Tuesday 17th September 2013

I felt as though I needed to let some time pass between the event and attempting to write about it. There were so many different thoughts and feelings provoked by Burning Man I wanted to give them sometime to settle before I committed words to the page. I'm not 100% sure the time is now, but I have the distinct impression there may never be a perfect now in which to do this as the chains of thoughts its triggered could be without end. On that basis now is as good a time as any to begin...


To my surprise it seems as though what's stuck with me most is the different mode of operation I have adopted in day to day life, rather than some fond reminiscences of my adventures on the playa (this is the terminology for the desert where Burning Man is based among Burners (those who attend Burning Man)). I seem to have found the space between the words, there's more time to think and to get things done. Perhaps its a byproduct of not spending time thinking about the book I'm trying to write in its totality (something I've been trying to avoid but finding on occasion unavoidable). Now without effort I find a series of smaller tasks that present themselves to me as if dropping off a conveyor belt at a branch of Yo Sushi. With this simplification comes the time to breath in and breath out. I'm sure this is not just Burning Man's effect alone, how truly difficult would it be to ever isolate anyone influence on our person and determine its extent in the wider frame of reference? Impossible I'm sure. But I know its in there in some high sphere of influence driving me forward. Sure, life on the road charges me up, and San Francisco and the Bay Area are bringing me all sorts of good source material for the book but Burning Man meant something else...


What was it about Burning Man that triggered this response? First and foremost the people and their interactions with one another all through the festival. Even before we'd arrived we were subject to a warmth and generosity of spirit I've rarely encountered. An afternoon spent in Walmart in Reno attempting to get everything we'd need to survive in the desert was interspersed with meeting other burners doing the same thing we were, happy to share tips and tales of life on the playa. The lady at the cash-desk was happy to see all of the Burners too, and insisted on packing the shopping as she'd got “a pretty good idea of what would be best packed together” having been “packing for Burners for years”. She even closed the checkout to take Chris to the butchers to get dry ice to keep our cool-boxes really damn cold. This isn't in itself all that remarkable, nice but not remarkable. It does however, mark the beginning of a crescendoing level of friendliness that climaxed one week later in Blackrock City (the name given to the week long settlement in the desert that is Burning Man) with the burning of the man.


As far as I could tell the attitude of every person at the festival was one of unity. An air of permissiveness (not anything new on its own) coupled with a desire to share and exchange ideas (whether they be frivolous or profound – I'll give an example of each in a minute) was underpinned by an awareness that we needed to look after one another and that included the desert (a both harsh and delicate environment simultaneously). No one dropped a cigarette that I ever saw, and if there ever was a piece of rubbish on the ground I was usually alerted to it by virtue of the fact someone had ducked down to scoop it up as soon as they spotted it. This is called MOOPing (Matter Out Of Place) and is a typical behaviour that is promoted here and lies at the very core of Burning Man's ethos and mission. Sure its a big party in the desert but its a party that celebrates and promotes some serious things all be it in a very alternative manner, and the The Ten Principles lie at the heart of that. I won't list them all but to give you a flavour...


Item 1: “Radical Inclusion – Anyone may be a part of Burning Man. We welcome and respect the stranger. No prerequisites exist for participation in our community.”
- Right off the bat the door is opened to all, no exclusivity, although I did read an opinion piece in the Burning Man Gazette contesting the truthfulness of this statement given the necessity of being able to afford a ticket to be included in the first place! But I think even that shows the extent to which Burning Man tries to be open to internal debate and discussion, so much so they allow publication criticising their adherence to a core principle!


I digress, items 2 and 3... Item 2 “Gifting - Burning Man is devoted to acts of gift giving. The value of a gift is unconditional. Gifting does not contemplate a return or an exchange for something of equal value.” Item 3: “Decommodification - “In order to preserve the spirit of gifting, our community seeks to create social environments that are unmediated by commercial sponsorships, transactions, or advertising. We stand ready to protect our culture from such exploitation. We resist the substitution of consumption for participatory experience.”
- This means no cash and no corporate influence or advertising, and it means bars are free as the drinks (you provide your own cup) provided are gifts! One of the other totally different thing about Burning an vs. another festival is the absence of stages per se. There are no bands or DJs booked to play on a huge stage or vast tent. Instead parties are much more localised and on the whole smaller based in whichever camp is throwing a party at any given time. Burning Man is composed in the main of camps, most Burners join a camp (we were a part of the wonderful Campi camp) but they range in size, theme, experience, centrality, vibe, etc... Our camp was around a hundred people and centred around a Bedouin tent but some were much more elaborate and included huge art-cars: colourful vehicles that travel round the site and out into the deep playa usually kitted out with sound systems and lighting rigs that will blow your average ravers mind. Among my favourites were a huge fire-breathing octopus, a unicorn made from a double decker bus, and a Spanish gondola sailing across the desert. So you're basically only a couple minutes away from some fun and generosity no matter where you are and what time it might be. Gifting takes many other guises beyond simply providing free drinks at a bar, first off the people working at the bars are gifting their time to work there! Chris was gifted among other things a yellow kazoo and an imaginary friendship bracelet but people extend it even further, no one will walk past someone who looks like they might need any kind of help and will do whatever they can to deliver it. This coupled with the complete absence of money from my life for a week was truly blissful. I like many others have felt the stress and strain of exerted by money or more accurately the lack of and its complete silence on the playa undoubtedly has some bearing on the freedom people seem to find.


The rules continue from there and cover: communal effort, civic responsibility, and of course leave no trace (link to the entire listing: http://www.burningman.com/whatisburningman/about_burningman/principles.html#.Ujjl6mTR32A). Before I go on I should make good on my promise to give an example of a frivolous idea and a more serious one that someone wanted to share on the playa... The place for frivolity was definitely in and around the camps on one day I had the pleasure of swinging in a hammock under canvas at one particular camp before taking my first ever ski-shot. This basically involved three people drinking shots of bourbon from glasses that were glued to a small ski, meaning the guy in the middle (me) has to drink without using his/her hands and rely instead upon his co-drinkers; all of this is served via a picture frame held by the barmen. More serious messages were to be found in the temple, this year it was a huge wooden pyramid that must have been at least 50 meters high. Inside people are encouraged to leave messages to loved ones who might be in trouble or dead or confessions of their own. On the last night the temple is burned and with it in silent ceremonial witness all of the Burners in theory let go of whatever pain they were carrying with them. We didn't get to stay to see the temple burn on the Sunday night but a visit during the day on the Wednesday reduced me to tears as I read some of the messages and felt the emotion of everyone there lie thick in the air.


The long and short of all all this is that the people of Blackrock City and their sense unity, enthusiasm to exchange and share ideas and compassion for one another living under a different set of values / principles have triggered a shift in me. From talking with others I've met in San Francisco since who also attended Burning Man my experience is not unique, and some I've spoken to have talked in even more fantastic terms than I about what their experience meant to them. Perhaps even quazi-religious! Lets see how long it stays with me, and here's hoping it keeps me charged until next year.



I'm wondering if having described what has stayed with me from Burning Man and why I may have inadvertently said very little about what actually happened at Burning Man. This may be so and ordinarily I'd aim to remedy that but this time I think a little enigmatic perhaps fits this desert city best. So I'll leave it here and finish by making sure I thank all of the new friends I made in the desert for their kindness, brilliance and good humour; and suggest that like most things in life if you really want to taste it, best get there in person.