The Green Giant
Burning man 2007 goes green and sustainable?
By Katie Baynes

Sep 3 | archive | subscribe

 

Green is all around us. Even in the middle of the bleak and bare Nevada desert. The legendary counter-culture art festival Burning Man, this year jumped on the green bandwagon and made 'Green Man' the theme of the 27th annual event.

In the Black Rock Desert, about 120 miles north of Reno, NV over 45,000 art-lovers, festival goers, greeners and well. . . hippies, gathered over Labor Day weekend, where thousands of art exhibits were on display, and even in motion.

"I couldn't get over the things that I saw there," said Lakie Wakim, a first time Burning Man goer, new to the Bay Area. "There was a full sized roller rink in the middle of the night, and there were even two giant life-sized cupcakes with people in them driving around on it. You can't fathom Burning Man until you see it."

Known for its expressive art-work, this years Burning Man art pieces took more of a Green twist. The main exhibition (aside from The Man, who was lit up in green), was an art installation called 'Crude Awakening', which was the tallest structure ever built at Burning Man at 99-feet tall. The wooden structure was a replica of an oil derrick, which was lit on fire primed by 900 gallons of jet fuel and fed by 2,000 gallons of liquid propane.

Crude Awakening was the vision Bay Area artists Dan Das Mann and Karen Cusolito, meant to dramatize the worshipful relationship and dependence modern man has toward oil.

In addition to the expressive art work meant to reflect the Green Theme, Burning Man is a 'Leave No Trace Event', which means that everything that the thousands of people bring into the desert is cleaned up and cleared away by them as if they were never there. This has been a longstanding mantra of the event which takes place in 5-square miles of open desert.

Two groups of Burning Man goers took Green initiative a step further and have created their own organizations in support of the cause. Burners without Borders was created after Hurricane Katrina to expand their goodwill efforts and build community through art and action. Another group, Cooling Man, has the goal to make Black Rock City the first negative carbon city in the world. The website coolingman.org asks Burning Man participants to be aware of their carbon footprint and offers tips and advice on how to reduce pollution in the Playa.