All language subtitles for The.Man.Will.Burn.S01E01.1080p.WEB.h264-GRACE_track3_[eng]

[♪ dramatic music playing]

[Larry Harvey speaking]

[interviewer speaking]

Yes, uh, we're going
to take over the world.

[interviewer] When?

Sooner than you might think.

[♪ music swelling]

[wind gusting]

[♪ ethereal music playing]

[bells jingling]

[burner]
Welcome to Burning Man!

Oh, we got people coming.

-Welcome home.
-How are you?

-Hello.
-Oh!

Dust angels, please.

Roll over.

You gotta get
the full package here.

That's it. Love the dust.

You may now ring
the man's doorbell and tell him,

"I'm here to burn!"

Yell it out.

I'm here to burn!

[♪ vocalization]

[Larry Harvey]
Imagine that you are put upon

a desert plane,

a space which in itself

is so vast and blank,

that only your initiative
can make that a place.

Imagine you're surrounded
by thousands of other people,

that together you form a city,

and that within
this teeming city,

there is nothing
that's for sale.

[Coyote]
If you've seen an aerial shot

of Black Rock City,
it's a beautiful clock shape.

What people don't know
is that it's an actual city.

There are roads, neighborhoods,
and community spaces,

all designed to create

spontaneous interactions
between people.

Have you ever been in a city

where you couldn't buy
or sell anything?

When you give a gift
or receive a gift from someone,

it creates an immediate
moral bond with them.

That's, of course,
where community begins.

This is an inhospitable,

natural environment that
will kill you if you let it.

[Larry]
We live in a consumer society

and we're completely insulated
from the realities of nature

in our own inner needs.

There's nothing like living
through a catastrophe

with other people
to bond you to them.

That's the point.
We want that challenge.

[Steven Raspa]
Why do some of the most

talented, brightest,
most creative people

come to our temporary city

in the middle of the desert,

work harder than
they normally do in their jobs,

give up their scarce resources,

and call our little dusty
city home?

What are they getting here

that they're not getting
in our year-round cities?

[Larry]
People keep saying,

"Well, what does
Burning Man mean?"

-[excited squealing]
-[crowd chattering happily]

Burning Man leads people
up to the threshold

of what religious
experience is.

In fact, it gives them
the experience pretty largely.

[Steven]
It is a city of imagination.

And imagination
wants to be free and abundant.

[♪ electronic music playing]

[flames whooshing]

[Marian Goodell]
And we're creating joy.

We're bringing connection.

[fireworks popping
and whistling]

[Harley K. Dubois]
In the default world,

people are more disconnected
and lonelier than ever.

That's why people think
of Black Rock City as home.

[burner]
Four, three, two, one.

Ignition.

[flames whooshing]

[crowd cheering]

[cheering and applause]

[cheering and applause fading]

[people chattering]

[lighting equipment clicking]

[Marian] I don't think it's--
I've got enough-- Hang on.

Can I zip it all the way up?

People were saying no.
Option down or up?

[crew member 1]
It looked a little uptight

when you got it
all the way up there.

[crew member 2]
Yeah. Exactly.

-I am a little uptight.
-[crew member 1] I know.

[Dominique Debucquoy] [over PA]
Hi, everyone...

-Hello, people.
-...thanks for joining us
for a second time.

We're so excited to share news

about what's going on
behind the scenes

at Burning Man Project.

Without further ado,

I'll hand it off to our CEO,
Marian Goodell.

Hello, everybody. I'm Marian.

We are on the road
to making a decision

about whether we'll do
Black Rock City 2021.

[sighs] It takes a lot
of energy to do this.

Go, no go, Burning Man.
I have no fucking idea.

[Stuart Mangrum]
We've faced a number

of existential crises

over the years,

and, and the COVID pandemic
has certainly been one of them.

The deadly coronavirus
officially hitting the US.

[Stuart] In 2020,
we didn't really have a choice.

We had to cancel.

And it was a...
it was a huge letdown.

The theme for 2021
was the great unknown

because we had no freaking idea
if we would do Burning Man

that year or ever again.

Honestly, you know,
I'd say that feelings

were divided
in the organization.

[Dominique] [on video call]
Do we want to be dealing

with people with bad
COVID-19 symptoms

in the middle of nowhere?

Um, what feels successful?

Is a successful event
that nobody died from COVID?

What is the thing that we're
trying to prove by doing this?

The answer to that
is to not do Black Rock City.

The reality is, we could still
find ourselves in a situation

where we don't have
enough money,

and we'll have
to let people go.

And if we let the people
on this call right now go,

I don't know that we can
fire up the engines again.

That's still all true.

Here I go,
first time back in the office.

Today's an important day.

We're going to announce
our decision

about whether to do Burning Man
or not this year.

I'm done waiting and wondering
and watching people be tortured

as to whether we're doing it
or we're not doing it.

Uh, we need to make a decision.
There's no good decisions.

There's two bad
decisions to make.

Marian's been CEO
of Burning Man since 2013,

and I've been by her side,

running it with her,
ever since.

[inaudible chatter]

Our board is evolving
into a new sort of board.

We have a fair amount
of new board members,

and we've not worked together
as a team all that much,

certainly not with a crisis
like this before.

[Marian] They started asking
a lot of questions recently

about whether
we're gonna survive.

"Are the finances okay?"
"Am I doing my job?"

"Is it gonna be safe?"
"Are we doing the right thing?"

"Are we being responsible?"

