I was just thinking about it. I’ve never been to the great Black Rock City and would like to know what it’s like in taht one week a year. And a few questions:
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Are there a lot of tourists?
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Are there a lot of drugs?
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Is it worth it?
Just curious 
My best friends husband has gone every year for about 20 years.
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They try to keep them out, as they come to stare mostly. Tickets are outrageously expensive at the gate. ($100.+)
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Positively anything you could want, and stuff you’ve never heard of.
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He thinks so.
Baglady goes - she has a website. I’ll dig out the url later today (when I get home ) and post it if she hasn’t shown up by then.
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I haven’t seen her around for a while - anyone know if she is OK?
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I’d agree with Dragonlady’s responses to your 3 questions. I’ve been a few times and can honestly say that each time was a fantastic experience for me.
That said, a venture out to Burning Man should not be undertaken lightly. The area is extremely desolate, weather can be a bit frightening at times (mostly windstorms). However, if you go with the attitude to just be a part of the experience and go with the flow, you’ll have a GREAT time. Be prepared for a lot of nudity, though.
Some examples: one year it rained heavily, turning the entire playa (lake bed) into a muddy mess. Most people took this as an opportunity for a huge mudfight - most with no clothes on.
One of my fondest memories - I woke just after dawn after a few hours of sleep. As I crawled from our tent, I saw a red Toyota pickup go driving by. It was towing a wooden sled about 50 feet behind it. Mounted on the sled was a white toilet. Sitting on the toilet was a guy wearing a cowboy hat and boots and nothing else. He was reading a newspaper…
So, Crack’d, it’s kinda like Cell was that night, except outside?
I have not been to BurningMan, but as for myself I rather fancy the Rainbow Family Gathering of the Tribes.
It’s less huge, and it is not hyped in the media. The only people who go are the ones who genuinely are attuned to the gentle ethos of the Rainbow Family Tribe in harmony with Mother Earth.
Another advantage of the Rainbow Gathering is that it’s usually held in national parks where the climate is more comfortable than BurningMan’s arid desert playa. Water is more plentiful in the woodland environment.
The Rainbow Gathering also has general nudism and abundant psychedelics. The only two prohibitions are alcohol and firearms. However, I hear the alcohol and firearm crowd has taken to setting up their own parallel gathering just at the boundary of the main one.
A disadvantage of the Rainbow Gathering is having to use national parks, which frequently brings down severe harrassment from Smokey the Bear. The Blue Meanies have been relentless at times in their mindless determination to shut down the peaceful flower people’s gathering, and I fear they may have permanently wrecked it. Still, it has developed its own subculture that lives on across the land and in Europe too. Rainbows are always on the move, crossing the continent in their converted school buses, and they stay in touch with one another through internet connectivities such as alt.gathering.rainbow.
I went to the one in Modoc County, California, in 1984. It was one blissful week of peace & love. When you arrive, the greeters hug you and say the time-honored phrase, “WELCOME HOME.”
Sort of. Compared to Burning Man, the Cell was a bit tame. No nudity, orgy tents, explosions. There was a bit of fire at Cell, though. Remember the blowtorch/nose drilling guy?
I’ll have to take you and oldscratch out to Burning Man this year. 
Mmm. Nose drill guy. Lovely lunchtime thought!
Well, the people at Cell may have smelled (marginally) better.
Never been, but want to.
I think if I went, I’d rent a U-Haul or something to use as part of our living area, and make a tent off the end of it. Plus it could carry all the supplies (nine zillion gallons of water, etc)
Hmm. Desert sun doesn’t sound too friendly to my delicate complexion. And scratchie’s got that whole skin cancer thing going for him… Can’t we just wreak our own havoc, inside, without the sun and heat and smelly dirty naked people?
Though I must admit it does sound fascinating…
Baglady and I have been to the last two Burns. Baglady will be going again next year (she is actively involved with the Black Rock City Rangers) but I will probably stay home for that one - I don’t have as good a time as she does. Friends of our have gone to the last five Burns.
- Are there tourists. Yes, of course there are, but the last Burn was much better in that regard that '99. Ticket prices have gone WAY up, especially for the spontaneous arrivals (you wouldn’t believe how much BLM charges for the land permits). The press presence was much less obvious this year than last (though police enforcement was higher this year as well - election time).
What tourists there are assimilate pretty quickly.
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Yes, there are lots of drugs. But I personally don’t do drugs and it is still easy to have a good time. There is definitely no pressure to do anything you don’t want to do. Nobody cares how you go about having your fun as long as you are inhibiting their fun.
