BLACK ROCK CITY, Nevada -- The dry Nevada lake bed known as Black Rock City will soon be empty. Art cars, tent encampments and elaborate interactive art installations have been hauled away from the remote site. The dusty canvas on which the annual Burning Man festival takes place will once again return to its naturally desolate state.
A record crowd, estimated at 30,500, attended the weeklong festival, which culminated with the traditional torching of a 70-foot-high pyramid-and-effigy structure.
During those seven days, the patch of desert 120 miles north of Reno was transformed into a surreal and colorful dreamscape of temporary discos, seemingly impossible art installations, glowing neon-like wire, costumed revelers and illuminated art cars that floated across the desert floor.
But the festivities were marred by a grim event: Katharine Lampman, 21, was killed at 3 a.m. Saturday on the playa in an accident involving an art car. The Belmont, California, resident attempted to climb on board the decorated vehicle, but fell and was crushed by a trailer the car was towing.
There were other accidents, as well: Two small planes crashed at an airstrip, seriously injuring five people. And a truck carrying over 30,000 pounds of ice tipped over en route to Black Rock City, injuring one person.
"I am extremely saddened by this," said festival founder Larry Harvey. "When you assume a sense of personal responsibility for a community of people, you can't imagine how it will affect you when someone's harmed in a serious way. When that first (serious incident) occurred in 1996, it changed my life. But we are very zealous about protecting public welfare, and our incredibly strong safety and crime record reflects that.
"Some see photos of people attired in giant rat costumes doing wildly unconventional expressive things and assume this means we're in some way irresponsible. Nothing could be further from the truth," said Harvey. "This isn't an irresponsible party; it's a model city. If there are lessons to be learned from this that will improve public safety, we will implement them."
Seventeen years have passed since Harvey and friends first burned a wooden effigy of a man on San Francisco's Baker Beach, in an impromptu summer solstice observance.
Since then, the yearly Burning Man event in Nevada has grown to exponentially larger proportions, and "burners" throughout the country have begun holding regional "burns." Typically, these satellite events do not involve burning replicas of "the man." Instead, playful local symbols -- a moose, for instance, in one northern locale -- are chosen.
Employees of Black Rock City LLC, the organization that produces Burning Man, are working with those regional representatives to help organize satellite events within the spirit of the original.
Black Rock Arts Foundation, a nonprofit organization, has been established to generate funds for the creation of a nationwide network of interactive art exhibits. Foundation staff have also begun distributing filmmaking kits to Burning Man enthusiasts in an effort to promote do-it-yourself cinema.
"The impact of Burning Man is far larger than anyone suspects," Harvey said. "The curse of the last half of the 20th century is that the way we live now allows Americans to live lives in which they need interact with nobody.
"The free market is great but there's nothing inherent in our culture to connect people to one another. What we're offering doesn't just feel authentic; it is authentic, and we want that to grow."
