Tales From The Playa are dreams and memories of events that took place at Burning Man, as told by its participants.

We got a little more playa-fied on Tuesday. We went over to the Black Rock Boutique to get some fancy new duds.

A group of Burners from Portland have been setting up shop here for years, helping new and veteran Burners find the look they want.

We ran into Cobra Commander and Phoenix Firestarter waiting in line.  “I just ask them for something dark and threatening,” Cobra said. Read more »

Tales From The Playa are dreams and memories of events that took place at Burning Man, as told by its participants.

Every night in Black Rock City, the Lamplighters attach hundreds and hundreds of oil-fired lanterns to the spires that line the major roads, helping every Burner find their way in the darkness.

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As if by wizardry, Black Rock has sprung to life, the party’s started, and everything everywhere is going off at once.

The city is ringed in light, the art cars and blinky bikes are out in number, and everywhere you look, everyone seems to have hit the ground running.  The Center Cafe is good and crowded, the speakers and performers are going round the clock, and the yoga dancers and poi spinners are holding court in the center of the space.

Monday was a funny day, in that there seemed to be a higher-than-normal number of people wandering around the playa who looked fresh and clean. Their outfits were shiny and new, and their skin had yet to acquire a base coat of playa dust.

The hard flat playa is perfect for surfboard sailing this year.

By today, though, everyone was coated  homogeneously, and you weren’t able  to tell who’s been here for a day, a week, or a month. The temperatures were in the mid-80s (nice!), but the wind kicked up and was blowing at a steady 30 mph most of the day.

The population of the city doubled overnight, to more than 30,000, and of course there were plenty more people on their way in. By tomorrow, we’re guessing, we’ll hit an average peak population somewhere north of 50,000.

And the folks of Black Rock City went around and about, determined to make the most of these precious days. Here are a few snappies from the first full day of Burning Man 2011:

The Temple of Transition came and went from view, depending on how hard the dust was blowing.

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Tales From The Playa are dreams and memories of events that took place at Burning Man, as told by its participants.

Gerbil climbed up onto a container, waved his arms, and the gates opened.

A couple dozen or so people rode down to the Gates last evening for the “soft” opening of Burning Man 2011.

As you’ve no doubt heard, the gates to the city don’t open until midnight on Sunday night of the event. Buuuuut, for the last couple of years, there has in fact been an unofficial official opening, when the powers that be have said that it’s time to let folks in and get those lines moving.

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Some of the remaining bikes at the ranch were loaded on a flatbed and brought to BRC

Maybe you’ve picked up one of those green bikes that you see all over the playa, the kind that seem to pop up magically when you need them most. You need a bike, you find a bike,  and then you leave it for the next person who needs it.

There are about 1,000 of the bikes circulating around Black Rock City, a shared resource for the people who get around exclusively by foot and bike (and art car).  Yesterday, the crew from the Bologna Hole, the bike lovers who help you when your bike has problems, were bused out to the work ranch. Then they picked up the so-called Yellow Bikes (even though they’re green) and rode back 12 long hot miles to the playa and dropped off  bikes around the city.

“Normally I ride about 100 miles a week,” Jamie was saying at the Depot before they headed out. “So it’s going to feel really good to do this.”

They don’t take all 1,000 bikes from the ranch to the city this way, but, like so many things here, it’s a tradition to take the last ones to the city by human power. And so the crew adhered to their strict training regimen (plenty of beer and smokes), and headed out to the ranch.

The Bologna Hole crew loaded into buses at the Depot for the ride to the Ranch.

The bike program started in 2006, when there were so many bikes left behind after the event it became logical to repurpose them for the next year. And so they did. “We worked on them right out there,” Reno Travis was saying as he pointed to a field of baking sagebrush at the ranch. “We got all the leftover bits and scraps.” And that’s also how the group got its name: You make bologna out of leftover bits and scraps of meat. (There’s another connotation associated with bologna hole, of course, but we’re not going to go there today. But you can safely assume that the crew is aware of the reference, and  vigorously embraces it.)

Anyway, the crew got a big lift the next year, in 2007, when they received a donation of 1,000 bikes from a donor moved by the Green Man theme that year. They’ve kept the vast majority of those bikes in service ever since.

And yesterday was the day they finished up their prep work for the year, reconditioning the bikes and getting them ready for Burners who need them.  Need a bike, find a bike, then leave it for the next person. One of the many things that works around here.

Once they picked up their bikes, it was time to ride the 12 miles to Black Rock City

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The Striding Man is up in all his glory

It really won’t be long now. The months and months of prep are finished, you’re on your way or about to leave, and everyone already here is  getting ready for you.

