The truth behind Burning Man: the legacy of a counter culture

This film was taken on an iPhone on September 19th 2010 in the Black Rock Desert where the Burning Man event is held. This video was posted approximately two months ago but was removed by the maker because they received threats of physical harm from the members of the Department of Public Works (DPW) and other Burners.

It has become increasingly clear that the organizers of Burning Man do not care about the playa, and there is some question as to the BLM's commitment to our public lands, therefor this video lives again, to show the dirty side of Burning Man.

Category:

Travel & Events

Tags:

• burner
• burners
• burning
• burningman
• man
• burn
• trash
• garbage
• rubbish
• playa
• blackrock
• black rock
• burning man
• 2010
• decompression
• precompression
• BLM
• DPW

[desertlovernv]

FYI for all the haters, they never finished cleanup this year because it rained. So all this is now covered up or blown away. You are outraged because you are wrong and got caught. Fess up and deal with the mess. And crows nest in the mountains, they don't go a mile out onto a vacant landscape unless there is something out there to consume.

[BerkeyFilms]

There is a crew that restores the playa until about Halloween each year. Your documentation only shows half of the story. A crew of very hard working people had only been cleaning up after 51k people for a few days when you shot this video.

[austintatiousness]

Your question: Why should it take a month to clean up Burning Man? The answer: because that is what it takes to do a good job. Wouldn't it be more suspect if any less time was spent? Isn't that amount of time proof of a commitment to LNT, as is the existence of a crew that backs up the cleanup efforts of event participants? There is a ton of infrastructure that you don't see. It takes about 2 weeks to clear that away to even fully get to what is on the ground.

[gizzad]

i bet whoever made this video does not want to organize the clean up of burning man

[bandannarob]

The DPW do a hell of a good job cleaning up out there. Your video is very misleading and flat out wrong. Most of us burners do our absolute very best to leave no trace out there. An evert with 50K people will have some trash left over thats for sure. There is no event on earth that goes through as much effort to stay behind and pick up and clean up. You disrespect the effort with this misleading bullshit post. It's being cleaned at this very moment.

That is our legacy you jerk!

[hotmelomel]

On the one hand, this is unfair to the DPW and the folks who work so hard at cleaning up after the event. I don't think it should be interpreted as an attack on them - they're the good guys.

On the other hand, it's completely fair a vicious indictment of the "burners" who do not take responsibility for their own presence. That trash should never have been left in the first place - these people are parasitic on the responsible burners and the volunteers who care.

They are not the good guys.

[bender1987]

@desertlovernv Threats from burners and DPW nah not likely! on the other hand you could you have changed the views of hundreds with this video! Made them so upset they threatened your life over a youtube video!

get over yourself lady i am willing to bet you already have your tickets for next years burn in hand! i bet you go every year! how about next year you go you just walk around and pick up trash all event! i am sure you will once again change everything!!

[discogurudave]

2011 will be my first year at BRC. I'm coming from Australia and I live in the pilbara (Tom Price) Google map it. guess what. when im driving in the middle of nowhere I see rubbish. I stop and pick it up. I dont like it but I do MY BIT.

"Creative man is only interested in challenge.Not the distruction of others"

I love that you have passion, now guide it within and feel your heart swell with emotion.

As I said before pls contact me I'd love to chat with you.

Live well

Love safe

no regrets

[discogurudave]

Well thats 4 minutes of your life wasted! maybe you should have gone two weeks earlier and Im shure they would have shook your hand, given you a hug and thanked you for caring. Then you could have grabbed a bag and filled it. If you hate this so much please contact me so we can work on the real issue.

[DissensionFilms]

Why is this dumbass still posting this video when she has been schooled many times over about how stupid her accusations were?

[klone138]

Not bad for over 50,000 people. You should be glad they clean it up a month later, they could just leave it to blow away. If the BLM doesn't check back till spring they really could get away with it. You're just looking for something to complain about, and you're footage is way before DPW works their asses off cleaning up the playa for months.

[ByeTeddy]

Crows are very smart, and if you were truly a desertlovernv, you'd know they nest in the mountains around the Black Rock Desert and can fly. Did you know birds fly?

The crows are a regular sight at the event. They see the cars and fly in every morning, then fly back out at night, and likely continue to do so until everything is cleaned up.