wandering

I've been meaning to write about my trip to Burning Man for a couple of weeks now but words cannot capture the amazing, once in a lifetime, mind altering event.

The best I can do to describe the experience is as a cross between Mad Max taking place on the planet "Tatooine" in Star Wars meets Willy Wonka meets all night raves meets art meets fire. Oh, and little or no cops.


At least not there to do anything more than conflict resolution. Throw in a real "Thunderdome", roving flame throwers, massive light saber fights the most beautiful people you've ever seen and free everything within the city limits (except ice) and wow - it is the biggest (47,000 people) and longest (24 hours for 7 days) party on earth. This was one of the wildest weeks of my life - hell - some of the wildest hours of my life! and every few minutes there'd be an equally unique/bizarre/crazy/wow adventure happening in every direction.

Words fail, or at least mine do, to capture Burning Man. The event must be experienced first hand. If you are keeping a life list of things to do before you die, grab a pen an write this down right now.

People with kids are there (Kids Camp!). Thousands of people at some of the biggest parties and did I mention a very minimal (at least visually) police presence? So many people and I didn't witness a single fight. This is a far cry (thank God) from the abonination we celebrate and call the college bar scene. Seriously. We should ban booze and legalize drugs. Though free booze was ubiquitous, all you had to do was bring your own cup, everyone was in love with everyone for a week. By the end of the week it was like you could read each other's minds - seriously. You'd be walking that last Sunday morning and people would just connect with you, eye to eye, smile and hug, then walk on. It was like nothing else imaginable.

Here are the best pictures I've found yet.
Flikr
Most pictures can't capture the mood or the essence of a place - but these come close.

A book I highly recommend is "This is Burning Man" by Brian Doherty.

Here is a link to some pictures I took with a simple point and shoot. I've added some descriptions for context, but it's really hard to talk about.

Go is the best thing I can write about Burning Man - GO.