This is Black Rock City: -––––––––––– Black Rock City 2014 –––––––––––

Black Rock City 2014

For the weeklong Burning Man festival, a temporary city is built in the Black Rock Desert in northwestern Nevada where every year more than 65 000 participants endure extremely harsh living conditions to create an artistic community unique in the world.

They settle on a clearly defined layout organically improved over two decades of adaptation to the growth of its population and ever increasing regulations that govern a private event held on public land.

Caravansery was the 2014 theme

The map The other map The Caravansery map The MOOP map

The Leave No Trace, Self-reliance and Decommodification principles condition the nature of this habitat and demand

a new approach to urban planning and the viability of temporary dwellings.

To survive in style (or not) a scorching sun, destructive gusts of wind

and the omnipresent dust, Burners, forward-looking citizens, come up with solo and communal camps, the fruition of year-long preparations along with sheer improvisation, to create an ephemeral architecture that will vanish leaving deep memories and no trace.

Top radial 8:00 Bottom half-radial 9:45 Streets from A to K
Pink Mammoth (pink dot) is at 8:30@E
Distrikt (empty spot) is at 9:00@G

Top right Center Camp Café
Radials from right to left: 6:30, 6:45 (half-radial), 7:00, 7:30
Blocks top to bottom: Esplanade followed by A to K
Center block at E between 6:30 and 7:00 shared by Alternative Energy Zone and Barbie Death Village

I recorded these images after countless hours exploring Black Rock City
to keep traces of this profound urban experiment.

These photos are the gift I received from this thriving, yet physically ephemeral community.

Enjoy, sit back and welcome home again!

Philippe Glade 2014

You are in a dubstep-free blog where these soundscapes help soothe the Playasonic-assault.

Camps or installations misnamed? contact me:

brc(at)philippeglade(dot)com (plz:no flames, all smiles)

This SFW blog (too bad) is a Ginormous labor of love, several hundreds of hours of work, not counting the wait at the gate and at Will Call, that I want to keep commercial-free adhering to the Decommodification principle.

All links are almost SFW (top of page 2 are not)

2014 Table of contents

5 pages/400 images at the bottom of each column click older posts to access the next page

Page 1 Introduction/The Golden Rebars Award
Page 2 Along the Esplanade
Page 3 The Souk/Tents/Houses/Domes/Hexayurts/Parachutes/Trailers
Page 4 Camps
Page 5 Participants/Installations/Mutants Vehicles/My Camp

Homesick? 2013
you will find links going back as far as 1996.

Welcome Home, again

Slo-mo Intro

Don't steal these signs

Satellites pods of the Otic Way by Gregg Fleishman, Melissa Barron and Lightning Clearwater III

Sweatin' at Distrikt

Empire of dust

The Lamplighters

Root Society

Embrace by Matt Schultz and The Pier Group

Temple of Grace by David Best and crew

Got bikes?

The retreat from Russia, Circa 1812

Ephemeral installation made with "donations" from surrounding camps.

CrossReads by Jamie Joyce

Nice way to create a neighborhood

Monday morning, I was sleeping under the stars on the cot when hail and rain woke me up.
At time, rain was heavy as were the lightnings striking the city.
I wasn't too proud under my canopy surrounded by dozens of metal poles and rebars.
Like everyone else in the city, I spent the morning looking at the puddles slowly invading my living space, walking around in trash bag covered shoes which help trek to the blue rooms.
One of these too rare moments when the city is quiet, still, calm, when the silence is only broken by a remote neighbor calling to share a warm breakfast.
That morning created numerous bonds among burners.