Burning Man 1996 by Charles Uzzell-Edwards

Hello, I came back from four days at the burning man festival in the Black Rock Desert in Nevada (Labor day weekend). Lots of people (10,000 or so) set up an imaginary / temporary town camped out there, lit a huge wooden man at Midnight on Saturday and generally had lots of anarchic Utopian fun. Lots of people created machines, weird vehicles and reveled in the fact that although Black Rock had a temporary police force, everything was permitted. Here are a few of the highlights of the weekend for me...

Taking a big dump out in the desert, a 24,000 square mile dried out flat lake bed.

Cycling across a landscape that looked like a technicolour version of the old 'battle zone' tank game

Pushing a 1 ton metal machine that shoots 100 feet flames around the camp and setting things on fire

Giving thanks in the temple of peace tent at dawn on Monday morning, feeling at one with the universe

Watching loads of brightly dressed people dancing to acid trance as the sun rises in their background

Weeing a giant motorized (moped engine) furry rat on wheels careening around the camp site

DJing for 12 hours in a chai tea tent (my own personal endurance record has been broken)

Wondering why the hell anyone has to inhale nitrous oxide to get a good buzz out of house music

Seeing a motorized rotating couch on wheels with a matching motorized coffee table and lamp

Watching The Man burn (rebirth or annihilation/John Barleycorn or wicker man, I'm not sure)

Seeing 80 pianos get burned to ash, and playing the strings with a pole John Cage style as they burned

Doing a radio show on burning man pirate radio (99.5) and playing lots of weird stuff

Seeing 3 beautiful sunrises in the desert

Sitting in a mud springs out on the playa

Psilocybyn caps and marijuana buds

Cycling for miles and miles as the sun rises

The realization that social anarchy is a lot of fun : everybody has a nice time making lots of really good friends i may never see again (or until next year at least)