Burning Man

burning man : leisure activity :: dotcom : sound business model

(ps no it doesn't)

since everything dries immediately in the desert (it's like 110 degrees out during the day) nothing smells at all

so many different crowds of ppl go that you can avoid whatever people you dont like (hippies, ravers, whatever) -- not to mention there's always about 1000 things going on simultaneously so you can go to what you like and not go to what you don't like

i'm pretty anti-hippie myself

i'm going in two weeks -- i am psyched (douglas will be there again also!)

i'm not sure about the CA contingent, so i can't comment on that

Actually, that comment is from a friend of mine who goes to Burning Man every year (translation: he' s serious)

a) like with anything else some of it is crap and some of it is really cool
b) everything gets set on fire so if you didn't like some of the art that's ok, it'll all be up in flames at the end

DUN NUH-NUH-NUH NUH-NUH-NUH NUH NUH NUH-NUH!

Granted, I think part of me dies any time someone says they "feel like an artist." That's me. But the rest is actually supposed to make it sound good?

Is it called "Bill Graham Presents©: Mountain Dew eXtreme™'s Burning Man 2003" yet?

I did have some friends back in Ann Arbor that bought a school bus converted to watch NASCAR(had a platform atop it and everything). They drove it to Burning Man for a couple years, but eventually realized that the fuel costs probably weren’t worth it.

Then there’s this:

https://archive.ph/2026.09.01-002018/https://jacobin.com/2026/08/burning-man-documentary-workers-hbo

you're telling me there are exploited workers involved in organizing a massive party? get out of town. jacobin with the late-breaking news.

didn't mean to sound so sarcastic about it. i feel like in every organization ever there are always a few people who give way too much for nothing in return. usually it's 'fresh blood'. actual work anywhere you go is done almost exclusively by interns or college age employees it seems.

they suffer least, who suffer what they choose

our newest front in the culture wars?

On Tuesday, the Christian missionary camp Shift the Atmosphere was asked to pack up its belongings and leave the playa. According to videos posted on Instagram by camp member John Hinerman, the complaint stemmed from the camp engaging in nonconsensual activity, including filming Burning Man attendees and encouraging them to “receive a blessing.” Burning Man has strict rules regarding privacy, and no photos or videos that show attendees faces’ are allowed to be taken without permission.

it gets worse

Attendees in neighboring camps commented on Shift the Atmosphere’s presence on the playa. Jenae Gerstmann gave an interview to an SFGATE reporter while serving ramen spiked with vodka at Camp F—king Magical.

“They were giving away coffee and matcha,” Gerstmann said. “They definitely had some really loud music. We had to tell them, hey, the volume’s too high. You got to keep it down,” noting that the music was Christian EDM and that the volume was eventually lowered.

more like shit the atmosphere

oh noo i googled 'christian edm' and i'm playing some on youtube right now, my algorithm is going to be fucked now. it's blandly inoffensive and vaguely worship-y. modern religious music has the chance to be a freaky as hell, i don't get why they always go for the lowest denominator sound.

maybe that's the real reason they were evicted

(I'll admit I'm kinda curious about the vodka ramen)

"We had to tell them, hey, the volume’s too high. You got to keep it down"

waht this is not the Burning Man I recall from peoples' stories

putting vodka in ramen is sign that you need to find jesus

Maybe Jesus could turn that mess into something edible

praise the lord and pass the vodka ramen

You know, I could really go for some absinthe aspic right now.

Sounds more like they were "first amendment auditors"

https://www.friendlyatheist.com/p/christian-missionaries-were-not-kicked

this is what christian persecution looks like in the usa in 2026 — getting kicked out when you think rules don’t apply to you and whining about it

And getting maximum mileage out of it, they're been posting stories of their "persecution" on facebook.

