Burning Man coming

To the uninitiated, the Burning Man festival in Nevada's Black Rock Desert is part rave, part craft fair gone awry. To devotees, Burning Man is something bigger: A weeklong exercise in consciousness-raising, spurred by colossal artworks set amid a sprawling campground where 70,000 visitors collaborate to survive.

If you focus on the dance parties, embellished nudity, drugs and the burning of a wooden effigy at the end of the event, it's easy to overlook that the festival is actually centered on art.

 This has become a "Bucket List" event for many. Something that you have to do once in your life, though in recent years the event has become much more commercial than when it started. If you don't know the story, the 'Burning Man' started in San Francisco by a guy who got divorced and was pissed off at his X. He burned a big pile of stuff on a beach one weekend after a party to mark the change in his life. It became a yearly event, growing larger every year.



Today, the even is held in the north Nevada desert on what is called the Playa. Part of it is futuristic art installations, fantasy vehicles, lots of drugs, lots of sex, lots of drugs... Well the art can be quite interesting even without the drugs. This is the pre-week before the event this year. People who attend are known as "Burners" and they are starting to make the journey out to the desert.

The event is a bring your own stuff type thing. You can't buy anything there and you will need food, water, shelter, and anything else you may want. The environment can be very harsh, high winds and high temperatures, cold temperatures, rain etc... You must be open minded and it is best to participate, though recently a lot of people just come to look at the naked women and do drugs. True burners are there to explore other sides of themselves and explore the event to its fullest.

As the event gets under way there will be more updates, if you are adventurist maybe you should think of experiencing this once in your life. Read up and prepare, but it can be a mind blowing thing...