The Dust Storm of Burning Man 1998
I guess there were a few minor storms, and I saw one or two that were pretty local to one end of the city or the other, but I got caught out on the playa as the largest storm came up. Maybe you will get a feel for what it is like to be living on a piece of sandpaper.
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| This installation worked pretty well out on the playa, but I did see it fall over once. Very pretty colors in contrast to the rather bland surrounding desert. Check out the Art Page for a picture of it when it was a little less windy. | This couple had the right idea. Though it was still pretty hot, the wind and dust would coat your body, get up your nose (leading to "adobe boogers") and get in your eyes. Not the most pleasant experience, but with a little preparation, endurable. | Better wrap that cloth a little tighter, the dust is about to really get going! | Ian decided that the best way to avoid the dust is to completely cover yourself. Looks comfortable Ian! | |
| Out for a pleasant little sail ON THE PLAYA? Sailing in the desert? Why not? This boat took several days to assemble and many more people to push when the wind wasn't blowing hard enough. | Oops. Guess you weren't planning on THAT much wind! Though this looks rather funny, one person fell off the boat before it crashed and had their leg crushed, and as it crashed, it damaged the Opera Stage that Pepe worked so hard on. I have learned since then that the captain was dosed against his will with GHB, and had to be taken to the medical tent. Evidently there were other cases of this unfortunate behavior, but there are leads as to the person that was doing this. Get the true facts at the E-playa of burningman.com | Ripped the jib, snapped one of the front wheel legs, basically this boat was a goner BEFORE Pepe got to it. Supposedly he came up with a blowtorch and cut the boat into little tiny pieces. Hopefully it was a healing experience for him. | Kinda hard to work in the wind and dust, but as a group, the boat was removed and when I saw the Opera that night, I couldn't see any damage to the stage, even though I knew where it was. Almost everybody got lucky. | |
| I talked to many people about this piece, and nobody could believe that it stayed up through the whole storm. I think that the designers must have planned on it looking like this because it looked like it belonged in the middle of a dust storm. | From on top of a van in our camp, you can really see how much dust is blowing around. When there wasn't a storm, you could actually see all the way to the other end of camp from here. | Again, another structure that looks like it was planned to be in a windstorm. Not that you'd be able to get any sleep in this bed, at least you'd look good | All right, enough dust already, get me out of the wind | |
All images Copyright September 1998, by Graham Linn. No unauthorized use permitted without prior written permission.
If you wish to negotiate use of these pictures, please contact me at burningman@thatplace.net There are more pictures that are not up here yet.
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