Im just coming back to earth from my first burn, and I cant speak highly enough about the entire concept and experience that it is.

I can see why some people may think its not for them. There is an important lesson in self reliance and survival to be learned. The camping aspect may drive some away, but I have been into the outdoors and camping my entire life so I welcomed that aspect with no troubles.

So many questions get answered once you spend a couple days on the playa. I had no idea why the organizers would pick such a remote, harsh location, why there is no money exchanged, why spilling anything onto the playa is forbidden, etc. After a few days you will realize why black rock city is actually the perfect spot for such a party, and why its rules are so important and help make the experience in BRC so much better.

I have been to many great parties around the world (IBIZA, WMC, BPM Festival, Lovefest, Love parade Berlin, etc) but BM stands apart to such an extent that it cant even really be classified as a party. It really is one big art project and a temporary utopia, completly derived from its participants. The people who attend burning man make it what it is year after year. Its an evolving display of creativity in nearly every aspect you can think of, that absolutely overwhelmes the senses.

What makes it so unique, is that it is going 24 hrs a day for a full week. Additionally, burners have set up a fully functioning city that is more organized than most permenant cities around the world. This makes for a sense of cummunity that isnt really present in events such as coachella or other short lived events that are not going 24 hrs a day for 7 full days. You have to put in a lot of work day in and day out building your camps and surviving the extreme environment, which makes the payoff of the entire experience much more appreciated.

The amount of work, materials, and art that is built up and taken down over the course of the week is absolutely mind blowing. There isnt really anything that anybody can tell you that will prepare you for the mind blowing experience of seeing the playa come alive each night.

As you can imagine, I highly reccommend the burning man experience. With more and more new burners, the creativity and event itself grows better and better and will evolve into whatever we all make of it. I can only imagine how different the burning man event is now from 15-20 years ago. Additionally, the lessons learned make life away from the playa better as well.

I've only been to Burning Man once and my review of it was

"It's the closest feeling you'll ever get to visiting another planet"

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Your reviews have convinced me to plan for Burning Man next year or the year after before it gets too commercialized like the EDM scenes here in LA... (i.e. EDC 2010)

A lot of the lame old school BMers already say it's too commercialized.

quote:

Originally posted by able.h Your reviews have convinced me to plan for Burning Man next year or the year after before it gets too commercialized like the EDM scenes here in LA... (i.e. EDC 2010)

the only aspect I was unimpressed by was the lack of quality music (which in most cases would ruin my entire experience) There was alot of music everywhere, and I chose to just roam aimlessly rather than follow some organized rigid schedule to seek out music. Unfortunately I stumbled across alot of bad music. For some odd reason alot of djs found electro to be a good idea at a desert party.

I was expecting alot of psytrance and dubstep, but found alot of bad techno and electro. Desert parties (and psychedelics) are best suited for deep progressive and psychedlic music IMO. I found an abundance of neither. I need to make a better attempt to get involved with a camp to play myself as the music I played at our own camp seemed to always go over very well. I feel I have a solid grasp on good desert party/outdoor tunes.

Next year I will better plan my direction to be sure I hear higher quality music.

quote:

Originally posted by djjoshuaallen Im just coming back to earth from my first burn, and I cant speak highly enough about the entire concept and experience that it is. I can see why some people may think its not for them. There is an important lesson in self reliance and survival to be learned. The camping aspect may drive some away, but I have been into the outdoors and camping my entire life so I welcomed that aspect with no troubles. So many questions get answered once you spend a couple days on the playa. I had no idea why the organizers would pick such a remote, harsh location, why there is no money exchanged, why spilling anything onto the playa is forbidden, etc. After a few days you will realize why black rock city is actually the perfect spot for such a party, and why its rules are so important and help make the experience in BRC so much better. I have been to many great parties around the world (IBIZA, WMC, BPM Festival, Lovefest, Love parade Berlin, etc) but BM stands apart to such an extent that it cant even really be classified as a party. It really is one big art project and a temporary utopia, completly derived from its participants. The people who attend burning man make it what it is year after year. Its an evolving display of creativity in nearly every aspect you can think of, that absolutely overwhelmes the senses. What makes it so unique, is that it is going 24 hrs a day for a full week. Additionally, burners have set up a fully functioning city that is more organized than most permenant cities around the world. This makes for a sense of cummunity that isnt really present in events such as coachella or other short lived events that are not going 24 hrs a day for 7 full days. You have to put in a lot of work day in and day out building your camps and surviving the extreme environment, which makes the payoff of the entire experience much more appreciated. The amount of work, materials, and art that is built up and taken down over the course of the week is absolutely mind blowing. There isnt really anything that anybody can tell you that will prepare you for the mind blowing experience of seeing the playa come alive each night. As you can imagine, I highly reccommend the burning man experience. With more and more new burners, the creativity and event itself grows better and better and will evolve into whatever we all make of it. I can only imagine how different the burning man event is now from 15-20 years ago. Additionally, the lessons learned make life away from the playa better as well.

