July 31, 1998

SAN FRANCISCO -- In typical Willie Brown fashion, 31 July is being proclaimed "No Spectators Day," commemorating the slogan of Burning Man.

This city's mayor, who never met a proclamation he didn't like, is expected to issue another one Friday night to Larry Harvey, founder of the techno-pagan bacchanal that annually invades the Nevada desert. The San Francisco fête kicks off a display of Burning Man-related art exhibitions, signaling the city's new friendliness toward this event.

A reception for the opening of The Art of Burning Man: An Incendiary Exhibition in the Veterans Building starts off the festivities. Afterwards, a procession down Van Ness Avenue will include 70 performers costumed as insect-headed Rudrans and other characters from Temple of Rudra. Pepe Ozan's opera, set in a future in which humans and insects have interbred, will be performed at this year's Burning Man festival.

At 10 pm, the 50-foot structure known as "The Man" will be lit with neon to kick off a nighttime street fair called "Black Rockin' SF." The Man will remain on display across from City Hall in a lot [ED: 401 Van Ness Ave at McAllister)] owned by the San Francisco Art Commission Gallery, until being transported to the Nevada desert for its traditional burning over Labor Day weekend.

"It's about time the city acknowledged Burning Man," said Louis Brill, who wrote the essay The First Year in the Desert, which appears on the Burning Man Web site. In a speech at last year's festival, Harvey described "trying to smuggle a four-story giant onto a beach under the nose of the authorities ..." in 1990 and being stopped by a lone park ranger at San Francisco's Baker Beach.

The incident motivated the move to the desert, but now the Burning Man community is being embraced in San Francisco. A draft of the mayor's proclamation now states, "the concept of art itself has become an integral part of our unique Bay Area experience."

"We've half-encapsulated the Civic Center of San Francisco," joked Harvey on Monday. "It's time we came home, it's been a long hegira out there."

It hasn't all been bad blood between the city and the festival. Joy Orabella, a Burning Man volunteer, said organizers have held fundraisers at the SOMAR Gallery. "[It was] a two-day art festival where all the artists who were participating that year in Burning Man would come and put up their sculpture, put up their theme camps, and do presentations."

The reception and the exhibit will run through 29 August. Harvey hopes this heralds a new beginning.

"I think what's going to happen now is a lot of people are going to start claiming city space for public art. It's turning into a movement." Harvey cites groups like Cyberbuss, which has been moving into city spaces for artistic events. "They had a big lot by their warehouse and had a huge costume ball," he said, which "stretched the limits of normal space."

How will the city respond to Burning Man? The Primary Tentacles of the Nebulous Entity exhibit, housed in a city-owned space, should jolt pedestrians. Octopus-like feelers behind the window are displayed over glow-in-the-dark gravel and real mud from the Black Rock desert. Dana Albany, who created the exhibit with Bev Reiser and Christina Buckingham, said there'll be a surprise. "I have a motor on it, so it'll move every 20 minutes."

People leaving the office building across the alley from the Man offered their opinions, ranging from "I didn't even know the Man was over there," to "I think it's great. I think anyone expressing their artistic interpretation is wonderful." Only one person had a quibble: "He's not anatomically correct."

But for the time being, tradition prevails. On Monday, a passerby shouted to Harvey, "You not gonna set this thing on fire, are you?"

"No!" he answered. "Only in Nevada!"

Related Wired Links:

Not Half the Burning Man It Used to Be
2.Sep.97

Burning Man's Burning Question: Got Permit?
21.Aug.97

Burning Man Burnout
11.Jul.97

Greetings from Burning Man!
Wired 4.11.89