40,000 people are expected to converge on a dry lakebed in Nevada’s Black Rock Desert this week for the annual Burning Man contemporary pagan convention. In the purpose-built Black Rock City, which exists only fleetingly on the dusty playa for the duration of the event, life doesn’t just imitate art – life becomes art. The already environmentally conscious counter culture festival, whose mantra is ‘leave no trace,’ will step their green credentials up a notch, encouraging greener art installations and eco-conscious participation with this year’s Green Man theme.
To this end, festival organizers have made special arrangements with the Albertson’s grocery chain, not a name you’d necessarily associate with green. Seven out of ten of their local Reno-area stores will have Green Zones, carrying items such as crank flashlights, solar chargers, and biodegradable kitchenware and garbage bags. Revelers will also be able to make use of special 24-hour drive thru recycling centers at the stores. In addition organizers are powering this year’s event using bio-diesel generators, and will recycle wood used in the creation of the temporary city, building on a program they began in 2006 when they donated six tractor loads of timber to Habitat for Humanity.
The central pavilion installation, which supports the iconic Burning Man effigy, will feature a 270-kilowatt solar energy array, which was donated by a venture capital firm specializing in alternative energy. With one of the ten founding event principles being decommodification, this marriage between commerce and the Burning Man Community is causing discomfort amongst traditionalists however. Tom Price, an 11-year veteran ‘burner’ who is one of this year’s environmental managers, assures festival goers that all the companies participating are doing so strictly on Burning Man’s anti-commercial terms, with “no logos, no branding, no marketing, no as-seen-at-Burning Man advertising,” In the spirit of two other core event principles, gifting and civic responsibility, after the festival, the $1.5 million array will be split in two and donated to a local Gerlach high school and a hospital in Lovelock, NV.
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