Burning Man Stays On Fire

This year's Burning Man came and went with its largest attendance ever, attracting close to 36,000 amped-up, flamed-out Burners to the Nevada desert. Tons of wood and other detritus went up in flames and smoke as revellers converged around the Man for the annual epic bonfire and there were literally thousands of pagan-inspired individuals who danced around the blazing embers for hours and hours.

Rumour had it that Oakenfold was lost somewhere admidst the flames, and he definitely attended the festival at least once, apparently losing numerous acetates to the dust. And the word was that Paris Hilton was standing by as Oakenfold did his thing but there are no confirmations of that or any of the other numerous celebrities whose names swirled around the event with appropriate wildfire speed.

What was seen with usual clarity were the usual love struck Burners indulging in the now traditional in-out (sex- slang ed) on the desert floor, hopefully leaving no human detritus and stains on the playa, although numerous screams of delight were duly noted by passers-by. One exhibit, called appropriately the Orgasmatron, also had to moved away from full public view to a more discreet location so that its mechanical abilities could be tested by a number of female funseekers. Apparently it worked pretty well, leaving a number of boyfriend types to woefully drown their sorrow.

And now, the Playa is empty once again with the only people still there being the final clean-up crew removing any remaining MOOP (matter out of place).

Interestingly, many old-time Burners were less than enthusiastic about this year's event, common complaints being that it was too much like a rave and that there was not enough art, but at least no-one died (two died last year and there were two plane crashes).
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