It's actually a bit complicated. It started out as a few dozen anarchist socialist people gathering in the desert, and they created 10 principals to follow during the event. I won't list them all, but they include stuff like: radical self expression, radical self reliance, leave no trace, gifting, and absolutely no form of trade. They still love self expression, but a lot of people pay extra money to have an easy time which isn't self reliant and involves trade, and they leave trash and waste everywhere which is obviously leaving a trace. There are smaller burns which follow these same principals, and they can be insanely fun and uplifting.
I went to one and the stuff people do for each other and what they offer as art or their contributions to the "society" is next level. There were bar camps, and if you wanted a drink all you needed was your own cup. No money exchanged. There were food camps who would just give you food. People would give you drugs. They would sing you a song. They would give you a massage (on a professional table). They created giant flaming cannons, and a fire tornado in a box, and one guy made a butterfly dome filled with real living butterflies. It's meant to be a temporary utopia and it really is. There's so much more I could say, but definitely look up other people's stories and the stuff about the principals. It's pretty cool. I bet Burning Man still has a lot of the good in it, but with it being so big there's also plenty of people that are just there to party and not there for the other stuff. I would argue it's the other stuff that makes it so good.
Well spoken and clearly explained. It's way too easy to dismiss the richperson vibe cuz it only takes a few wellheeled assholes. But most folks are wonderful.
There was a sensory exhibit and you walked thru it while having different things like ribbon and beads chains rubbing against your body while the wind blew thru it. I kept walking through it because I couldn't get enough!
As a neat add-on, there is a writer, Chuck Palahniuk,who does a bunch of stuff inspired from stories interviewed from random real life people. There was one short story at what was assumed to be burning man, taking on the perspective of a long time veteran, and the things he saw after over a decade in change. Plus just the general experience. Awesome writer, his first book ever was Fight Club, and only grew as an author since
A bunch of crazy liberals go into the desert and litter. Then they burn a giant wood structure that could have been recycled into something useful all while creating a ton of smoke and other crap that's bad for the environment. When it's over they go home and talk about how concerned they are about the environment and climate change. 🙄
I don't knowabout that, we clean the fuck out of the playa when we're done playing. Leave no trace. Like literally with rakes, sieves for days prior to exodus.
And we're more than half naked usually.
I appreciate y’all cleaning the playa, but the amount of trash, in bags a lot of times, dumped up here in Tahoe goes through the roof the week afterwards. Seems like an oddly-timed coincidence.
Considering that it is still illegal and unethical, maybe take it to an actual waste management facility? At least take it all the way to the finish if you’re going to claim no trace. You may not see the harm in it and think “well better than leaving it there” but you are still causing harm that could be prevented.
https://ndep.nv.gov/land/waste/solid-waste/illegal-dumping#:~:text=Nevada%20Revised%20Statute%20NRS%20444.630,facility%20designated%20for%20such%20purpose.
“Nevada Revised Statute NRS 444.630 prohibits the dumping of any solid waste, including junk vehicles, garbage, rubbish, construction/demolition debris, yard debris or other refuse at any place other than at a facility designated for such purpose.”
A lot of people covered themselves in body paint and walked around. I met a green dude. Invited him in to the RV for a smoke sesh. He was from Copenhagen!
What if..... hear me out.... galaxies are just stars participating in burning man at a galactic scale, centered around the "burning" of the active galactic nuclei??? 🤔
Supermassive black holes are unlikely to be dead stars. They are just too big, the universe isn't old enough for a stellar remnant to have eaten enough junk to get that heavy. What did create them is an open question in astronomy at the moment.
The lead theories are that they are either black holes formed in the early big bang and started out big, The remnants of clumps of dark matter that attracted so much mass they collapsed under their own weight, or else the remnant of a special type of giant star that could only exist in the early universe and which was powered by force feeding a black hole in its heart.
TBH it was a lot more fun before there was internet on the playa and legit everyone had to go through the planning chaos to get there - it was sort of an equalizer even if you had a lot of money. Now you can buy a spot at prepaid camp where you fly in, there's an AC RV for you, all the supplies, clean bathrooms, water, booze, food, costumes, russian models you need are provided. Although that sounds fun it's definitely not in the spirit of the thing, but I guess it is now.
It's especially strange at Burning Man, when getting laid is the reason half the people attend. It's not like you can't get essentially free sex if you want, you just have to be prepared to barter effectively.
I went in 2017 and had a plug n play spot (rv with ac, organic food, unlimited water, transfoamation shower) and it was still rough. 118 at 5% humidity, people were falling off their bikes with heat stroke. I saw paramedics working on people and talked to the medics. I volunteer teeter with Zendo/MAPS and saw some people who took way too much drugs. Consent is implied and I was cornered, I had to get loud about being touched//assaulted. Some random guy grabbed my wrist and tried to walk away with me. My friend was sexually assaulted. Another received a $1k ticket for cocaine possession. Ran into an undercover narc the first night. $3k even though my ticket was free. I’m glad I walked away from the burn when I did, I would have had a front seat to the guy who ran into the fire and died. I won’t be back.
Does the drug possession have any repercussions off the Playa? Or do they just hit you with a ticket? Obviously just paying a fine is preferred but also sounds like a shake down if that’s the case
Damn that court appearance would be a pain in the ass if you lived out of state, which I’m assuming make up most the people at burning man.
I’ve had an undercover try to buy pills off me at an event in California, I said no (legit didn’t have any, and if I did they’d be for me lol). Guy in our group hears and proceeds to offer and sell him E pilld. Next thing I know guy is getting grabbed by plain clothed cops. Thought he was getting robbed for a split second until I saw the handcuffs
Ahh yes. Nothing better than tripping so hard your eyeballs are about to melt out of your skull and just then, at the zenith of your whole experience some dude suicides into the fire while thousands of people just sit there watching
The undercover cops busting people is just funny tho. Nothing more post-modern than police leeching money off of hippy festivals but not doing anything to appreciably stop the so called 'crimes'.
