- [Interviewer] Burning Man is a giant orgy.
- Myth.
- Couldn't find any.
We looked and looked.
- My name is Ryan.
- I'm Cornelia.
- I'm Andrew.
- I'm Hagar.
- My name is Cassidy and I've been
to Burning Man five times.
- Two times.
- Three times.
- Nine times.
- I've been to Burning Man sixteen times.
- What is Burning Man?
That is the eternal question.
The playa is a giant, dry lake bed.
Seventy thousand people arrive and build the city,
and then celebrate for a week,
and then burn it mostly to the ground.
It's an experiment in what it's like
when you take a bunch of humans and some resources
to a completely blank canvas and see what happens.
- That is a myth.
- That's a myth.
- Myth.
- It is a collection of people from all over the world
and all parts of society.
- There is definitely a bunch of rednecks out there,
a bunch of families,
there's a ton of hippies too,
but its a smattering of all sorts of different people.
- There's people getting there
in their private jets these days,
so I wouldn't call it a hippy...
Fest.
- False.
- That's a myth.
- Myth.
- Almost everyone at Burning Man is on drugs.
- There's definitely tons of people
that go sober the entire week.
- There are AA camps and there are people
that have done sober burns, including myself.
- Even though marijuana is legal in Nevada,
it's technically illegal on the playa,
because it's federal land.
There are a ton of undercover cops
that are policing the event.
Because of that, no one speaks about drugs there.
If you ask anyone for drugs,
they will immediately assume you're a cop,
and they'll just start pointing
at you like, "This guy's a cop!
"Hey everybody, this guy's a cop!"
- Myth.
- That is a myth.
Sure, there's a lot of cool music,
but it's not a music festival.
- There are DJs,
but there are no lineups,
there are no schedules,
you never know who's playing where and when.
One of my favorite running practical jokes
at Burning Man is that Daft Punk will be playing
at the trash fence.
Someone set up a DJ booth with lights
and two dummies with Daft Punk helmets
and just put a CD of Daft Punk songs on repeat.
- Myth. - Myth.
- Well, true for some.
- While there are certainly people without clothes there,
and I have been known to be without clothes there...
- It's actually not all that common.
- There's a naked pub crawl,
that everybody gets on their bikes
and goes around to different bars around the city.
There's a naked tiki bar, that's a lot of fun.
- But I think one of the best things
about Burning Man is actually the costumes.
- [Ryan] People tend to express themselves
with fashion and clothes.
- [Cornelia] It's nipple covers, it's glitter,
it's whatever your wildest imagination.
- [Cassidy] You can shed the costume
that you're wearing in real life,
and be whoever you wanna be for the week.
- That is a myth.
- That's a myth.
- Myth.
- It's called gift economy.
So some people bring little necklaces,
or jerky, chap stick.
- We hosted a yoga-themed camp.
I was the sort of producer-slash-grip
creating the shade structures, and--
- Camp daddy.
- And Hagar,
along with other yoga teachers,
led yoga sessions for large groups of people.
- The idea is sharing without expecting anything back.
- There's something great about
the collective contribution that we all make there.
Especially for people who haven't been before,
it's like nothing else.
- That is a myth.
- Myth. - Myth.
- Couldn't find any.
We looked and looked.
- It's very hot and it's very sweaty,
and it's very dusty so I mean...
You do the math if that's something you want
to get down and dirty with.
- There is an orgy dome.
It's populated throughout the week,
but it's not everybody and it's not all the time.
- Pfft!
Sorry.
Myth. - Myth.
- This one is half true.
You can't do anything that's illegal.
- There's a lot of police and law enforcement.
And that's a big surprise to people who haven't been.
- You can pretty much do whatever, though.
I saw a guy who had a megaphone
and was reading quotes from "Fifty Shades of Grey".
I've seen people dress up in suits,
and act like they're having a business meeting.
It's all sorts of ways of expression.