"so much for the tolerant playa"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paradox_of_tolerance

they wanted to get kicked out, they got kicked out.

christian freaks responsible for the most posts in support of burning man here ever lol. lesser of two evils i guess. my husband is back and they had a good time. nothing against it but it's still not for me.

standing in the middle of a dry lake bed is something one does in a transitory moment, alone or with someone so they can take a dramatic photo of you. then it's time to belt it out of there. just a hunch but i feel like native people knew this.

yeah kind of a weird spot for a party

It's the blank slate aspect. Also easier to clean afterwards.

guys who get really into bm tend to be dorks that were discover drugs and partying later in life because they finally have money like youre supposed to figure that shit out in your teens and 20s and when you dont you end up like elon and reggie watts

-were

None of the people I've known over the years who've attended were anything like that, but there's probably some people like that, too.

xp that tracks for my partner, minus the money part. he qualified for a low income ticket. it was like 3 hundred or something. then pooled resources with three friends, one of whom has a nice rv. so i mean, it helps if you have friends who have more money than you do lol. he told me that this time was pretty mellow for him. they did shrooms one night, that was it. a little bit of fooling around and fucking with his friends but nothing too wild.

he said he felt like he was getting patellar tendonitis from riding bikes on the bumpy lakebed. next year he says he'll get an ebike. i guess they were everywhere this year. i'm glad he's found his dream-maxing getaway. truth be told the spectacle of all the art cars lined up around the man at the end sounds pretty epic and unique.

ks just described every Burning Man person I know, lol

This guy is a good example: https://www.sfgate.com/travel/burningman/article/tech-ceo-burning-man-22420223.php

people do go to have spiritual experiences. it's a little bit like a lent-carnival for new agers. the temple burn sounds like a meaningful ritual imo. good for them. i need, like, a quieter experience for that.

there is a boyish wow factor to the burning man experience as i've witnessed it through my partner. it's nice to see it giving him that. he also loves putting outfits together and showing me. it's cute.

people searching for a religious experience while being so habituated to consumerism, thats modern life baby

the latter doesn't help with the former it's true.

there was probably some final year when it was still a pure manifestation of the original intent, close to the humble origin story. But if people are still getting something out it, I say fine, go ahead. There's probably some corporate glamping in there as well, but I will never find out

it could be fun because its a party but i also will never find out because hanging out in a dusty salty old lakebed surrounded by bad art sounds awful

events that feature masses of people and an atmosphere of release have been around for millennia and often can produce euphoric feelings. there's a big element of that in college football games held in stadiums that can seat anywhere from 75,000 to over 100,000 people. all those kinds of cathartic events can be taken for spiritual experiences, if only because they feel like a reset button. they're exciting, but fundamentally they don't change anything.

what if college football......but on acid

remember when that naked guy on acid like the pyre early? That's the *real* burning man

feeling a reset is a change though.

i've been won over by some of the art.

lol i'm not going to defend burning man here any more though. that would be silly as i'm only attached through it through someone i love. ya'll do you.

https://www.tiktok.com/@johnnyhilbrant/video/7680973385358200094

surrounded by bad art sounds awful

bro they were get fined for dumping that bad art in the desert so now they bring it back to SF under an LLC (Civic Joy) for "think piece installations" appealing to VC/PE "centrist" types and write the whole garbage process off and it's really such a terrible era tbqfh

ha may lord that is some shit

some people I met while traveling in the early 2010s were kind of burning man-adjacent. a handful from saskatchewan went maybe once or twice, mostly help organize local music festival stuff and parenting these days

there's on particular guy from montreal who was like a dreadlocked white dude burner type back then. ran into him a few years back and he's very clean-cut now and is some sort of life coach or something? like he lists his career as "consciousness evolver" but has a lot of stuff about helping you become an entrepreneur

imo there are a lot of types of guys who you can kind of classify as burners and the ratios are kind of out of whack. too many rich people pretending to slum it, not enough lifers

xp

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ot6H7O9FDy4

Life coach is such a Golgafrincham B-Ark career. Maybe that’s what telephone sanitisers evolved into.

Hahah, there may be few public telephones now but there are still plenty of fellow arkers to coach.

remember when that naked guy on acid like the pyre early? That's the *real* burning man

There were a few of these attempts iirc but maybe you are thinking of Paul Addis? He had mental health issues and the BORG (acronym used for BM leadership - Larry, Marian, a few others) insisted on him being charged with felony arson (based on value of destroyed property) so he ended up in jail for long enough to have serious withdrawal from his psych meds. Great people!