Naked in Nevada

(News Today) - NOTHING says naked like a close-up view of somebody's scrotum - and I only look up from my handlebars.

I am cycling along a hot, dusty street in Black Rock City, the tent town that rises in the Nevada desert as part of the annual Burning Man festival. On a flat-tray ute driving towards me are a sign proclaiming the virtues of the naked body and, with one foot propped up high behind the cab, the king of letting-it-all-hang-out, waving benevolently.

He might have to put on some warm clothes if he attends the first Burning Man festival in Australia, starting today in the far north coast town of Bellingen.

Created in 1986 by a group of San Francisco interactive artists, the Nevada Burning Man runs for a week and now attracts almost 50,000 people. Less festival than experimental community, it has 10 guiding principles: inclusion, gifting, decommodification, self-reliance, self-expression, communal effort, civic responsibility, leaving no trace, participation and immediacy.

Interactive art is still a focus, with giant creations of steel, wood and fire rising out of the desert. The burning of a 23-metre-high effigy marks the end of the week.

"Burner" culture has spread, with regional events in Spain, Italy, South Africa, New Zealand and now Australia.

The Bellingen event, which runs until Monday, has been limited to 700 people. Organisers want to start slowly before moving to the desert in 2013.

Despite this, the Australian version will not be a copycat, says a spokesman, Richard Martin. ''The regional events … embrace the unique cultural backdrop of their region," he told a Burning Man conference earlier this year.

Participants, however, are still expected to bring everything they will need - food, water, shelter - and leave no trace when they go. There is no commerce and everyone is expected to contribute, whether it is an individual service such as teaching a yoga class or a "theme camp".

At the Mad Hatter's Tea Party camp, anyone can drop in to slurp tea, dunk cupcakes and talk mercury. The Bacchus camp has been tagged a "mythological, hedonistic celebration'' with a feast on Saturday night. The Nargile Lounge promises a place to smoke a hookah and watch belly dancing.

Source : kompas.com

Posted in: