: news coverage
The latest coverage is always at the top.
If you see something we missed, shoot us a note at santacruz@burningbeach.com.
Stories
from the Playa
Cascade Discovery, October/November issue
It's as if a post-apocalyptic vision of
Mad Max collided with New York's Guggenheim museum...with a dash
of Animal House thrown in for good measure. This is the only way
to describe this year's Burning Man Festival located in Nevada's
Black Rock Desert. I've studied Burning Man for four years; ever
since a woman brought in a videotape from the 1999 festival to
be aired on my PBS affiliated university television station. It
looked like an interesting art festival. This year was my First
Burning Man. When I go again next year I'll be a Reburner.
Missed
Burning Man? Check out the film fest
Santa Cruz Sentinel, Oct. 2
The huge and magnificent fire known as
Burning Man is beginning to spin off a number of smaller brush
fires — culturally speaking, of course. For the second straight
year, Burning Man is serving as inspiration for a mini film festival
in Santa Cruz.
Getting
Down in the Desert - Amazing raw video from the wildest road trip
in the world
TechTV's Unscrewed, Oct. 5
Going to Burning Man is a lot like hunting
for ice cream in an igloo. Except that the igloo is more like
a three-story duplex and the ice cream is more like a hungry meercat
scavenging for socks in the laundry. To put it bluntly -- it was
insane, erotic, fun, moist, hungry, sleepy, dopey, salty, and
bizarre. I'm fortunate enough to work with Laura Swisher, and
she did a lot of wacky things off-camera.
Fear,
evil can’t affect Burning Man festival
Reno Gazette-Journal, Sept. 23
I have been a seven-year attendee of Burning
Man. There is so much fuss because it’s such a wonderful,
peaceful, loving environment. Burning Man brings an estimated
$10 million to this community. People don’t spend money on
the State Fair because it’s dirty, dangerous, expensive,
and draws crowds of unruly gangs and troublemakers.
Writer
should visit Burning Man event
Reno Gazette-Journal, Sept. 16
The editorial “See human factor in
Burning Man” [Sept. 2] contained the statement: “Artists
and vendors sold mandalas... .” The writer of that sentence
must have only the vaguest idea of what the Burning Man event
is like. At Burning Man there are no vendors. This is a key tenet
of the experience. No selling at all is allowed. The only exceptions
are ice, and drinks such as coffee at Center Camp. These are handled
by the Burning Man organizers.
Feel
the burn - At the 13th annual Burning Man, in the Nevada desert,
art is the norm and the surreal becomes real
Petaluma Argus Courier, Sept. 24
In a culture of convenience, Nevada's
Black Rock Desert is the most inconvenient place imaginable, yet
30,000 people don't seem to mind. Every year for 13 years, around
Labor Day, Burning Man participants, also called "burners,"
truck everything, including the kitchen sink, to the middle of
this vast white desert made from a prehistoric lake bed. There
they live for a week in Black Rock City, a city of five square
miles created by its residents on the spot, a city that will vanish
at the end of the week when everyone leaves.
Why
I Burned Out at Burning Man - Commentary
Pacific News Service, Sept. 19
Editor's Note: Has the creative, spontaneous
and lawless spirit behind an extraordinary gathering in the Nevada
desert ebbed away?
SAN FRANCISCO--Something different happened
to me at Burning Man this year. I burned out. Two weeks after
returning from the extraordinary festival -- held in Nevada's
Black Rock Desert and hailed as a mecca for alternative art and
community -- I'm still trying to figure out why.
Cowtown
Chronicles - Planet X
Las Vegas Mercury, Sept. 18
Pop.: 2. Industry: Pottery , painting.
Nearest city: Reno-Sparks (pop. about 300,000), 115 miles north.
Distance to Las Vegas: 550 miles.
Talk of the town: Well, actually, town's
eight miles away in the Gerlach/Empire metropolis (pop. about
600), where there are three bars and a post office but no grocery
store. But Planet X, owned by John and Rachel Bogard, is a community
unto itself: "way off the grid," solar-powered, industrious.
The
norm is the malady
Logan Herald Journal, Slightly Off Center,
Sept. 16
More than 2 billion people worldwide didn't
go to Burning Man this year, making it a smashing failure. Millions
went to great lengths to avoid reading about it or seeing it on
television as well. I and the 30,000 others who did attend represent
an insignificant subset of the world population. Should you even
care? Yes and no.
Naked people? Yes. Drugs? Yes. High cost? Yes.
You bring everything? Yes. Advertising? No. Sponsorship? No. Politics?
No. Water? No. Vegetation? No.
