CNN iReport

Tonight, by sheer luck, I arrived in the SL Burning Life sim just when the ceremony of the ‘Burning Man’ took place.

The annual Burning Man arts Festival in real life happened from 31 August to 7 September this year, in the Black Rock desert, north of Reno, Nevada.  Burning Man had originated in 1986 when Larry Harvey, with a group of friends, torched an 8 foot wooden man on a beach in San Francisco.  It was to initiate an annual Labour Day ritual, and eventually the event moved to the Black Rock desert.

Like-minded people gather each year in the desert to create, for one week, Black Rock City.  Some describe it as a life changing experience, creating a temporary city and civilization and cutting themselves off from the normal pressures and social limitations of their normal lives. The artefacts that the people bring to the desert are an interactive part of the event that people can touch and walk closely around, and it is thought that most of this art is also burned at the end of the festival.

Second Life has it’s own Burning Man festival called Burning Life and there have been many amazing exhibits this year, all built by the residents of SL.  Tonight the Burning Life sim was absolutely packed, with nearly 200 people who had come to watch the Burning Man effigy set alight.  To a soft drum roll, little fires were started around the outside of the effigy.  Gradually the fires moved in towards the figure until finally it caught fire, lighting the sky with dancing flames.

I met a friend there, Aeneas Beaumont, who was helping out by translating for people around the Burning Life sims, he told me that the people came because they are "free-thinking, open minded and art loving", and this applies to those in real life and Second life.  I’m glad I caught the event, as I live in the UK, I would never be able to travel to the real Nevada desert, but at least I have seen the Second Life version.