Sunday

Burning Man Theme Camp The Fall Out Shelter

Reno Burning Man Theme Camp

The Fall Out Shelter

…strolling along the dusty streets of Black Rock City, you come upon an elevator. Above the elevator doors is the universal fallout shelter sign, to your right, a button with a down arrow. You reach a finger out, and press. The button illuminates, and shortly after, the doors open. You walk in, the doors close behind you.

Inside the elevator, there are two sets of doors — the ones which you’ve just come through, and those in front of you. In front, there are windows, and you can see the playa. You hear a tremendous explosion. As you feel the elevator begin to descend, you watch through the windows, and see a mushroom cloud envelop BRC. And then, just before the nuclear fireball reaches you, the elevator sinks below ground. A recorded message begins:”You’re about to enter the Black Rock City Municipal Fallout Shelter, where you’ll be safe from whatever disaster has brought you here…”

The elevator stops. Through the dust coated windows you can barely make out the details of the room in front of you. The doors open, you step forward into the shelter. There are stockpiles of food and water, gas masks, tables with board games and wine bottles. Dozens of burners are drinking, dancing, and laughing. Don’t they know the outside world has just been obliterated? A black and white television in the corner has the news on it. Footage of the nuclear holocaust is looped, as the anchorman repeats in disbelief… ”All is lost. The world as we know it, annihilated.”

The Fallout Shelter is a theme camp, meant to immerse the participant in the Nuclear Nightmares of the 20th Century. A critical component of our American experience has been living in fear of mass destruction. Today, it’s Terrorism we fear. But no so long ago, we feared The Bomb. Of course, the Fallout Shelter is above ground. The elevator is a gag, a segueway between realities, between now and then. The windows are LCD flat panel monitors, giving the visual illusion of motion. The unit itself will move approximately 10 feet, rolling from the front of the camp, to the “fallout shelter”, and dropping a few inches.