Burning Man

For the last two weeks I’ve been on an adventure with Tom. Tom has gone to Burning Man in the past few years twice. Each time my heart wanted to go with him, but I was unable to because of work. This year I was honored to be part of the outreach team (made up of 40 people from the US and Scotland) that went to Burning Man.

What is Burning Man? Here’s a brief description from their website:

People make the journey to the Black Rock Desert for one week out of the year to be part of an experimental community, which challenges its members to express themselves and rely on themselves to a degree that is not normally encountered in one's day-to-day life. There are no rules about how one must behave or express oneself at this event (save the rules that serve to protect the health, safety, and experience of the community at large); rather, it is up to each participant to decide how they will contribute and what they will give to this community. The event takes place on an ancient lakebed, known as the playa. By the time the event is completed and the volunteers leave, sometimes nearly a month after the event has ended, there will be no trace of the city that was, for a short time, the most populous town in the entire county.
Everyone on the playa has “playa” names. It’s part of the experience. Tom is Godfather and I am Momma Bear. So when I talk about the team I will refer to them by their “playa names.”

There are many creative people that come to Burning Man. Some build art installations and others build “art cars” that are driven around on the playa.

About six months ago one of the team members (Horizon) started building this giant shopping cart that you can drive and carry people on the playa. He and his team of helpers did an amazing job.

Horizon lives in Ohio. He needed help driving it from Ohio to Nevada where Burning Man takes place in the middle of the desert in a place called Black Rock City. So Tom and I (even though I didn’t drive) and another man (Dr. Phil) drove straight through, only stopping for gas.

My next post will talk about our adventure to Carson City, where the team meets to prepare before heading to Black Rock City.

I hope you join me as I share my experience through words and pictures.

© Nadine Zawacki 2010