decend upon a dry lake bed over 100 miles from the nearest supermarket or shopping mall in what can only be described as a combination of Halloween, New Years Eve, Mardis Gras and the Apocalpse all rolled into one weeklong Labor day party. At the center of Burningman’s Black Rock City is a 4 story man made out of neon and wood that is set on fire on Saturday night. This temporary city ( the 7th largest city in Nevada, but only for one week) is complete with a radio station, library, hotel, cemetery, roller rink, and post office. Black Rock City is reborn each year as revelers rebuild the city from scratch every year. Hundreds of art cars and theme camps surround The Man. My favorite theme camp was Barbie Death Camp and Wine Bistro. The camp consisted of thousands of Barbie dolls in various stages of being tortured or dying. Barbie crucified to a hot pink cross, Barbie being hung by a rope, Barbie getting run over by her own dream car and hundreds of Barbie dolls being forced at GI Joe gunpoint into an Easy Bake oven. Plus they were serving some excellent award winning Napa valley chardonnay from pink paper Barbie doll cups. Niiice.