A typical night at Burning Man

For anyone who has been to Burning Man, a week-long festival in the high desert of Nevada, this photo will evoke the feeling of the event. This view is looking toward the playa, at a typical street scene at dusk. "The Man," at the back right, is a wood, metal and neon sculpture that stands about 60 feet high, and which provides a dependable reference point to get around the temporary city of 50,000 that appears on the desert playa each year. Photo by Eric Francis.

Note to Sunday Readers:

Last September I published an article about Burning Man as part of the Planet Waves series of Friday essays. The article describes the Burning Man event, gives some of its history and explains how it serves as a vital cultural ritual to help people transform and embrace the changes our society is going through. Here is that edition. For those who want a perspective from 11 years ago, here is the last article in my original Burning Man series from the summer of 1999. This has some great quotes from the founder of Burning Man, a guy named Larry Harvey, as well as a description of the “pre-9/11 world” from the summer of 1999. For fans of KPFA radio in Berkeley, there are some amazing scenes in this article. –efc

7 thoughts on “A typical night at Burning Man”

  1. Nice photo…and butt shot too. :::smiling:::

    Len, I am VERY glad you took that offer and stayed. You are definitely an asset to this website.

  3. Eric, the caption reads “The Man”, at the back left”

    “The Man” in this image is on the right, is the photo reversed?

    I see the Trickster in this evocative photo; a little glimpse of Loki in the desert.

  4. What a long strange trip…your photo and articles reawakened some memories from 1999 and my first and so far only trip to Burning Man in 2006. The 1999 article was published shortly after I found Planetwaves via Rob Breszney/s site. Is Mercury retro or something? Great photo. Dust, bikes, barely clad humans, and the man glowing in the distance. One of the most memorable things for me was being in a space where cars are restrained to 5 mph and must be parked unless they’re art cars. Now I’m imagining car-free societies. Yes indeed, you can burn away a lot of sticky-stuck if you put a little intention behind a trip to Burning Man. And wow, Planetwaves has been around a long time for a website. Keep on keeping on.

  5. Eric,

    This photo is one of your best.

    And no doubt the odds were against such a great shot considering the light, dust, movement etc. Cool.

    Len,

    So glad you gave it a try and stayed for more ;=)

  6. Len,
    Thank you for this nice piece of history. What a wonderful synchronicity that all was to bring you, our navigating captain, to our daily lives. You are blessed.

    speaking of piece, nice shot Eric… that is photojournalism at its best…

  7. This posting is an appropriate occasion to express my heartfelt thanks to Eric Francis and the Planet Waves community. A little over one year ago Eric asked me, of all the unlikely people, to fill in for him on the Daily Astrology while he took his first vacation in three years and went to Burning Man. It was one of those moments to say yes without pausing to think. i still don’t know what madness brought him to offer me, a rank amateur, such a blessing. It is probably the best thing that ever happened to me, certainly the best opportunity.

    The support of Eric, Fe, Anatoly and the rest of the Pllanet Waves community inspired me to rise to the occasion to do something i had never done before and accomplish it with a degree of coherency. It has since been my good fortune that all of you have accepted my continued service, encouraging my growth and forgiving my errors to continue what, for me, has been a wish come true.

    Thank you all so very much. May i be found worthy to continue in this service in one way or another as Eric and the Planet Waves community shall deem fitting.

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