Love Burn - a regional Burning Man in Miami

Love Burn - Miami

Love Burn Wedding

Burning Man and Bucket Lists

my bro back in 2002

If there is one festival on everyone's bucket list to do, it's definitely Burning Man.  The first time I heard about BM was around 2002 when my older brother who lived out in San Francisco at the time went.  Following his trip, he ecstatically described to me the art, people, and principles of the festival, but for some reason, the only thing I can remember are the pictures he showed of himself running around the desert, nearly naked with a florescent blue colored wig, and purple fairy wings attached to his back.  

I've always appreciated that about my older brother; his spirit to seek out the eccentric experiences of life have definitely rubbed off.  The space where the artistically weird, kooky, and sometimes awkward find each other.  Nowadays, it seems everybody embraces their weird side, even if it's just for a week-long festival.

me in 2016

But Burners (those who have actually gone to Burning Man) seem to permanently take a piece of the spirit back with them where ever they go.  Evident, throughout my many travels from around the world, I have met Burners from India to Indiana, and no matter where they call home, how old or young they are, professional, student, or vagabond... when the topic of BM comes up, their shoulders rise, eyes light up, and a big OL' GRIN the size of Texas appears on their face.

My friend Smiley Mark has been to like 5 Burns... no wonder he is always happy

Since BM usually takes place the first or second week I'm back to teaching after two months of summer vacation, I haven't seriously considered going.  Fortunately, Burner communities are everywhere and they are an active bunch, instilling the same ten principles as the original.  Drum roll please.... 

CLICK HERE FOR MORE ON THE TEN PRINCIPLES OF BURNING MAN

South Florida's Burner Community

It just so happens that the South Florida Burner community is as eccentric and active as you can find.  Since returning to South Florida, I've met several Burners at the unofficial local Burner venue, "Maker's Square" in Fort Lauderdale.  The venue was an old RV depot, now turned social club for artistically expressive folks.  They are incredibly warm, inclusive, and never fail on exceeding expectations for any costume party.

MAKERS SQUARE HOME PAGE

Miami's Love Burn

It was here that I learned about the regional BM event that they have been organizing for the past three years.  Miami is home to the hottest Burner event north of the equator, during the coldest time of the year.  Drum roll please.... 

THE "LOVE BURN" - CLICK HERE

Fairy Tales

This year the theme was Fairy Tales.  Last year was Super Heroes and Villains.  Next year, I'm hoping it will be Losers and Winners.  But either way, people just show out for a long weekend and free themselves of any social norms that confine one to the normalcy of work and consumption.  Burnering events inspire you to explore new boundaries, challenge spaces of creativity you didn't know existed, and just cut yourself open to people who feel like the crazy family you didn't know you had.  

Really Freakin' Happy People

BM does have it's cheesy side.  Everybody is really freakin' happy... all the damn time.  It can be a challenge if you're the "misery loves company" type.  I did hear a lot of people add the suffix "sie" to too many nouns for my taste: onesie, mosey, funsie, to-go-sie.  That just might be the effects of the fairy wings, unicorn wands, pixie dust, glitter, and Skittle colored bunnies prancing around.  

But it's all good in the hoodsie, because everybody makes eye contact when they pass and says "Hi" with a Kool-Aid smile.  Guy or girl, gay or straight, people just acknowledge one another.  Everyone shares and "gifts" what they have.  I hardly lifted a chopstick during the four days and nights, because there was always someone sharing food.  The spirit of "gifting" is infectious.  I was giving hugs to complete strangers and sometimes condoms.  The kindness is infectious like a disease.  So you always want to give condoms with your hugs.  No glove.... no love, because selfishly, the happiness you create makes you feel good.  And anything that makes you feel good is hard to put down.  

FOR MORE SARCASTIC HUMOR - CLICK HERE

FOR MORE DARK HUMOR - CLICK HERE

right before sunrise

Due to heavy torrential rains the first two days of the festival, the completion of many of the art installations were delayed, but when they were, dammit they looked incredibly amazing.  Love Burn lived up to it's reputation.  It attracted over twelve hundred people.  More folks from out of Florida than in, which makes perfect sense, when more than thirty inches of snow falls in the Northeast and Canada during the same week temperatures in Miami are in the eighties.  

Burners brought a Sauna from Finland

the scene on the Playa

Love Burn and All it's Parts
If the Miami heat don't make you get butt-naked during the day, then the nights under the fire domes or the galactic space looking sauna from Finland will.  The night's ceiling spews liquid fire over electronica, while the miniature Choo Choo train makes friends with a school bus pimped out on funky psychedelic transmission. 

inside the Interstellar School Bus

The days and nights are packed with a blend of colorful and kooky activities to stay engaged.  Whether it's plastering your face in paper mache or getting massaged with car buffers. Love Burn is the space to feel that spirit of youth again or to get married to the love of your life with a bunch of fairies and nerds disguised as bridesmaids and groomsmen.  It happened to be the second consecutive year a couple got married at Love Burn.  How sweet is that?

my face in plaster

my artistic contribution for my first Burn

So remember, each winter, a growing tribe of bizarre freaks camp on the white sands of Virginia Key, which is just south of the infamous South Beach.  The distance is equivalent to seventeen blocks.  Hard to believe one can be that close, yet so far from the red carpet, limos, posh and bougie glam of Ocean and Lincoln.  The difference of Miami's Sobe and Love Burn is as simple as the words exclusive and inclusive.  

camping on the beach

lollipops and sawgrass

participatory art

fireside chats

vegan bands

Tree of Wants and Whims

refugees arriving from the Washington DC

the roof, the roof, the roof is on FIRE!

friend ohmming

before the fire