It's kind of becoming
pretty clear

that it's a lift
that we're not ready for.

What if we cancel the event?

[board members chattering]

We need Burning Man
to survive the pandemic.

And a lot of people
around the world feel that way.

-[board member] Hi.
-[Kimbal Musk] Hey!

[laughter]

[Marian]
Kimbal was a new board member.

His brother, Elon,
had made a significant donation,

and Kimbal
was representing that.

And he's been coming
to Burning Man

for over 25 years.

[Kimbal] My name's Kimbal.

I'm very honored
to be here today with you guys.

[board member] Welcome, Kimbal.

[Kimbal] You know,
I really struggle

to describe
Burning Man to people.

But the way I like
to describe it is,

imagine the beach.

Some people like it,
some people don't.

But would you ever
say to someone

who has never been
to the beach,

"You don't need
to go see the beach"?

It is an experiment
that is never-ending.

I think it means different
things to different people.

For me, personally,

it is this amazing
opportunity to...

once a year,

burn the past

and start again.

[fireworks popping]

[all cheering]

It's my religion.
It's my ritual.

It's my spiritual calling.

And I never miss it.

[board members chattering]

[board member] Okay, so we're
gonna, uh, turn it over here

to Marian and her team.

It's so weird to not be
in front of a laptop, okay?

Let's just say that's where
I feel weird for a moment.

Okey-doke.

So, the item at hand

is Black Rock City
recommendation and discussion.

Um, our recommendation is that

there be no
Black Rock City of 2021,

and, um, that we aim
all of our efforts

for Black Rock City 2022.

[board member] Kimbal, you want
to share just a little?

[Kimbal]
That's just a bad idea.

People will be depressed as hell
because of this announcement.

So, be very thoughtful that
this will traumatize people.

I found it depressing

and lacking in vision.

There is vision, and I've been
thinking about this

-for quite some time.
-[board member 1] Yeah.

[board member 2] Farhad?

[Farhad Mohit]
I think it's an incredibly
conservative decision.

Um, and Burning Man is not--
That's not--

That's not the image
of Burning Man.

We are radically self-reliant,
we're civically responsible,

we are a communal effort thing.

30,000 people or more are gonna
gather in the desert.

And as long as the 10
Principles are in place,

Burning Man happens,
with or without us.

It is really important
that we consider staff,

the 10,000 folks that through
all of the surveys

and all the work we're doing,

there are 10,000 people
that help run

all of the operations.

That includes greeters,
that includes lamplighters,

that includes airport, that
includes Burner Express bus,

that includes the box office.

And I'm touching on some of
the areas that when we surveyed,

the box office was less
than 20% of the people

wanted to come back.

The airport was less than 20%.

And these are volunteers.

These are not paid people.

There are gonna be 50 that--

No, 500 competing events
on Labor Day weekend.

And what we're basically
saying to the world is,

"Go try something else
this weekend.

Please, please go try
something else."

That sounds crazy.

The playa is the Vatican,

and everything else is a church.

I think, Marian,
you're not challenging yourself.

I think you guys are, uh,
you're giving up,

and you shouldn't be,

and I'm disappointed.

Burning Man was never
intended to be safe.

And let's go have
some fun on the playa

and let the cards fall
where they may.

I think it'll be
the best burn ever.

[Harley sighs]

[Marian laughs]

[Harley] The first thing
I want to say,

is it the same thing?

Is it Burning Man

if our international people
can't be there?

-Is it Burning Man?
-[Kimbal] Yes, it is.

I don't think it is Burning Man.

[overlapping chatter]

[Harley] Can I stop
being interrupted?

Can I stop being
interrupted, please?

[Kimbal] You asked a question.

Okay, I'm not gonna--

If I ask another question,
don't answer it.

-[laughter]
-[Kimbal] Okay. Fair enough.

If you guys are all thinking
that anarchy

and that cool, like,
renegade shit is Burning Man,

-then you're missing the boat.
-Go, Harley, go!

The thing about Burning Man
that's beautiful is,

you can have that,
because you have people

who trust each other
and love each other.

And without the trust,
and without the love,

and without the community,
you cannot have that anarchy,

you cannot have that craziness.

And that's what
this is all about.

This is my 30th year.

I feel like I get Burning Man.
I feel like I know what it is.

I'm not sure everyone else does.

[♪ tense music playing]

The man must burn.

The man must burn.

I have joined this board
because the man must burn.

[Marian] It will burn.

[♪ tense music continues]

[Farhad] Black Rock City doesn't
just pop itself up in August.

This is a $60 million event
that involves hundreds of people

who part-time
or full-time, work here.

Canceling again this year
would mean zero income

for ticket sales
and massive layoffs.

[Harley]
Outside of this boardroom,

nobody knows
that Burning Man is canceled.

Not even our staff.

So, can you measure
that space now

between Blue Oasis
and Donkey Show?

[staff member]
Yeah, that's about 40 feet.

[Level]
I lead the team that decides

where all the camps go.

And, I mean, I think this is a
question I have for Trigger,

but those two are...

We have over 1,500 camps
to figure out.

And, you know, when
you're planning a dinner party,

when you're planning a wedding,

like, who's gonna be able
to connect

and have good conversations,
matters.

[staff member]
...these four cars up here,

I think we're golden.

[Level] Marian is gonna make
an announcement on Saturday.

I don't know if Burning Man's
gonna be canceled this year,

so I keep doing my job.

That works, too.

[staff member] You've got
at least 10 feet there

to get in and out,
back to this area,

and this is where your fence...

