Gathering

WAS THAT A RAINDROP? INDEED IT WAS. JUST LIKE THAT, THE WILD CACOPHONY OF A FRIDAY AFTERNOON STOPPED IN ITS TRACKS. MUTANT VEHICLES, HUMANS, BICYCLES… ALL OF IT, SANDWICHED BETWEEN TORRENTIAL RAIN AND AN IMPASSABLE PLAYA THICK WITH GOOEY, CLUMPY MUD.

FRIDAY NIGHT: A break in the rain just before sunset treated wet and weary participants to a resplendent rainbow. Shortly after, the rain resumed and persisted well into the night. Wherever people happened to be when the rain began, there they stayed. Black Rock City may have inadvertently become the world’s largest slumber party, as camps sheltered random guests and new friends.

SATURDAY MORNING: The sun rose on a city that was incredibly still. And incredibly wet. Mutant vehicles were vehicles scattered across playa like abandoned toys as weary participants with plastic bags over their shoes made slow progress back to their home camps.

A METROPOLIS WHOSE CITIZENS ARE READY FOR ABSOLUTELY ANYTHING

In logistical ways, yes, participants HAD been preparing for this very contingency, learning from past rain events while applying accumulated decades of logistics know-how.

“Yes, we experienced rain, but each year brings its own unique weather-related challenges to the Black Rock Desert. Those who stuck it out this year were rewarded with a ‘playa reset.’ As the philosopher Proust said ‘A change in the weather is sufficient to recreate the world and ourselves.’ Conditions at Black Rock City will always be a mix of beautiful and brutal — but that is what makes it unique.”

~ ROXANE JESSI, AUTHOR OF ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE DUST

THE CITY DIDN’T JUST SURVIVE, IT THRIVED

And how the city’s wily participants thrived. Tens of thousands of soggy citizens pivoted and recalibrated their engagement with life in the city, supporting themselves and each other.

They crafted ad-hoc footwear, danced beneath rainbows, kept cozy with new friends, and shared knowledge, joy, and meals. They stayed closer to home, dropped in on neighbors, and reinvented the city.

BY SATURDAY, HUNDREDS IF NOT THOUSANDS OF COZY NEIGHBORHOOD GATHERINGS LIT UP ACROSS THE CITY.

Read “The Disaster that Wasn’t” in: THE BURNING MAN JOURNAL >

TWO DAYS LATER…
THE CITY’S RITUALS RESUME

THE MAN THAT ROSE OVER THE QUICKLY DRYING PLAYA STOOD LONGER THAN ANY EFFIGY IN BLACK ROCK CITY’S HISTORY — AN EXTRA TWO DAYS.

Four artworks scheduled to burn on Friday and Saturday didn’t burn as planned. Working with the Art department, artists made alternate plans — two installations were disassembled and taken home by the artists, one burned in a burn barrel, and one burned in the Temple.

By late Sunday the playa was dry enough to allow some movement. Many left, while others settled in for an extra special extended Burn Week. To celebrate the end of the rain, Dave X, BRC’s Fire Arts Safety Team Manager, put on a surprise fireworks show Sunday night. This set the stage for a recommencement of our city’s rituals.

Mutant vehicles resumed their journeys crisscrossing the playa, and many participants began to slowly and attentively dismantle camp. By Monday evening, citizens descended on an intimate, but no less spectacular, Man Burn.

With the Man Burn postponed, Fire Conclave did not perform in the Great Circle. Approximately 1,100 Conclave participants — performers, musicians, crew, and safety — would have participated. The fireworks were particularly splendid. Many followed fire safety crews to the second burn of the night — Michael Garlington’s “Chapel of Babel.”

When the Temple of the Heart was released by fire Tuesday night, the even smaller crowd was treated to a quiet, contemplative closing burn.

OUR SHARED EXPERIENCE IN BLACK ROCK CITY IS NEVER WHAT WE EXPECT IT TO BE, AND OFTEN MUCH MORE THAN WE COULD HAVE EVER IMAGINED.