Greenzone Online

You’ve heard of the campfire rule, right? “Leave it better than you found it.” At the end of this month, Burning Man will be in its twenty-second year of cultural events, individual spiritualism, artistic movements and general festival debauchery. Afterwards, you won’t even know they were there.

Located in the Black Rock Desert for one week, the crowd will immerse itself in desert wildlife but take meticulous care to make the smallest environmental impact possible. The big push at Burning Man is for the individual to come with a piece of artwork to be burned at the end of the festival week. This purging is promised to be minuscule in its environmental effects, but that of course depends on what your artwork is constructed from (no paint or plastic, please!). The organization has several great ideas and examples for their artists—this is a festival that knows how to run the show very well.

Not only are there art installations to be admired and then burned, but there are also the Mutant Vehicles. These contraptions are to be mobile, but slow. You’re in the desert in the middle of a crowded festival, there’s no need to fly into the sunset. Burning Man requests biodiesel, electric motors or, hell, even just attaching your giant panda sculpture onto a couple of tandem bikes. It’s art! Be creative!

Burning Man is an intelligent organization. There are several groups who work on various aspects to guarantee a fun, safe, and environmentally-sound gathering. The DPW Play Restoration Crew works in Black Rock Desert for a full month after the event to make sure the terrain is back to its natural state. Leave it how you found it, indeed.

Burning Man is every year and I’m told it improves with each passing. Not only a lot of fun, but almost a Mecca for those of us who want to truly immerse ourselves in the earth, to care and create as we should.