Opulen
t Temple, Burning Man
Marc Vedo’s h
AAA
omecoming
ACCESS
ALL
AREAS
Like nowhere on
Earth...
DJmag embarks on a journey of
discovery at Burning Man — the
most out-there festival on the
planet
he Golden Gate Bridge is lit dimension. By day it’s Mad Max under a extreme as the elements it’s set in. By all
T
up with twinkling lights, a scorching desert sun. As night falls and accounts, fuck that.
giant ghetto blaster glides the temperature drops it’s Close Then, on 30th April this year, an
by with people dancing on Encounters of The Third Kind meets unexpected email pops into our inbox. It’s
top, and from the darkness a Disneyland on acid scorched with Pagan from Lee Coombs and asks simply, “How
pink and mauve grinning Chesire cat undertones. It engulfs you in sense of fun would you like to go to Burning Man this
emerges. Alice is probably here and adventure, but for fi rst-timers it also year?”
somewhere too. For we’re in a shakes you up, strips you down and We hesitate for a second before typing
Wonderland. Of sorts. touches your soul in a way never before “Absolutely!” and hitting send. Well,
This is just a selection of the fantastical experienced. It is, in a word, when push comes to shove...
mutant artcars and buses cruising around overwhelming. Lee hooks us up with prominent San
Burning Man, the week-long arts and Francisco-based DJ and promoter Syd
(increasingly so) music festival located in Our story really begins just over a year Gris, who throws the Bay Area’s best
the Black Rock Desert, northwest Nevada. before, in the back of a yellow cab parties under his Opel Productions
This is as extreme as it gets, a sensory crawling through New York one warm banner. He also heads up the Opulent
overload where the surreal becomes the September day with Lee Burridge regaling Temple, the largest sound stage at
norm and where the weird and wonderful glorious tales from his Burning Man Burning Man. The logistics are worked out
becomes a way of life amongst a experience a few days previous. We smile and we’re good to go.
community who turn their back on and nod and make all the right noises, but As the date approaches our excitement is
society’s demands and expectations in a have already concluded that Burning Man tinged with anxiety and peppered with
microcosmic paradise of freedom and isn’t for us. Who wants to be stuck in the trepidation. Opinion amongst friends is
expression. desert with loads of acid-fried hippies split: some declare we’ll love it, others
Set on an ancient lakebed (the playa) dancing around naked to psy-trance? consider it more of an endurance test.
guarded by majestic mountains, Burning In truth, it scares us. For there’s no One particular individual who’s already
Man is like a parallel universe. It’s from escape. No mobile signal. No hailing a fast been ‘burned’ imparts the wisdom that it
another time and place, another cab home if we’ve had enough. It’s as will change our lives forever. Which kinda
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DJ467.AAA_Burning man.indd 156 15/10/08 14:28:08
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