How did you find out about Burning Man

[Jovankat]

Inspired by the below comment from vargaso in this thread I thought I'd ask everyone how they first came across TTITD.

"How did you find out about Burning Man?" is a fun topic. For me, I read about a Survival Research Labs (SRL) show in Thrasher Magazine (does that count as mainstream media?) in the late 80s, got interested in that and then heard about something going on out in the desert. Then saw a homemade video of the '93 burn that a friend was writing about for our little 'zine (remember those?). Didn't actually attend until 2007, though, on account of raising kids and going to school etc etc...

I'll go first...

I think I'd heard the name and was vaguely aware of the concept before but what I count as my first substantial exposure was a friend who had heard about the idea of Burning Man and gotten very excited about it using it as a theme for her birthday party somewhere around 2006. Her explanation was something like "Everyone has to participate in some way, bring something to share, whether food or performance. It's all about gifting and participating". Looking back it was a pretty poor imitation but rather sweet. She still hasn't ever been, I'd love to bring her along one year.

[tatonka]

I drove by it in 2012 on a bike trip ,and then read up on it, and joined here to find out what I need


coming from reno , seen wierd veh's



seen alot of dust in the distance

[Lonesomebri]

Oh man, I'd forgot about Survival Research Labs.... When I first got to SF I worked at a hardware store and Mark Pauline was a customer... This was shortly after he blew his hand all to hell, and it did not look good. This was probably my first introduction to "alternative" entertainment. So fuckin awesome. Yeah, I forget... at their shows.............who was the DJ?

[chuckularone]

I don't remember where I heard about it. It's just like I have always known. I've wanted to go for around 15 years, so I'm guessing I heard about it then.

[ygmir]

I saw it in the later 90's from the top of "Ragged Top",, got invited several times thereafter, and finally got what I needed from Planned Parenthood, and went.

[gaminwench]

1999, early August.
Friends said, come to this camping thing.
We couldn't get there til Thursday night, friends said "Look for the big tie-dye silk flag near Center Camp". We arrived in a rainstorm at 2AM.
Completely unprepared, we were.

The next year we brought a 24/7 live music theme camp.

[Ano]

I was a weird kid in high school, in a really conservative county. The kind of school that gladly put "One nation, UNDER GOD" in a gigantic banner above the cafeteria, a school sponsored anti-gay club, and more. One of those places you can hardly believe exists.

A teacher there was clearly on the other side of the fence, great history teacher, and he tried (mostly in vain) to get folks to think outside the box. Hardly worked, but there were a few of us who had been living outside of it for awhile. I had a couple of mental things going on, very depressed, but he was a teacher who I really connected with.

It's my sophomore year, and I was having a terrible day. When you have depression, you can end up building a wall around yourself and turn into a quiet walking husk of a human. That was one of those days. Said teacher was talking to me, trying to get me to snap out of it. I was really miffed about some general high school bullshit, and he was trying to make a point of that to me. He tells me,

"Ano, you're gonna be 18 some day and you'll be far beyond high school and none of this will matter. You can do whatever you want then, but until then, you're here, and you can either deal with it or let it deal with you. Soon you'll be an adult, you can do whatever, buy crazy clothes, go to burning man, become a pilot, whatever. But until then, you're here."

And the only part of that that registered was Burning Man, and I thought, "what the fuck is that?" And that was in the early 2000s. 2011 comes around, I graduate college, and the theme is "Rites of Passage," so... I figured, it was time.

[Meat Hunter]

When I was 64 years old I went to graduate school to study Historical Archaeology. My program only allowed three new grad students into the program that year - myself and two 'knock-you-over-dead' 20 something cuties.

For the next 2-1/2 years (depending on our individual strengths and weaknesses) the three of us worked together and supported each other so that all three of us would graduate together. After graduation, I went back to the farm in Mississippi and they went off to PhD school in Reno.

Fast forward to August 2013. I got a call one evening and they said "You want to go to Burning Man with us..."

To which I replied, "Is that a statement or a question? What is Burning Man?"

[Jackass]

In 1994 I was doing some "post graduate" work in Phoenix, these guys that went to the same school were from Placerville and one of their dads had told them about this wild party in the desert where everyone gets naked, wacked out on acid and fungi, shooting guns, having orgies and going absolutely ape-shit crazy. That was the wild west back then.

