for some reason i think he gave me the impression that the festival is not exactly musically focused, but rather it\'s just an enormous gathering of people and anything and everything can happen.
I\'ve heard this. I\'m under the impression there are no officially booked bands at all. If this is, in fact, the case- then I don\'t get it.
everything I\'ve ever heard/
read about it makes it sound like a pretty crazy experience. It\'s a giant festival and gets bigger every year. There\'s a lot of public nudity, which means you get a lot of pervs just following them around (explains why todd wants to go). As Jim hinted at, it appears to be a very hands-on festival as well, so everyone has something they are doing there... very few people are just walking around watching everything else going on, instead they are doing there own thing while checking everyone else out so the whole place becomes a giant midway. That may have changed over time, I\'m sure as it grows in size it looses some of it\'s first ideals. However because it\'s just in the desert, they can handle the larger and larger size of people coming. The site is layed out in a giant "C" shape, so they can just keep expanding it out more and more.
It sounds like the kind of thing that if you have an open mind and really like to break out of your normal work life for a weekend and people watch then you will absolutely have a blast. Plus they set fire to a giant effigy at the end.
I need to come up with an idea for a cool suculpture and get my ass out there next year!
I think that a sculpture representing a liquid relationship between a religious symbol and the earth would be nice, (given how the festival is centered around fire/sky), but I\'m sure that\'s already been done.
if i went i would just stand there and watch everyone, dressed completely normally and totally sober. id probably learn more about life and people that way than by taking acid for 5 days straight and running around naked like most of the other people there.
Just don\'t forget your iPod stocked with 70\'s Stevie Wonder.
I like your style Dave.
Not a music festival. It is about art (and drugs and sand and nudity).
Most of the music seems techno and rave oriented. There is also a heavy modern day tribal influence.
Mostly it is about art. One of my favorites is a 15 foot block of ice with hundreds of clocks embedded in it that slowly melted away over the course of the event. I know Brooklyn was sending out a 25 foot trailer with a dance floor complete with lighting and pyrotechnics that would be able to drive up and down the strip. The strip is really long by the way so bring a bike. The speed limit is low and enforced to make sure no one gets run over.
By the way I have never been and have no plans of going. All of this info is from friends that have gone.
(explains why todd wants to go)
Ha!
As for the tuna bath...Fish oil is really great for your skin, so you would come out feeling really soft after.
ick.
i think i like the pictures (amazing, by the way) better than the thought of being there. especially if Todd is there
my friend ben and i thought about going to burning man and submerging ourselves in a vat of tuna fish, completely naked for the duration of the festival....
ugh! puke!
Now if they were dressed as dolphins they may have something there
Burning Man is going on as we speak.
The SF Chronicle usually has a great photo gallery of Burning Man each year. I\'ll post the link early next week.