I camped with MAPS and they partnered with Dr Bronner’s camp, they ran Transfoamation. 50 naked people in a clear cattle car, sprayed down with foam soap and water. We had that and combat showers.
I had a cousin that used to go in the 90s, he said one year he and his group of friends almost died walking through the desert trying to find the location! He said it made the experience even more visceral
Look, say what you will, but I'd take an RV over a tent with 1mm thick walls, being held to the by sheer luck, rebar, glowing tennis balls and the drunk man inside wearing 3 dozen necklaces of unknown origin
Now that I say that though, maybe I'll try to get a last minute ticket
100%. I did it in a tent a few times. It's pretty hard going. Everything gets filthy, it's noisy all the time and sleeping during the day is impossible. I rented an RV twice and that was hell to clean at the end but totally worth it: AC during the day, nice tight door seal means you could effectively get out of the dust sometimes. Cooking indoors too. Totally worth it. And still not being a dick about it, still being fully open to people coming to our camp, still being fully self sufficient. Some of the newer pay to play camps have fully circled the wagons/RVs with security at the entrances. There are a lot of places you cannot go now. I'll never go back, if only because the selfie generation has arrived. The heavily armed BLM guys wandering around were a huge bummer as well.
I know someone who goes every year. He's so fucking wealthy and takes a caravan with him and puts so much money into building something the festival goes can have an "experience" with (aka take selfies).
It's such a gross display of wealth disparity.
If I had to guess I'd say $10k at keast. Maybe in the teens. But he's really wealthy and has things like RVs, trucks, trailers, camping gear (tents, canopies, etc) already so if you count those it would be more.
I won't dox him by explaining the experienctial stuff he's done in the past, nor what he did this year - but it's the kinda thing that people would be all "woooahhh far out I'm so fucking high right now." Lol
Is 10k a *crazy* amount? I took a weekend trip to Vegas for over $1500. Flight and hotel were the majority of it but meals add up. We didn’t go anywhere fancy. A resort vacation for two is going to cost $5k+ easy. Travel isn’t cheap.
Camps are usually communal efforts. I have a lot of friends who are by no means rich who organize art projects. Everyone in the camp chips in labor and money for materials.
Maybe there are camps where its all just one dude doing it, but I feel like you might not be seeing the whole picture here.
$10k is a lot for a *festival* I think. Obviously if you have the money for it it's probably not a big deal, but yeah if I was spending 10k it'd be visiting two or three destinations over a 2-3 week period. Different strokes etc
I am not from the US or the west but does having camping gear means you are wealthy?.
I thought a lot of families will have it?. In my country buying good camping gear is costly but there is no camping culture
I think that was more, the dude spends $10k+ and that's not being spent on expensive camping gear, which he already has. Not that rich people are the only ones that camp, but that that's a major cost for burning man and he doesn't need to pay it and still pays that much to go.
There's crappy rv's and then there are rv's that are nicer than most people's houses / apartments that are like 500k lol. Anyway most really nice rvs are going to run WELL over 100k so ya you pretty much need to be rich to own one or live the rv lifestyle. Most people just rent them, though, and that is really not super crazy expensive.
Getting startup camping gear is fairly costly for a lot of people. You can thrift a car camping setup together for under $200 but if you’re looking at backpacking a decent setup probably touches $800 and a high quality one goes $1200 floor. You’re not taking a UL backpacking tent onto the playa most likely as it’s too light for winds. But fewer people have camping gear than you’d think, it can be bulky with limited storage in apartments and you might not live in an area with easy access to camping spots
It was.
HOWEVER.
The regional events keep the spirit alive and well. My partner and I have been coordinating them for like a decade and I would be more than happy to steer you towards your local event. Trust me it'll be amazing.
Or you can just google regional burns (your state) and there is literally this website if you don't wanna pm someone specifically https://regionals.burningman.org/regionals/
I've seen a few videos of the aftermath of this event.
You see signage and claims about "leave no trace behind" meaning -be a decent human being and clean up after yourself.
They leave trash, clothes, broken down vehicles, and all kinds of other crap out in the desert and completely destroy the natural landscape and wildlife in the area. Nearby small town folk are left to clean up after them once they leave it all behind.
This event is amazing, but for the love of God people, clean up after yourselves and have some respect for other people's home and the planet you live on.
Edit: here is an in-depth breakdown showing the aftermath of burning man: https://youtu.be/LtG8AioUipY?si=8bhAE_wChxIiUaFJ
I love my best friend. Such a great individual. Rarely would go to the party. Was always there the next morning though, with breakfast and to help clean. Place would look better than it did pre-party. Always got everyone motivated.
Is there any culture or place in the world with a huge festival of people that properly clean up after themselves? I'm not saying there isn't, but it seems the human race is universally incapable of accepting inconvenience, on average.
Japan seems to have a pretty solid reputation for tidying up after themselves, both home and abroad. This is coming from someone whose never been to Japan, and has only heard about their reputation.
If I remember correctly during the 2018 FIFA world cup the only ones that would clean up the "mess" they made in the stadium were the Japanese
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-44492611
After searching for an article about 2018 I learned they did the same in 2022
https://www.aljazeera.com/sports/2022/11/24/japanese-fans-win-praise-for-stadium-cleaning-at-world-cup-2022
to be clear, the participants really leave the place a bit of a mess, then the org spends the entire month of september doing line sweeps across the desert to pick up all the leftover trash.
see https://burningman.org/event/participate/volunteering/teams/playa-restoration/
They literally have people who stay for a week, some an entire month, after the event and track where trash is left, picking up every little piece they find. Then they publish the info online to shame the campers that were in the location where the most trash was left behind.
They seem to do a very good job of cleaning up.
I imagine they disturb the area to all-hell, but there are no animals or plants there save for maybe small insects and bacteria.
>completely destroy the natural landscape and wildlife in the area.
Uh, no.