The city really is different in this run-up week to the event. The number of people and the readiness of the theme camps, especially, remind us of what it was like during the first day or two of the event five or six years ago. Back then, it seemed, the gates would open and there’d be a mad dash to get everything set up. These days, there are more people on the playa early, and there’s a lot in place and ready to go right from the start of the week.

The weather has been hot, but there’s a cooling trend forecast for the coming week. The nights have been really warm, but it seems like you’ll want to remember to bring something warm to wear at night as the weather cools.

There's plenty of art installed on the playa already, and more is arriving by the hour.

The lines to get into the city are getting longer, even though it’s only those people with early arrival passes being admitted now. Yesterday afternoon, it was an hour or more wait to get through the gates. The greeter’s station was busy, with plenty of hugs and rolling in the dust and bells gonging to announce the arrival of first-timers.

The official opening is tonight at midnight, and there will be a huge group of people down at the gates to usher in the newcomers. Then, finally and officially, Burning Man 2011 will be underway.

The Man burns in six days.

The Temple of Transition is nearly complete, after three amazing weeks of work by the crew and the people of DPW, especially the Heavy Equipment folks. Kiwi, the mastermind of the Temple team, is ready for people to arrive. The team had to break camp yesterday, which was another long day of work. "People ask me, 'How can you build something so beautiful and then burn it,'" Kiwi said yesterday. "Just watch me," he said. "We built it to burn it."

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Marlee and her anvil

The installation of the last spire  is another of the key milestones in the building of Black Rock City. And it’s a big reason to celebrate. The work is nearly at an end, the guests are about to arrive, and it’s time to make the transition from work to play.

Yesterday afternoon, workers from all over the city got together in the near playa by the Jub Jub camp to put in that last funky, janky spire, which was “decorated” by all the various work crews here. Then there were cool refreshing beverages, and a bit of socializing. We may be under-describing the activities, but you get the idea.

Marlee supervised the blasting of a 100-pound anvil into the air. Why did they do this? Well, one big reason was because they could. She and her dad do it in the default world as well, and strange as it may sound, they know exactly how to engineer the blast for the maximum pop and maximum safety.
Which is not to say that you want to try and catch that anvil, because as we mentioned, it weighed 100 pounds. It took a pound of black powder and a special launching base, but the resultant boom and lift were truly amazing. The anvil soared almost gracefully into the hot desert sky, then crashed back into the playa to general hoots and hollers. The bang was big: even seasoned DPW workers were startled by the power of the thing.

Then there were beers, and a sledgehammer toss, and a pizza party, and general merriment. Yesterday had been one of the hottest days so far this year, and it felt good to catch a little shade and rest. And maybe admire the work that’s been done here.

BooYa can really toss that hammer.

This is the biggest Black Rock City that’s ever been built. Retro reported this morning that there had been more than 50 miles of “roads” laid out. (The city got bigger by two streets this year, and many of them were widened, too, so the footprint of the city is larger than it’s ever been.)

Many of you might be on the right by now, or just about ready to leave. It won’t be long until the gates are opened and we can truly get this thing going. As Logan said, “Let’s do this thing.”

What follows is a gallery of pictures from the get-together, featuring a lot of the people who’ve been working hard out here for so many weeks for you.

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The road to Gerlach and Burning Man passes by Pyramid Lake

There’s been a dramatic  shift in the city over the past four or five days.

The people who build the city have been joined by the people who make the art and run the big theme camps, and now the city  is fleshing out and filling in. What once was open playa is now crowded with trailer camps, the big vehicles circled like wagon trains.

And it seems that people are throwing their arms around each other all over BRC, as another celebration of  community, art and FIRE draws very very close. It’s like the day  of a big dinner party; everyone will be coming over soon, ready to laugh and drink and dance, and you can’t help but be a little nervous even as your excitement mounts.

Much of the Temple of Transition is up, in all its glory

It’s hard to get population numbers at this point, but you should know that there are more early arrivers here than ever, or so it would seem. While in previous years you’d see signs saying “Reserved for Theme Camps” all over the playa, they’re not needed anymore, mostly because those folks are now coming in early to get things set up before the event begins.

The city reminds me of what it used to look like on Monday or Tuesday of the event week. People are in the throes of  getting used to the desert, of setting up their stuff, of getting everything ready for a week of adventure.

The newcomers arrive bright-eyed and anxious to get the playa dust all over them (it has strangely beautifying effects on almost everyone).  Then, by the end of that first day, there are flushed faces and tired-looking eyes. That’s what working in the dust and the heat all day will do to you.

But then evening comes, and the sky goes all orange and blue and purple, and the temperature drops, and the twilight lingers for what seems like hours, and you hug and scream when someone you haven’t seen for so long finally makes it to the playa, and you remember again what you came here for. You came for the art, you came for the music, you came for the desert, but most of all you came for the people. The community of freaks and bright lights and big hearts that call this place Home.

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