[Level]
I grew up in San Francisco,

and my parents
are immigrants from Burma.

Burmese culture
is very conservative.

I mean, from my experience
being gay,

and coming out,
and, you know, it wasn't like,

"Oh, great. Let's..."

Full embrace. You know?

I worked for the city
of San Francisco for a decade,

and they were really
proud of that.

They were like, "Oh, you work
for the city. Great."

So, I do tell them
that I still work for a city.

[laughing]

Uh, it's just not the city
they thought it was.

[♪ techno music playing]

There's no better place
to, like, find love

and fall in love.

And so, what I often say now
is I went for the art,

but I go back for the people.

I actually met my husband
at Burning Man.

[laughing]

I was a little bit more nerdy,

he was a little bit
more carefree.

We were friends
for years before that,

and Burning Man just allowed us
to really connect.

I really hope Marian
makes a decision soon.

It just feels like
an elephant in the room.

[welder buzzing]

As of right now,

the Burning Man
community is building

and planning
for a burn this year.

[Lindsay Handren]
My name is Lindsay.

For the first 88 days
of quarantine,

I had no human contact
whatsoever.

[computer chimes]

Hey, guys.

Welcome back
to another exciting day

of experimental psychology.

It was just me and the dog
and an empty Zoom screen.

I'm a professor of psychology,
but my passion is horse riding.

People that I meet at school
or during school,

they would never know
that I ride horses

or that I have horses.

I compete in an equestrian
sport called reining.

It's really fun, really cool.

So, this is a lot
of horse trophies

that I've won over the years.

[♪ gentle music playing]

My mom was the one
that got me into horses,

and one of her favorite things
in the entire world

was just to watch me ride.

She passed away in 2015.

It was six weeks from the time
she was, uh, diagnosed

until she died.
[sadly chuckles]

So, pretty abrupt
and unexpected.

We were very close.

We would talk all day,
every day.

And now I'm here
in these four walls,

wishing that she could just,
like, tell me what to do,

or what decision to make.

Like, I have so much shit
to do in life...

[sniffles]

...which is basically, you know,
what society is.

It's like, go back to work,
get this done, get this done.

Oh, you're sad? That sucks.
Like, go to work, cry--

You know, go cry in--
in-in the car afterwards.

Like... [sniffles]

You kind of always
have to be on.

When COVID first happened,
it got pretty depressing.

So, during that time,
I got into VR.

[♪ soft electronic
music playing]

I had just started
dating someone.

He had had VR headsets,

so we would go and hang out,
and wander.

It's kind of like
a Google Earth.

And we'd go to different
locations that he had traveled.

One of the places that he
showed me was Black Rock City.

And that's how I discovered
Burning Man.

In my mind, I thought it was
just people doing drugs

and having sex in the desert.

My perception of Burning Man
totally changed.

When I discovered the burner
culture and lifestyle,

that whole community
got me through the pandemic.

I've never been
to Burning Man in person.

One of the things I learned
is that there's a temple,

a place to grieve.

Being at Burning Man

and being able to take
some type of tribute or memorial

to temple will be extremely
helpful to sort of find peace

and, and kind of let go,
I guess.

[♪ ethereal music playing]

It's something
I really need right now.

[Harley] The Temple Burn

is completely different
than the Man Burn.

It's reverent.

It's a spiritual moment.

And it happens every year.

[♪ ethereal music continues]

[burner]
People often go to the temple

with messages to loved ones
that they want to let go

or the energy
that they want to release.

[Harley]
The temple was created

by David Best
after a friend of his

passed away unexpectedly,

and he wanted to have
a place to grieve.

Where do we go
to grieve these days?

[David Best]
If you give me

the most painful thing
in your life,

I'll guarantee that
it won't come back.

And how I guarantee that is,
I put it in a safe place.

[Larry] I wrote it
in the name of my mother,

of my father, of my--
my best friend in high school

who was kidnapped
and murdered,

along with the names
of thousands of other people.

[♪ pensive music playing]

[Andie Grace] We build
this thing to put our sadness,

the way that other people
utilize their church,

or their community,
or what have you.

[Larry]
He's created a sacred space,

is really what he's done,

and everyone has
instinctively honored that.

[David] We use fire
as a place for healing,

not as a... a weapon.

[fire crackling]

So many people struggling.

There's a need
for a place for grief.

[fire crackling]

[temple crumbling,
flames whooshing]

[crowd howling]

[bells clanging]

Burning Man
was never intended to be safe,

and-- and that's frankly been
a part of the appeal.

[over video call]
My projection is,

everything is gonna be back
to normal by the end of July.

Uh, it could be the best
Burning Man ever.

[Marian] There is a huge
number of people out there

that want to see
Black Rock City happen.

I'm physically
and emotionally exhausted.

I'd say this is probably
the hardest thing

I've had to do.

[Harley]
When Larry passed away,

he was the chairman
of the board,

and our visionary.

I want to introduce you all
to some of the people

that helped create
this community.

[Stuart] Marian ran
the communications team,

she helped start
the regional network,

government relations
and everything.

And she was Larry's
girlfriend at the time, so...

[Harley] Marian's unique
skills in-- um, with money,

and business and communication
seemed like reasons

that she would make
a good CEO.

[Farhad]
She was the executive arm

of Larry's vision,
to some level.

And with the void
of the spiritual leader
of Burning Man,

they naturally turned
to Marian.

And this wasn't
necessarily her role.

