Gisele "Gigi" Bisson

The arrival of the first letter I ever got from Burning Man was odd and mysterious, covered with hand stamps and postmarks, and evocative of a place, far away, fanciful, maybe a little menacing. I unfolded a piece of red paper upon which the directions to the secret location were written. Red, so it couldn't be photocopied and shared.

Why build a four-story man from lumber and glass tubing, haul him across state lines and torch him at twilight? That's the burning question. So, along with a flock of technopagans, nature lovers, hippies, full-moon crazies, performance artists and ravers from the Silicon Valley, San Francisco and Los Angeles. I made the eight-hour drive to the northwest Nevada desert to form an ephemeral town: Black Rock, Nevada, population 500.