UNITED STATES: OVER 30,000 ARTISTS GATHER IN NEVADA FOR ANNUAL "BURNING MAN" FESTIVAL

Record ID: 337885

  • Title: UNITED STATES: OVER 30,000 ARTISTS GATHER IN NEVADA FOR ANNUAL "BURNING MAN" FESTIVAL
  • Date: 1st September 2001
  • Summary: BLACK ROCK CITY, NEVADA, UNITED STATES (SEPTEMBER 1, 2001) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 1. WIDE OF FESTIVAL GROUNDS (2 SHOTS) 0.11 2. VARIOUS OF FESTIVAL GOERS IN MAKESHIFT VEHICLES (10 SHOTS) 0.59 3. SCU: (SOUNDBITE) (English) UNIDENTIFIED MALE PARTICIPANT SAYING: "In a sentence you could be whoever you want to be for several times a day here, everybody else will salute you. Where else in life do you get that?" 1.12 4. SV: RED-PAINTED FESTIVAL GOER 1.15 5. SCU: (SOUNDBITE) (English) UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE PARTICIPANT SAYING: "Burning man is about whatever you want to make of it. It's about freedom of expression and a place to be a city among people who are like-minded. Or even not, which is cool as well." 1.29 6. SCU: (SOUNDBITE) (English) UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE PARTICIPANT SAYING: "Let's see. It's like a cross between 'Mad Max' and Mardi Gras I think that was the best description I've heard but it's, I don't know for most of the people I know it's a place to come and let out all their artistic expression and yell whatever they want and do whatever they want and dress up like freaks and run around and have fun." 1.53 7. SCU: (SOUNDBITE) (English) UNIDENTIFIED MALE PARTICIPANT SAYING: "I think what this is all about is a merge of technology, art and the desert." 2.02 8. SCU: (SOUNDBITE) (English) UNIDENTIFIED MALE PARTICIPANT SAYING: "Well, it can't be captured on film or video or audio or in words, you can only experience it when you're here but I think it's love." 2.10 9. VARIOUS OF COSTUMED OR NUDE FESTIVAL PARTICIPANTS WALKING (4 SHOTS) 2.37 10. CLOSE-UP OF "THE MAN" 2.43 NIGHT VIEWS 11. VARIOUS OF "THE MAN" ILLUMINATED WITH FLARES AND FIREWORKS BURNING / FESTIVAL CROWD (3 SHOTS) 3.22 12. PULL OUT: "BURNING MAN" IN FLAMES 3.28 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
  • Embargoed: 16th September 2001 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: BLACK ROCK CITY, NEVADA, UNITED STATES
  • City:
  • Country: USA
  • Reuters ID: LVA4L68H77PB63EYB04AZJCMHH2S
  • Story Text: There may be sex, drugs and rock and roll -- there may
    be hippies dancing around, clothed and unclothed and there may
    even be free love but according to participants and organisers
    it's about more than that -- it's about art.


    Some reviewers have compared the week long annual
    American "Burning Man" festival to a 21st century pagan
    Woodstock in the desert but according to organisers, that's
    the wrong comparison to make.

    Over thirty thousand artists gathered this weekend
    (September 1), for the annual farewell to summer known
    as the Burning Man Festival.

    The American festival which brings together artist from
    all over the world has been called a pagan Woodstock but
    organizers say that's wrong. They say its intent is to create
    a city where self-expression and a certain quality of hedonism
    exist.

    It's about everything and nothing, depending on the
    point of view one chooses to take at any given moment.

    "For most of the people I know it's a place to come and
    let out all their artistic expression and yell whatever they
    want and do whatever they want and dress up like freaks and
    run around and have fun," said one festival goer.

    The origins of this festival are hazy. Folklore has it that the
    burning of the man began in San Francisco in the name
    of an ex-boyfriend.

    Theories abound but regardless of where it began,
    organisers say it has morphed into a sanctuary for
    self-expression.

    As one festival participant explains, "Burning man is
    about whatever you want to make of it. It's about freedom of
    expression and a place to be a city among people who are
    like-minded. Or even not, which is cool as well."
    The idea is to create a place where the ordinary rules
    of society don't exist, no shoes, clothing, or money.

    For a full week, artists can camp on a dry lakebed in a
    state of anarchy. Well, kind of -- it's anarchy with rules.

    The main rule is that participants must bring there own water
    and supplies. Despite the fact an entrance ticket to the
    festival costs $250.00 U.S. dollars, food and shelter are not
    provided.

    There is no money. Participants bargain and barter for food
    and anything else they may need. Some have come to create
    -- gigantic portioned sand sculptures. Other have come just to
    "hang out" and "drink."
    "I think what this is all about is a merge of technology, art and
    the desert," one festival goer told Reuters. The festival "can't
    be captured on film or video or audio or in words," said
    another participant. "You can only experience it when
    you're here but I think it's love," he said.

    Some opponents of the festival say it's about nothing
    more than drugs and alcohol. They point out the $250.00 ticket
    price, saying for all the talk of shared freedom and art it
    comes down to money.

    But organizers say all the money they make from the
    event goes to charities.

    The event concludes with the burning of "the man."
    Dressed in fantastic clothing or no clothing at all,
    thousands of revelers danced and cheered as the a 40-foot (15
    metre) effigy of the symbolic or anti-symbolic man (depending
    on how one wants to look at it) fell burning to the ground.


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