Adventioneering

We’re all back, safe and sound, and had a great trip. The weather wasn’t as agreeable as it could be, with frequent blinding (10 foot visibility) dust storms and bitter cold during the nights. It reminded us all that even as the event becomes more engineered and Disney-like, this is still the desert and the weather is still extreme. By Thursday even the raver kids were putting on jackets; that’s how cold it got at night.

There was a little less art than usual but still a number of good installations, including a great scale-distance installation of the solar system with a cauldron representing the sun. David “This is my last year” Best outdid himself with the temple, which will somehow always be the same no matter what they insist on trying to call it.

Megavolt was nowhere to be found, but there was a guy who had modified a jet engine to produce a huge geyser of fire.

The equipment held up well. The shade structure was a good idea, and worked out a lot better than the dome from 2002, which was more difficult to build, erect, more expensive, and didn’t provide the same level of protection from the wind or the sun. The more I go to this event though the more I realize that a TT or RV is really what’s called for; next time I think I’ll just rent one. You can scrape by with a tent and improvised shelter, but why really? If you want to go camping you can do that anytime anyplace, this is Burning Man.