Black Rock City
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Date: Thursday 28 August 2008
Time: 11am
Location: The Man
History
The World Naked Bike Ride is a really comfortable fit for Burning Man. Our inaugural ride was in 2004 with approximately 100 participants. The course took us throughout Black Rock City, and eventually out to the Greeter Gate to welcome people who were just arriving on the playa.
A bunch of naked bicyclists riding through a major urban area is pretty provocative, but at Burning Man it’s really no big deal. So to encourage increased participation in 2005 and to set us apart from other Burning Man events, we added a pub-crawl to the ride. Various camps volunteered to bartend for us when we stopped by, which bumped up participation our second year to approximately 200 riders.
The 2006 ride had around 250 riders. Five camps hosted us for cocktail stops and water breaks along the route: Our Lady of Schlong, La Dolce Vita, Hot WheelZ, Comfort & Joy, and Vamp Camp. The guys at Comfort & Joy had around 15 bartenders and waiters who rose to the challenge by wearing nothing but bowties, and their DJ wore nothing but a hat. Way to go, guys… Comfort & Joy rocks! Our final host camp was Vamp Camp, which had a huge misting tent set up to cool us off. Awesome.
After leaving Vamp Camp, we rode over to The Deep End for the after-party. The Deep End is a huge dance camp where we had finished the 2005 ride the year before. Before we reached The Deep End, we encountered a camp with a huge slip-and-slide set up, so we took over the place for a half hour of slipping and sliding. After a couple hours of dancing at The Deep End, everyone eventually rode back to their campsites where they’d left their clothes four hours prior. It was a great day!
While nudity doesn’t shock anybody on the playa, the advantage to doing the ride at Burning Man is that you don’t have to haul your clothes around with you. Burning Man is probably the only WNBR venue that allows you to leave your clothes at home. Most people wear some combination of hats, sunglasses, shoes and sunscreen, but that’s about it. We definitely comply with the dress code.
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