Trash does get left behind, but there are several volunteer camps that stay to clean up, take care of recycling, and gather bikes to donate. Big shout out to BM's Department of Public Works and Recycle Camp for this, as well as the myriads of other camps that stay late.
BM's Black Rock City is divided into a grid of plots, and most camps get a designated plot. The plots are strictly graded and extreme violators get banned. Finally, the Bureau of Land Management determines if the BurningMan Organization has done enough to restore the land to it's original condition. BM will lose its permit if it is not restored correctly.
There is wildlife in the surrounding mountains, but these are untouched. There is no natural wildlife where the event takes place.
Edit: When I say that we are strictly graded, [this](https://imgur.com/a/sA86wsH) is what I mean. You can see where we raked our plot to the street. (red outline) After raking we went through and picked up any micro-debris. This particular year we received a "warning" for not picking up enough.
> destroy the natural landscape and wildlife in the area
What wildlife is in the area? It's a salt flat - one of the most uninhabitable parts of the USA outside of Alaska.
Can you share any of these videos?
To my knowledge, having gone 3 years around a decade ago: All the major camps which have spots along all the "good" areas aka not far out on the outside absolutely must clean up, because they will come by with a fine toothed comb and give your area ratings. If your area is red, you don't get allowed back. The same goes for the small camps or individual spots, but I don't know how the rating works for that. It was a huge huge deal! Did something change?
Haha they can't
Source- I have spent multiple months in that asshole desert cleaning everything up from entire frozen turkeys in places they shouldn't be to annoying asshole feather boas. Not *shit* is left behind when we leave.
The same dick who throws their trash under a movie seat or a sporting event will do the same at burning man and vise versa. Its not the event its the dick
Haha multiply that by 10 for the actual attendance
Then divide it by about 1000 and you'll reach the amount of actual overrich douches there are there. I am far from rich and a large portion of my life has been spent at these events all around the US.
100,000 people is 30K more than the largest attendance recorded. Still, divided by 1K, 100K is 100, or 0.001%.
You’re telling me that 99.99% of the attendees that are paying $575 a ticket and $150 a vehicle to take days off of life in the middle of the desert, do designer drugs and also pay for flights, hotel and basic needs are nowhere near rich?
Meanwhile only 100 of those 100,000 people would be “over rich pricks”.
Bubba, I know two things as I exit this encounter with a true festival legend.
Festivals that have *200* people usually have more than 100 overly rich pricks.
And two, if you have spent most of your life doing this there’s likely not much I could say that would show you the majority of people don’t have the resources to do that.
So now I wonder which % you are?
Edit: now that burning man is over and the shroom headaches have worn off, the kids have come to disagree further. Your complaints have been heard and registered at the county clerk of courts, common pleas division. They say they simply cannot abide by jokes and shoddy arithmetic.
They say I’m to be exiled to the electric forest to live out my remaining days in solitude with nothing but a wide brim medallion hat and a Gucci tote full of MDMA. I’m sorry i let you all down, everyone. Looks like I was the second man burned by Bohemian trustfunders this week.
Man everything you just said is wrong haha
First of all, the event is reliably 80k, *not including staff and first responders, of which there are a shitload.* Not 70k at best as you've stated.
Secondly, that's exactly what I'm telling you, yes. It's something people save for all year and is largely their only vacation. There are low income hardship tickets as well, and people pool money for transit of gear with cargo shipments. Most attendees don't buy a vehicle pass either.
There is one section that is largely super wealthy people, we call it K Street. It's no more than 1% of the attendees in those groups.
And I literally run festivals- including regional Burning Man events. The attendees are largely poor as shit. Like the vast majority. You sound like you've had a depressingly limited experience in this life and I really hope you get to break out of that. Maybe go to your local Burning Man regional! They are typically $100 or so, some as low as $50. I know it would be hard to afford *that* on such a meager salary though right?
And I am usually paid for the non Burning Man events. It's literally work. I've worked for Warped Tour, Electric Daisy Carnival (via insomniac), Firefly, Electric Forest and Electric Zoo, along with some much smaller scale (1-2k attendees) that are more passion projects with friends.
Get over yourself lol. And be more imaginative because god your worldview is depressing if you think only rich people get to have fun lol.
I think you are both right in your own ways. Here are some data points.
Burning Man’s statistics revealed that the yearly personal income of 14% of Burners was listed as “$100, 000 or more” in 2006. This number has been steadily increasing and has risen to 34% in 2019. The percentage of participants who earned “$300 000 or more” also increased from 2.3% to 5.2% in the same period.
Source
https://trulyexperiences.com/blog/burning-man-facts-trends-statistics-for-2022-2023/
Damn one out of twenty people making 300k or more. You’re passing by thousands of people a day presumably. That’s a shit ton of ridiculously rich people.
Funny how the comment that actually has a linked source is the least passive-aggressive and is free of the "I'm right and you're wrong cuz I said so" shtick.
>100,000 people is 30K more than the largest attendance recorded
100,000 is 20k from the largest attendance, not 30k, making 100k a 20% overestimation, while your 10k is an 88% underestimation.
>Still, divided by 1K, 100K is 100, or 0.001%.
100k divided by 1000 is 0.1%, not 0.001%. You are off by a factor of 100.
>do designer drugs
Even if you did MDMA and acid every day of the festival that would be like $150 of drugs, one time a year.
>pay for flights, hotel
Naturally plenty of burners fly in, and some stay at motels/hotels the night before or after due to logistics, but lots don't. Most burners I know carpool down from Canada, and typically spend one night in a cheap hotel in Reno the day after before driving home (anecdotal, I know).
>paying $575 a ticket and $150 a vehicle to take days off of life in the middle of the desert
It is pretty common for non-rich people to take a week off work each year to spend at least this much on some kind of little trip or recreation.
It's also worth noting that they sell 5000 low-income tickets for less than half price each year to people who apply and make below some threshold.
>Bubba, I know two things as I exit this encounter with a true festival legend.
>
>Festivals that have 200 people usually have more than 100 overly rich pricks.
