One of the most memorable moments from my first visit to The Burning Man festival was dancing around flames with 15,000 other people. Most of them were clad in off-the-wall costumes or in various states of undress. Meanwhile, the darkness of the Nevada night was lit up by fires and explosions. Everybody was celebrating something, but no one was quite sure what.
It was chaos, but chaos of the best type. To an outsider it may have looked like anarchy, but to me everyone there was respectful. You didn't know what was going to happen next, but everything that happened was exciting and loving.
The Burning Man festival is described as an experiment in community, self-expression and self-reliance. Every year, thousands of 'burners' gather in the Black Rock desert, Nevada and transform the barren landscape into a working city that is overflowing with creativity. They leave a week later having left no trace of the city on the environment. The festival culminates on the Saturday night, when a wooden man is filled with fireworks and explosives and set alight while the festival goers party.
It all started in 1986 when Larry Harvey and some friends burnt an effigy of a man on Baker Beach in San Francisco. Within a few years the party had grown to such numbers that Burning Man was forced from the urban beach to the Nevada desert.
My first year there was 1997 and by this stage the festival had established itself as a cultural phenomenon. That year 10,000 people attended. These numbers have continued to grow: in 2008 it was estimated that there were 50,000 attendees.
For one week every year the Black Rock desert becomes the most populated place in the entire county and it runs like a working city. Streets are marked out and named; there are sanitary, security and health services. The city has its own post office and a Radio Free Burning Man broadcasts around the clock. The Black Rock Gazette is published daily.
Burning Man is not like any other festival. Visitors are encouraged to 'participate' and there are 'no spectators'. It's not about going to see bands and DJs playing. Although that's all there, it's primarily an art festival, where you are invited to be the artist. Each individual is the headlining act and you have the freedom to decide what that means for them. It could be painting yourself or a picture, setting up a theme camp, making cookies for your neighbours, dressing up in crazy costumes or building giant installations. It's your festival, so you decide.
Commercial activity is prohibited, with the exception of an official cafe run by the organisers. There are no advertisements or corporate logos. Everyone must bring everything that they need to survive the extremes of the desert. Anything beyond that must be bartered for or gifted.
The ideals around Burning Man make a daytime stroll around Black Rock city really exciting. People cycle everywhere, many of them naked. Couches are given motors, as are bars which will give you a drink in exchange for a song. There are impromptu performances happening everywhere, art cars that look like sharks or insects creep across the desert floor. Sculptures and installations decorate this once barren landscape. If the sun becomes too much, you can relax in one of the many communal theme camps. Some provide hammocks and fruit or rain mist to cool you down. Everything seems to have such thought put into it and a real generosity attached to it.
Everywhere I went people offered me food, drink, invites to parties, classes and readings. This openness can feel so alien at first and can give you a type of culture shock. 'Burning Man Shock' is listed on the official website as, 'more or less the opposite of Culture Shock, a state of happiness, euphoria and freedom which sets in while attending Burning Man, after one has conformed to 'normal' life for too long'.
At night the place really comes alive. DJs play from booths that can resemble anything from a palm tree to a sunken ship. A neon kangaroo bounces past, its lights powered by a cyclist peddling the bike that it's attached to. Sculptures and camps are decorated with lights and torches. There are parties, fires and pyrotechnics everywhere.
One of the craziest things I saw was Dr Megavolt. He wears a metal mesh suit and plays with 70,000 crackling volts of electricity generated by tesla coils as the audience marvel and respect the force of electricity.
Every single sense in your body is heightened at Burning Man. Your perceptions of reality are turned inside out, on their head and decorated with tinsel.
It's been called Las Vegas on acid and a Woodstock for the 21st Century. But it's more that that: Burning Man is a philosophy which makes us look at how we live in a capitalist society. Thousands flock there every year as a type of sacred pilgrimage which frees them from consumerist culture. For artists it's a chance to exhibit in a massive gallery and anonymously if they wish. And for others is pure hedonism.
The festival climaxes on the Saturday night when everything is burned. Art works and installations that have taken people months to build are set alight. The Temple of Forgiveness, where people inscribe the names of loved ones who have died, is burned, symbolic of liberation. Fireworks and small explosions are going off all around the desert. But the most important event is the burning of the man. His arms are raised and he is filled with explosives and set alight.
Thousands gather around the man and cheer and dance while 84 feet of him is burned to the ground in a dramatic, explosive scene. It feels like a neo pagan ritual where people are gathered from all over the world in some kind of worship.
As a 20-year-old who had never really travelled, the thrill of that moment was overwhelming. The joy I felt went far beyond the expanse of the Black Rock desert and gave me an enthusiasm and an excitement for my future. To experience a world so different with such openness, freedom and fun was without doubt one of the most amazing experiences of my life.
When, Where and How?
Burning Man runs from 31 August to 7 September 2009. Tickets for Burning Man cost $280 online. Tickets must be bought beforehand, they are not sold at the gate.
Most people use San Francisco as a base to get there. Fly Dublin to San Francisco direct with Aer Lingus. Hire a camper van or car in San Francisco and drive to Black Rock City. For directions, visit: www.burningman.com.
The Green Tortoise is a San Francisco adventure tours operator and you can go with the company to Burning Man. Green Tortoise will bring all the food and water that you need, which can be handy when you are coming from another country. For more, visit: www.greentortoise.com ($340 for 3 days).
Remember, you must bring everything with you to survive in the desert - shelter, food, water and fuel. Temperatures can exceed 100 degrees Fahrenheit during the day and can plummet at night; winds can exceed 75mph. You cannot buy or sell anything in Black Rock City - there is one official cafe - it's a place of sharing and bartering only.
Deirdre Mullins
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