Setting
Fire to the Man - Reflections on the desert freakishness that
is the Burning Man Festival. The Advocate was there
Hartford Advocate, Sept. 18
Some call it a pilgrimage. Some call it
a party. Some leave it as the rather indefinable annual happening
it really is. Just as the 1969 Woodstock Music and Art Fair moniker
was reduced simply to "Woodstock," so too is the Burning
Man Arts Festival boiled down to just "Burning Man."
BURNING
MAN: A review of the art
Willamette Weekly, Sept. 10
Truth be told, the throngs who attended
this year's Burning Man--among them thousands of Oregonians--may
have been more interested in the drugs, random acts of hedonism
and groovy tribal vibe than the art. And that's OK, as this weeklong
hippie-meets-raver festival, held Aug. 25-Sept. 1 in Nevada's
Black Rock Desert, is quite possibly the world's most fabulous
party. Despite this (or perhaps because of it), Burning Man has
grown into the Do It Yourself art community's most expansive petri
dish: a vast, open playa upon which nearly 200 artists erected
sculptures, structures, and installations that spanned the spectrum
in theme and quality.
Fewer
citations, more medical treatment at Burning Man
Associated Press, Sept. 11
The latest numbers are in from this year's
annual Burning Man festival in the Black Rock Desert: Scrapes
and bruises were up, but scrapes with the law were down. Bureau
of Land Management law officers issued 177 citations overall at
the weeklong, counterculture event through Labor Day - a 25 percent
reduction from a year ago, BLM officials said.
The
Impressive, The Perverse and The Strange at Burning Man
NPR, The Savvy Traveller, Aug. 22 (RealAudio)
Burning Man, the free-form music jam with
a nod toward the peace, love and mind expansion of the ‘60s,
is swinging into full gear in the Nevada Desert now. There’s
a mystique to Burning Man. One day, there’s wind blowing
across miles of uninterrupted sand; a week later, singles, couples,
families, the old, the middle-aged and the young converge to create
Black Rock City, a temporary community of 30,000 people. Contributor
Rico Gagliano spends a week meeting people who shed their professional
lives and responsibilities to form the ninth largest city in Nevada,
full of the impressive, the perverse and the, well, strange.
'Naked
is OK in the newsroom' - British journalist Gaby Pomeroy spent
a week on a paper at the radical Burning Man festival in Nevada
The Guardian, Sept. 8
A naked volunteer journalist with a Hello
Kitty nipple ring is sitting cross-legged on the floor at the
daily news meeting of the Black Rock Gazette. This is the official
daily newspaper of the Burning Man festival, possibly the wackiest
slice of America, held each year during the last week of August
in the Nevada desert.
About
a man - This year’s Burning Man shows that the event has
reached maturity. Is it possible to keep the party from stagnating?
Reno News & Review, Sept. 4
I'm a Burner. I think we should have that
straight from the outset. I wasn't always a Burner. For several
years after my first trip to Burning Man, I maintained a more
or less objective viewpoint. Even when I went to the playa weeks
before the event and helped construct various stages, roads and
towers, I was half uncertain whether the event would survive its
periodic attacks by the various governments that regulate its
existence. There were times when I wasn't even sure it should
survive.
Burn,
baby, burn
Reno News & Review, Sept. 4
Welcome to this week’s Reno News
& Review. With the weird Labor Day deadlines, I’m writing
this message to you from the past. I’ve got that zingy feeling
of excitement in the pit of my stomach. It’s Friday morning,
and in a couple hours, I’m going to make my pilgrimage to
Black Rock City, the town where Burning Man is mayor. I’ve
been covering the event since 1995. A few years, I’ve gone
out weeks early and helped build things. Those, to my mind, have
been the best years. There have been some similarities every time
I’ve attended, though: It’s the funnest party of the
year; I run into friends whom I only see at Burning Man; I see
art that drops my jaw; I over imbibe the Bud Light.
Playing
by the Rules at the Burning Man Festival
NPR, Sept. 6, 2003
Nevada's Burning Man Festival, created
by an anti-establishment spirit and dedicated to human artistic
expression, finds itself enforcing some rules. Some fear the event
is losing something valuable in the exchange. NPR's Andrea Seabrook
reports.
Burning
Man: Behind the show, a community keeps it running
Reno Gazette-Journal, Aug. 29
The sun rose over Black Rock City about
6:30 a.m. Friday, and about that time a 44-year old Washington
state man sitting outside his tent offered passers-by a gift.
“Would you like some coffee, orange juice, water?” asked
Darrow Burke to the early birds out for a morning walk, or the
late-night party revelers trying to find their way home.
Burning
Man victim remembered
San Mateo Times, Sept. 6
SAN CARLOS -- More than 100 people packed
into a small chapel Friday to honor a beautiful and talented young
woman who had the misfortune of being the first person to die
at the Burning Man festival in its 17-year history.