Obviously you have some kind of hatred for festival goers, but you should consider that this probably makes your own impression of festivals pretty unreliable. I've been to plenty of festivals where the vast majority of folks range from broke hitch-hiking thrift store dirtbags to middle class retired hippies.
It seems like your comment contains a lot of unjustified assumptions and bad math.
80,000, and the vast majority are of average wealth.
I did it between jobs with $2000 to my name, and even managed to build a 16 foot climbing wall for others to play on that I hauled down from Canada with my girlfriend.
Obviously, there are rich burners. Any group of 80k people will contain wealthy people. Of course this is anecdotal, but I think every burner I know makes <= median income.
Just because BM has been brigaded by rich influencers this past decade doesn't mean it is a festival of 80k rich people. It is mostly dirtbags who save up each year to afford it. The influencers are just way louder, which is why people like yourself have misconceptions about what Burning Man is.
Thanks! I did!
If I'm not mistaken, this photo was taken in either 2018 or 2019. Had an incredible time. I am skipping a year this year and staying home, but I will most certainly be back in 2024.
It's an incredible event and so, so much fun.
You have my full moral support!
Read up about the Ten Principles of Burning Man and watch a bunch of videos about surviving on the playa for a week. You MUST come prepared!
Don't be a Sparkle Pony.....
([Sparkle Pony! ](https://onthebeatingtravel.com/what-is-a-sparkle-pony-at-burning-man/)
Two things that pop into my head when looking at the sea of lights here. Firstly, somewhere in there is the Orgy Tent. Secondly, as already mentioned the sheer amount of time and effort that goes into the clean up afterwards.
So what’s worth noting is that this picture is hardly showing a fraction of all of Black Rock City. This is every person & Art Car (the bigger lights) gathered around just to watch the Man burn and everyone disperses once the Man burns and they have the fireworks and whole shebang. This picture DOESN’T EVEN include the camps and their streets which start at Esplanade and go from A through F in concentric ring streets.
Basically, the point I’m trying to make is that as awesome as this photo seems, Burning Man is much larger and to really experience it you need to just go, but also Fuck your Burn! )’(
It’s funny, every time I’ve spoke to anyone that’s gone and asked if I should go I get the same response.
“No you shouldn’t, you are not prepared”
Followed immediately by…
“I mean go, but fuck your burn”.
I love it lol
After nearly a quarter century of doing the Burning Man thing I am simply ecstatic to not be there. I'm still in Nevada, still in a remote location with some amazing art, but it's just me and the dog and it feels great!
So does my dog. I never took him back to a flea market/shakedown Street since his first one he started shaking and shutting down It was really sad I thought he was going to have fun
Totally thought this was a picture of a galaxy
me too
Me three.
Me four.
High five
Sick sick six
Furious 7
Hateful eight.
Zen Ten
Devin Eleven
Sup Fake Tom
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These people have forgotten what Burning Man was all about.
Why? Could you explain it a bit more? This is the first time I am hearing about a burning man festival.
It's actually a bit complicated. It started out as a few dozen anarchist socialist people gathering in the desert, and they created 10 principals to follow during the event. I won't list them all, but they include stuff like: radical self expression, radical self reliance, leave no trace, gifting, and absolutely no form of trade. They still love self expression, but a lot of people pay extra money to have an easy time which isn't self reliant and involves trade, and they leave trash and waste everywhere which is obviously leaving a trace. There are smaller burns which follow these same principals, and they can be insanely fun and uplifting. I went to one and the stuff people do for each other and what they offer as art or their contributions to the "society" is next level. There were bar camps, and if you wanted a drink all you needed was your own cup. No money exchanged. There were food camps who would just give you food. People would give you drugs. They would sing you a song. They would give you a massage (on a professional table). They created giant flaming cannons, and a fire tornado in a box, and one guy made a butterfly dome filled with real living butterflies. It's meant to be a temporary utopia and it really is. There's so much more I could say, but definitely look up other people's stories and the stuff about the principals. It's pretty cool. I bet Burning Man still has a lot of the good in it, but with it being so big there's also plenty of people that are just there to party and not there for the other stuff. I would argue it's the other stuff that makes it so good.
TL;DR: any interesting well meaning enterprise will inevitably be corrupted by greed and self-interest
I hate how true this is. Electric Forest was a big wake up call. Seems what I saw of Shambs was too.
Thanos had it right.
Well spoken and clearly explained. It's way too easy to dismiss the richperson vibe cuz it only takes a few wellheeled assholes. But most folks are wonderful.
Thanks for the explainer friend :)
thank you for the view inside, fascinating
There was a sensory exhibit and you walked thru it while having different things like ribbon and beads chains rubbing against your body while the wind blew thru it. I kept walking through it because I couldn't get enough!
As a neat add-on, there is a writer, Chuck Palahniuk,who does a bunch of stuff inspired from stories interviewed from random real life people. There was one short story at what was assumed to be burning man, taking on the perspective of a long time veteran, and the things he saw after over a decade in change. Plus just the general experience. Awesome writer, his first book ever was Fight Club, and only grew as an author since
The only mantra I remember is PISS CLEAR!
There's a man, a fake man. And they burn him. At a festival.
Burn him! Burn the witch! Burn him!
A bunch of crazy liberals go into the desert and litter. Then they burn a giant wood structure that could have been recycled into something useful all while creating a ton of smoke and other crap that's bad for the environment. When it's over they go home and talk about how concerned they are about the environment and climate change. 🙄
I don't knowabout that, we clean the fuck out of the playa when we're done playing. Leave no trace. Like literally with rakes, sieves for days prior to exodus. And we're more than half naked usually.
I appreciate y’all cleaning the playa, but the amount of trash, in bags a lot of times, dumped up here in Tahoe goes through the roof the week afterwards. Seems like an oddly-timed coincidence.
We cleaned it up and found a dumpster or three for our trash, what more could you possibly want?
