Burning Man Festival: I Just Don't Get It!

I've done my share of soul searching. There's been times in my life where I wondered if, and how, I really fit in to this thing called life. At some point in our lives, we all question our own existence or purpose in society. So I somewhat understand why 50,000 people would trek to the 100 + degree heat of the Northern Nevada desert each year to find themselves.

I just don't get the Burning Man Festival.

Burning Man is a week-long annual event held in the Black Rock Desert, known as the playa. Already, the event lost me. Is there a rap influence squeezed into the festivities? Burning Man starts on the Monday before, and ends on the day of, Labor Day(August 29 to September 5, 2011). It takes its name from the ritual burning of a large wooden effigy on Saturday evening. The event is described by many participants as an experiment in community, radical self-expression, and radical self-reliance.

Okay, I'm with them so far. Let's learn more. Organizers say the experience of Burning Man can produce positive spiritual change in the world. Its Web site says the intent is to generate a society that connects each individual to his or her creative powers, to participation in community, to the larger realm of civic life, and to the even greater world of nature that exists beyond society. Hence, the hallucinogenics.

The community of Black Rock City, during this year's festivities, included in excess of 50,000 men, women and children, from the poverty-stricken to the wealthy. With ticket prices topping at $360, there is a cost for finding your place in life.

Aside from being a haven for radical self-expression, Burning Man turns into a summer camp for substance abusers. Nudity is the norm, and porta-potties are in short supply. Dust storms roll in unannounced, and anything goes at the desert party so big it can be seen from space. Countless injuries occur from the use of rebar, or re-inforced steel, that is used to erect tents. Serious burns occur when the iconic centerpiece of the festival, a 60-foot wooden sculpture in the figure of a man, goes up in flames and topples to the ground.

Now, about The Man. According to the Burning Man Board (yes, like the Man itself, there is a structure), this mythical figure rising from the desert represents nothing expressed or explicable, yet is a physical and ethical guidepost for those in attendance. Personally, I think it represents "The Man," or the government or those in power. The oft-used phrase, "Stick it to the Man," encourages resistance to authority. Burning The Man is sticking it to The Man. But that's just my opinion.

On the last night of the event, artwork scattered across Nevada's Black Rock Desert playa is torched. The most important structure, the alternative lifestyle event's temple, where attendees write messages to loved ones, is also set ablaze.

They leave nothing behind at the conclusion of the week-long party in the middle of nowhere.

I'm sure attendees got what they wanted, and that's cool. I go to a football game with 50,000 + people and I usually leave satisfied (unless it's my beloved Carolina Panthers). To each his own.

I just don't get the Burning Man Festival.