[Marian] What do I think Larry
would've thought about this?

I've had a number
of different conversations

with him in my head.

[Larry] We do our job
as planners this way.

You had to come here and
you had to survive in nature.

[thunder crashing]

And when people
go through that,

it puts them in touch
with other people

because you look
and you see your neighbor,

and you know he's experiencing
the same thing.

[wind gusting, rain pelting]

If we can figure out
how you order a society

so that, like a Petri dish,

a culture will grow in it.

And that's where
we stop planning.

[interviewer]
Tell me how it began.

[Ronald Reagan] We're
in the worst economic mess

since the Great Depression.

[speaker 1]
Prices are going up.

I see the lines get bigger
and bigger

outside the unemployment office.

[speaker 2]
It's the land for the rich,

and the poor can go to hell.

[Larry] Originally,
it was a small group

in the underground culture
of San Francisco.

[John Law] Unlike now,

it's hard to imagine,

this city was, uh, in a deep
financial recession.

All these old factories,
buildings,

largely abandoned or destroyed.

And so, artists and pranksters,
it was really easy to access.

[group chattering]

[Michael Mikel]
The Cacophony Society

was a network of free spirits,

united in the pursuit
of experiences

beyond the pale
of mainstream society.

[Larry] They were devoted
to guerilla theater,

appropriating public places
for performances.

It's complete anarchy.
"A group of urban adventurers,"

is the way they bill themselves.

We did ride the cable car
in the nude

on Easter Sunday morning.

[John] What's the worst
that can happen?

Are you gonna get arrested
in San Francisco?

Probably not.

[chain saw revs]

I'm here
with my friendly weenies!

We would create a whole
subculture about

moving through the world

in a way that
you were not a consumer.

[audience cheering]

In a world where every value,
every transaction,

every relationship
is a commodity transaction,

there won't really be
much of anything.

This obsessive drive
towards profit.

[John]
And making fun of corporations.

[Tyler Durden] Advertising has
us chasing cars and clothes,

working jobs we hate so we can
buy shit we don't need.

[John] Fight Club was based
directly on Cacophony Society.

And SantaCon as well.

[indistinct chatter]

We were good
at logistics for events,

especially outdoor,
illicit, show up, do it,

get away before
the cops come events.

[sirens wailing, horns blaring]

[Larry] In 1986,

I was living
in San Francisco.

I'd had a very, very modest
landscaping business.

And I had a friend,
Jerry James,

who was a carpenter, you know,

and I called him one day
and said,

"Let's burn a man
on the beach."

I think he may have asked me
to repeat my statement.

[waves crashing]

It happened to be the solstice.

It seemed like a,
a good time to celebrate.

He wasn't much bigger than us.

But, uh, when we lit him up
with gasoline,

he incandesced like a sun
brought down to earth.

[fire crackling]

[Michael] And I heard
about a bunch of people

who were gonna go to the beach
and burn a wooden man.

And I said,
"This sounds very interesting."

[Larry]
The moment it was lit,

everybody on that beach
came running.

What we had instantly created
was a community.

[people chattering and laughing]

It was a kind of Dada event

of construction and destruction.

[flames whooshing]

[John]
Larry's brilliance was seeing

that light bulb moment,

watching everybody's
faces in cultic fervor.

This hugely powerful
symbolic connection

to their psyche.

It's very powerful.

[Larry]
It was our response to the fire

that made it significant,
that invested it with meaning.

[indistinct chatter and howling]

We were so impressed,
we decided that we'd come back

and do it again.

[burner] Everybody get together!

[group singing]
♪ We are stronger ♪

♪ Than before ♪

[Michael] In 1990,
we showed up on Baker Beach

with about 900 people,

and this four-story wooden man.

This is Larry down at the beach.
Can you hear me?

John, Michael and I carried
the project on our shoulders.

[John] Me and Cacophony,
we were event organizers.

And that was the conjoining
of the two groups.

That was a group effort.

Slow! Slow!

[Michael] And the police came,
and they said,

"Where's your permit?
You don't have a permit."

We didn't have a permit.
We were outlaws.

[sheriff] The most liberal city
within the United States,

being San Francisco says,

"That's too crazy for us.

You can't do that
here anymore."

[Michael] It's an art project.
It's responsible people.

Well, we would be willing to put
it out without any kind of fuss.

[Michael] Larry Harvey
made a deal with them.

He said, "Okay, let us have
a party around the man,

but we won't burn him."

[indistinct chatter
and cheering]

[burner]
Thank you, we appreciate it.

[Michael] We did not burn
the man on Baker Beach in 1990.

[group chattering]

So, a few weeks later,

Larry Harvey,
John Law and myself,

we decided to take
the Burning Man

to the Black Rock Desert
in Nevada.

[John] I love that place.
I mean, you don't understand.

I fucking love that place.
It's awesome.

[♪ dramatic music playing]

It was really a fantasy tableau
that you could,

as an architect
in your own mind, create.

It was a blank slate.
You could imagine anything.

[Michael] And I took a stick,

and I drew a line
on the ground.

And I said,
"On the other side of this line,

everything will be different."

[Larry] This was a great
piece of nothing

in which anything that was
was more intensely so.

With a few prompts,

you could invent
a whole world around yourself,

and there was nothing
to contradict it.

[wind gusting]

[♪ ethereal music playing]

[John] We were great friends

in the middle of the most
surreal place you could imagine

with absolutely
nothing around us,

and no people anywhere.

It was fabulous.

