Good god, what an experience. I don't know where to start so I'll just post some pictures and maybe they'll speak for me. I lost temporal coherence very early on so I think most of the stories will just come out randomly at best.
Look at the map on
burningman.com and check out the
burning blog.
The crew, Brian Nick Jesse Dave, headed out for the desert Sunday afternoon. We drove through the night and made it through the gate by maybe 4am. There was a 2-mile long glowing snake of lights to get in and by the greeters. The stars were out and the desert was very welcoming. The city was, in retrospect, entirely empty. By 6am we had the tent up. The sunrise was fantastic. I caught a few hours of sleep before going for a dust-storm filled playa bike ride. I then ended up spending most day helping get the dome set up and running. As well as working the 'hospitality' shift till about 3:30am. There were a couple wonderful random walks in there on breaks with Nick and Bri. Jesse disappeared with "Fluffy". We met a lot of people. This won't make any sense but I think the highlights were Playa Angels & Greeters, Jeff's Rolling Philosophy, The White Hat of Power, Center Camp Naked Espresso Contact Dance and The Grinders.
Sunrise colors with the 3-o'clock promenade in view.
Sunrise on the western range.
The man faces 6 o'clock and was on a multi-story structure (covered with various counties flags).
Setting up the Hookahdome on the Esplanade. The main street runs right in front of our dome. By the end, 11 more streets would go in behind us (along with a total of I'm-told 60-70 thousand people). We were "immediately next door to front and center", right on main street.
The man inside the circle.
Setting up the lighting in the dome. This place was a dust-free paradise for the trip, especially with the evaporative coolers keeping it nice inside. Beautiful.
Deep playa with mountains.
The flaming lotus. Read
http://blog.burningman.com to see it in action at the burn.
The map of the city. The man is in the center with promenades at 3, 6 and 9 o'clock. The esplenade is the inner most street, main-street. Center camp is on the esplanade at 6. The airport was at 5. The giant dance clubs were at 10 and 2. The "deep desert" art was in the open space around and above 12. There was the giant babalyon structure out in the desert past 2....
Burning Man Maps Page