Naked fire devil
Der Spiegel, Sept. 3
Sex and Drugs and flame thrower - the
"Burning one Festival" draws each year of ten thousands
Freaks into the desert Nevadas. MIRROR ON-LINE ONE shows pictures
of the unusual Spektakels. (Translation
courtesy of Babelfish).
Reno
Gazette Journal Coverage of Burning Man
Photo galleries, video and stories from
this year's festival on the Playa. Check back often for new images.
Burning
Man organizers seek compromise on staging area
KRNV, Sept. 4
As the clean-up begins following this
year's Burning Man Festival, a looming question remains. Will
it return to the Black Rock Desert? Organizers hope so, but it
hinges on whether they can store displays and vehicles on 200-acres
they own. A staging area that's drawn complaints from area residents.
Colorado
woman dies in I-80 crash
Elko Daily News, Sept. 4
ELKO - A Colorado woman returning home
from the Burning Man festival was killed Sunday after her vehicle
rolled over several times on Interstate 80 about five miles east
of Elko.
Woman
who died at Burning Man remembered
S.F. Examiner, Sept. 3
BELMONT -- Katherine "Kathy"
Lampman, who died over the weekend at the Burning Man festival,
was a free spirit who had talked about going to the Nevada event
for three years. "She planned it for a year," said her
older sister Stacy Cowan-Intravia. "It was a birthday gift
to herself."
Reuters
Burning Man photo gallery
Reuters, Sept. 2
An art piece calling President Bush a
liar sits in the middle of the Burning Man Festival in Black Rock
City, Nevada, August 30, 2003. The Burning Man Festival has been
celebrated annually since 1986 and draws around 20,000 people
to the Black Rock Desert celebrating radical self expression.
One
More Vital Pagan Orgy - Sex, drugs and glow sticks: Our columnist
survives yet another Burning Man, perspective intact
Mark Morford, Sept. 3
Oh sure you've got your giant floating
neon dragons and your epic desert sculptures and your hissing
Mad Max-ish art cars shooting flames 400 feet into the air, and
every single thing everywhere smells like some combination of
sweat and dust and marijuana and urine and fire and tequila and
glue.
No
One Makes It To Burning Man Festival
The Onion, Aug. 27
GERLACH, NV—The Burning Man festival,
a prominent artistic and countercultural event that draws tens
of thousands of people to the Nevada desert annually, is in danger
of cancellation this week because "no one had their shit
together enough to even make it," organizers said Tuesday.
Kindred
free spirits bask in the glow of Burning Man
Seattle Times, Sept. 2
BLACK ROCK CITY, Nev. — Mara Krieps
rode to her wedding in a car resembling a big-toothed silver monster,
wearing a long white faux mink cape, a silver halter dress and
white vinyl boots. She held a fiber-optic bouquet as she walked
down a dusty aisle to meet John Simmons, who awaited her at the
Temple of Honor.
Burning
Man 2003
SF Gate photo gallery, Sept. 2
Seventeen years old and going strong,
the Burning Man festival attracts upwards of 30,000 free spirits
to the remote Black Rock Desert in northern Nevada, where they
assembled for this year's mass meditation, art festival and fiery
bacchanal. Chronicle photographer Frederic Larson took it all
in through his lens.
Looking
Back at Burning Man
Day to Day, National Public Radio, Sept.
2
NPR's Alex Chadwick talks with technology
writer Xeni Jardin about her first visit to the annual Burning
Man festival held in Nevada's Black Rock desert. The week-long
gathering attracted more than 30,000 people this year -- for a
brief moment, making it Nevada's fifth-largest city.
Burning
Man '03 Ashes, Dust
Wired News, Sept. 2
BLACK ROCK CITY, Nevada -- The dry Nevada
lake bed known as Black Rock City will soon be empty. Art cars,
tent encampments and elaborate interactive art installations have
been hauled away from the remote site. The dusty canvas on which
the annual Burning Man festival takes place will once again return
to its naturally desolate state.
Why
I Didn’t Go to Burning Man—Again
Berkeley Daily Planet, Sept. 2
Burning Man is the countercultural artfest
held the week before Labor Day every summer on the floor of the
Black Rock desert, about 120 miles north of Reno, NV. Launched
in 1986 at San Francisco’s Baker Beach, the event and culminates
in the burning of a wooden sculpture—which the SFPD banned
four years later. Burning Man then moved to its present Black
Rock desert location near the town of Gerlach, NV. Now, roughly
25,000 people attend from all over the world. Advance tickets
for Burning Man are $225. If you just show up, it’s $300.
