The Oakland Tribune
 

September 2, 2006
 

BLACK ROCK DESERT, Nev. — At just a hair past 3 p.m. the meeting starts rather typically. "My name is Bucky, and I am an alcoholic and a drug addict," the secretary for this afternoon's Alcoholics Anonymous meeting says before reading a passage from the "Big Book," an AA book that's a sort of bible for people in the program.

"Hi Bucky," the group of about 20 people say in chorus.

Yet the setting for this AA meeting is not a church or a recreation center. It's the middle of the Nevada desert at the annual weeklong art festival Burning Man, which ends Monday.

Burning Man is often referred to as a hedonistic free-for-all full of parties saturated with booze and drugs. On any given block in this temporary city of about 30,000 people there are usually a couple of bars serving stiffmixed cocktails, cold and not-so-cold beer, all free for the taking. A rather large army of police, including the local sheriff's department, make sure only people 21 and older are being served.

Although there are no official statistics kept on illegal drug use at the event — arrest statistics are located nowhere in the Burning Man Organization's extensive after-event report — it is not uncommon to overhear conversations about the previous night's trip on acid or Ecstasy.

It can appear to be a lonely world to someone who cannot touch a drop of alcohol, as 28-year-old Andy said when he heard about the event while in a rehabilitation center.

"I had really written this off as something I couldn't do," said Andy, who lives in San Francisco and is a little more than two years clean and sober.

But Burning Man is something other than a huge, nonstop party to most of the people who attend. It is a place to relax, a place to see world-class art and a place to have fun. For clean and sober folks, it is a place to do all these things free of both alcohol and drugs.

To get to know the people who participate in clean and sober Burning Man, a visitor must first understand the ground rules. No last names can be used in any story, to respect the anonymous aspect of the community.

And not everyone in the community is a member of AA or its affiliated groups. Some simply participate in 12-step programs while others shun the religious aspect of AA but use its principles to get through life sober.

There are three large clean and sober theme camps at Burning Man — Anonymous Camp, Camp Stella and the Hokey Pokey Destiny. There are a total of eight group clean and sober meetings held daily at Burning Man.

The discussions at the meetings vary from how one participant dealt with his anger to how another felt when she saw a young man passed out in the dirt near the portable bathrooms.

Each and every person who spoke said they felt blessed to be at the event and were enjoying themselves without temptation.

DJ, a 43-year-old Burner from Dallas who has been sober for 15 years, felt the same apprehension as Andy on her first trip to the dusty lake bed last year. She did not want to be surrounded by drug use, she did not want to be without her community and her meetings.

But then she found out clean and sober meetings existed at the event and "I knew I would be safe," she said.

"As soon as we are together we are a family, so it's a-OK," she added.

DJ said Burning Man has been one of the most peaceful and laid-back experiences of her life. She meditates, goes out dancing, relaxes with her new friends at Camp Anonymous and checks out the art. She feels just like anyone else here and even said she enjoys the meetings on the desert floor better than the ones at home.

The people here, she said, are simply more tolerant.

"I knew I was in the right place when people referred to Gods and Goddesses in the meeting," she said. "It's a really safe environment, a safe place for people to be themselves in a non-judgmental atmosphere."

When she was drunk, Jenny S. said she felt 10 feet tall and bulletproof. An alcoholic by the age of 14, Jenny, 30, started using drugs and kept using them until she was hooked and homeless.

"I have been up for so long and have been so high I couldn't talk anymore," she said.

Jenny, who lives in San Jose, has been sober for more than five years now and plans to stay sober at this year's Burning Man, her first.

So far, she has roller-skated at the roller disco. She has walked to the city's temple and cried for friends she lost. She has met new friends she said she will probably have for life.

"You can go anywhere and do anything because you know who you are and you are content with that," she said. "It has taken me a long time and a lot of work to get me where I am today."

Dee V., a 42-year-old Burner from Nanaimo, British Columbia, said her first drug of choice was "more," more of anything she could get her hands on, particularly heroin. Sober for 11 years, she came to Burning Man for the first time this year after her parents suggested it.

As she prepared for the trip, Dee's sponsor questioned her about the wisdom of her choice. Dee, who works at a recovery center, said there has never been a question in her mind that she can remain sober at the event.

"I think that if you are affected by it you might want to talk about where you are in recovery," she said.

Her eyes are wide open. Her senses are not numb, she said. She, like many of the clean and sober folks at Burning Man, said they may be missing a party or two, but they are not missing any part of Burning Man.

"I'll remember every moment of this and people who aren't sober might not," she said.