When you are not from United State or America globally, going to THE Burning Man is not a decision you could take just by waking up on your good foot with this thought “meeyy why not?”. Actually even for you, it is somewhat complicated. For the background, I present myself, Xavier Dubruille, a french man who is use to the European Burn over the last five years and by a funny anecdote, always part of the volunteer team before and after (probably one of my next article). So like you can guess, THE Burn was in my thoughts for many years and that s why I made this bet to myself: If I survive the end of the world in December 2012, I’ll go to Burning man!
And guess what, you are reading this so I survived and I went to Burning man!! It was not as easy as it looks like. First step, like everyone here who has already enjoy the acidic dust on our socks, is to get a the sacred graal aka a ticket and for those who didn’t pass this step once in their life, let me describe how it is done. After calculating the hour in your country (thanks google), you put yourself on a comfy seat and you write the address. Youhou! It is working, yes!! You write all the useful information and click on the button to go to the next page and … and …. and …. the website told you to wait and like a burner you are a nice person, you wait … …….. ……………
Ok, lets go check on the forum of Burning Man like you did almost everyday the month before to have advice. And yes, there is a topic about who got ticket, cool, lets see. What??? only 14 min!!! And people already shout their joy in front of the panicked crowd, what happens with my application?? Is it because I am a damn French?? … am I good enough for this event? So time passed slowly, all my roommate pass in our internet room (yes we were stealing wifi from the neighbor) and ask me about Burning Man and I always answer the same damn thing “not for the moment”.
After one thousand reading of the page telling you to wait and sharing the same fear on FB with your burner friends, you go take another tea. On the thread, people are making more and more fuss about “Yes!! see you on the Playa!” between the other people who ask if it is normal if after two hours, there is nothing new and for the most unlucky ones, the message “I got disconnected, I have to go back at the beginning, NNNOOOOOOOOOOOOO”. I tell you, this message makes inside your belly knots or maybe it was the 2 liter of tea, you go to the toilet telling your friend to watch sometimes your screen and to shout in case something happened. The wifi seems good and your stomach is lighter so let go back to the waiting. …. …… ah on Facebook, some of my friends post a new status “ Yes, I have my ticket for the Burning Man, welcome home!!!”. So you like it even if deep inside you, you are thinking “and me, I was almost one of the first on this damn page??? Fucking lucky asshole!” , your friend says to you and your other fellow waiting for it, “good night”, because it is almost 3 hours you are waiting in front of your computer and so, it is in France and England (where I lived) almost 0:00. Hopefully I am a patient guy, but it can be a wreckball to your nerve for some people. The time passed and finally the page changed and you are invited to finish the application by sending a little more than a week of your salary to the event. But yes finally, I would accomplish my dream! I will be putting my dusty feet on the Playa (and about this, it was my mistake but it will be in a next article). SO MY ADVICE : tea is better than coffee (else I wouldn’t have survived) also take a book … or two but in the end don’t worry, you will get one. Oh and being the nice guy who will buy a ticket for your friend is really kind but think twice about it because imagine doing this 3-4 times during the night, yeah, not a pleasant thought.