I stopped by your camp early Saturday morning with Arthur, you were either alseep or out somewhere burning... not sure which one

I agree with everything you say here. Very well put. I hope to see you next year. Your white bus looked pretty cool.

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quote:

Originally posted by djjoshuaallen For some odd reason alot of djs found electro to be a good idea at a desert party.

That's weird, I've never been to BM myself but I would imagine Burning Man should be playing a lot more progressive tunes, or like you said psychedelics, probably something like this:

quote:

Originally posted by djjoshuaallen I need to make a better attempt to get involved with a camp to play myself as the music I played at our own camp seemed to always go over very well. I feel I have a solid grasp on good desert party/outdoor tunes.

As of bringing your own turntable + sound system? Are they allowing that in BM, or do you need to have a special permit? I think you should Josh

quote:

Originally posted by djjoshuaallen the only aspect I was unimpressed by was the lack of quality music (which in most cases would ruin my entire experience) There was alot of music everywhere, and I chose to just roam aimlessly rather than follow some organized rigid schedule to seek out music. Unfortunately I stumbled across alot of bad music. For some odd reason alot of djs found electro to be a good idea at a desert party. I was expecting alot of psytrance and dubstep, but found alot of bad techno and electro. Desert parties (and psychedelics) are best suited for deep progressive and psychedlic music IMO. I found an abundance of neither. I need to make a better attempt to get involved with a camp to play myself as the music I played at our own camp seemed to always go over very well. I feel I have a solid grasp on good desert party/outdoor tunes. Next year I will better plan my direction to be sure I hear higher quality music.

Some nights the music was pretty good, others not so much... heard a lot of dubstep and electro. DJ Dan's set at Roots Society on the night of the Burn was pretty stellar; funky, disco-infused, progressive electro and techno. I also enjoyed the 80s music from Planet Earth. Some of the camps like Nexxus had really good dubstep in the early morning. Disorient from NYC had some good progressive during sunrise on Thursday morning with really good electro earlier in the night. The deep house on the other nights really wasn't my cup of tea. Crystal Method also had a good DJ set at Roots Society; the best I've ever heard from them; sick breaks. The art cars had a mix of good breaks/electro/psy-trance and some shitty mariachi music.There was actually some good psy-trance on a two-level art car/bus that picked us up from Roots Society.

I'm down to collaborate with you if you want to get some good psychedelic music for next year.

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I thought there was way less dubstep and lots more techno than last year, which I appreciated for the most part. Its funny cause electro still seems to be hugely represented when its kind of faded elsewhere. I think that lots of burners aren't really into EDM outside of BM so the cheesier stuff tends to work better for the crowd out there. Psytrance supposedly used to be big but I didn't hear ANY this year or much at all the past few years.

Did anyone else catch Kalkbrenner @ Root Society's wall stage? That was a sick fucking set, and what an insane stage...

EDIT: Josh nailed the description of BM btw.

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quote:

Originally posted by Sadface I think that lots of burners aren't really into EDM outside of BM so the cheesier stuff tends to work better for the crowd out there.

True, my friend Alex (2nd burn) said the only time he listens to EDM is with me and our friend Gen at Burningman. He could care less for it otherwise.

I thought it was cool that you had a variety of options to choose from. I especially enjoyed the camps playing Snoop, Dre, and Pac.

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quote:

Originally posted by djjoshuaallen Im just coming back to earth from my first burn, and I cant speak highly enough about the entire concept and experience that it is.

Greatest opening statement I've ever read

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