Burning Man is an annual event that takes place at the end of summer for nine days in the desert of Black Rock City, Nevada. For 33 years, thousands have gathered to produce a temporary self-reliant and self-sustaining community where it’s encouraged to express oneself through art, fashion, music and any other inner creative powers one possesses. While I was apprehensive at first to go, I have now become the unexpected burner.
Burning Man Photo by: Jennifer Birn
I once read, “Trying to explain Burning Man to someone who’s never been is like trying to explain color to someone who is color blind.”
When I grudgingly went for the first time seven years ago it was the early days of Instagram and I didn’t have the look inside many first-timers have today. Now there’s an inundation of photos and videos that make their way to the internet as soon as festival-goers resurface from days with little to no Wi-Fi. Guilty.
RELATED: Travellers Egypt Tour Company was Amazing
At the time. I thought Burning Man sounded like the epitome of my hell on earth. I’m open to doing nearly anything, but I’d sooner jump out of a plane on a dare than have a desire to go to ‘the burn.’ I don’t like to do drugs, I don’t particularly care for EDM music, I only like camping when it comes with great hikes and I really like showers and the morning paper. Yes, still.
Yet, a week prior to the start of the festival in 2012, after a couple of bottles of wine with my Burning Man-going friends Jerry, JJ and Aude melted my adamant refusal to join them when I was shown the video “Oh, the Places You Will Go…at Burning Man”:
That, a shopping list that looked like I was preparing for the end of the world and some serious trust later, I went with primarily new friends to the city that only exists for just over a week each year.
Burning Man Photo by: Jennifer Birn
That first time I likened the experience to being Alice, sliding down the rabbit hole into Wonderland and wondering, ‘Is this real?’ Within the first five minutes I was hugged by two people who besides plastic monkey heads and body paint were stark naked. Then I’d been introduced to a few people in Camp Morningwood, a very welcoming camp where I’d spend my first three burns – and lost everyone I knew other than Trek Thunder Kelly, who I’d met five minutes before. And yes, that’s his given name, not his ‘playa name’ -a nickname people take on reserved only for the ‘playa,’ what ‘burners,’ call the vast open desert dotted with art installations.
Sensing my thinly veiled panic, Trek, who’d been at least a dozen times by then, said to me, ‘You’re here for four days without any way to get out, so you can choose to be happy and enjoy it, or you can choose to be miserable. The choice is yours.’ A default optimist, I chose the former and from that moment, committed to being present in the moment and practicing the ‘radical self-reliance,’ that’s one of the ten principles of Burning Man.
When I returned from Burning Man that year it took several weeks to process and make sense of a lot of what I saw, but I knew I loved the freedom of riding a Christmas light decorated Paul Frank beach cruiser for hours through the 5 square mile city, with a caravan friend and on my own. The wind blowing through my hair in the heat of day, I’d enjoyed it as much as riding bikes through villages and rice patties in Bali, one of my favorite parts of my Bali trip – and was a reminder, sometimes you don’t have to travel to far to feel the same reward.
And, the ‘being present’ stayed with me. It would take a few more trips to the desert before I realized all lessons learned there can stay with you in the real world.
Other things I’ve learned while riding my now flower-wrapped Schwinn in the desert sun during the day and under the moon and stars at night while marveling at and often times climbing various pieces of usually interactive artwork include:
Burning Man Photo by: Jennifer Birn
-I’m a big believer in ‘playa magic,’ that if you think something at Burning Man, often times it happens…And it gives you what you need when you need it because this has generally been true for me there. But, manifesting begins with knowing what you want and asking for it – maybe something I do there more than in my day-to-day life. In truth, I believe the magic exists everywhere, there we just take the extra second to look for it.
-You can’t do everything or explore every path at Burning Man, so thoroughly enjoy the one you’re on without what if-ing too much about the others. There’s triumphs and challenges down every road, be happy with yourself and you’ll make any journey enjoyable…Whether you chose to stay up for sunrise, or chose to get some sleep.
-A smile is worth a lot of words. I’ve learned this traveling to several foreign cities where people are caught off-guard when you smile at them on the sidewalk. At Burning Man, an attempt to create a utopian society, it’s almost expected and subtle connections are made through a friendly smile every second. What if we all smiled at strangers more often? Friendly shouldn’t be reserved for vacation – or as an experiment in cities that don’t really exist.
Burning Man Photo by: Jennifer Birn
This is a short list of some things I’ve learned on my trips to Burning Man, and it doesn’t even include ways my life has been enlightened by it – from the sense of community in camps (Big Imagination, you have this in spades!), to the friendships made, outfits that got to be worn (catsuits, tutus, glitter, wings and things!) – to the people I’ve had the privilege to bring and see transformed by the experience.
I’ve now been to Burning Man five times and every time is an entirely different adventure – from falling in love to discovering new things about myself – and it’s nothing people preconceive it to be.
Before my first time someone said to me, “Your grandmother could go. She might not go back again the next year, but she’ll never say she wishes she didn’t go.” So, if you’re thinking about it – just do it.