Dust storms, strong winds, iconic burns: TikTok captures what Burning Man is really like
Burning Man Festival came to a close on Monday, Sept. 5, after nine days in the Nevada desert.
But festivalgoers have just begun posting on social media about the annual Black Rock City event where cellphone use is limited, according to the Burning Man help page.
TikTok user Mariarekowski documented her experience at the festival in a video blog, known as a vlog.
“Some awesome dude offered us a Polaroid,” she said in the video.
Moments later a dust storm begins, and she can be heard saying, “Oh my god, a whiteout hit, and it was so insane. All you can do is put your goggles on, put your bandana on and hope that you don’t ... crash into something.”
One person set the record straight about a misconception about the festival.
“People think Burning Man is a bunch of beautiful women running around in the desert, but it’s actually 70 mph winds and dust storms,” someone can be seen saying in the video.
In another video by the same user, she showed viewers her dust-covered pizza, fireworks and the “burning of the man,” which she described as “the biggest fire” she’d ever seen.
TikTok user BobbyHedglintaylor also posted a video of the historic burning of the man that happens on Saturday of the festival.
The burning of the man is followed by a “temple” burn the following day, where “once constructed, its healing energies embrace all those seeking reflection, resolution, release, and renewal,” according to the festival’s website.
User Biancacp__ took to Tik Tok to showcase her experience of the beloved temple burn.
“I visited the temple one afternoon and cried the entire time I wandered around it,” she wrote.
“Everyone can gather to share in the experience of remembering the past, honoring or cursing the present, and pondering the future to come.”
Each TikTok showed viewers yet another iconic sight at Burning Man.
One user posted a video of “El Pulpo Mecanico” art car.
“El Pulpo Mecanico” was designed and built by Duane Flatmo in Arcata, California, and is a combination of art and technology morphed into one, according to its website.
Other users like xxxdanielcd showcased more art cars, including a lime green one, a dragon-inspired one and a dome-looking one.
“In addition to painted, decorated, and altered cars, the ranks of art vehicles on the playa have grown to include fire trucks, buses, bicycles, scooters, motorcycles, golf carts, and all manner of wheeled, mobile objects which serve as transport of some kind,” Harrod Blank said in a blog post on the Burning Man website.
Seeing unique cars isn’t the only thing to do at Burning Man.
TikTok user Deeeaytch posted a video showing dancing and lots of musical festivities that took place over the course of the festival.
Most stories were positive, but there were a few that targeted the mess of exiting the festival.
One account captioned a TikTok, “burners, was it worth it,” with a drone panning out showing hundreds of cars stuck in traffic.
Commenters on the video were quick to share their lack of interest in going to the festival.
“The more clips of Burning Man I see, the more I don’t ever want to go,” one said.
Another said, “Couldn’t pay me to go to that.”
Burning Man abides by 10 principles: radical inclusion, gifting, decommodification, radical self-reliance, radical self-expression, communal effort, civic responsibility, leaving no trace, participation and immediacy, according to its website.
“It was a week of love and tears, heat and dust, growth and joy, discovery and acceptance, release and renewal. As you dust off your gear, take some time to reflect on your week in Black Rock City, connect with your friends, and take care of your body. Safe journeys until next year,” Burning Man said in this year’s farewell.
Black Rock City is about 120 miles northeast of Reno.