[crowd cheering]

[♪ percussive music playing]

[burner]
Release your fear!

Come and be free just for,
even for a short period of time

before we go back
to our real lives.

[people reveling]

[♪ discordant music playing]

[fire crackling]

[burner] There he goes!

[all cheering]

[Tiffany Christian]
Ray, let's take a look

and figure out what else
we need to get to get ready.

Okay.

The first time I told my wife
I was going to Burning Man,

I think she asked me
what it was.

Then I think she looked it up,
read about it.

"Burn life."
That sounds interesting.

Ray probably has always
had a bucket list.

It used to be
running of the bulls.

That was the thing.
He wanted to run the bulls.

Well, I vetoed that one
because I did some research,

and found out life insurance
does not pay

if you die while
you're the running bulls.

Maybe we should just google
"Burning Man packing list."

[Ray Christian]
Come on, man.

What? Well, you can't
run out to Walmart,

you gotta make sure
you got everything.

Go back up there, at the top.

-[Tiffany] Moisturizer.
-[Ray] Mm-hmm.

[Tiffany] Porta Potty-safe
toilet paper.

-See, that's something.
-[Ray] Mm-hmm, okay.

Birth control, condoms.

You better not need
no birth control.

Back-- Back up.

So, okay.

We gotta think about clothes

and how many clothes
you want to take.

Are you gonna be primitive
and basic?

Or are you gonna
be extravagant?

I don't know.

I might have a tutu,

'cause people are supposed to.

[Tiffany] You're supposed
to have a tutu?

Yeah, I think we
gotta get a tutu.

Man, I saw a cute one
in Target the other day.

I didn't know you needed one.

No, it doesn't have
to be really cute. We don't--

Reina! Raylan!
Come here for a minute.

[Raylan] Yeah?

[footsteps approaching]

Reina, sit here. Raylan, here.

Okay.

So y'all heard Daddy talk about

this Burning Man thing, right?

-Mm-hmm.
-Y'all know what it is?

-[Reina] No.
-[Raylan] Not really.

[Tiffany]
They build this big city

in the middle of the desert,

and people hang out there
for a week, pretty much.

So, they, like--
There's no money exchanged.

It's like bartering,
or just giving.

Decommodification.

So, it's like extreme Christmas.

Extreme-- [laughing]

-Okay.
-[Reina] It sounds weird.

-It sounds weird?
-Yeah.

A good kind of weird,
or a bad kind of weird?

-A weird kind of weird.
-[laughs]

-What about you?
-It's weird to think

that Fa is going
to something like this.

Why?

Well, 'cause, like, he's old.

-Dude.
-[laughing]

[♪ gentle music playing]

[Ray]
I am a retired combat veteran.

And I was a paratrooper.

You know, I'm the only Black
person who lives out here.

Only Black family.

We've been out here
for 18 years.

I'm surrounded
by the most conservative,

bigoted, racist, homophobic...

And that's what I deal with
on a daily basis.

I grew up in a ghetto.

I went from zero to barely
graduating high school,

and going my whole
working adult life

as a blue-collar
infantry paratrooper,

to three graduate degrees,
later on a Fulbright Fellow.

The challenge for me is--
is mostly psychological.

I mean, after you've served
in combat...

those moments come up.

I've got to face it.

I need something that really
shakes things up at this point.

[♪ contemplative music playing]

[Level] You know,
the Burning Man Organization

doesn't actually
put on Burning Man.

Everything is created
by the participants.

[Larry] We started a thing
called a theme camp.

We got-- Our whole city is
organized around theme camps,

20, 30, 100, 200 people
working together

to produce some kind of gift
made through art

that they offer
to a civic society.

[Rosie von Lila] There are camps
that offer everything,

and all of it is given as part
of their gift to the city.

[faint chatter]

[♪ distant music playing]

This place is built
by all of us.

Every person who comes here
contributes something.

And so, it's easy
to start to have

this strong sense of ownership

of what Burning Man is.

[♪ operatic singing]

[cheering and applause]

[♪ singing sustained note]

[crowd cheering]

[Marisa Lenhart]
I'm Marisa Lenhart.

I have been going
to Burning Man since 1999,

and I manage Thunderdome.

My friends ran a nightclub
in San Francisco

called Death Guild,
a goth industrial nightclub,

and they went to bring
non-rave music,

non-techno music to Burning Man.

[♪ heavy metal music playing]

When Thunderdome came in '99,

it was the biggest dome
that had ever been built.

Good evening,
ladies and gentlemen!

[crowd cheering]

[Level] When people think
of Burning Man iconography,

they think "Mad Max"
and they think "Thunderdome."

I think they just hold
a lot of weight.

[crowd] [chanting]
Two men enter, one man leaves!

Two men enter,
one man leaves!

[Marisa] What happens
at the Thunderdome?

Consensual violence
happens at the Thunderdome.

[♪ "Your Filth Your Hate"
by Deadmen playing]

[crowd cheering]

[Marisa] We let people battle
people that they know.

We will have people
who think that they're enemies.

They're actually angry
with each other.

And there is nobody
who leaves that experience,

and doesn't hug, and isn't
closer than they were before.

It's incredible.

After Burning Man put out their
survey to gauge participation,

Thunderdome wrote a statement
to explain our decision

not to attend
the event this year,

whether or not it happens.

"Death Guild Thunderdome
will not be attending

"Burning Man
at Black Rock City this year.

"We wanted to make
this crew statement prior to

"and not as a reaction to

"any decision or announcement
from Burning Man Project.

