Few takeaways from my First Burning Man festival at Nevada desert:
- I thought a long time how to call this festival. Many have an opinion about it already, like Sex, Drugs and Rock'nRoll, but luckily Aki had a good description ready for me...Art Festival. And that is actually very true. Everybody is dressed up, bikes decorated and weird art is widely available in camps and in the Playa. Even art tours were organised.
- Finding yourself in the oddest conditions without any presumptions. Practically everything is possible and you need to draw a line how far you want to take yourself.
- Suddenly you have a team of 75 people, Black Rock Sauna Society, from several cultural backgrounds equipped with different mindset and expectations of the festival. And there is quite a lot to do to keep the camp running. Finding your place and commitment was challenging to many.
- The whole festival is about giving and often in a very unexpected way from a person with whom you just connected very briefly. For me getting something from total stranger with a hug and deep meaningful thanks is definitely a takeaway for me.
- MOOPing (Matter Out Of Place) around all the time. If you see a something that does not belong to desert, you have the responsibility to collect and take care of that. What a mindset difference to our normal life. Heating our Finnish Sauna with wood created a MOOP challenge ending us vacuuming pieces of trees from the mud.
- Our camp gift to Burners was the Finnish Sauna (not "soona"). It was built into a container and equipped with 600kg stones IKI-stove. The highlight was one day when it had been raining the whole day and night turned out cold. We were able to create Finnish conditions to Playa..
1) Finnish Sauna
2) Finnish Weather
3) Finnish Koskenkorva (to warm you up also internally)
- Then weather turned nasty and turned the Playa as a survival game (shit hit the fan). This was the moment when true personalities started to appear. Who still has the smile and positive mindset in the morning.
- I spent 10 days without connection to digital world, leaving devices behind to my tent. New normal to me felt super good.
- Lastly what is now back in normal life what I want to put forward in my life and turn that a conscious actionable routine.
Thanks BM for this self-reflection moment in my life.
Muddy days are here to stay 08/2023
Finnish Sauna experience on the Playa 08/2023
Desert mud is something else 08/2023
Temple on the Playa just after sunrise 08/2023
Commentaires