Dancing at 2:00

WEEK 16

[I am cheating and posting a third blog with a playa first.]

Dancing has been a central part of my Burning Man experience since Irena and I discovered seven years ago — to our surprise — the volume and variety of music venues in a city of 75,000 people, with the best DJs pumping out deep house and techno on the best sound systems in the world (that is not hyperbole). And if you’ve read my last two posts, you know that Black Rock City sits atop an unforgiving desert prone to 50-mph dust storms … there is no electricity … and all of it is temporary.

Music and dance are always on in BRC. Different “sound camps” in the city are known for daytime dancing. Others, along the “sound zones” at the 2:00 and 10:00 streets, start up after sunset and go straight until the following noon. There are music venues along Esplanade on the inner ring of the city that start spinning at sunrise, serving champagne. And just like clubs in New York, San Francisco, Berlin and so on, all genres and sub-genres of electronic music are represented. (You’ll find the occasional live rock or jazz band performing on the playa, but the dust wreaks havoc with instruments.)

If that’s not enough to get you dancing during all waking hours, there are the most fun and pinch-me-is-this-real dance venues: the mobile art cars or Mutant Vehicles in burner-speak. The most famous (and subject of nasty Reddit threads by haters spewing about all they believe is wrong with Burning Man) are Robot Heart and Mayan Warrior, each with custom 70,000 plus watt sound systems, which head out of the city every night after dark for deep playa (the expanse of land that extends several miles from the city to the perimeter flag fence) and stake a spot — often next to an important piece of art — with the DJ deck always facing sunrise. Mutant Vehicles can only travel 5 mph, so picture giant, tricked-out former buses covered in speakers blasting big grooves and shooting lasers into the sky being followed by a trail of hundreds of burners on bikes.

Deep playa sunrises are legendary dance parties, and we have many favorites.

[Quick digression. On Wednesday before the event starts, the Rock Star Librarian is published online, a gift of love produced by a woman I’ve never met but adore in the abstract, who curates a music guide of set lists submitted by sound camps and art cars for DJs who have every intention of showing up at a specific time on a specific day but likely will not because, well, that’s Burning Man.]

Along the edges of the city – 2:00 and 10:00 as I noted – are the stationary sound camps, many massively well-funded, with sound systems and lasers and video projections to rival the best clubs in Berlin. But unlike anywhere else on earth, there are no lines, no doors, no ropes, no bouncers, no tickets, no anything. You hop on your bike, use your ears, pedal in the direction of great sound and arrive to find anywhere from 1 to 100 to 500 burners grooving along with you and the DJ. When Irena and I dance at clubs in Brooklyn or San Francisco, which are nearly the same mileage (or less) from home as the sound camps are on the playa to our RV, we often/always long for the option to jump on our bikes — if the music changes or the crowd isn’t great — and follow our ears to somewhere magical.

With all that context (I know, I know), let me tell you what we did this year that was new for us dancing.  

Because our camp is within a few BRC blocks of the 10:00 side, we love our nightly circuit with stops at Kazbah, a nearly 50-foot tall, slim pyramid on the edge of the city with Funktion-One sound pulsating out to the desert … and Daydream (fka PlayaSkool) with its massive open-air dome, 4-point sound and “incendia” metal ceiling which lights on fire … and Ashram Galactica inside a Berber tent decorated with Moroccan day beds and carpets, found objects, lanterns and the gilded lily bar at the center. These camps typically attract DJs playing the danceable genres we love … and a fabulous crowd. The people are amazing at every turn at Burning Man, but these venues pack in a dusty crowd of gorgeous humans who groove big and smile big and make us happy to be.

This year we decided before we got on playa that we were going to venture across the city and dance on the 2:00 side. Shocking, right? With our fantastic and favorite 10:00 and vicinity venues just a speedy bike ride from camp, it’s tough to make an effort to go elsewhere. Plus, the 2:00 side has a reputation for being a bit more gritty and dusty, with a music sound and crowd that skews to a more aggressive and dark style.

But 2019 is Metamorphoses, and I’m looking for new adventure. So, Friday around 11:00 pm, the sky was clear and the air calm – perfect weather to bike the three miles to 2:00 and Cupid.

We got ourselves ready in costumes of course, but also assembled to carry in our bike baskets the overwhelming paraphernalia required to leave camp: water bottles (several to get us past sunrise), lip balm, lipstick, ear plugs, flask, goggles and face masks in case of dust, sunglasses, toilet paper and head lamps for the porta-potties, scarves, hand warmers and jackets. Principle #4 Radical Self-Reliance. Not taken: house keys, car keys, driver’s license, cell phone, money.

Our destination was a new 2019 venue called Playground. We had biked by during build week as their set-up crew was on scissor lifts installing trusses to hang an obscene number of speakers. It looked promising.

We arrived around midnight to a packed crowd and great grooves as we snaked by smiling, dusty faces and bodies to claim our spot: center DJ about mid-way back. Playground had gone all out with fire effects (clearly not an option at an indoor club), and it’s one of those astonishing moments on the playa when the beat drops and hidden propane tanks ignite a dozen or so flag-pole high flame throwers. The heat is intense, of course, and everyone turns a rosy glow. But something I had not expected: you hear the fire too, the punch of the propane as the flames shoot into the air.

We danced for hours. Met beautiful people including a couple from Amsterdam on their first burn celebrating 35 years together (like us!). It was hard to pull ourselves away, but we had an important date at Robot Heart to make our burn complete: Lee Burridge Saturday morning sunrise.

[I’ll link to the set when it gets posted, in the meantime, you can find his prior year sunrises here.]