Burning Man 2005

During the last week in August we attended this years Burning Man gathering. Burning Man is held every year in the Black Rock Desert in Nevada. Trying to explain what Burning Man is to someone who has never been there is like trying to describe a color to someone who is blind. Each year there is a new Theme given to the event. Participants are encouraged to find a way to help make the theme come alive, whether it is through a large scale art installation, a theme camp, gifts brought to be given to other individuals, costumes or any other medium that one comes up with. Within the Black Rock, the most striking and prominent feature is a silt alkaline Salt Pan, commonly referred to as a playa. The Black Rock Playa, elevation 3,848 ft, is the second-largest flat region in the Northern Hemisphere. The Playa is the remnants of Pleistocene Lake Lahontan, which at its greatest expanse 13,000 years ago covered 8,665 square miles of NW Nevada.

The Camp

This aerial view shows how the camp is set up like a clock. The area in the middle and between 10:00 and 2:00 is left open for displaying art projects. The distance from the outside edge between about 3-9 o'clock is about 5 miles. Between 35,000 and 40,000 people attended this year.

Watch yourself!! The Burn even has it's own Cemetery.

Art Cars are vehicles that are converted to be driveable pieces of Art. They can be small and simple or large and bizarre. Some are pedal powered and some are motorized.

The art work ranged anywhere from simple to extremely detailed. Some of it was truly amazing.

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