Man Down

Sunday 31st August, 9.30am

What a week. It's hard to try to put words to what I've experienced over the last week. But, seeing as I haven't learnt the art of mass telepathy yet, I'll try nonetheless. Last night we watched what we're all here for: to burn the man.

So the site is huge. We bought bikes, as advised, to get around. I picked up a sweet single-speed back-pedal-brake beach cruiser for under £50. The only trouble was that the dust storm on Monday left drifts of sand up to a foot deep in places. Whilst the feel of the place, with countless camps set up with bars and domes and marquees, reminded me of European teknivals, the site layout was a little more ordered. In fact, those good old Americans had devised a grid layout.


The 30ft wooden man sat atop a 3 story structure with a double-helix staircase, with viewing platforms at each level - all of which went up in smoke last night. Surrounding the man is the playa. 3 causeways (lit by lanterns at night) lead off from the man at 3 o'clock, 6 o'clock and 9 o'clock if you imagine you are looking from above. After just less than a mile from the man, these roads meet the Esplanade, the inner street of 8 concentric rings (from A to G) that begin at 2 o'clock and end at 10 o'clock, with spokes at each half hour on the clock. In each of these blocks are a collection of smaller and larger, organised and less-so, camps, doing their own thing: the American cultural fayre.


To complicate matters slightly, at 6 o'clock and Esplanade sits Center Camp. This is the only place where monetary transaction legitimately take place, where one can buy coffee and ice. Inside this huge circus marquee various crazy people hang out, there's a small stage with solo acts, lots of sofas and a beautifully calm and tranquil atmosphere. It's the chill-out camp. Which is ironic, given it's location in the centre of the site. But the effect that it has on the vibe of the whole place is incredible - it's like there is no main show - the sideshows are the real festival.

Then there's a couple of concentric rings around Center Camp that intersect A, B, 5:30, 6 and 6:30, which after the street signs at each intersection get taken when the man burns get really confusing at night! So, in summary, it's huge. There was no way we could possibly get to explore even a third of every camp (which is where all the fun happens).


Now with a bit of a background in free parties and teknivals, I mistakenly expected to find a cacophony of soundclashes of soundsystems everywhere. I think the reason why I expected this, rather than imagining more of a festival setup with more of a focus on things to see and do, was because of having vehicles on site. You drive your vehicle right onto your camp and incorporate it into your shelter structure, something I have only experienced at free parties or teknivals. Or at least in the designated campervan area, but certainly not right in the thick of it.

Of course there are some pretty big systems. They're around the 2 o'clock and 10 o'clock edges. But the amazing thing is that the majority of the soundsystems are moving! They go around on mutant vehicles a.k.a. art cars. There's pirate ships all over the place, and all sorts of weird and wonderful creatures and beasts that you can ride in or on. And they drive around the whole place, so some of the best fun I've had is just jumping on an art car as it passes camp and seeing where it takes me.

Food is an interesting one... there are various places kicking out a multitude of tasty snacks, usually at set times and with various degrees of ease to find. The trouble with the places that are well organised enough to get in the programme is that the queues are sometimes pretty sobering. We brought enough food to make a few meals - I made a fry-up on Wednesday with scambled eggs, spicy baked beans, fried onions and mushrooms and curried home fries (a.k.a. fried potatoes) - which those that know me is a timeless twist on a contemporary classic - and went down a treat.

Drink is a bit easier - there are bars at most camps, the general rule is that you need a cup to get a drink. I've had mojitos, ice cold beer, rum, bourbon... and some shady red wine... all of course for free. Some places like you to do something in return (donations, recieve a spanking, etc.) but I don't think that necessarily fits with the ethos of giving without expecting something directly in return. It's nice to give without expecting anything in return; equally it's nice to be given something without having to cough up something. That said, there is a place for barter over the market economy.

On Thursday I played a set at a bar on a corner near our camp. They had a sweet system that made me wonder if they kept to the 300W limit, but I don't think anyone complained - not at 6 in the evening. It was my first time playing a live set using Ableton Live - and it went amazingly! The technology worked (and vindicated my decision to lug my laptop and audio controller halfway across the world) for me and the tunes were lapped up - big up Stivs, Drugray, Fix and DJ C. I played again on another system yesterday at about 4pm, and the combination of technical issues, wrong tunes for the time of day, me being really drunk and overconfidence from the previous day's set amounted to a bit of a shambles. But that's the advantage of being 10,000 miles from anyone that knows you!

And then out on the playa there's loads of art everywhere to seek out. Trouble is, that anything further than the man or the temple doesn't really get seen, because it's such a mission to get to. Normally, apparently the playa is much more solid, making cycling a lot more pleasant.