More inspiration for my Cover Him With Darkness novel - I've just sent my heroine off to the Burning Man Festival in Nevada ... because I really want to go myself - though I doubt I ever will. I know, I've travelled quite a bit, but I think BM is going to remain a Lifetime Ambition. Logistics too difficult (you need to take your own water and domicile into the middle of the desert), too expensive, too damn difficult to get hands on the tickets. And America is sorta scary, you know.
Burning Man, in case you haven't heard of it, is an interactive arts festival ... sort of. Fifty thousand people get together annually in the middle of nowhere to build a temporary city and go NUTS, risking sunstroke, bankruptcy and emotional breakdown for the sake of an experience unlike any other.
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| Every year, a new Temple is built - and burned |
Depending on who you are, it can be giant frat party or a moment of life-changing spirituality. It's psychically (and to some extent physically) dangerous.
Clothing seems to be entirely optional...
But if you do wear some you should strive for mad-as-a-weasel:
They build a giant wicker man...
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| The Man looks different every year too |
and every year they burn him at the end of the event:
Then everyone packs up and goes home and nothing is left behind but the empty playa.
Wow.
"Azazel would love this, I realized."
Some great pics here
My nephew and niece (who live in Washington state) have gone twice in the last three years and absolutely loved it. They hold it on a different part of the playa every year. The second time they went, they took a back route to where it had been the year before, only to find out it was at the other end of the playa. ; )
ReplyDeleteThey're getting ready to hatch their first offspring, so won't be going for a while, but I have no doubt as soon as the kidlet is toilet-trained they'll be heading back -- unless they've emigrated to New Zealand in the meantime!
Oh I'm so envious!
ReplyDeleteCoincidentally, New Zealand is on my bucket list too ... your relatives set high standards Susan :-)