Posted on 09/01/2007 3:38:28 AM PDT by Daffynition
A Burning Man participant was found dead this morning, hanging from the inside of a two-story high tent, according to Mark Pirtle, special agent in charge for the Bureau of Land Management.
The apparent suicide would be the festival's first in its 21 year history, Pirtle said.
Pershing County coroners are investigating the scene and preparing to remove the body. Pirtle said the man was hanging for two hours before anyone in the large tent thought to bring him down. "His friends thought he was doing an art piece," Pirtle said.
A makeshift morgue is being set up at the law enforcement command center on the outskirts of Black Rock City. Pirtle said authorities can not release information on the dead man's name until next of kin is notified.
The incident has gone unnoticed by most of the 36,000 revelers who have already arrived. The city's population is on pace to hit 46,000, Pirtle said, a fourteen percent increase from last year.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
About this time every year, I begin to think I would have liked to have attended an ‘early-on’ BM ... just to see what it was like. But it has grown too unwieldy and now, crowds give me the jitters.
Sounds like a mental institution... without the building.
This is what art has become. What a shame.
I see a host of imitators on the horizon
They were so high they thought he was a kite! LOL
I was told Seattle does something similar. Heh. Seattle.
“Sodom” I’m not so worried about ... it’s the “Gonorrhea.” 8-(
NO. Freedom.
That pretty much confirms my assessment of what kind of lowbrows go to this annual debauch.
Burning Man LLC, the organization that oversees Burning Man, has been a prolific benefactor to Gerlach -- and to other towns and entities in northern Nevada -- over the years.
Gifts to Gerlach have included money and labor donated for the restoration of the town's historic water tower, an offer to change all of Gerlach's incandescent light bulbs to cost-saving fluorescents, and year-round free broadband internet access, said Tom Price, Burning Man LLC's environmental manager.
"There's screaming-fast Wi-Fi all over Gerlach," Price said.
But the biggest gift yet will come from this year's Burning Man, with its Green Man art theme, when Burning Man LLC will donate solar-panel arrays capable of producing 120 kilowatts to the town, to be installed on various community center buildings.
"These will be the largest solar arrays ever given away," Price said.
Solar panels installed on the school would save it $45,000 a year, Price said, adding that he thinks the new solar panels would make the electric bill for Gerlach's community center buildings "just go away."
What a story. The comments are interesting as well.
Death at Burning Man is nothing new. People have been run over by cars, burned up by fire, died by jumping off towers, died trying to fly into the event. To me, jumping off a tower becasue you think you can fly or running through flames and ash becasue you think your god will protect you is also suicide.
Gee. Welcome to Free Republic.
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