Enter the Thunderdrome: Inside the world's largest post-apocalyptic festival...

Daily Mail ^

[McGruff]

For many, the end of the world might seem daunting, but for these festival goers a post-apocalyptic world in the middle of a Californian desert is a form of escapism.

At least this is the case for Mike Orr who is known as 'Sweet Lips' at Wasteland Weekend - the annual four-day festival that allows lovers of the Mad Max movie franchise to see what it is really like to live in a society where civilization is crumbling.

'It's the end of the world,' Orr said of Wasteland which attracts thousands from across the country. 'You get to do whatever you want to do.'

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Each year, attendees of the event are required to be decked out in costumes while at the festival's wasteland compound with organizers designing elaborate sets complete with Mad Max-style cars. Festival goers also drive out to the event in custom-made vehicles.

Orr, a life support aquarist at a public aquarium in Las Vegas, said he first learned of the festival through a former partner and their first year going, they decided to build a car.

He said he has worked on cars casually, rebuilding engines, but he described the competition to outdo himself by constructing a junkyard monster better than the previous year as an 'addiction.'

'It's an obsession,' he says in a documentary by MEL Films during last year's festival. 'But more than that, it's a passion. I'm married to this... even though I said I'd never get married again.'

In his first year at Wasteland, he acquired a '79 Camaro. For a week, they worked on the car, customizing it with a mermaid figure head taken from an underwater sunken pirate ship at the aquarium, and a harpoon made of air conditioning and heading duct work as well...

[Svartalfiar]

Has some explicit language, but pretty sweet video here. First two minutes is another song of theirs, so start at 2min to avoid the language:

Five Finger Death Punch - House Of The Rising Sun

[OldNewYork]

Sounds worth a trip if at least a portion of them look like Arkie Whiteley from the second movie.