Burning Man 2015: Day of the Dead, Aussies/Brits and the THUNDERDOME

Wednesday night was Day of the Dead at Sharkey's Bar and Lounge Camp.  Thanks to Deanna I was made up into the figure that you see below.  I think it went over very well judging from the reaction that I was getting from people in the camp and around burning man.  I didn't realize how disconcerting I looked until I saw this picture.  Disturbing to 

say the least.  

As the Day of the Dead was our theme for dinner this night most of the camp came to dinner made up accordingly.  The dining tent was done up in said same theme and we all had a good time.  

After dinner a group of us me, Jon and some Aussies/Brits were looking for a good party on the esplanade to go to.  The Aussies had heard that there was a white party taking place at Distrikt so we decided to go.  There were about 12 of us in our party.  We hopped on our bikes turn on our lights and headed out.  

For the  uninitiated navigating the Playa at night can be intimidating and dangerous particularly if you and your bike are not lit up.  If not lit up you can be seen and can easily be run over by another person on a bike or in the various art cars that roam Burning Man at night.  At BM we call those unlit people and bikes "Darktards".  

We made it to Distrikt and the music was pumping.  We parked and locked our bikes and found a space near the dance floor to stow our stuff.  

For the Day of the Dead night Jon created a skeleton out of light and attached to a black shirt and pants.  The effect was amazing.  The red heart would beat in time with any ambient sound source.  So on the dance floor the heart would beat like crazy.  He would this skeleton shuffle dance that was both hilarious and effective.  In complete dark all you'd see would be a headless skeleton dance in the night.  Genius!!

We only stayed at Distrikt for a short while before the group decided to move on to another party which we found easily enough on the Esplanade.  This party had a bar so we ponied up to the bar to get drinks but the lines were long.  The music at this place wasn't as good as Distrikt in my opinion. Conscious of how I looked in my getup I stood on the edge of the dance floor and stared at this one guy who was looking at me.  Hood up slightly covering my face and standing like a statue I stared at him.  He was visibly shaken and after a while tentatively came over.  As he approached I didn't move.  He came closer.  Finally I smiled and he breathed a sigh of relief and said "OMG, I didn't know if you were real or not but had to see.  You scared me!"  We hugged it out (it's a burning man thing) and he went back to dancing.    

After a little while the Aussies/Brits decided that some were going to go back to camp to get their drinks (because of the long lines) while the others were going to meet them at another party.  Jon and I decided to break with the group and explore the Playa at night since this was the first time were we out together.

We locked our bikes at a place we'd remember and started out on foot.  Soon enough we came upon the ThunderDome.  Think MadMax with Tina Turner and people in post apocalypse getups swinging from bungies suspended from the top of the dome.  This was the same thing with combatants battling each other with cushioned batons.

We watched for a little bit but really wanted to climb up the dome to get a view from above.  Unfortunately, space didn't present itself.

Now I'd seen the ThunderDome last year at BM 2014 and knew that I wanted to battle.  Didn't know how they chose the combatants but was going to find out tonight.  We started walking around the down and I saw people in line in a roped off area and asked the woman how does on get to battle.  She told us and I turned to Jon and said let's do it.  He reluctantly agreed and we got in line in our Day of the Dead attire.  We almost left the line because it looked like it was really long.  Plus I didn't think that we wanted to spend possible over an hour in line when what we really wanted to do was explore the playa at night.  Fortunately, the line wasn't as long as it looked and the wait was only 45 minutes or so.  We also found out that we were going to be the last battle of the night.  So we couldn't disappoint.  Jon was in need of a drink and the woman controlling the line happily produced her flask and gave him a swig of liquid encouragement.  So we watched other battles and waited.  We agreed that we would hold back on each other.  We would make it EPIC.

We had to remove all the BM necklaces and things we  had attached to our bodies so they wouldn't choke us or snag a finger or something.  This meant that Jon had to remove the battery pack that powered the lights of his skeleton.  This was a bummer since we were looking forward to having a skeletal battle royal.  I removed my white fur hoodie and shirt underneath leaving me only in long white running spandex and skeleton makeup.

It's now our turn.

I'm escorted to the harness with my head intentionally hanging low.
We are strapped in and I lift my head showing skeletal make-up and raise my arms into the air.
Crowd goes wild.
I stare intently at Jon.  (He later tells me that he was little afraid.)
We are pulled back by the handlers and then thrown at each other.
The battle begins.
As Jon later says "I don't know if we battled for 30 secs or 5 minutes."
It's all a blur.
We both remember being upside down at one point still trying to beat the other senseless.
Jon loses a shoe I think.
I take his baton at one point and he takes mine.
We clash at least three times maybe four I don't recall.
We swing.
We kick.
We beat each other with reckless abandon.
A winner is declared....Jon wins.
It's okay.  We both wins because we had an experience that most at Burning Man don't experience.
We are told  that we put on a really good battle by the handlers.

Afterwards adrenaline is pumping hard.  We are thirsty, in need of water and a bathroom (porta potty).
Once the flood of adrenaline leaves our system we are dead tired.  Walking is a chore.  Both of us are feeling woosie.
As we walk to the porta potty a couple of girls recognize Jon from the battle and tells him he was great.  He's a rockstar.

We make our ways back to the bikes tired but giddy from what we just did.  A phenomenal shared experience.

We recount our stories when back at camp only to find that a number of our close friends were at the ThunderDome that night but left a couple of battles before we fought.  Unfortunately, we have not pictures from the battle but have great memories.