It started raining last night after we got back and it continue to rain today and that took down the dust and filled up the porta potties since the trucks couldn’t get in to clean them out. Trucks and art cars are not allowed to move when it rains because it would destroy the ground. The ground is not sand, it’s really silica, the base for clay. And clay it was – as you walked, you accumulated a very heavy platform so that you could just walk out of your shoes if they weren’t tightly tied on.
We were lucky because the rain gave us quiet and cool and didn’t last that long- a night +. It stopped in the morning and we went out early to see a philharmonic concert at the Temple. However between the super late burn of the Titanic and the partying that people do, only about 8 people showed up to play. But they were valiant and we were happy to support. One of the flutists was from our camp and we were happy to cheer his effort on – clearly getting there for the morning after being up all night. Incredible.
When the rain died down, the sun dried things quickly and our camp decided to take down the Lavender Lounge. Normally, they’d have waited until Sunday, but more rain was predicted so they gave up the offerings for Saturday (every camp gives something, thus gets the right to having a camp) and some regretted this early break down. I thought it was great because it meant much less work tomorrow. But hey that’s me and I had a wee bit of counting the days going on. Everyone chipped in and it came down pretty quickly. But man, so many pieces, such incredible organization on the part of the camp leaders. Really remarkable. Plus all the rugs, pads, pillows had to be dried out and mud shaken off before being packed away for the next year. All the sheets and thin tapestries were collected and taken back to SF by one of the camp leaders to be cleaned. Amazing amount of work is done by the leaders of the camp.
The evening weather remained clear and then it was the Man burn. For this, the Man’s arms went up in the air and people started to gather. Wow, I thought the scene around the Titanic was big. This was huge (keep in mind there are 60,000+ people). It started with a half hour of fire dancers. Again, fire people had cleared a huge space in a circle around the Man and there were fire dancers all around the circle doing all kinds of dances, chants, etc. with different kinds of fire wands/batons/sticks and costumes.
We got a space pretty close and sat down in the crowd. The timing on this burn was precise and went off right as planned. 8:30-9 for fire dancers, then fireworks – incredibly huge fireworks and then the burn. Again, there was clearly orchestration for the burn and it was beautiful. The art cars were blasting music, all with lights doing their thing, the fire works continued intermittently and the burn was gigantic.
Incredible. Huge sensory load that I just loved. I’m so very glad I got to see it. And, finally, nothing was hurting and I got to completely enjoy – watching, then walking all around the circle after the man had collapsed down into a bonfire. So many art cars! Later there was a naked run around the bonfire – missed that, but some of our peeps took part!
