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Last Year I Went To Burning Man Festival, Where I Photographed Strangers And Asked Them To Tell Their Burning Man Stories.
Many people know that Burning Man festival is not a regular place and incredible stories begin to happen with almost every person who gets there.
Last year I went to this festival, where I met strangers, walking around the Playa, took their pictures and asked them to tell their Burning Man stories.
Here are a few of them …
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One time I was driving around on Sunday after the man burn and I’d always drive to the city just to waive at people in my art car tell them thank you. And I picked up this kid. And I am talking to him and he just looks up at me and says: Do you realize how many people you inspire by being out here? – “I’ve never even thought about it before.” I only come out here to make Burning Man a better place but being here.
So this year I brought five virgins to the Burn. The last two years I camped with Art car called “Bounce”. However, this year the car and the camp didn’t get the placement. I am a sex educator and I have got an offer a little earlier this year to go to teach classes at the Orgy Dome. And I said absolutely I would love to teach classes at Orgy Dome but our camp didn’t get the placement and I have 5 people and also my RV. We looked around I have lots of friends and I was shopping for a camp. And Orgy Dome camp leader, which is the hardest camp to get in, said you are an amazing person and we really want to have you and bring all of your virgins with you. We all together camped for the first time at the most famous camp and literally had to camp on the other side of this massive tent where people have sex all day long, hearing orgasms and everything else thru the walls of the tent had the best time. They had the most amazing Burn, they came together so very well. I was worried that it would be a hard camp, it’s all about sex, this is going to be outside of their comfort zone. But I couldn’t believe how they came together this one particular gift for each other. I loved the experience. For me it’s a normal life. I teach classes and offer workshops for people how wants to have a better sex life, particular skills or communication understanding.
There are two places in the world that I feel a deep connection both to myself and to the planet. First one was Burning Man, and the second one was Israel. It’s funny thinking about the parallels between those two, there are some physical properties that would make it whether it’s differences in sea level and etc. I think if you come to this place you find people of different classes and find spirituality within themselves, and lot of it in Israel too. There you have the Silicon Valley of religion, and here at Burning Man it’s kind of the Silicon Valley of spirituality. And both of those places change my life, but they both equally as important to me and I find it very interesting and I have never felt this way nowhere in the world besides Israel and Burning Man.
I was here a few years ago, my friend was getting married. And I was doing the make-up. I had all my make up in one backpack, on RV, ready to go, never touched. I am going from here to there, it’s time to go, I run over to get the make-up and it’s not there. And by the way I have to get all the way over there on the other side of the Playa on a bike with this backpack. I get to the RV and the backpack is not there, it’s gone. I don’t know what I am gonna do. I don’t have any of my stuff. The only thing I have is some of my make-up brushes, personal brushes and rainbow pasties. And I thought I am going to figure this out. I couldn’t figure it out where the backpack would have been, no one touched it, I knew exactly where it was. I ride my bike over there, I get in the RV. There is also her mom. Luckily, she has the same color of the skin, and I told her not to tell the bride that my makeup was gone. So I needed her to go and grab all the make-up she has and bring it here. Because she will match her. And I also told the other friend, one of the bridesmaids, and everyone brought the stuff. The bride never knew, I did make-up. I never told her, she loves it and it was fantastic. This is exactly how it works: the Playa will provide. Well, I get back to my RV, and I realize that these two guys we drove in together: we had them to drive our RV, you come with us, we pay for the way, because we didn’t want to drive. We drop them off at their camp, and they accidently took my backpack. I couldn’t get a hold of them, they were not answering their phones, so I had to go and do without, right. But that was the best part, and that’s how it works out at Burning Man, is that it’s all gonna come together. They take care of you, everyone takes care of each other. I think this the beauty of being cared you know even of you get into trouble it’s gonna work out. Even if it is radical self-reliance, you do figure it out, people are gonna help you, they are going to come to your aid, and that is really is the beauty of Burning Man, and that what I really love. Of course, I was stressed that day, but I toned it done, and nobody knew. It was perfect/ so that was a really beautiful moment and really good lesson for me.
About 8 years ago I almost died in an accident, I fell off the third floor bending backwards – my back has four pieces, I had a terrible brain injury, and I just drove my life to shoulder. I was as a contractor and the business was going bankrupt. I was thinking about killing myself. Once I was on internet trying to figure out if I don’t kill myself what to do with the rest of my life and I discovered Burning Man. I called the guy who does the personnel and I told him that I was contactor and I could come help to build the city. He agreed and I my first year was here at Burn was in 2015. I volunteered for 8 weeks and helped build the city and I discovered new meaning for life. So now I am a part of DBW crew that builds the city, they are part of my family, and it’s giving me purpose. All the principles of Burning Man are important to me and it’s giving me the second chance.
