A World on Fire - annual Burning Man event

"If all this is just entertainment," says Larry Harvey, "then it doesn't mean a thing." Indeed, Burning Man hinges on group cohesion through individual ingenuity and personal responsibility. Environmental stewardship is paramount and is in the organizers' contract with the Bureau of Land Management. Packing out everything you pack in, and assisting in the site cleanup, is as critical as the requirement that participants bring water and survival gear. Harvey has nixed numerous offers of corporate sponsorship. But bringing it all back home, whatever it is, remains a problem. Many of Black Rock City's temporary citizens, from software developers to sculptors, like to paint themselves as renegade outcasts who challenge philistine standards, if only for a few days. Still, it's easy to notice that these miscreants are overwhelmingly white, educated, and well-heeled enough to sink enormous expense and labor into realizing a few days of whimsy and weirdness. This winter a ticket for Burning Man 2000 costs two hundre d dollars. The road to hell, as they say, is paved with good intentions.

Matt Ferranto is an artist and writer living in New York. You can Visit his Web site at www.spareroom.org.

COPYRIGHT 2000 College Art Association
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