March 25, 2004
Burning Man 2003
The burn of The Man occurs on Saturday night, the next to last day of the event. The man is lit with mass amounts of neon, and the arms — which had been down the entire week — were raised up toward the sky to call all people on the playa to see the burn. There were a ton of drums (over one hundred) all synchronized, doing 'The heartbeat of the man'. There were people between the crowd and the man, walking along with flamethrowers, doing controlled burns out into the air. Soon, fireworks were launched from the base of the man, to let everyone know it was about to start.
Once it was lit, it started to burn quickly. The sound of the crowd, the raw sound of that much timber being engulfed by flames, and the wall of nearly painful heat (at about a hundred yards away!) were overwhelming. Once I remembered to start taking photos again, I got this:
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What you're seeing in the foreground is a fire funnel. The structure burns so hot, so fast, that the air around it gets heated to hundreds of degrees instantly, and like a hot air balloon without the balloon, it careens into the sky above.
Right after this photo was taken, the fire funnel broke off from the structure. The crowd started yelling "Woo, woo, woo!" As they realized that it was aimed for them, the yells changed to "Woo! Woo... wha? whoa, Whoa! WHOA!"
It dissipated right as it impacted the front lines of people, but for a while there I wasn't sure if I should be giggling or wincing.
Posted by Ray at March 25, 2004 07:03 PM | TrackBack