I’ve always wanted to go.
It’s like Mardi Gras for really crazy people.
Edited to add “really”.
I don’t plan on going this year…or probably ever. Too many rules and customs to learn, it seems…sort of like junior high with all the cliques and in-jokes. If you haven’t been going for years, you aren’t part of the in-crowd, it seems to me.
I wasn’t going before I knew what it was. Now that I know what it is, I’m still not going 
Have fun, though. Stay cool?
My sister-in-law goes. I’ve seen her pictures. Doesn’t particularly appeal to me.
I hate to tell ya, Kittenblue, but there’s all sorts of cliques and in-jokes in all stratums of society, even, dare I say, here in the Halls of SDMB. I was so busy absorbing everything going on around me I didn’t have a chance to worry if I was doing what I was supposed to be doing and, really, I could have cared less. I was just having a great time and seeing things that were just incredible. Last year was my first year and if I’d gone out by myself I still would have had the same experience.
Been there, did that for fifteen years. Somehow a persistent friend finally talked me into going. Addicted…nuff said
Dig this. A lot of my friends there are contractors and electricians and they’re hauling out some supersized generator that we’re all gonna be able to plug our trailers into ( meaning AC ) and erecting an enclosed tent that will have an industrial sized swamp cooler PLUS an area to set up a large screen for my TV, VCR, DVD movie projector.
We’re gonna have an ice-cold air-conditioned movie theater on the Playa.
Buttered popcorn and candy included.
Sorry you can’t be there.
I’m not going, but my ex will. He’s currently sewing costumes for his Burner group, and helping build their shelter, which he’s going a week early to help set up. He will also be performing with a group that does perfomance art with fire. He offered to take the Princess along but she insists on waiting till she’s 11 to go. Personally, I always wanted to go, but I hate camping so I will probably have to wait till I can somehow acquire an RV or something.
I’m going to go one day…but bloody work keeps fetting in the way.
OK, now I really DO want to be there. THAT’S my idea of camping 
Hope you have a great time! 
In my 20’s I would have been a freekin star at Burning Man… but it didn’t exist yet
In my 30’s I would have been an enthusiastic participant, although slightly “meh-ed” at the 50+ hippy dippy anarchists who really have it together and are totally cool, except for the fact that they are funded by a trust fund (its easy to be a free spirit when nothing costs you anything)… As I say I have never gone, but had met a few of what I just described, and they all have gone…
Now - In my 40’s… Meh… a whole group of people who get together to collectively expereince and celebrate their “difference”…Who talk about being green while leaving a trash foot print the size of a small town, and are STILL living off the trust fund… Although I would like to see the Sub Genius tent. Bob rules!
FML
So, you were hotshit in your 20’s, huh? Well, isn’t that what everybody in their 20’s thinks about themselves. Care to elaborate on what would have made you so special if there had been a Burning Man. Not doggin’ ya, dude, just curious.
And, really, what does age have to do with anything. Last year ( my first time ) I saw quite a few senior citizens who weren’t hippy dippy at all. As a matter of fact, a lot of them looked almost like they were right out of the Saturday Evening Post ( some actually had clothes on ).
Maybe you’re being just a little, itsy, bitsy, teeny, weeny pre- judgemental, hmm…maybe? C’mon ya big lug, you can admit it. We’re all friends here.
And rest assured, the area is left as pristine as when everybody first gets there. Otherwise, the BLM would have kicked their asses out of there a long time ago.
It’s all cool ( oops, didn’t mean to sound to hippyish )
And what’s this trust fund you keep talking about and why haven’t I gotten mine!!
I like to create my own Burning Man celebration by immediately setting fire to people who won’t shut up about this event. Oddly, none of them ever give me any applause for choosing to express my individuality in this way…
Unless there’s a major unexpected happenstance that happens unexpectedly, I won’t be going this year, nope.
I’ve been once, about five years ago, and I had a frickin’ blast. It probably helped that my first (and currently only) time was my partner’s second; he not only gave me the skinny on what to expect, but also had an established circle of friends and acquaintances already which made it easier for me to find a niche.
One thing that really impressed me was that while there was a *whole lot *of boozing going on, I didn’t see or hear about a single one of the drunk-fights or similar unpleasant melodramas one might well expect to prevail during a week of serious lushing by several thousand people out in the middle of BumFuzzuck Nowhere, Nevada without a cop in sight for the most part. My main experience with huge outdoor scenes has been Rainbow Gatherings, outdoor rock shows and some Bluegrass festivals, and that much free booze at any of those events would have inevitably resulted in considerable ethyl-and-androgen-fuelled aggro shitheadism, up to and including physicrampant al combat, several brawls, and very likely the odd ADW. For that many drunk oddballs to be able to camp peaceably in rather taxing conditions while drinking heavily, spoke volumes to me about the overall vibe of the event. As did the bizarre creativity on display everywhere, and the fact that people really were managing to keep all that various and chaotic and ever-accelerating shit pretty much together. Plus it was freakin’ beautiful to behold, and to bike around in madly all night.
Bad Idea Theatre was one of the maddest, fabulous-est and most comradely places I have ever spent swilling vodka and Hawaiian punch with strangers all night long in, in damned near five decades of being a hedonist weirdo heathern!
There was a real Bookmobile except if you found a book you really liked, you could have it to keep for free!
And great, grandiose, grotesque public artwork all over the place! And thousands of people playing musical instruments and excellent recordings! AMPLIFIED even!
A nice guy I never met before gave me a brand-new Ramones t-shirt just because I said I liked it!
There were robots therer, just walking around attending the fest and being themselves like everyone else! And some of the damndest looking, coolest looking motor vewhicles ever seen by mortal eyes driving around all over the place and you could ride in them!
That tent with the popcorn and flagellation – outstanding!
There were two things I didn’t get to do that disappointed me to no end though. One was I didn’t get to see the Thunderdome in action, and the other was that I didn’t get to go up in one of those bicycle-pulled flying thingies like giant kites or gliders or something.
Oh well, somebody has to stick around town and hold down the fort, otherwise who’s gonna drink all those depth charges and make sure the pets get fed? Besides, these drugs ain’t gonna just do themselves, ya know. But I’d sure like to go again some day.
I’m not going. I’ve never been.
I suppose I’d go if I didn’t have a zillion other places to go, too. I’ve already taken a lot of time off and done a whole lot of traveling in the last year or so.
Not going. Only went once, in 1998. Amazing experience, but somewhat costly when factoring in travel and supply expenses.
I might go next year. If I can get enough time off next summer, I might do a road trip with my brother who will be going to college after next summer, culminating in Burning Man. Assuming his school year starts after Labor Day. I guess he’d have to fly back. I’ve heard it’s a little more rules-y and alcoholic frat boy-y than when I went in 98. Can anyone confirm or deny?
I was finally going to go this year- my first time. I even bought a ticket.
However, my camping partner realized she couldn’t make it, and my schedule’s a little tight as well… so I had to sell my ticket. Maybe next year.
There’s a ban on dogs? What the fuck?
I’d consider going if I were single. It seems like it would be a great opportunity to have lots of random sex. But I’m not a cheating man, so, no can do.
Not my scene.
Anybody remember Zenster? He and I talked about meeting there and then plans fell apart. It’s an amazing time, something everyone should “experience” at least once in their lives. No not going this year.
I don’t like the desert. Now if they wanted to host it on my beach, we can talk…
Nope. It’s always struck me as obscenely stupid. I know a guy who’s gone and when I once asked what, exactly, the point was, he resorted to telling me I just “don’t get it”. He also proudly admitted to being heavily influenced by at least three different substances the entire time he was there. Definitely not my scene.