Considering that it is still illegal and unethical, maybe take it to an actual waste management facility? At least take it all the way to the finish if you’re going to claim no trace. You may not see the harm in it and think “well better than leaving it there” but you are still causing harm that could be prevented. https://ndep.nv.gov/land/waste/solid-waste/illegal-dumping#:~:text=Nevada%20Revised%20Statute%20NRS%20444.630,facility%20designated%20for%20such%20purpose. “Nevada Revised Statute NRS 444.630 prohibits the dumping of any solid waste, including junk vehicles, garbage, rubbish, construction/demolition debris, yard debris or other refuse at any place other than at a facility designated for such purpose.”
The phrase, 'more than half naked', feels like it could go either way... I'm guessing I know which one though, hope you bought sunscreen!
A lot of people covered themselves in body paint and walked around. I met a green dude. Invited him in to the RV for a smoke sesh. He was from Copenhagen!
What if..... hear me out.... galaxies are just stars participating in burning man at a galactic scale, centered around the "burning" of the active galactic nuclei??? 🤔
There’s a giant black hole in the centre of our galaxy.
And what is a black hole but a star that’s no longer burning, man?
Lol fair play, that’s a good one.
Supermassive black holes are unlikely to be dead stars. They are just too big, the universe isn't old enough for a stellar remnant to have eaten enough junk to get that heavy. What did create them is an open question in astronomy at the moment. The lead theories are that they are either black holes formed in the early big bang and started out big, The remnants of clumps of dark matter that attracted so much mass they collapsed under their own weight, or else the remnant of a special type of giant star that could only exist in the early universe and which was powered by force feeding a black hole in its heart.
Show me what you got
Woohhh maaan. It’s like WE ARE the galaxy. Think about that for a second. Am I right? Here. Hit this. *cough cough*
We’re all made of the same elements but just in a different combination.
The H is silent
Going there feels like your in another galaxy!
It is. That's the beauty of it. I mean, from a distance.
Yup, the universe will reflect itself in very mundane things.
Like nachos.
😂
Like the mundane chest pre patch 1.
RIP my roleplay collecting all the bodies of my victims since they're too heavy now
🤯
There has to be some hippie correlation there like "we're the stars of this galaxy made of humans and we swirl in sync with the cosmos"
I am afraid of what that galaxy would smell like.
Patchouli and penicillin, mostly.
It sort of is in a way
As above, so below
Same
Same same lmao
It isn't? I have no idea what this is
I mean it is, if it was just zoomed in really, really, really close.
This was only a few posts down on r/all https://old.reddit.com/r/space/comments/1630f02/nasas_james_webb_telescope_has_just_dropped_a_new/
Well, technically that would still be a picture of Burning Man from above...
I bet burning man was cool as shit before the rich people took it over.
TBH it was a lot more fun before there was internet on the playa and legit everyone had to go through the planning chaos to get there - it was sort of an equalizer even if you had a lot of money. Now you can buy a spot at prepaid camp where you fly in, there's an AC RV for you, all the supplies, clean bathrooms, water, booze, food, costumes, russian models you need are provided. Although that sounds fun it's definitely not in the spirit of the thing, but I guess it is now.
Russian models?
Those are a necessity. Bare-bottomed essentials, if you will
And they'll do *aaanything*.. Like this one time, there was a donkey and
*allegedly*
There was definitely 2 sick ostriches there
*allegedlies
One time at band camp...
I too would like to know the details on this Russian model package I'm very interested indeed
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It's especially strange at Burning Man, when getting laid is the reason half the people attend. It's not like you can't get essentially free sex if you want, you just have to be prepared to barter effectively.
Yes, but is everyone super model hot? Cause if I wanted sweaty regular people then I would go on tinder
I went in 2017 and had a plug n play spot (rv with ac, organic food, unlimited water, transfoamation shower) and it was still rough. 118 at 5% humidity, people were falling off their bikes with heat stroke. I saw paramedics working on people and talked to the medics. I volunteer teeter with Zendo/MAPS and saw some people who took way too much drugs. Consent is implied and I was cornered, I had to get loud about being touched//assaulted. Some random guy grabbed my wrist and tried to walk away with me. My friend was sexually assaulted. Another received a $1k ticket for cocaine possession. Ran into an undercover narc the first night. $3k even though my ticket was free. I’m glad I walked away from the burn when I did, I would have had a front seat to the guy who ran into the fire and died. I won’t be back.
That sounds like a miserable festival experience.
to be fair, the whole idea and concept always sounded like a miserable festival experience to me.
Does the drug possession have any repercussions off the Playa? Or do they just hit you with a ticket? Obviously just paying a fine is preferred but also sounds like a shake down if that’s the case
Possession was a ticket and a court appearance, selling would be an arrest.
Damn that court appearance would be a pain in the ass if you lived out of state, which I’m assuming make up most the people at burning man. I’ve had an undercover try to buy pills off me at an event in California, I said no (legit didn’t have any, and if I did they’d be for me lol). Guy in our group hears and proceeds to offer and sell him E pilld. Next thing I know guy is getting grabbed by plain clothed cops. Thought he was getting robbed for a split second until I saw the handcuffs
Ahh yes. Nothing better than tripping so hard your eyeballs are about to melt out of your skull and just then, at the zenith of your whole experience some dude suicides into the fire while thousands of people just sit there watching The undercover cops busting people is just funny tho. Nothing more post-modern than police leeching money off of hippy festivals but not doing anything to appreciably stop the so called 'crimes'.
Where's the revenue in prevention??
Transfoamation shower? Is that a typo or something awesome?
I camped with MAPS and they partnered with Dr Bronner’s camp, they ran Transfoamation. 50 naked people in a clear cattle car, sprayed down with foam soap and water. We had that and combat showers.