Outside of portable toilets, not much is provided. You are expected
to bring plenty of water, food, your own shelter (either camping
equipment or an RV) and whatever else you think you might need
for a week in the desert. Attendees are strongly urged to go as
participants, i.e. to be part of a musical, dance, theater or
art presentation. Showing up as simply a passive bystander is
frowned upon. For one reason or another, this is the fourth consecutive
year that Daily Planet correspondent Paul Kilduff has managed
not to attend after first going in 1998.
Local
dies during desert festival - Belmont woman killed at Burning
Man celebration
S.F. Examiner, Sept. 1
BELMONT -- A local woman died when she
accidentally fell under the wheels of an "art cart"
at the counterculture Burning Man festival, authorities said.
The death of Katharine Lampman on Saturday was the most serious
in a series of accidents at the weeklong huge desert revel, where
thousands of people gather each year in a celebration of art,
performance and individuality.
Burning
Man counterculture seeks social, political influence
Associated Press, Sept. 1
BLACK ROCK DESERT, Nev. (AP) - Burning
Man, the wild counterculture festival held annually in one of
the nation's most remote areas, is coming to cities across America.
It's time to try to influence the very culture against which this
year's record 30,500 Burning Man participants rebelled, the phenomenon's
founder and resident visionary said in an interview.
They
came, they saw, they gazed into the fire - Spiritual themes permeate
Burning Man
S.F. Chronicle, Sept. 1
Gerlach, Nevada -- Mark and Marla stumbled
out of the desert laughing loudly, swaying arm in arm, wearing
skimpy, erotic cowboy outfits and a thick layer of dust. But as
they entered the huge, open-air temple, their laughs evaporated.
"Oh my God," they breathed simultaneously.
Burning
Man festival returns to dust
Associated Press, Sept. 1
BLACK ROCK DESERT, Nev. -- Artists, spiritualists
and old hippies at the annual counterculture Burning Man festival
decamped from their temporary desert community following a peaceful
gathering marred by a series of accidents. A record 30,500 people
turned some of the nation's remotest real estate into a hedonistic
utopia where everything is recycled and where drugs, clothes and
inhibitions are optional.
Trouble
in Counterculture Utopia
New York Times, Aug. 31
BLACK ROCK DESERT, Nev., Aug. 31 —
From all across the desert they came, with luminescent wires in
their hair or war paint on their faces. As drum circles pounded
out tribal rhythms and roving sound systems blasted techno beats,
they walked in their elaborate homemade costumes or drove in bizarre
vehicles. They hooted and they cheered, and most of all they came
to burn the Man.
'Burning
Man' can be about anything
Associated Press, Sept. 1
BLACK ROCK DESERT, Nev. -- On Saturday,
rising from the desert in one of the most remote places on earth
was an 80-foot temple topped by the stylized figure of a man.
It wasn't here last week and it disappeared Sunday -- except for
the pile of ashes from its ritual burning.
Ashes to ashes, Burning Man city returns to dust
Associated Press, Aug. 31
As the ashes cooled Sunday where the wooden
Burning Man toppled in a flaming finale, residents of the West's
strangest city began returning their community to the desert dust
from which it sprang just a week ago.
Woman
dies at festival in Nevada - Fell under 'art car' and was run
over
Associated Press, Aug. 30
BLACK ROCK DESERT, Nev. - A woman riding
an "art car" at the counterculture Burning Man festival
died when she accidentally fell under the vehicle's wheels, authorities
said.
Four
injured in second small plane crash at Burning Man
Associated Press, Aug. 30
RENO, Nev. (AP) - Four people were critically
injured when a small plane crashed Saturday at the Burning Man
counterculture festival on the Nevada desert, authorities said.
Larri Frelow, a Federal Aviation Administration operations officer,
said the Beechcraft BE-35 crashed on landing in the Black Rock
Desert 120 miles north of Reno.
One
person injured after small plane crashes at Burning Man
Associated Press, Aug. 30
A small plane has crashed at the Burning
Man Festival near Gerlach. Officials say one person was taken
to Washoe Medical Center for treatment, but no further information
was available.
Burning
Man never gets old
Wired, Aug. 25
About 30,000 revelers are expected to
descend on a remote lakebed in the Nevada desert this week for
the 17th annual geek-culture phenomenon known as Burning Man.
The event -- part fire ceremony, part party, part indescribable
surreality -- began in 1986 when co-founders Larry Harvey and
Jerry James constructed an improvised wooden figure in honor of
summer solstice, then burned it on San Francisco's Baker Beach.
The yearly happening grew over time, migrating to Black Rock City,
Nevada, in 1990, where it will return from Aug. 25 through Sept.
1.
Burning
Man Bingo
Boing Boing, Aug. 27
A Boing Boing reader created this bingo
card based on stuff you'd see on the playa. I got all of them
except the Tofu Pups wrapper.
|
