Although Burning Man went fully digital this year, some Burners still spent their labor day weekends in Nevada’s Black Rock Desert, opting for an unconventional, socially distanced, unofficial burn. Though, let’s be real — once that combination of psychedelics and desert delirium takes hold, the Burners brave enough to make it out to BRC in the middle of a record-breaking heatwave and global pandemic don’t seem particularly likely to be worrying about COVID-19.
While this Burning Man wasn’t affiliated in any way with the festival’s usual organization, that didn’t stop Burners from dressing up like post-apocalyptic warriors, driving mutant freak vehicles, and lighting stuff on fire.
According to the Reno Gazette Journal, the weekend’s event — officially dubbed “Not Burning Man 2020” — drew a crowd of about 1,000 to 2,000 campers who gathered on the playa and burned smaller wooden effigies in place of one large Burning Man sculpture. The event’s main figurehead — a nearly 30-foot tall structure that Burners spent the weekend decorating — was toppled at the weekend’s close so that Burners could take debris and burn it at home (though some Burners waited until the authorities left for a final blaze on the playa floor).
We gathered some photos from the weekend’s festivities, which — to their credit — show a mostly solitary, socially distanced Burn. And while gathering large groups of people in a small space is absolutely ill-advised, this looks very little like the Smashmouth-starring Sturgis rally. Was there still at least one culturally appropriated headdress wearer in attendance? You’d better believe it.
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