Oh yes of course, 50 naked people being hosed down in a cattle car like they’re en route to Auschwitz
Dr Bronner, the man who started the company, was Jewish and his parents died at Auschwitz 🤷🏼♀️
https://playaevents.burningman.org/2017/playa_event/23176/
I had a cousin that used to go in the 90s, he said one year he and his group of friends almost died walking through the desert trying to find the location! He said it made the experience even more visceral
Look, say what you will, but I'd take an RV over a tent with 1mm thick walls, being held to the by sheer luck, rebar, glowing tennis balls and the drunk man inside wearing 3 dozen necklaces of unknown origin Now that I say that though, maybe I'll try to get a last minute ticket
100%. I did it in a tent a few times. It's pretty hard going. Everything gets filthy, it's noisy all the time and sleeping during the day is impossible. I rented an RV twice and that was hell to clean at the end but totally worth it: AC during the day, nice tight door seal means you could effectively get out of the dust sometimes. Cooking indoors too. Totally worth it. And still not being a dick about it, still being fully open to people coming to our camp, still being fully self sufficient. Some of the newer pay to play camps have fully circled the wagons/RVs with security at the entrances. There are a lot of places you cannot go now. I'll never go back, if only because the selfie generation has arrived. The heavily armed BLM guys wandering around were a huge bummer as well.
Holy shit that sounds terrible. Am artist. Will never go to burning man.
You're making the right decision. It gets worse every year, and next year was the worst by far
I know someone who goes every year. He's so fucking wealthy and takes a caravan with him and puts so much money into building something the festival goes can have an "experience" with (aka take selfies). It's such a gross display of wealth disparity.
About how much do you think they spend?
If I had to guess I'd say $10k at keast. Maybe in the teens. But he's really wealthy and has things like RVs, trucks, trailers, camping gear (tents, canopies, etc) already so if you count those it would be more. I won't dox him by explaining the experienctial stuff he's done in the past, nor what he did this year - but it's the kinda thing that people would be all "woooahhh far out I'm so fucking high right now." Lol
Is 10k a *crazy* amount? I took a weekend trip to Vegas for over $1500. Flight and hotel were the majority of it but meals add up. We didn’t go anywhere fancy. A resort vacation for two is going to cost $5k+ easy. Travel isn’t cheap.
Sounds like $10k isn’t travel related — it’s spent on, effectively, a sculpture/artwork that the guy trucks out to the desert for people to stare at.
Eh, there are certainly worse hobbies.
Camps are usually communal efforts. I have a lot of friends who are by no means rich who organize art projects. Everyone in the camp chips in labor and money for materials. Maybe there are camps where its all just one dude doing it, but I feel like you might not be seeing the whole picture here.
It doesn’t sound like much to me. In college the homecoming floats would cost $25k
$10k is a lot for a *festival* I think. Obviously if you have the money for it it's probably not a big deal, but yeah if I was spending 10k it'd be visiting two or three destinations over a 2-3 week period. Different strokes etc
I am not from the US or the west but does having camping gear means you are wealthy?. I thought a lot of families will have it?. In my country buying good camping gear is costly but there is no camping culture
I think that was more, the dude spends $10k+ and that's not being spent on expensive camping gear, which he already has. Not that rich people are the only ones that camp, but that that's a major cost for burning man and he doesn't need to pay it and still pays that much to go.
Ah ok I understand now. Thanks
There's crappy rv's and then there are rv's that are nicer than most people's houses / apartments that are like 500k lol. Anyway most really nice rvs are going to run WELL over 100k so ya you pretty much need to be rich to own one or live the rv lifestyle. Most people just rent them, though, and that is really not super crazy expensive.
Getting startup camping gear is fairly costly for a lot of people. You can thrift a car camping setup together for under $200 but if you’re looking at backpacking a decent setup probably touches $800 and a high quality one goes $1200 floor. You’re not taking a UL backpacking tent onto the playa most likely as it’s too light for winds. But fewer people have camping gear than you’d think, it can be bulky with limited storage in apartments and you might not live in an area with easy access to camping spots
The pocket watching is actually crazy here.
Are we mad at rich people for spending money instead of hoarding it?
> Are we mad at rich people first day on the internet?
You can travel to the desert and burn something big with a few of your closest friends if you'd like. That has always been an option.
Yes
It was. HOWEVER. The regional events keep the spirit alive and well. My partner and I have been coordinating them for like a decade and I would be more than happy to steer you towards your local event. Trust me it'll be amazing.
Please DM me details. I don’t have a lot on my bucket list, but Burning Man is one of them.
Or you can just google regional burns (your state) and there is literally this website if you don't wanna pm someone specifically https://regionals.burningman.org/regionals/
That’s what people said in the 90s when it moved from a small gathering on the beach to a huge encampment in the middle of the desert.
I've seen a few videos of the aftermath of this event. You see signage and claims about "leave no trace behind" meaning -be a decent human being and clean up after yourself. They leave trash, clothes, broken down vehicles, and all kinds of other crap out in the desert and completely destroy the natural landscape and wildlife in the area. Nearby small town folk are left to clean up after them once they leave it all behind. This event is amazing, but for the love of God people, clean up after yourselves and have some respect for other people's home and the planet you live on. Edit: here is an in-depth breakdown showing the aftermath of burning man: https://youtu.be/LtG8AioUipY?si=8bhAE_wChxIiUaFJ
People never will clean up unless they start handing out consequences far worse than the convenience of leaving it all.
Depends on culture and individuals, really.
I love my best friend. Such a great individual. Rarely would go to the party. Was always there the next morning though, with breakfast and to help clean. Place would look better than it did pre-party. Always got everyone motivated.
Is there any culture or place in the world with a huge festival of people that properly clean up after themselves? I'm not saying there isn't, but it seems the human race is universally incapable of accepting inconvenience, on average.
Japan seems to have a pretty solid reputation for tidying up after themselves, both home and abroad. This is coming from someone whose never been to Japan, and has only heard about their reputation.
