Burning Man 2005 Crew

I volunteered for the Black Rock City Department of Public Works (DPW) who build the infrastructure for the burning man event including the main art exhibit--the Man. I was on the crew that built the base and maze surrounding the man. I arrived the day the entire DPW crew moved from the trailer park in Gerlach to the playa. It was beautiful to be on the waste land called the Black Rock desert with nothing in place except for the perimiter fence and the beginnings of the base for the man, especially knowing what was to be built in the next 2 weeks.

The base for the man was a stout 3 story building surrounded by a large maze filled with art installations. By going through the maze, you cold make your way to the top where there were huge Oars that would rotate the Man.

Looking out over the maze.

Here's Chainsaw (Ben) working on the man.

And neon was the last thing to be installed before erection.

She-Bat keeping an eye on the man's "erection"

When I set out to work in the desert for 2 weeks, I had no idea I'd be submerged in water every day! This is was one of the afterwork favorites called Frog Pond, a natural hot springs several miles from the site.

It was cool to watch the larger installations begin to go up as we got closer to the event.

A week before the event began, we had our own burning ceremony of the Man's cock. His balls were so big they had to be delivered on a fork lift!

Up in Flames

Steel Toe Ilo was the crew cheif for the maze, here he is holding the man's heart.

Eli's Car the Observer was continuously blasting Jhonny Cash. Mostly the same alblum over and over again. I thought the repitition was getting annoying until he left for the weekend when I realized how much I missed it. Little did I know that a year later I would move 2000 miles to the same small town on the big island of Hawaii as Eli.

Little Matt

Steve Dawg set up his keyboards on site and entertained us after work

He never quite found people to jam with at the Man-Base so we built a platform on my truck and toured around the playa blasting our tunes as we went.