The festival is shaped like a great crescent, with Central Camp's circle midway between its two horns. In the middle of the circle is a big open town square (well, circle), and in the middle of that is a coffee shop. Didn't think you'd want a hot drink out here in this baking frenetic alternate reality? Guess again; the familiar taste of the java and the consistent atmosphere of cafés everywhere ground you in something you know, remind you of that spot you always hang out in back home. As long as you don't pay too much attention to the way this café's crowd is dressed.
Just behind the coffee shop is a big crowd of people waiting to catch the irregular (in every possible interpretation of that word) bus to the Fly Hot Springs. Behind this throng is the big zigzagging message board, an anarchic collection of mass print media completely covered with posters for events, camps, and installations. This is the only central information source in evidence at the whole event, so it is also peppered with notes like "JOHN K: We're at Pretty Boy camp! Find us! -Lauren" Central Camp seems to be powered by common generators, as evidenced by the many filled-in cable trenches, and also houses Danger Ranger Headquarters, most of the radio stations and newsletters, and the rest of the minimal government of the Temporary Autonomous Zone. In the next couple of hours, these are just some of the things you'll check out: a giant frozen sundial (each hour is marked by a 40-foot tapered pillar of ice blocks, the center is a 15-foot sphere of solid ice); the House of Doors (all doors, hundreds of them); a game of giant naked Twister at Cyberbuss camp; a person strapped to the center of a giant geodesic dome, being rolled across the playa by a crowd; Circus X doing teasers for its performance tonight (complete with beds of nails and half-naked performers). After this long wandering through this environment, you definitely feel like a nap. It's too hot to walk around much more, but hours still till it'll cool off. Perfect.
|