That's sort of what I love about it,
is that it is so free,
and everyone accepts you however you are,
however you present.
- That is true.
- I've met my share of celebrities at Burning Man,
and they've had some amazing accommodations.
Extravagant RVs with air conditioning units,
and kitchens and stuff.
- It's funny because if you come there Sunday or Monday,
on Thursday, Friday, you start to see all the models,
and all the hair is very,
you know, fixed and wavy,
whereas ours is just like a lump of dust and sand.
So you can kind of tell
who's been there for a whole week grinding,
and other people who have just flown in,
and staying at a fancy camp,
and have glamping experience.
- Myth. - Myth.
- When I first started going in 1998,
even back then there were already people
who were in their forties,
and there's other people over fifty
who were regularly attending.
- A lot of my camp mates had been bringing
their parents and grandparents to Burning Man
over the past few years.
- I got with my aunt,
she's the one who introduced me to it in the first place,
and my dad went two years ago,
and my mom's coming this year.
- And also we're starting to bring our kids.
- Kidsville, I believe is the main one.
And they were great about creating a safe environment
for families to come with children.
If we do go back, we'll take the kids.
- Yeah, for sure.
- True.
- True. - True.
- The way people go to Burning Man has changed,
and a lot of their motivations,
sometimes in attending it have changed.
- I think the influence of money
has corrupted it in some ways.
Especially in the last decade.
There was a rise of what we'd refer to
as turnkey camps where people would pay others
to go set up camp for them,
and then they'd come in on a private jet,
and have everything taken care of by a staff of chefs.
- Which really destroys, I think,
the spirit of the festival,
which is radical self reliance.
- That creates a different kind of society out there
that unfortunately mirrors our own back in the city.
- And also Instagram totally changed Burning Man,
because there used to be no cell service,
you would go totally into the wild,
and into your own wild and completely disconnect,
and it kind of seems like some people go there
so that they can take great pictures
for their Instagram feed,
and then promote their stuff
with the pictures that they took at Burning Man,
which is supposed to be a noncommercial...
- Environment. - Environment.
- There will be changes in the future,
and I'm okay with that.
It has to evolve with the times,
and it has to evolve with the people that attend it.
- There's no life form that can exist in the playa,
and yet we go there.
We go there every year to build something beautiful,
then they tear it down.
It's special and I can't imagine not doing that
with my family and my friends.
- We love dancing together,
we met on the dance floor of a party.
The experience of freedom,
of really being safe
to fully express and experience yourself,
I think has really taught me something, for sure.
- [Andrew] And I think it allowed me to
open up to more spontaneity,
and more expression through fashion or dancing.
- We're so busy, and we live in our own little bubble,
but then you come to Burning Man,
and you kind of remember again
that you're just like a tiny, tiny little part
of this beautiful world that we live in.
So I think it's changed my life in a way that,
you reconnect with yourself, but also other humans.
It's open to everyone,
and that's the thing they say at Burning Man, too,
when you come in a lot of people say, "Welcome home."
- I guess I just always feel totally accepted there.
I don't get many opportunities
to be fully myself in the default world.
Burning Man allows me to be
who I wish I was all the time.
- I wish people would have a more,
I guess, open mind about it,
and if you're curious about it,
just go and you can thank me later.
- Burning Man is not just a big party,
it's about leaving no trace, cleaning up after yourself.
It's about being self-reliant.
it's about giving to others,
and contributing to your society around you.
I think if we followed the tenants
of Burning Man in real life,
we'd end up with a much better world.
- Hi, I'm Samara.
- I'm Kenzie.
- And I'm Cassidy.
- Kenzie and I created this series
and Cassidy is our lead editor over at SoulPancake.
- Thank you so much for watching,
we hope you learned something new about Burning Man.
- Subscribe to SoulPancake and comment below
to let us know groups you wanna hear from next.
- SoulPancake, subscribe!
- Oh no.