Party at The Machine

DPW invites themselves to the Seattle crew’s camp

It’s a small city still, BRC. There are several hundred people by now, and more showing up every day, but that leaves a lot of empty space for the other 35,000 of you.

So DPW was happy to hear that the Machine crew had arrived. As crews go, they’re impressive: they’re tight, they work hard, and they’re making an amazing piece of kinetic art. DPW likes this. We also can’t wait to see the finished product. At our Wednesday morning meeting, Mayfield announced that there was a birthday party at the Machine that evening – so after dinner, the majority of the DPW motored across the playa to join in.

As it turns out, their crew was still working. It’s pretty common out here for people to work through the night so that they don’t have to be doing physical labor in the hottest part of the day. So, the Machinists were in the middle of their evening shift – and although it was Randy’s birthday, they had not invited us over.

We stayed anyway.

They worked for an hour or two more, but they had to stop sometime, right? Before long, the floodlights gave way to fire dancers and two opposing sound systems and joyriding art cars, and everyone stayed out too late again.

It’s hard not to be excited about all this. Especially for me, doing all this for the first time, it’s a little mindblowing to think just how many things are going to be built in the next ten days or so. When I look around, I still see an mostly-vacant playa; however, it’s impossible now to think of this as the empty desert. There’s no doubt that we’re living in Black Rock City, and it’s about to get really huge. I think it’s safe to say that everyone here is excited and proud about the work we’re doing; it’s worth celebrating.

Anyway, the Machine is just starting to be assembled – but from what I hear, it’s something you won’t want to miss. When you get here, ramble on over to 2:30 and Esplanade and check it out.

About the author: The Hun

The Hun

The Hun, also known as J.H. Fearless, has been blogging for Burning Man (and many other outlets) since 2005, which is also the year she joined the BRC DPW on a whim that turned out to be a ten-year commitment. Since then she's won some awards for blogging, built her own creative business, and produced some of the Burning Blog's most popular stories and series. She co-created a grant-funded art piece, "Refoliation," in 2007, and stood next to it watching the Man burn on Monday night during a full lunar eclipse. She considers that, in many ways, to have been the symbolic end of Burning Man that was. The Hun lives in Reno with DPW Shade King, Quiet Earp. You may address her as "The Hun" or "Hun". If you call her "Honey" she reserves the right to cut you.