Throw preconceived notions in the fire
Larry Harvey set fire to an 8-foot crudely built wooden man as 20 people watched on San Francisco’s Baker Beach in honor of the Summer Solstice. That event in 1986 would be known as the first Burning Man. Twenty years later nearly 40,000 people gathered in the Black Rock Desert to do the same thing to a 40-foot man standing on a 32-foot tall Art-Deco Pavilion.
Burning Man continues its tradition of pyromania with this year’s art theme of the Green Man. The Green Man theme pays tribute to the unknown artist of cave paintings, while focusing on the event’s environmental impact and emphasizing a need for man to work with nature instead of conquering it.
Caleb Parker, who has been attending Burning Man for four years, said the first time he went he was awed by the huge art structures, which usually cost thousands of dollars and hundreds of man-hours to build only to be burned down in a week. He said the first time people go into Burning Man the experience can be overwhelming.
“It looked like someone took all the neon in Vegas, took it to the desert and strapped it to everyone,” Parker, a 26-year-old mechanical engineering major, said.
Although Burning Man has been drawing thousands of burners to the area informally known as “the playa,” Parker said the event is not what most people think.
“My first preconceived notion was that it was some big hippy love fest,” Parker said.
However, the Burning Man Web site says the idea that it is a gathering of hippies, anarchists and pagans is just myth.
Instead, the Web site describes Burning Man as an art festival that stresses radical self-expression, radical inclusion and radical self-reliance. On the playa people are expected to take care of themselves completely, but Chelsea Wesnousky, a 22-year-old college graduate who has been to Burning Man for four years, said burners don’t have to completely rely on themselves. Wesnousky said she often gives food and water to other people.
“The most interesting thing is balancing radical self-reliance and balancing that between that sharing and a sense of community,” said Wesnousky.
Adam Goreian, who has been going to Burning Man since 2003, said the best part of the festival is how accepting and laid-back people are.
“The only rule is there are no rules. Letting your hair down doesn’t even cover it,” Goreian said. “Whether it’s your first time or your fifth, everyone is familiar.”
Parker said that Burning Man is hard to explain in words but most people who go there make a return trip each year if able.
“Be prepared to get your mind blown,” said Parker. “You have to see it, it is too hard to explain. You have to experience it.”
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