"Risking lives
and participating

"in a non-essential event that
is already lacking in diversity

"is unacceptable to us.

"Black Rock City 2021,
if it happens,

risks being the whitest,
richest event ever."

-Oh, my God.
-[Marisa] "And we can't in good
conscience participate."

Okay. [sniffles]

I don't even want to talk
about Thunderdome.

Bunch of pussies.

I'm personal friends with her,
or I was.

I kind of would like
to have been given a heads-up.

I'm getting all these
text messages from friends.

"Can you tell me
where you're at?"

There are definitely some risks,

um, in not doing the event,
for sure.

Um, one risk, for sure,

is that people would show up
on the playa anyway,

and that could be serious stuff,
like people with guns,

driving too fast,
that aren't even burners,

that wanna come out and party

in the Black Rock desert
for Labor Day weekend,

and they haven't been able
to do it for 25 years.

Like, that's a real part of it.

If things go sideways while
people have shown up out there,

um, the more we're gonna
have to mop it up

to make it to 2022, absolutely.

[Marnee Benson]
Since 1990,

we have gotten a permit from
the Bureau of Land Management.

And that relationship
has had ups and downs.

But this is a typical thing that
the BLM does for its safety?

-No. It's not typical.
-[Marian] No? Is it-- But--

This is a-- not a typical event.

-[Marian] No, no, no, no.
-[people chuckling]

We pay them
a permit fee every year.

Um, in 2019, our fees
I think totaled, uh...

$4.5 million.

They keep taking so much money
that we can't put it

to the sorts of things
we'd like to put it to.

We're just paying them,
essentially.

Now, we're at the point
where we--

we deal with Washington, D.C.,

and we have expensive
lobbyists.

[Grover Norquist]
A gentleman told me

that the federal government
was messing with Burning Man,

and that Larry Harvey
and Marian,

um, were coming to D.C.

to try and see if there's--
they could get any support

for being left alone.

And I said, "Well,
I'm familiar with Burning Man,

haven't been, but I would be
delighted to be helpful."

And they said, "You know,
you guys ought to come out

to Burning Man at some point."

And I said, "I've always
been interested in it,

since I started hearing
about it, and, uh, we'll come."

I think shaking hands
is a perfectly acceptable way

of greeting people,

and hugging people
you've never met before

is a little different.

It was great fun.

Just a wonderful
collection of people.

And, it was--

I just decided
at the time, I'm--

I'm coming back regularly.

Grover Norquist next
on two topics:

the middle-class squeeze

and also for Grover,
the Burning Man.

I wanted to finish off, though,
by asking you,

you just got back
from Burning Man.

Can you just tell me
about-- a bit about that?

Did you think
that the anti-tax message

went over better with people

who were tripping
on magic-- magic mushrooms?

-I think it helps, yeah.
-[laughs]

[Marian]
The stereotype for Burning Man

is definitely
that it's very liberal,

but I think when you
scratch the surface

and depending on
who you talk to,

it can be seen
as fairly libertarian.

Nobody expects
Grover Norquist to be here.

But he is here.

He's well-read, like Larry,

talking about
Victorian literature

and magic,

and the two of them
couldn't stop talking.

And all of it was about
creativity and free thinking.

[Grover] I don't know how many
people have come up to me,

"You and I are
the only Republicans here."

I said, "Yes,
you're the 14th person

who's said that today."
[laughing]

We still don't know whether
Burning Man is on this year,

but here's what I usually bring.

Very nicely made cigars,
Cuban tobacco,

made in the United States.

Um, and people
love those as gifts.

People put a lot of time
and effort

into some of the, um,

Burning Man jewelry
that they have.

And I have-- This is kinda
my collection of stuff

that I, I got there.

And I hold on to it
to keep in mind

if I could ever do something
half as cool.

"Radical inclusion does not
include Trump enablers."

Somebody had those.

Um, it's kind of
contradictory, but, uh...

[♪ ethereal music playing]

The first year I was there,

um, I stood next to, uh, Larry
when it burned.

[fire crackling]

[crowd cheering faintly]

I trust that Marian is going
to make the right decision.

People are doing a great deal of
work just to get to Burning Man.

[engine rumbling]

[Pablo González Vargas]
The beauty of an art car,

or as a mobile stage,
is that it's, it's fleeting.

Just the fact that you have
the freedom to go anywhere

and make it happen,

there's something
very beautiful about it.

You know, something
very fulfilling

that you cannot get
anywhere else.

I grew up in Mexico City,
and I became an entrepreneur.

I came to Burning Man
for the first time in 2012,

and I was really impressed
by the creativity,

in how, like, there is nothing
to stop any idea of emerging.

I came back to Mexico
from Burning Man, and I said,

"You know what? I want to make
one of these cool,

self-sustained, like, stages
that you see at Burning Man."

The first year that we brought
the car was 2012,

and I think, uh, that the
beauty about Burning Man is,

you meet so many people
that want to just collaborate.

And since that year,

you know, we had like
lots of photographers,

engineers, architects,
all wanting to contribute.

So this is just a sum of a lot
of people's work,

right? [laughs]

[film projector whirring]

[Chef Juke] In the early days
of Burning Man,

there were people
who came out to Burning Man,

who, for whatever
personal reason they had,

had decided to make
their cars into pieces of art.

And it really inspired
a lot of people

to think of their vehicles
as a, um,

a canvas for their
personal expression.

And then the second wave,

you started seeing people
do bigger things.

