Reply #6: *SIGH* I miss Burning Man.

[Xithras]

I went to Burning Man in '96, '97, & '98, but "Real Life" has kept me from attending since then. I miss the ability to let yourself go, to be whatever your heart desired, and to have nobody question it.

In 1997 I took a wooden crate to the desert with me. Wearing nothing more than a pair of shorts and a top hat (no, I'm not kidding), I set my crate up in an empty stretch of dirt and started reading Shakespeare out loud. I read, I acted, but being a generally shy person, I never looked into the crowd. When I had finished King Lear and closed my book five hours later, I found myself surrounded by more than a thousand silent listeners who broke into a roaring applause when I looked out onto them and called 'Finis'. It was, and probably always will be, one of the most magical moments of my life.

I have several friends who regularly attend (not this year though), and they tell me that the festival has changed. It's supposedly far more organized and controlled than it used to be, which is a bit of a shame. Part of what made Burning Man so great was the fact that NOBODY was really in charge of anything.