Fast forward to around 2000, I had friends that were going and inviting us and never thought too much about it. In 2009 one on these burner friends was going solo because the others had families and had hung up their burning belts. She wanted to see if I could get her go-ped scooter running because she was getting ready for that years burn.

The rest is history, I attended with her that year and have been here since. She on the other hand last attended in 2010, with 15 burns in her pocket, she'll be back if her health allows....

I only recalled the "1994 tales from the playa"(which were probably from even earlier years) several years later, after attending and was able to put those pieces of my faded recollections back together. After that I knew exactly what they were talking about in that sweltering apartment in Phoenix ,in the late fall of 1994. All the dots were connecting.

[lucky420]

I've lived in n. Nv all my life so probably when the art cars really started rolling through here and there.


But when I was a kid my family used to go up to Empire often. My dad liked to golf there, also knew Bruno. It used to seem like a really loooooong car ride (from Reno) when I was young.

[gypsy68]

My friends and I would go on these group camping trips. I and another friend usually ended up doing all the meal planning for the trip.

In the fall of 2003 I was on line looking up different ideas for meals when I stumbled upon Heloise of the Playa.

I became hooked. 2004 was my first year.

[Thecatman]

Late 1990's we were living in Pennsylvania. I worked 7:00pm to 04:00am driving truck for a mail contractor. When I would come home I'd watch some TV, have some milk and cookies before going to bed.
One night, morning, I turned on E TV! and there was a part about BM that had edited pictures. I thought that sounds like fun. In early 2000 my better half got a job transfer to Carson City. So in 02 we went. Never payed attention to the art cars and stuff on the highways, as lucky mentioned, until 2007 when I went by myself. Last time I went was 2010 when I camped with a workmate and his wife. But I've never seen the actual burn

[Bin Noddin]

Used to live in Klamath Falls, Oregon and grew to love the western high desert. we moved away in 1985. Years later, 2000 or 2001, was bored at work in Maryland, missing the West, and did a google image search for "Nevada desert". You can imagine that it was a serious "WTF?" moment when I saw the results. Learned more about it, started hanging out here (the original Bar thread, mostly), made many friends. My wife thought it was middle-age-craziness. She died in 2007. I drove through Reno in 2008 and finally met a bunch of my online friends who were just as real, loving and beautiful in person as I thought. Finally made it to the Burn in 2009. Dove into making my camp (Booby Bar) work. Best compliment from PineMom - "you look as if you've been doing this a long time". Guess I found home.

[DoctorIknow]

Can't remember the magazine, must have been '97, with pictures of nakeds frolicing in the mud and having been a hippie (not a real one as I wore shoes in the Haight) I thought "been there, done that" and shut it off from desires.

Soon after I read about it again, where details of the conditions: desert/huge winds/white outs/no water/need bike/big cold/big heat/shade needed for tent/rebar...etc. made a lightbulb go off. So, the tech part of it got me thinking how to do it, how to prepare, how to make it as comfortable as possible with a way to bathe. And the bottom line was "I would never camp in the desert...Yosemite is just down the road!" so I went in 1998 and been back all years but two since.

I LOVE the playa and if Burning Man left Black Rock Desert, for 100% sure I'd not be interested anymore.

So, 1998 in the 1940 Chevy I owned for 34 years made its first and last trip to BRC, since the next year, I had way more stuff:

chevy-at-bm-jpeg.jpg

[Jackass]

That's badass, did you ever run "shine" with that thing?

[trilobyte]

I'm giving this a nudge over to the Q&A board, since that's a better fit.

[jasonwentcrazy]

How I first heard about Burning Man was from Jeopardy! of all places. There was this guy who, as I recall, was kicking ass all week and when the time came for Alex Trebek to saunter over for another round of small talk with the contestants he asked each of them what they'd been up to lately. The guy I was rooting for was this kind of tall black dude with longish dreads. He mentioned that he had "just returned from this art festival called Burning Man that was held in the middle of the Nevada desert" and I immediately looked it up.

This had to have been sometime just after 1997 and before 1998 and I've always hoped I'd find out who this guy was/is.