And some of the vehicles
became well known,

not so much for their art,

but for their music.

[♪ "Our Broken Mind Embassy"
by Jan Blomqvist playing]

There's Robot Heart,
that has a big following.

There's Mayan Warrior,

a really impressive vehicle

that also has an incredible
light laser show.

I've seen ones that,

more than a million dollars
went into them.

And ones that probably
took maybe

a few hundred dollars
to put together.

[Pablo] Another way
to look at Burning Man

is a giant sandbox,

and everybody
brings toys to play.

There's something
very beautiful,

something very fulfilling,

that you cannot get
anywhere else.

♪ Our broken mind embassy ♪

[Pablo] I think it's one of
the most irresponsible things

I've done in my life,
financially.

But one of the cores
of Burning Man

is the gifting economy.

We do this as a gift.

-[crowd cheering]
-[fireworks popping]

[wind blowing]

[power tools whirring]

[Quill Hyde]
We work hard all year

to get our art car ready
for Burning Man,

but we still don't know whether
it's going to happen or not.

[Michelle Li Murphy]
Acavallo was Quill's
life's work.

[♪ lively music playing]

It's shaped somewhat
like a boat.

Started out as six
life-sized steel horses

that go up and down
and shoots fire out of the top.

[flames whooshing]

It's a big bouncing jungle gym

for adults to be sexy and play.

[♪ lively music continues]

The whole thing is built
by hand from scratch,

made from dreams and sacrifice.

[crowd cheering]

Quill Hyde and I first met
when we were teenagers.

We were pretty isolated.

Just two hippie kids
trying to make it in New York.

[Quill] After graduating
from Columbia Engineering,

and working in theatrical
automation for 10 years,

I was looking for something
life-changing and different.

A spark.

[Michelle] The first year I went
to Burning Man,

there were these kids
who had like a chair

on the back of a giraffe
with a ghillie suit,

and there were computers--

and, uh, it was very like...
[babbles]

And I thought, "Quill has
to come to this thing,"

'cause he was doing automation
for Broadway shows in New York.

Things popping up
and out of stages.

And it was a perfect marriage
for his engineering

and his art brain.

[motor starting]

That's what Quill needed.

Art spark.

[metal clanging]

[Quill] I was looking
for something else,

and I found it at Burning Man.

It takes tools to make stuff.

And dogs.

[Michelle] But he also had
that, like, "win mentality,"

so he decided
to "win" Burning Man.

[Quill] That's what it takes
to make stuff.

[Michelle] Quill decides
to build the biggest art car

on the playa.

[Quill] I just wanted
to share...

[clearing throat]
...an art car idea.

[Michelle] The carousel
popped out of his mind.

[♪ "Mirrorball"
by Scanners playing]

[Quill] That's a horse.

[♪ "Mirrorball"
continues playing]

-[machinery humming]
-Look at that.

-Easy, man.
-[motor rumbling]

[Quill] That desire to create
art for Burning Man,

I had to restructure my whole
life to make that possible.

And that included the move back
to my hometown in Washington.

We were able to, like,
have the space to work on art

that we could never find
in New York.

[metal clanging]

[Michelle] I pursued my career

in silk painting.

I've worn my dresses
at Burning Man,

I've outfitted camps.

I make scarves for people.

This is not just
a playground for artists.

It's our life support system,

and we've been waiting
for two years to return.

[Quill]
This is what I love to do.

Prioritizing the art
over everything else.

[Michelle]
The org is supposed
to make an announcement

any day now,

and, um, I really hope
it happens.

Fingers crossed.

[♪ electronic pop music playing]

[Marian]
I'd say this is probably

the hardest thing
I've had to do.

The grief that's gonna
get compounded

on all the excitement that
people have had

in looking forward
to Black Rock City.

There'll be like grief,
upon grief, upon grief.

[people chattering]

[Level] I think this
is the first time
we're meeting in person.

[staff member]
Did you get any shots yet?

-[Level] I got two.
-[staff member] Are you clear?

[Level] I have one more week
before I'm clear.

[chuckling] So you can stand
as far away as you need to.

[indistinct chatter]

[Harley] Later today,
Marian will announce

whether Black Rock City
is happening.

Not being able to tell
the staff is really torture.

It's very difficult
to sit and wait.

[chattering continues]

[Zoe Nightingale] Apparently,
they're going to make

some sort of announcement
today,

but I have been watching
my computer screen

all fucking day

and still no updates.

[sighs]

Here.
Here's my Burning Man stuff.

Found it. One thing.

[laughs]

[interviewer]
It's like the whole place

is like a Burning Man camp,
you know?

Yeah, it's because
my entire life

has become Burning Man.

Did you see my director's chair?
Aren't I fancy? Huh?

[cackling]

Isn't that good?

I come from a fairly
well-to-do family,

and when I was, uh,
about 11 or 12,

we lost most of our--
our finances,

and things changed
very, very quickly.

I wanted so deeply
to find a place

where, like, I didn't feel
like I had less than,

or I was less than,
or I was, um, weak and small.

And so I made myself
as big as fucking possible.

[wind gusting]

A lot of people live this
sheltered cicada shell life,

where their true self
is hidden,

very, very small,
deep inside of them.

And Burning Man is the only
place that they can shed that.

Let's go. Let's go, let's go,
let's go, let's go. Let's go!

Let's go. [laughs]

Burning Man has provided me
the knowledge

that there was a place for me,
and that there was a world

that didn't have to be
the world I saw.

