America – August/September – Part 2

At seeing the sights of LA, it was time to catch a plane, pick up the camper and head into the desert.  For our second naked adventure was at Black Rock City, or the Burning Man Festival as you may know it.

Arriving late at night (longer than we thought, stopped for speeding), we collected our tickets and headed to the entrance.  Here we were greeted by the Burning Man ‘greeters’ – volunteers who welcome ‘people home’.  Ours had a spaceman helmet on.  As with tradition, all virgins are asked to roll in the dust and ring the virgin bell.  What have we let ourselves in for?!!

After finding a suitable space to park up, we loaded up our rucksacks with alcohol and headed out onto the Playa.  At night, Burning Man is a serious head-fuck.  As far as the eye can see, there was neon lights, soundsystems, fire and art installations.  We spent some time at the Thunder Dome trying to take it all in, before retiring for our first night in the desert.

After a good night sleep, we woke to a blazing sun and the sound of techno.  After a bit of breakfast and we went for a walk to see what BM had to offer during the day.

I had read that there is a relaxed approach to nudity at BM, with a number of naked activities including:

* Naked Zorbing

* Body Painting

* Party Naked Tiki Bar

* Critical Tits (and Dicks) Bike Ride

However, I have to say that there was not as much nudity as I thought there would be.  Whenever we went to the Party Naked Tiki Bar, there was only a handful of people there and all were clothed.  We didn’t see any Naked Zorbing or any Body Painting either (I believe that the Bike Ride took place earlier in the week).

Most nudity seemed to occur during the morning as people got up, washed/showered, used the portaloos.  People seemed comfortable being naked around their camps at the start of the day, but as it got later it seemed that nudity ended.  There was however, small numbers of people sitting around naked by their camps throughout the day, and a few couples walking around naked.  Needless to say, I spent most of the daytime sat in our camp, working on getting rid of my tanlines!

I was also looking forward to experiencing the ‘gifting’ economy with which BM works – people contribute to the festival through gifting either time, materials, etc and I had hoped that there would be far more social interaction amongst the festival goers.  Despite our best efforts to greet passersby with a nod and wave, the number of people we spoke to as minimal.  We kind of felt that most people were in camps made up of a group of friends, and so tended to keep the party to themselves.

I don’t know if this is linked but we had a long chat to one of the artists who build a couple of sculptures on the Playa.  He was was in his 10th year but had become increasingly disillusioned with BM and felt that the festival was losing its roots due to an increase in the number of younger teens who were here to drink and take drugs rather than ‘participate’.  Given the number of college kids dancing on top of their parents RV’s, I can see where he is coming from.

Overall, I’m glad that I’ve been to BM – it certainly is an awesome place, with incredible art installations and amazing landscapes.

For more information, click here

Nakation News – TripAdvisor lists top 5 naked events

Plan your naked year, with TripAdvisor’s list of their top 5 naked events including:

January

Nude Beach Olympics – Maslin Beach, Australia.  Click here for the website of the Southern United Naturists who organise the nude Olympics.

June and July

World Naked Bike Ride – Worldwide.  Click here for more information

July

AANR World Record Skinny Dip – Across North America.  Click here for more information.  Click here for some quality photographs of an event at Haulover Beach

Running of the Nudes – Pamplona, Spain.  For more information click here.

August – September

Burning Man – Black Rock Desert, Nevada.  Click here for more information.

I’ve not been to any of these but would love to go to Burning Man.  if any of you have been to these events or can recommend any others, we’d love to hear from you!