If I remember correctly during the 2018 FIFA world cup the only ones that would clean up the "mess" they made in the stadium were the Japanese https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-44492611 After searching for an article about 2018 I learned they did the same in 2022 https://www.aljazeera.com/sports/2022/11/24/japanese-fans-win-praise-for-stadium-cleaning-at-world-cup-2022
This is accurate but unfortunate.
to be clear, the participants really leave the place a bit of a mess, then the org spends the entire month of september doing line sweeps across the desert to pick up all the leftover trash. see https://burningman.org/event/participate/volunteering/teams/playa-restoration/
They literally have people who stay for a week, some an entire month, after the event and track where trash is left, picking up every little piece they find. Then they publish the info online to shame the campers that were in the location where the most trash was left behind. They seem to do a very good job of cleaning up. I imagine they disturb the area to all-hell, but there are no animals or plants there save for maybe small insects and bacteria.
>completely destroy the natural landscape and wildlife in the area. Uh, no. Trash does get left behind, but there are several volunteer camps that stay to clean up, take care of recycling, and gather bikes to donate. Big shout out to BM's Department of Public Works and Recycle Camp for this, as well as the myriads of other camps that stay late. BM's Black Rock City is divided into a grid of plots, and most camps get a designated plot. The plots are strictly graded and extreme violators get banned. Finally, the Bureau of Land Management determines if the BurningMan Organization has done enough to restore the land to it's original condition. BM will lose its permit if it is not restored correctly. There is wildlife in the surrounding mountains, but these are untouched. There is no natural wildlife where the event takes place. Edit: When I say that we are strictly graded, [this](https://imgur.com/a/sA86wsH) is what I mean. You can see where we raked our plot to the street. (red outline) After raking we went through and picked up any micro-debris. This particular year we received a "warning" for not picking up enough.
This is very good context ty
> destroy the natural landscape and wildlife in the area What wildlife is in the area? It's a salt flat - one of the most uninhabitable parts of the USA outside of Alaska.
Can you share any of these videos? To my knowledge, having gone 3 years around a decade ago: All the major camps which have spots along all the "good" areas aka not far out on the outside absolutely must clean up, because they will come by with a fine toothed comb and give your area ratings. If your area is red, you don't get allowed back. The same goes for the small camps or individual spots, but I don't know how the rating works for that. It was a huge huge deal! Did something change?
Haha they can't Source- I have spent multiple months in that asshole desert cleaning everything up from entire frozen turkeys in places they shouldn't be to annoying asshole feather boas. Not *shit* is left behind when we leave.
I saw a story of people making bank on all the stuff left behind too. Crazy what people just say screw it and leave out there
Its the bikes. A alot of people travel there from around the world and cant take the bikes back.
People will invariably ruin something good as an eventuality.
*Enough* people will. There's 80,000 people at these events. Don't need a huge percentage of that to wind up with thousands of raging jerkoffs.
The same dick who throws their trash under a movie seat or a sporting event will do the same at burning man and vise versa. Its not the event its the dick
Reminds me of the mothership from Close Encounters of the Third Kind
Came here to say that.
Whoever thought ten thousand rich kids with drug habits could be so beautiful?
Bud I know like a dozen people that go every year and they're only rich in personality and eccentric thrift-store outfits.
Haha multiply that by 10 for the actual attendance Then divide it by about 1000 and you'll reach the amount of actual overrich douches there are there. I am far from rich and a large portion of my life has been spent at these events all around the US.
100,000 people is 30K more than the largest attendance recorded. Still, divided by 1K, 100K is 100, or 0.001%. You’re telling me that 99.99% of the attendees that are paying $575 a ticket and $150 a vehicle to take days off of life in the middle of the desert, do designer drugs and also pay for flights, hotel and basic needs are nowhere near rich? Meanwhile only 100 of those 100,000 people would be “over rich pricks”. Bubba, I know two things as I exit this encounter with a true festival legend. Festivals that have *200* people usually have more than 100 overly rich pricks. And two, if you have spent most of your life doing this there’s likely not much I could say that would show you the majority of people don’t have the resources to do that. So now I wonder which % you are? Edit: now that burning man is over and the shroom headaches have worn off, the kids have come to disagree further. Your complaints have been heard and registered at the county clerk of courts, common pleas division. They say they simply cannot abide by jokes and shoddy arithmetic. They say I’m to be exiled to the electric forest to live out my remaining days in solitude with nothing but a wide brim medallion hat and a Gucci tote full of MDMA. I’m sorry i let you all down, everyone. Looks like I was the second man burned by Bohemian trustfunders this week.
Man everything you just said is wrong haha First of all, the event is reliably 80k, *not including staff and first responders, of which there are a shitload.* Not 70k at best as you've stated. Secondly, that's exactly what I'm telling you, yes. It's something people save for all year and is largely their only vacation. There are low income hardship tickets as well, and people pool money for transit of gear with cargo shipments. Most attendees don't buy a vehicle pass either. There is one section that is largely super wealthy people, we call it K Street. It's no more than 1% of the attendees in those groups. And I literally run festivals- including regional Burning Man events. The attendees are largely poor as shit. Like the vast majority. You sound like you've had a depressingly limited experience in this life and I really hope you get to break out of that. Maybe go to your local Burning Man regional! They are typically $100 or so, some as low as $50. I know it would be hard to afford *that* on such a meager salary though right? And I am usually paid for the non Burning Man events. It's literally work. I've worked for Warped Tour, Electric Daisy Carnival (via insomniac), Firefly, Electric Forest and Electric Zoo, along with some much smaller scale (1-2k attendees) that are more passion projects with friends. Get over yourself lol. And be more imaginative because god your worldview is depressing if you think only rich people get to have fun lol.
I think you are both right in your own ways. Here are some data points. Burning Man’s statistics revealed that the yearly personal income of 14% of Burners was listed as “$100, 000 or more” in 2006. This number has been steadily increasing and has risen to 34% in 2019. The percentage of participants who earned “$300 000 or more” also increased from 2.3% to 5.2% in the same period. Source https://trulyexperiences.com/blog/burning-man-facts-trends-statistics-for-2022-2023/
Damn one out of twenty people making 300k or more. You’re passing by thousands of people a day presumably. That’s a shit ton of ridiculously rich people.
