Burning Man I May 2017
Even here, consumerist pressures exist. This year,
organizers offered a luxury EZ Camping option. The
$2,500 packages, which included a prefab tent, plush
bed, cooler, private restrooms, power outlets and a
“skinny mirror,” were sold out.
One of the luxury tents went to Misty Meeler, 29, an
interior design assistant from Houston, who came with
her 37-year-old sister. Ms. Meeler wore a gold head-
dress, rainbow bikini, a leather utility belt and purple leg
warmers. Speaking through a heart-shaped dust mask,
she explained that Coachella was too “Hollywood see-
and-be-seen” for her taste. This festival, she said, “has
a hippie scene that makes the whole experience bet-
ter, whether you’re looking to eat healthy, live clean,
meditate, yoga or want to party the whole four days
with no sleep.”
By 4 a.m. on Sunday morning, an air of exhausted
bliss had settled across the 250-acre festival site, and
a small crowd had gathered at Amore’s Casino, a bur-
lesque club set up in the middle of the festival.
The crowd included James Oroc, a writer from New
Orleans, who was waxing philosophical. Best known
for his psychedelic tome, “Tryptamine Palace,” he is an
outspoken and sometimes cantankerous critic of festi-
val culture.
At 6-foot-2, he cut an imposing figure, wearing a
gunmetal fur robe, gold shoulder pads over a pinstripe
suit, leather top hat and huge fossilized shark’s tooth
necklace. A veteran of Burning Man, Mr. Oroc hadn’t
been to this festival in a while and wanted to check in,
he said. His verdict? The crowd was “very hip, very
beautiful,” he said, though he was concerned that the
festival had become too “fashion” and “very L.A.”
“You get a lot of Burners who haven’t actually been to
Burning Man,” he said. “They just have the clothes.”
At 6-foot-2, he cut an imposing figure,
wearing a gunmetal fur robe, gold
shoulder pads over a pinstripe suit,
leather top hat and huge fossilized
shark’s tooth necklace.
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.isms I May 2017
.isms I May 2017
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