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Highly subjective. For baglady it is definitely worth it. For me it is borderline. The weather hasn’t been that great the last two years. In '99 it was cold (not a big deal during the day, but most of the good stuff happens at night); in '00 it was windy and a bit of rain.
Try to be part of a large group. Unless you are the type that just walk up and join a party of strangers, you need your own group to kind of kick start the festivities. Plus, if you have a group and plan well you will likely eat better and be more comfortable. Plan you shade structure, when it is 105 degrees you want to be able to still enjoy company while being out of the sun, tents will turn into ovens. If you put together a group, everybody should still bring water sufficient for themselves. If one person is responsible for water and then doesn’t show up for some reason you are screwed.
The only things you can buy once inside the fences are ice and coffee/tea. Reasonably priced fortunately, but you aren’t going to want to buy ice to melt as drinking water. If you are caught buying/selling anything else you may be removed. Barter is acceptable and in certain parts encouraged (though there is a purist train of thought that everything should be given away without expecation of something in return).
Plan to get there early and stay late. No matter how much you participate, if you show up on Saturday morning and leave immediately after the burn that night, you are just a tourist. If the whole point of your stay is to see the Man burn then you are there for the wrong reasons. Burning Man is an experimen in community building. If you show up on Monday or Tuesday before the Burn you will get to see a city of 25,000 people grow up out of nothing. This city will have some of the most amazing (and some of the most stupid) sites you will ever see.
The Burn happens on Saturday night before Labor Day. That night will be one of the craziest you’ll ever experience (if you can let yourself go with the flow). But the true treat is you stay the next night as well. For the last two years, up until Sunday night I have been saying to myself “it is fun, but just not worth the trouble.” Monday morning, I am saying “that is just fucking phenomenal, how could I miss this next year?” Sunday night is again a city-wide party, but the pressure is off and most of the tourists have left. Stay Sunday night; that is the best advice I can give you.
Volunteer in some way. Have a role. If you want it to be, Burning Man is completely unstructured. Nothing happens on time and few things even have a time when they are supposed to happen. However, you will feel much better if you do something to give back. Be a Ranger (kick-ass security made up of participants); join the Department of Public Works (though that is a major commitment, these are the people that show up early and build the fences and then stay there late and make sure everything is clean enough the BLM will give us a permit for next year; assist with Exodus. Just do something that will give your visit a little bit of purpose, it really does help. As mentioned, baglady is a Ranger. I don’t do that, but this last time I was the camp cook for 10 people. I made ice cream on the desert, served them gourmet meals three times a day. I wasn’t helping the entire city but I had a purpose.
Finally, if you are going just so you can see lots of fires, naked people, and do lots of drugs then please don’t go. Fucking tourists!
True Burning Man Moment '99: 2 a.m. Sunday night. Baglady and I are just wandering aimlessly and come across a camp that has set up a big screen and has a projector. Sit in the middle of the desert watching The Wizard of Oz for the next hour.
True Burning Man Moment '00: Baglady and I decide to take a walk during one of the year’s many sandstorms. We are on the open playa hoping we are walking a straight enough line to get to the Man. Visibility is down to about 20 feet. Suddenly we are surrounded by a convoy of topless women on bikes. Open playa, sandstorm, Critical Tits. That is the essense of what Burning Man is.
PS: fierra, baglady is fine. She has just been bogged down with more projects than she can handle. She’ll eventually find the time to get back in here.
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thanks obfus
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Thanks for everything so far, guys. Keep the replies coming!
When I first heard about it, I was under the impression that the whoel surreality of it would negate any need for
hallucinogens. Then I hear that Burning Man veterans are quite knowledgeable of drugs. Whenever I go to a rave and there are people absolutely fried on E, it does kind of ruin the experience. Does anything like that happen at BM?
I can not say that I have gone, though I wish to in the future, however my brother has been going for the past…3? 4? …years and he loves it. He has a small group that he goes with, called Space Lounge, and they usually set up a relatively large camp and for the past two years they have run a bar. The bar works on the barter system, you bring something cool in, or do something cool or whatever, and you will get a free drink. If you want to check out pictures of the place, and idea for structures and the like, check out my brother’s web site. He and his roommate run it off of their DSL line in their house.
http://www.spacelounge.com
Click on the lava lamp on the first page, and then click on the link, “Spacelounge at Burning Man” They have picyures of the whole camp and pictures of the people of other weird stuff. If you do go, have fun and try to keep an open mind. From what I have heard it gets pretty crazy sometimes.
-N