Freak City in Fire and Flame
[Translated by Trippingly.net]
October 23, 1998
The ticket warned of serious illnesses or death. There were 15,000 participants who went bananas in an orgy of baptism and nudity in the middle of the Nevada desert. "The Burning Man Festival" had no official festival jersey. The only things that attendees brought home were memories and scars.
BLACK ROCK DESERT. Suddenly you are in the Nevada desert. Your face is burnt. You struggle to breathe. A man paints his genitals blue. A motorcycle crashes into a tower. That's when you wonder if Woodstock was really that crazy.
It doesn't start well.
As we drive out of the gambling town of Reno and take off Highway 80, the sky explodes in lightning and thunder. The first of endless rains is hammering Nevada. The windshield wipers work double time, and the photographer shouts that he sees a dead cow as we spin through Nevada's rocky lunar landscape.
After four hours of driving, we glimpse the camp under a 15-meter-high sandstorm. Cars, caravans and tents extend over several kilometers. This is the Mad Max of reality. Disneyland for the insane. A week-long, 40-degree (C) freak show in which Americans in their 30s can be naked and act crazy. There is nothing to purchase except drugs. It doesn't start well. It does not start well at all.
Yeah, I've seen people have sex. Yes, I've seen people take drugs. Yes, I've seen people drink themselves senseless.
Matt Matisch stands on the dry, cracked earth at the edge of the camp and dances. He has Superman suit with S on his chest. In his right hand he holds a red wine bottle.
They say we should drink half a liter of liquid per hour.
The African-American Superman laughs.
It doesn't matter what you drink. It's stinky fucking hot anyway.
A motorized machine with hang glider wings flies over our heads. Motorcycles rebuilt into rats and reindeer fly over the playa.
I usually sleep all day and get out at night. Now I have been dancing since four o'clock this morning. What is it now?
It was 11:00. The temperature is over 30 degrees Celcius.
Then I danced for seven hours without a break. This is like the Red Light District. Red Light District with lots of sand.
We see green toilets, bikes lying strewn across the playa. Pennants, pirate flags and naked ladies. A guy in orange overalls stands on top of a caravan and sings. Under him three girls in sheikh uniforms try to hold a tent. A man with dark hair, straw hat and bandages comes walking. He could have been Michael Jackson.
Give me my dog back! Give me my pee back!
COOLING: The temperature of the "Burning Man Festival" rose
to 40 degrees. Then there were several who cooled down with mud baths.
Photo: Paul Paiewonsky
A Michael Jackson imitator runs after a naked boy scratching on the ground in front of him. The boy has a ribbon around his neck. From time to time, he makes barking noises.
Matisch: This is freak-city. Common to the participants is that they are artistic souls. That they bring something artistic with them into the desert. There are no rules here, no overall goal. We decide for ourselves what "Burning Man" should be.
And that is?
Matisch: Some people think this is a hippie gathering or a new age thing. Others believe that there is a haven for alternative art. I mean it's a damn good party.
A 15-meter high wooden figure is erected on the other side of the camp. The burning of the "man" takes place on the last day of the event, and is the only thing that brings together the 15,000 participants in a joint experience. The ceremony’s roots go all the way back to 1986, when festival founder Larry Harvey set fire to an eight-foot tall dragon on San Francisco's Baker Beach, to purify his soul of love care. When Larry was to repeat the business four years later, he was stopped by the local authorities. Larry moved the madness to the Nevada desert.
Q: What does he symbolize for you?
Levis: The man?
Q: Yes.
Levis: I lay on my back, under the Man, and looked up at his head. I felt he represented some kind of shield against the storm. That he was standing against the storm.
Aston Levis, 28, sits under the wooden figure and looks a little confused. In a bag he has homemade cake which he exchanges for things and objects from other participants. Either Aston has gorged himself on chocolate cake, or he has switched chocolate cake to drugs.
Levis: I lay here and meditated, looked up at the sky, and got lots of good energy. Through the man, I can feel the expectations of tomorrow's burning. It's going to be so much hot tomorrow.
We see all kinds of injuries: heat, alcohol and drug related. The last thing is worst. People are completely out of control. Feels that they are going to die and that nobody wants them.
Tracy McDowell (31) stands in a caravan marked the Red Cross. She says they have 40 people for treatment every day. A dozen were sent to the hospital.
On the last day there have also been injuries due to the storm. People have been hit by flying objects. A motorcyclist collided with a tower. Tonight we expect a lot more to do.
Because of the burning?
Yes. People get really crazy. Smoke and burn injuries. They think it is just a common fire, but then it is as if their house was taken on fire. 15,000 people sit in a large circle. Inside the circle, the 15-meter tall figure flashes in green and blue neon. A naked girl gets up.
"Burn that motherfucker!" "Burn, baby, burn!"
The fire roars like a V8 engine. The sky explodes in fireworks. As the moon tilts over the Black Rock mountains, the desert is one big scream:
"Burn the man, burn the man!" "Burn the man, burn the man!"
Then it happens. Not a quiet and gentle bonfire, but an explosion of sound and flames. The whole horizon is a red and yellowish fire.
A naked man breaks from the crowd and runs towards the fire. He holds a white sheet of copied $100 banknotes over the flames while shouting "no to the money power!"
That's when the photographer says:
“I think we're leaving now.”
And while there is still glow in the old Man, we surrender in the dark and start the rental car. Freak-city becomes a small dot in the back window, and it's four hours to Reno.
We pas an ambulance on the road.
