The acronym stands for peace, love, unity and respect which are all large factors in the Burning Man Event. It takes place in Nevada’s Black Rock Desert. Self expressionists travel from all over the world bringing their art work with the intentions of burning it. This event channeled close to 66,000 unique individuals.
Back to the main question I posed at the beginning of this article, what does P.L.U.R have to do with it? Well, for those of us who have attended a music festival have seen the damage done after the event. The accumulation of garbage fills the venue, but this is not the case at Burning Man. One of their mottos is ‘nothing is left behind’. The organization that runs this event strictly enforces that whatever you bring in you must leave with; and when they say everything they literally mean everything including cigarette butts.
Respecting and loving the environment is important to the Burning Man organization. Therefore, there is no trash cans, you cannot buy anything there, you must bring all you need with you. This promotes an environmentally conscious community and encourages people to work together to keep the atmosphere clean.
The Black Rock Desert springs to life each year a week leading up to and including Labor Day. It is full of art that symbolizes radical self reliance. Like minded individuals express themselves through their campsites, art cars, public art displays, and sculptures. The unification of the individuals that attend this event come from the connection made through the art work,music, and atmosphere presented around them. Big headliners are not casted to perform, because they want people to create an experience through the music not make it JUST about the music.
This year’s theme was Caravansary and one of the most talked about pieces there was called ‘Embrace’- it was two heads facing each other ‘Embrace’ took 2 years to make, 3 weeks to assemble, and about an hour to burn down.
P.L.U.R has everything to do with Burning Man. The community established, the connection and love made over the art through the music, and of course the respect for the environment. Burning Man exuberates vibrance and urges individuals to come together to be a part of an experience of a life time.
