Burning Fans

This past weekend, Sheri and I attended an interesting panel discussion about the planning of Black Rock City, the temporary city of 48,000 people that is Burning Man.It had a diverse mix of speakers — the legendary Larry Harvey (the father of Burning Man), a civic planner and architect of the entire event, as well others who were involved in various projects.The at-capacity crowd was an interesting mix of studious young architects eager to gain continuing ed credits, as well as haggard-looking “burners.”There was something exciting in hearing Larry Harvey speak. I mostly went to the event to hear him, as I had been fascinated to hear how one man’s party on a beach in 1986 could turn into an event that would change so many people’s lives for over 21 years. I was pleased to hear that he still has a genuine enthusiasm for something that has grown well beyond his wildest dreams. Surely he would be enlightening….Unfortunately, he was not very on-topic, waxing poetically about the virtues of Burning Man, love, myths, utopia, the early days — much like a preacher (or aging hippie) — rather than describing what goes into the planning of the city itself. Luckily, the other speakers were equipped to discuss the sheer logistics of such an event. I was particularly enthralled by architect Rod Garrett’s presentation of how the city itself was designed. Being a huge fan of aerial photography, there was a seemingly endless supply of shots of the event over the years during his presentation. Here is a great cliff notes of his talk.Whenever I describe Burning Man to anyone, I end up trying to convey the sheer scale of the event, but am usually at a loss to accurately describe this. I usually end up using any available table and things like spilled grains of salt and such to make a “imagine this is you…” analogy. i now have some hard numbers, yet somehow hearing that the event was only 2.5 miles at its widest, with a 7.5 mile fence around the perimeter somehow disappointed me.Maybe it was a bit like hearing the Larry Harvey. Sometimes it’s best to leave some questions unanswered. Seeing the aerial photos made me happy though. It’s the only way you can truly show the event’s vastness. It got Sheri and I talking a lot about our next trip there…