Dust devils are dancing over the highway. A gusty wind whirls through my open car window, hot and dry like a hair blower. The parched desert has swallowed almost all color. The Black Rock Mountains seem barren and lifeless. Thirsty sage bushes look more gray than green. Not far beyond a forlorn township of about 300 people in the northeast corner of this arid state, the brittle asphalt ends completely. The radio falls silent. My cell phone beeps: No signal.
Civilization ends at this dirt road that winds its way down to an ancient lake bed. A new world begins here. I slow down. Just in time, as a screeching yellow vehicle suddenly appears from a cloud of sand and dust right behind me. Sporting a giant stuffed-animal duck head on its hood and countless rubber ducks everywhere else, the vehicle rumbles past.
It honks, and its happy passengers wave. I wave back and, as I watch them disappear in another dust cloud and slowly follow behind, I soon discover a flickering of colors and shapes at the horizon. It looks like a mirage, but the apparition is real. As I drive closer, the silhouette of a giant tent city grows out of the haze.
Every year around the United State’s Labor Day holiday in early September, a few thousand people — free spirits, musicians, left-over hippies, fire jugglers, artists and high-tech junkies – make a pilgrimage to the lake bed playa for an eight-day-long festival. It is a phantasm turned reality.
The organizers of this temporary city see it as an experiment in community, where money can only buy you a cup of coffee or a bag of ice, as other vending is not allowed here. Bring everything you will need for your self-reliant stay. You will have to trade with your neighbors if you have forgotten band-aids, peanut butter or sufficient drinking water. But most likely they will readily give it to you. The festival founder likes to call this system an “economy of gifts.”
“Welcome!” yells a young man in a lace dress as he throws his Viking hat high into the air. Every single car — with or without aquatic figurehead — is greeted by a volunteer. “First time visitor?” asks a blond and braided woman who is wearing a striped scarf, a water bottle, a bright smile and nothing else. I nod and receive an extra hug.
Radical self expression is another keyword for this celebration of alternate lifestyle. Here, you can be anything you want to be. Participants get lost in this stimulating parallel universe where they discover unknown character traits and can reinvent themselves. Name, identity, story of their life, everything can be made up.
Here, where the official public bus is a giant steel dragon, where you can adopt a garden gnome from the local garden gnome adoption agency, participate in a “weird underwear parade” or exchange your clothes for an ice-cold squirt gun, fill up and chase other naked gunslingers, reality is definitely out of balance.
The theme for this peaceful mass carnival changes from year to year. But the climax of every year’s event is when a large wooden sculpture of a man is burned after orgiastic foreplay from fire dancers and dramatic drumming. Surprisingly, the peaceful crowd turns now into an ecstatic mob. Gleaming sparks rise to the sky. And as the wooden creature collapses, the masses push forward and dance around its smoldering remains.
Where am I?
Send your answer to goworld@goworldpublishing.com. All readers correctly identifying this event and location will be entered in a drawing to receive a recently published travel book.
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| Uppsala, Sweden |
Answer to the August 2006 “Where in the World” Contest
Last month’s mystery destination was Uppsala, Sweden. Our photo showed Uppsala Castle.
Thanks to all who wrote in their guesses. This month’s winner is Shelly from Castlegar, B.C. Congratulations Shelly!
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