One of the benefits of membership in American Mensa is participation in any of the member-provided Special Interest Groups. SIGs are NOT Mensa-sponsored or subsidized groups. This SIG is for Mensa members worldwide who are interested in the annual BurningMan festival.

Below: Your Fly is Open and Flossie McStarbutts III at BurningMan 2006   JB Image

Quite a few Mensa members (Ms) have attended the BurningMan festival over the years. With the belief that Ms should experience the event at least once, one member started this BurningMan SIG in 2003 to disseminate information, secure a location each year where SIG members may camp, and serve as a central point of contact. Since the first SIG camp in 2004 more than 60 SIG members have become Burners (attended the event).

The SIG camp in Black Rock City (BRC) is "home" to about 35 people each year, and also contains our Theme Camp called "A Shack of Sit" and all sorts of member-provided "gifts to the BurningMan community". Everything done in, for and by the SIG members is a mirror of the BurningMan event itself - provided voluntarily and out-of-pocket, with simply the desires to participate, share and relish the joys of giving. 

Each year the festival takes place on a dry lakebed (Playa) in the Black Rock Desert near Gerlach, Nevada USA (coordinates  40-50'N 119-30'W) during the week ending on the first Monday in September (U.S. Labor Day holiday). The festival is a private event and tickets are required for entry. It is the largest NON-COMMERCE, Leave-No-Trace, interactive art and creativity event in the world. The festival began in 1984 and has grown from a few dozen participants to a peak population of about 50,000 in 2007. For more information go to www.BurningMan.com

About the Black Rock Desert

The Black Rock Desert is part of the Black Rock Wilderness area on the Emigrant Trail in northwest Nevada, about 100 miles north of Reno. It is the largest flat expanse in North America and is managed by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, an agency of the U.S. Department of the Interior. The BurningMan Organization (BMOrg) buys a permit to use some of the space for the festival. As it is Federal land, all Federal, state and local laws apply.

The Playa upon which Black Rock City emerges is literally a dry lakebed in August and September. In spring it is a lake, and in wet years there can be moist sections even in late summer. Hint: stay away from the edges of the Playa as that's where moisture from the surrounding mountains accumulates.

                                             Right: the Playa with BRC in the distance  Image by AN

At an altitude of about 4000-ft, daytime temperatures the week of BurningMan can reach 90F and at night drop to near freezing. Skies are mostly clear, but occasionally streaky clouds appear and once in a while a few raindrops may reach the Playa. If it actually rains a lot the Playa surface becomes thick, slippery, clingy, alkaline mud.  

The Playa surface is flat and treeless. Surrounded by mountains, wide local temperature changes cause high winds on the Playa. The normally hard crusted Playa surface is pulverized by the thousands of Burners arriving in Black Rock City. Winds gather this alkaline dust creating, at best, little dust devils and at worst, white-out conditions.

Below left: dust devil. Center: white-out starts. Right: two seconds later.              All AN images.

In this seemingly inhospitable environment Black Rock City emerges, hosts a special and unique community that shares spectacular art and interactivity for one week, then vanishes without a trace  ... until next year.