Each year that goes by my memory of this dude certainly becomes blurred but without fail I invariably accost anyone that I think looks like him. So, if you're a tallish black dude with dreads of any type that's why some wild-eyed guy came up to you and enthusiastically asked if you were ever on Jeopardy! before.

And just for the fun of it I've taken to asking the most insanely costumed people if they were ever on Jeopardy! or not too. Which is, I assure you, one of the most fun things to ask someone that almost certainly would never make it onto the set of Jeopardy! in a million years.

Try it sometime. It'll put the zap on the heads of most everyone you meet and will totally freak out a bulk of people at Burning Man. [It bums them out thinking they could be mistaken for a Jeopardy! contestant and you can see them re-thinking their entire approach on life just after someone asks them such a thing.]

Anyway, if you ever come across someone on the Playa that has been on Jeopardy! please do let me know. Especially if it's my elusive, dreaded brother that got the whole Burning Man idea started for me way back when.

I've been wanting to thank him for well over a decade now.

[theCryptofishist]

Christmas photo card from Peter Doty of Christmas camp. Sitting on this cooler, holding a shotgun, with a girl in a swimming suit on each knee. I went to high school with his housemate so I asked her, and she said he went camping in this weird thing called burningman. Then there were the articles in the Chronicle in the 90s, the year someone on a motorcycle ran over someone's tent...


Edited to Add: That he was wearing a santa suit.

Both these people were in the Cacophony Society, so I heard more stories about related things.

[robrob]

[SnowBlind]

Same here. That article in 1997 1996. I've dug it up a few times over the years and reread it. Has been a while though, maybe it's time again.

Edit: Found it. If someone wants to read it:

Greetings from Burning Man! It's the New American Holiday.
Bruce Sterling takes the kids to the Temporary Autonomous Zone,where survival is a personal choice.

[Captain Goddammit]

In 1999 a friend and I saw some little blurb about it on some cable TV channel late one evening... it looked cool, and we went on the Internet and searched "burning man". We couldn't believe how many hits there were, we read all about it, bought tickets and went. Started right out being the 9:00 bike repair camp because we were hot rodder car guys and figured bikes were easy.

[skippy3k]

My father and I camped on the playa and in the surrounding hills way back in the 80's. In the mid-90's sometime, he was camping there by himself. He heard some music, followed the sound and happened upon a bunch of people living in what was essentially a refugee camp. He asked what this was, they told him, and he was hooked. Problem was, it was all over the next day. So he went home and told my mother all about it and they started going every year.

Which meant there was NO WAY I would go if my parents were going. I was way too cool for that, and didn't want to see them naked. So 10 years later, my wife wanted to go, so I helped her prep. Her first year was my father's last year. They met on the playa briefly, then that was it...the torch was passed.

She came home and told me more about it, so the next year we went together. It was the one time of year my father and I were close, as I would bounce ideas off of him on preparing for Burning Man. I didn't get that chance this year and definitely felt the void.

[RosieTahoe]

My then-boyfriend-now-husband and I moved to Reno from NY on labor day weekend of 2004. Because our car was packed to the brim with all of our shit lots of people thought we came from bm. Neither of us had ever heard of it before and the basic answer we received from people (most had never attended) was that it was a huge party in the desert where people took lots of drugs and burned everything We were also told that there was no use in going without an RV because the dust storms were so bad.

Fast forward nine years and my co-worker came back from bm 2012 with the most amazing pictures and stories. It was the first time I had ever spoken to anyone who had actually attended. I literally became obsessed with going in 2013. My husband was open to going but thought I was a little fucking crazy with how much I was planning and prepping and my insistence that I would go alone even if he couldn't or wouldn't attend.

Fast forward to the present and after two burns he is (almost) as obsessed as me and my younger brother and close friend joined us this year and they are both doing whatever they can to return next year. Now that we are camping with 6 people, and likely more, for 2015 we are figuring out what we want to do as a camp to give back. .. maybe even registering as a theme camp...I guess that's often how this happens!

Sometimes when you're right you're right

[pink]

I moved to Sacramento in 1989. I don't know when I started hearing about Burning Man; I had acquaintances who were diehard burners & they must have mentioned it first. I also heard about the amount of prep needed, and it scared me off, as well as it being the kind of thing that would be hard to go to solo. I had been camping in Death Valley since 1994, so it wasn't the desert that scared me. Solo seemed more difficult.