This is my second time here and Burn is incredibly special to me. Mostly, because I come from a very dark place and a very dysfunctional family. The Burn has really rebuilt my sense of family and shown different kind of love that I can give to people. It’s giving me a chance to open up and be my true self and feeling comfortable and safe doing that. And within my conclave, there are my best friends, my roommates, my biggest inspirations and best favorite artists that I’ve ever seen, and they mean so much to me that they are my family that I wouldn’t trade them for the world. I am so happy that we got to come back for the third year in a row. Once I lost my fire props at one point and people were so nice they looked around my camp and asked around and eventually they (props) gotten to me. Usually In a real world, default world, that doesn’t happen, you don’t get your things back. People have sense of respect and care, and they understand when things like fire props and spinning fire hour art that mean world to us were returned back to me for the conclave before we performed for the Man last year blew me away. It was incredible. And I hope that anything lost here at the Burning Man returns to them in a rightful way. Everybody just put your name on things. I love this place so much.
There are two thing that happened that come to me right now. One woman told me a story, she was walking on her way to the bridge to commit suicide, and someone walk by and told her that it was a beautiful day and her hat was so beautiful and it touched her heart. And that I am learning and I have learned at Burning Man it’s how simply we can touch each other’s hearts. And the second thing, I was in a rush yesterday to go to a meeting, of my men’s circle and I came on the corner and there were two women coming towards me, they were on bicycles, and I was a little bit too close and rushing too much. And Instead of saying you fool, you or whatever we say to each other when we get close like that, she said I love you. And what a change, what a different way to take life. Instead of cursing each other, it’s just I love you and recognize that each of us has a space withhold.
Last time I was at Burning Man, I chose to take to follow my feet. Instead of looking at any of the program, I just followed my heart and followed my feet. I went for a walk down into some back campsite in the dark and I wonder why I feel like going this way. I came across this man in the back of the campsite with a giant basedrumm struck on the front. And I said cool drum kit. It was a portable drum kit that you can walk around with. He says to me: “yes, we are seven-piece Bulgarian Band and we are going to jump in a golf cart and go around some back camps to wake people up and perform some amazing music for them like run around camps and perform a song or two and move on, you know”. I replied: “I am singer, can I join you, do you have a singer?”. They let me join them and we went all around the campsites and woke people up and danced on tables with this really like theatrical Bulgarian improvising music with full seven-piece band. It was lot of fun. And you just wondering sometimes at Burning Man you just find your tribe and find the people you are reasoning with that you want to connect and share and going on that journey together with, and every day is so different.
I was asked by some friends if I would like to join their camp their crew to create A Bee Divine Hive Temple. I said yes. Yesterday I went through a prebodiment process. They asked if you were a Goddess which would you chose. I chose the Goddess of the forest because I really feel like the forest heals us, and we heal the forest back, and it’s a cycling thing. And so I did the pre-session in the evening, all the goddesses came and they were about nine people who took center stage and before that they went to a deep deep meditation, it was almost hypnotic and then the individual go up on stage and actually embodied that Goddess. This was very powerful and it’s a ritual theatre. And this tree where I met you today had a lot to do with my selection of being Goddess of Forest because I was seeking for some comfortable place which camp was not during that day, its hot as hell, can’t really sleep. So I was looking for somewhere on the playa, where I can rest. So two days ago I came and found this tree, it was right here by us the whole time and two days I found it. I just realized that my mission my goal when I get back to the default world is to help to connect the essence of bees and trees bringing those two forces together for the common good of people and our hive. My friend Matt painted those bees at Bee Divine Temple. He has this movement called ‘the good of the hive’ and used a metaphor of how bees are always together as a common unit with energy. In reality people are the same we work for the good, the common good and good for the hive. And It’s been really transformational for me personally, and I have seen transformations of other people in this temple like never before. I have seen tears, embraces, pain, joy, suffering, enlightening. There is some powerful energy there. This is a very spiritual place, it’s a sacred ground for indigenous people many many moons ago and I feel we are blessed to be here, and I am blessed to be here.
This is my second burn that I have actually got to participate. I normally work out here. So three years ago it was the first time that I have got to come out here, and actually be out here for a day and not working. And I missed my girlfriend Amy all day long. It was around one in the morning, and I found an art car that I’d been seen on Facebook being built, I just was infatuated with this amazing art car. I saw this art car in real life, at one o’clock in the morning, and it was amazing, and I get to take all these pictures. Well, I just happened to look out on Playa and saw my girlfriend’s crew art car. All in one morning not only that I got to see the art car that I was amazed and wanted to see in person but also I found my girlfriend and their art car. It was amazing. It was my Playa magic story.
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