Sad news from thye playa

Yeah, very, very fucked up.

5:10 AM Media Mecca is preparing a statement

At approximately 2:58am local time, a fire ignited the Burning Man figure and the center Green Man Pavilion at the Burning Man event in Black Rock City, Nevada.

Black Rock City Emergency Services Department units responded from Stations Three, Five, and Nine and put the fire out within approximately 23 minutes. There were no reported injuries. The Man is still standing, and an assessment is underway to determine the structural integrity of The Man and the Green Man Pavilion. The event will continue as scheduled.

An arson investigation is currently under way, and is ongoing. There is no confirmed cause of ignition at this time.

No further information is available at this time. More information will be released tomorrow morning after the investigation can safely be continued.

-Andie Grace, Burning Man Communications Manager

Sorry Honey - it's true...




Arrest made after Burning Man torched early
40-foot effigy supposed to be set ablaze at end of counterculture festival

Brad Horn / Nevada Appeal via AP
Workers assess the damage to the so-called Burning Man structure in the Black Rock Desert in Gerlach, Nev., on Tuesday. A performance artist allegedly lit the structure on fire four days before the festival.
View related photos

MSNBC video

Man arrested for torching Burning Man early
Aug. 29: A man is arrested after allegedly torching the Burning Man four days early. MSNBC's Amy Robach reports.
MSNBC


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Updated: 7:45 p.m. PT Aug 28, 2007
SAN FRANCISCO - Burning Man became Burnt Man four days early on Tuesday, and a San

Francisco performance artist was arrested on suspicion of igniting the signature figure of the counterculture festival in the remote Nevada desert.

The early morning fire scorched about 85 percent of the structure, Burning Man spokeswoman Andie Grace said.

Event engineers decided it would be best to dismantle it and rebuild a less elaborate version, accomplishing in two days what normally takes weeks so the figure would be finished in time for Saturday night’s scheduled burning, she said.

The approximately 40-foot-tall wood and neon structure was supposed to go up in flames in the ceremonial climax of the weeklong annual event.

Burning Man, an art, music and performance festival that draws thousands of people, began in San Francisco in 1986 and moved to Nevada’s Black Rock Desert in 1990. That year, the effigy was accidentally cut up with a chain saw and had to be reassembled before the ritual burning, Grace said.

Many festival-goers who were awake watching Tuesday’s lunar eclipse said they saw a man deliberately ignite the figure at about 3 a.m., Grace said.

“It was in plain sight of many people,” she said. “Everyone is looking at it this morning, this big black figure in the sky and that wasn’t supposed to burn, saying, ’Now what do we do?”’

No injuries were reported, and the festival’s in-house fire department, the Black Rock City Emergency Services Department, extinguished the fire in less than half an hour, Grace said.

The fire also damaged part of the Green Man Pavilion, the exhibition space on which the figure was perched, Grace said.

Suspect posts bond
Paul Addis, 35, of San Francisco, was booked into the Pershing County, Nev., jail on suspicion of arson, illegal possession of fireworks, destruction of property and resisting a public officer, according to the sheriff’s department. He posted a $25,632 bond, a sheriff’s dispatcher said.

Sheriff’s officials did not know whether he had a lawyer. No one answered at two phone numbers listed in his name.


Addis is an actor and writer who is active in the San Francisco arts scene and recently portrayed Hunter S. Thompson in a play about the late journalist known for his drug-fueled lifestyle, according to entertainment listings posted on the Internet.

Grace said she assumed the early burn was timed to coincide with the eclipse.

“It’s obviously a pretty selfish act, and people are disappointed about that, but spirits overall are pretty high,” she said.

damn, thanks for the pics. That's fucked up.

Wow WTF?!

Thanks for the photo link, Tapestry.

FUCK YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

three years ago we talked about burning the man on Tuesday night. What would happen to all the order? What would happen to all the attachments and expectation? it would create a REAL BURNING MAN...without constraint.

The only reason we didn't do it (cuz we had some real "ins" in the inside and could probably bribe them) was because of the safety issue.

Other than that I say FUCK waiting til Saturday....rattle the damned cage. Burning Man is such a conglomerate, consumer, orderly, play by the rules, ho down that it's nice to see it get rattled.

BURN THE MAN ON TUESDAY!

I to smell a statement in protest of the rules and order. While I enjoy this cage rattling, I don't agree with burning up others creations. The only solution now, lock the creators and fire starter in the thunder dome, playa justice time!!!!