Then in 2005, I got an urge to dance in the desert wearing nothing but paint & a g-string, and got the lightbulb: I could do that at Burning Man! Shortly thereafter I was meeting with those acquaintances & told them of my urge "you could do that at Burning Man! You can camp with us!" So I did. They were Gate people and 10 or 15 year veterans, and indoctrinated me well; I remember crawling under their box truck to pick up grains of rice when we were packing up.

[ranger magnum]

I was working in San Francisco in 96. My buddy said a friend if his was at this thing called Burningman, and said we should go check it out. So Friday night we drove there. The first thing I saw when a arrived was "Hellco". I was blown away, and have been going since.

[danibel]

We used to have a family camping trip in Big Sur every year. It must have been around 2000 because my son was almost a year old and our old family friend Jessica and her boyfriend Aaron came. They said they had a surprise for us when it got dark. So after dinner and clean up we all gathered around the fire and Jessica began to spin poi. It was great! I had never seen anything like that. When she was done Aaron took a swig off a bottle and blew fire balls into the night air. That was awesome. I was in total awe of these amazing feats. I asked Jessica - where did you learn this?! She said they go to Burning Man and learned there. It was in that moment that I decided I had to go.

Years passed and it slipped from my mind. A divorce and the boy grew up. The summer of 2008 I registered for a college class on web design and on the first night the teacher brought up a web photo album as a demo of what we might create. The first image was a full screen shot of the Temple. That was it, the burn re-entered my consciousness and I began to research and prepare. I had a whole year to get ready. I contacted my friend Aaron and asked if I could camp with him, Jessica had stopped going years before when she got sober and she and Aaron broke up. My sister Windy had been going to art school in Oakland and when I mentioned I was going she decided to go with me. She only went that one year, but wants to come back.

I have been going ever since.

[AntiM]

2001, I was finishing up my student teaching with a terrible teacher who hated me, and my oldest brother had just died of colon cancer. I was horribly depressed, knowing that while I was finally meeting my goal of getting a teaching certificate, that I'd never be hired because I was in my 40s and not a Mormon. (I was right). I was looking up art for a multiple intelligence project and stumbled across some interesting photos. Thought little of it, other than "cool". Then our Triple A Via magazine came in the mail (next day I think) and I read about a man on a unicycle playing the tuba, and a snail art car. I went online and bought tickets (you could do that then), printed out the survival guide and told MyLarry, "Here, we are going to this, and we need all this stuff". That was that. 14 years now, including regionals.

Never knew a single burner beforehand. I did live in Project Artaud in SF in the 70s, a breeding ground for future burners (Pepe Ozan, most famously). No wonder the playa felt like home.

[graidawg]

I got lost on my way to the mormon sex party in wendover. apparentely God can't see mormons in nevada. so they go to the peppermill for wild sex orgies, drinking and gambling. anyhow i was on my way there to pretend to be a mormon and get my wild monkey sex going on, when i see signs for this special event and followed the crowd of people driving down this dirt road. any how long story i short, i murdered a busload of hippies, hanging around outside in this parking lot, took there stuff and drove on in. Thank Thor for the storm on monday as it gave me a chance to wash the blood of. i guess he doesn't like hippies either.
so there i was parked up in my car with this load of patchouli smelling stuff wondering where the mormons were, when along comes this vision of madness spewing fire. I checked the water bottle (thanks hippy) for acid or anything. Of course because of the rain my car wasn't going anywhere, so i went looking for a cafe' for some breakfast. Never did find my car - its probably still there. so after a few days They burned this giant wooden man way out in the desert and i thought it looked pretty cool. After all that a native american took me out in the desert and said i was ok for a murdering Englishman, and come the war he would try to make sure i wasn't one of the casualties (i didn't have the heart to tell him i wasn't English).
So i figure if i go to Nevada next year and ask where they are burning a wooden man (and has anyone lost a hippy or 10) I should be able to go look for my car again. The rental is going to be astronomical though.
Also can anyone tell me where the showers are? i can't rely on it raining again.