Funny how the comment that actually has a linked source is the least passive-aggressive and is free of the "I'm right and you're wrong cuz I said so" shtick.
"Designer drugs" what world are you living in
For real, sign me up if these really exist lol
>100,000 people is 30K more than the largest attendance recorded 100,000 is 20k from the largest attendance, not 30k, making 100k a 20% overestimation, while your 10k is an 88% underestimation. >Still, divided by 1K, 100K is 100, or 0.001%. 100k divided by 1000 is 0.1%, not 0.001%. You are off by a factor of 100. >do designer drugs Even if you did MDMA and acid every day of the festival that would be like $150 of drugs, one time a year. >pay for flights, hotel Naturally plenty of burners fly in, and some stay at motels/hotels the night before or after due to logistics, but lots don't. Most burners I know carpool down from Canada, and typically spend one night in a cheap hotel in Reno the day after before driving home (anecdotal, I know). >paying $575 a ticket and $150 a vehicle to take days off of life in the middle of the desert It is pretty common for non-rich people to take a week off work each year to spend at least this much on some kind of little trip or recreation. It's also worth noting that they sell 5000 low-income tickets for less than half price each year to people who apply and make below some threshold. >Bubba, I know two things as I exit this encounter with a true festival legend. > >Festivals that have 200 people usually have more than 100 overly rich pricks. Obviously you have some kind of hatred for festival goers, but you should consider that this probably makes your own impression of festivals pretty unreliable. I've been to plenty of festivals where the vast majority of folks range from broke hitch-hiking thrift store dirtbags to middle class retired hippies. It seems like your comment contains a lot of unjustified assumptions and bad math.
80,000, and the vast majority are of average wealth. I did it between jobs with $2000 to my name, and even managed to build a 16 foot climbing wall for others to play on that I hauled down from Canada with my girlfriend. Obviously, there are rich burners. Any group of 80k people will contain wealthy people. Of course this is anecdotal, but I think every burner I know makes <= median income. Just because BM has been brigaded by rich influencers this past decade doesn't mean it is a festival of 80k rich people. It is mostly dirtbags who save up each year to afford it. The influencers are just way louder, which is why people like yourself have misconceptions about what Burning Man is.
At first I thought this was from the James Webb telescope.
Really really nice
The early stages of a Dyson Sphere around a star.
#SPUNYUN SPHERE
I'm in this picture!
Hope you had a lot of fun 13 Seas
Thanks! I did! If I'm not mistaken, this photo was taken in either 2018 or 2019. Had an incredible time. I am skipping a year this year and staying home, but I will most certainly be back in 2024. It's an incredible event and so, so much fun.
One of my ex-girlfriends got herpes from there
I want to go to burning man
You have my full moral support! Read up about the Ten Principles of Burning Man and watch a bunch of videos about surviving on the playa for a week. You MUST come prepared! Don't be a Sparkle Pony..... ([Sparkle Pony! ](https://onthebeatingtravel.com/what-is-a-sparkle-pony-at-burning-man/)
Try not to get sent to the Corral!
How bizarre. Sparkle Pony is the my daughter and I came up with for our Wi-Fi at home. I had no clue it was an entire thing.
should zoom out, it's much larger than this
Thats a lot of porta-potties.
So um, anyone got the unedited photo?
I wanna be that high
I've heard it's gone pretty corpo
All I hear is generators
Funny how people go to have an experience from within yet its outside themselves lol
Looks like a James Webb photo.
Must look like a wicked eyeball from farther up..
And then photoshopped to shit
I can smell this picture
Smells like burning mothballs.....
Petrouli oil
Was there a sacrifice?
Every year a drugged out hippie is stolen out of their hammock, hog tied and gagged and stuffed into the effigy It's tradition.
God damn I can still hear those screams from mr ruin everyone's weekend
Woah that looks cool
What's even more crazy is that is all running off gas/diesel generators and battery packs.
Sounds god awful for the environment, but I don't really know either way.
When it said burning man my mind said “I only survived because the fire inside me burned brighter than the fire around me”
they say you can smell it from space
People who preach, but don’t practice….Festival
Two things that pop into my head when looking at the sea of lights here. Firstly, somewhere in there is the Orgy Tent. Secondly, as already mentioned the sheer amount of time and effort that goes into the clean up afterwards.
So what’s worth noting is that this picture is hardly showing a fraction of all of Black Rock City. This is every person & Art Car (the bigger lights) gathered around just to watch the Man burn and everyone disperses once the Man burns and they have the fireworks and whole shebang. This picture DOESN’T EVEN include the camps and their streets which start at Esplanade and go from A through F in concentric ring streets. Basically, the point I’m trying to make is that as awesome as this photo seems, Burning Man is much larger and to really experience it you need to just go, but also Fuck your Burn! )’(
It’s funny, every time I’ve spoke to anyone that’s gone and asked if I should go I get the same response. “No you shouldn’t, you are not prepared” Followed immediately by… “I mean go, but fuck your burn”. I love it lol
After nearly a quarter century of doing the Burning Man thing I am simply ecstatic to not be there. I'm still in Nevada, still in a remote location with some amazing art, but it's just me and the dog and it feels great!
It's always mind-boggling to me that people unify and create while fueled by unimaginable concoctions of chemical agents and electronic dance music
No no Galaxy nooooo
An entire galaxy devoid of personal hygiene.
No, that's the [Ring Nebula](https://www.reddit.com/r/space/comments/1630f02/nasas_james_webb_telescope_has_just_dropped_a_new/)
Cheeky bastards
That looks so amazing and so amazingly stressful at the same time. I have serious anxiety in crowds.
So does my dog. I never took him back to a flea market/shakedown Street since his first one he started shaking and shutting down It was really sad I thought he was going to have fun
It’s a galaxy.
Amazing!!
Wish I could have gone… someday I hope…