Getting ready for the Little Burn

oculus-2-copyThe Center Camp crew was up late Friday night getting their Oculus burn structure ready for Saturday’s Little Burn.

Erik, Jamie, Goatt and the rest took turns carving out their fancy new camp insignia in the wood, then worked late into the night to get it ready to go.

It’s just like the big burn, only little. People work long and hard to get things just right, then they burn it up. Gone forever.

Even though it’s a Saturday, and even though the Little Burn is tonight, it’s still very much a regular work day. It’s not quite as hot as the past couple of days, but there’s no question there are more than a few people feeling more than a little baked.

More people seem to arrive every hour. The Commissary is more crowded than ever, with long lines for food snaking out the door. And outsiders will be welcomed to the playa for the evening’s festivities. But the witching hour comes at noon on Sunday, when only paid-up people with permission to be out here early are allowed to stay.

See you later when the sun goes down and the first fires get sparked up.

About the author: John Curley

John Curley (that's me) has been Burning since the relatively late date of 2004, and in 2008 I spent the better part of a month on the playa, documenting the building and burning of Black Rock City in words and pictures. I loved it, and I've been doing it ever since. I was a newspaper person in a previous life, and I spent many years at the San Francisco Chronicle. At the time I left, in 2007, I was the deputy managing editor in charge of Page One and the news sections of the paper. Since then, I've turned a passion for photography into a second career. I shoot for editorial, commercial and private clients. I've also taught a little bit, including two years at UC Berkeley's Graduate School of Journalism and a year at San Francisco State University. I live on the San Mateo coast, just south of San Francisco in California.