Going Nowhere

[If you’re not interested in Burning Man and its culture, you might want to skip this one.]

At the beginning of July, after spending a month in northern Europe, I pointed southward, destination: Nowhere.

The Nowhere Festival is an eight-year-old festival inspired by Burning Man, held in the Aragon desert of northern Spain. Many of you know that I’ve been attending Burning Man, Critical Massive (the WA state BM regional event) and similar BM-inspired events since 2000. I first heard about Nowhere around 2005, from a few of my friends in Europe who went early on, when there were around 200 attendees.

Due to my limited carrying capacity for the food, water and amenities necessary for a week-long festival, I put a few calls out to join a barrio (Nowhere-ese for theme camp) with a food plan. I was eagerly received into the Garden of Joy, a barrio organized by a lovely group of Italian Burners. I immediately felt at home on arrival, being warmly greeted by Maggie (who initially answered my call) and Marco, the camp’s organizer and “spiritual leader” for lack of a better term (most of the Italians affectionately refer to Marco as “Baba”, from Satya Sai Baba, the famous Hindu guru).

It could have just as easily been called the Garden of Decadence. There was a misting system installed in the common areas, keeping the temperature easily 5-10°C cooler than any other camp. An entire Jamon d’Iberico on the kitchen table, casually draped with a towel to keep flies off. Two refrigerators, electric and gas stoves, a thumping sound system, daily food deliveries from Sari?ena (the closest town), excellent meals, all the amenities a happy Burner might need.

Most of all, the Garden was home to an incredible group of people – Italian, French, Dutch, British, Spanish, American, Canadian, Kiwi and more – I was lucky to find such a welcoming home and wonderful company, many of whom I expect and hope to see again during my travels.

Official attendance this year was around 650 people, mostly folks who’d bought tickets in advance, but also a few locals who had heard about the event and came out to satisfy their curiosity.

Burners: if time and circumstance combine to present an opportunity to attend this event, I strongly recommend it. It was quite possibly my favorite burn yet – I think in large part because I knew basically nobody on arrival, so was immediately forced out of my comfort zone.

A few personal highlights and observations of the event (a few of these will only be meaningful to people who have camped with me on the playa for various years):

• The entrance road was my first real opportunity to put my RawHyde Adventure School training to use. It was about 20km off dirt road, including steep downhills, switchbacks, gravel and fine silty sand. I am pleased to report that I handled all with nothing more than minor trepidation.
• Upon my arrival at the gate, as I was waiting my turn to check in, I was astonished by one of the passengers of the next vehicle to arrive: none other than Miss Normal, former Mayor of Gigsville, former Seattle resident. I see her every 2-3 years on the playa. I suppose this is just another incarnation of playa, but wow were we both surprised (in the “WHAT! THE! FUCK!?! sort of way).
• During the opening ceremony, hearing a shocked voice say “STUART?!” and turning to see my friend Kyra, whom I hadn’t seen since a very spectacular wedding quite a few years ago. I knew she’d be there, she had no idea I would.
• 600 people doing the hokey pokey.
• Azzura, one of the Italians, had a howler monkey. Not a flying ninja howler monkey, but still. My brain still reels a bit thinking of it.
• As much as I love Repetitive Inside Joke Camp, I rather despise Other Peoples’ Repetitive Inside Joke Camp. Particularly at 7:30 in the morning when I’m just waking and as yet uncaffeinated, and the Other People in question are obnoxiously altered and loud “guests” of our camp. Which is to say: “time to go back to your own camp now, lovelies”.
• A key highlight: watching the documentary “Combust In Unity”, about the 2008 KiwiBurn. One of the filmmakers was a campmate. The film was a little rough, mostly due to being zero budget and very limited camera tech, but well worth the viewing.
• Logistics: pit toilets, shallow pits for vegetable food waste. Center Camp == “Middle of Nowhere”. The few big sound camps situated reasonably near each other, but with sound systems pointing in basically different directions.

Summary: If you dig Burning Man and have the opportunity, GO NOWHERE!