-Where are you from?
-Uh, D.C. Washington, D.C.

-I'm from D.C.!
-Nuh-uh!

-Big hi!
-Hi!

Hi, habibi. Ah!

[Zoe] It really wasn't until

I convinced my family
to go to Burning Man,

that there was an incredible
reversal of roles.

When I took my mother,
my sister, her sister,

my-- her-- my aunt, my nephew,
my sister's husband,

um, and I took them
all together as virgins.

And I did it
because I felt like

they would never understand me
until I showed them Burning Man.

-Mama...
-Faster.

[Zoe] ...have you had
a nice burn?

I've had a great burn,

and I've met wonderful
people, like John.

[Zoe] My mother, who is 70,

she met a guy on Plenty of Fish
that was also a burner.

So they made a date
at Burning Man to meet up.

They had the best time,

and they've been together
ever since.

[♪ percussive music playing]

Yeah!

The thing that she said to me
was that, like, she didn't know

that she had adventures
left in her life.

It gave my mother her life back,
and it restored her soul.

Mom, are you having a good time?

I am! [chuckles]

[Zoe] You know,
I might make fun of Marian.

I might make fun
of other burners.

But I have nothing
but eternal gratitude

to anybody who makes
that place possible

because it provided
that experience for my mother.

It's just a miracle.

I think a lot of people are
gonna lose their fucking minds

if they don't go
to Burning Man this year.

-[Marian] Nice to meet you.
-[crew 1] When you have moment,

can we put
a microphone on you?

[Marian] Oh, yes.

[crew 1] Alright!

[crew 2] Alright.

What do we got there?

[crew 1]
It has an auto gain control--

[Marian] This is gonna
be a 10-minute piece, people.

-[crew 1] Great.
-[Marian] Not long.

[Marian] Oh, my God.

[sighs]

[Marian] I'm gonna fuck up.

I can see it now. [sighs]

Yeah, Stuart, the problem
with me not doing it,

it feels like a chick--
I, like, chickened out.

Oh, my God. This is so hard.

[camera operator]
Check one, two.

[text messages pinging rapidly]

You gonna have your scarf on?

[Marian] Is someone
actually saying right now

that I shouldn't do the video?

[Stuart]
That's what I said yesterday.

[text messages continue pinging]

[Marian]
Should I not be doing this?

[♪ tense music playing]

[sighs]

Fuck.

[sighs]

Hi.

[inhales sharply]

We have some exciting things
to talk about.

For 2021,

we know the need for community
has never been stronger.

And building community
is what burners do best.

We also recognize that
the pandemic is not over.

But we've made
a difficult decision,

based on the best
information available to us.

We have decided
to focus our energy

on building
Black Rock City 2022.

It's too important
to do half-assed,

so we're doubling down
on next year.

We recognize your need
to be in community,

and your desires.

So, we suggest
that you create community.

Take this moment,
gather together.

We're gonna celebrate
Burn Week online.

-Oh, lame.
-[Marian] And offline.

So lame.

[Level] Oh, 2019.

-[chuckles]
-The last burn we'll ever know.

[staff member] That's not true.

[Marian] No, we're not
canceling Burning Man.

We're just not
doing Black Rock City.

Remember, we will always
burn the man.

[Kimbal]
Several of us came together,

and we raised $13 million
of philanthropic capital

to help the org
put the Man on in 2021.

You asked us to help,
we helped...

and then the--
you broke the promise.

And so that--
That really carried

such disappointment in my heart.

It-- It really hurt.

[Marian]
The Bureau of Land Management

has said public lands
will be available all summer.

Sick.

[Marian] So, wherever you are
in the world,

take the 10 Principles
with you.

-Show up as a
responsible burner.
-[Zoe snapping]

-Yes.
-Remember, leaving no trace.

In my very humble opinion,

she's clearly telling
the Burning Man community

that the land is open.

It is up to you to be the best
little burner you can be.

Leave no trace,
bring the 10 Principles,

and go to fucking
Burning Man without them.

[news anchor 1]
For the second year in a row,

Burning Man is canceled.

[news anchor 2]
But that is not stopping

some people
from trying to throw

their own unofficial party
in the Nevada Desert.

[♪ dramatic music playing]

Sheriff's office has a message
for those people:

"Don't."

Burners, they are
trying to stop us.

[Zoe]
All I know is that I'm going

because it's gonna be
radically inclusive

and radically fuckin' awesome.

And if things go wrong,
they'll go wrong

and we'll take care of it.

In my heart, it tells me

it's probably gonna be
more towards

the shit-show side of things,

'cause there are some people
who want it to go back

to what it was
back in the '90s,

before it became
such a structured festival.

[Stuart]
Back in the old days,

we'd shoot guns.

[gunshot popping]

[Sheriff Jerry Allen]
Mobile shooting ranges,

wanting to blow things up
on the playa.

[Marian]
Last time this chaos happened,

it was a huge disaster.

[John]
We'd go up there and drove

across the playa, fucking,

shooting guns out the windows,
drinking wine,

and on mushrooms.

I thought, this is the most
American thing

you could possibly do.

But in 1996,

horrible shit
happened repeatedly.

[Rosie] Tents were on fire.

[Harley]
You cannot have anarchists

and chaos with 10,000 people.

-[crowd shouting]
-[Rosie] It was an apocalypse.

[Marian]
If people try to do the burn

at this scale, without us,

people could die in the desert.

[fire booming]

[♪ dramatic music playing]

♪♪