PSYCHEDELIC FESTIVAL EXPECTED TO DRAW SOME 24,000 REVELERS
IN PURSUIT OF FREE EXPRESSION

BLACK ROCK DESERT, NEVADA For most of the year, Austin Richards pulls down
a six-figure salary as an engineer in Santa Barbara, California.

But during the week leading up to Labor Day, he's Dr. MegaVolt, whose
high-voltage pyrotechnics are a top draw at the 16th-annual Burning Man
counterculture festival in the northern Nevada desert.

Richards is among 24,000 techies, artists, spiritualists and old hippies
from at least 40 states and 12 countries expected to attend the gathering
this week.

The psychedelic festival combines wilderness camping and an eclectic mix of
art and music in a surreal 5-square-mile (13-square-kilometer) encampment
known as Black Rock City, 120 miles (193 kilometers) north of Reno.

"This is my fantasy of what life should be like all the time," said
Richards, who shoots long arcs of electricity from his hands and head with
the help of a high-powered machine during his nightly shows.

The weeklong gathering on the ancient lake bed climaxes Saturday night with
the ceremonial torching of a 70-foot (21-meter)-high wooden effigy of a man
for whom the event is named.

Billed as the ultimate celebration of radical self-expression and
self-reliance, Burning Man features a crazy, anything-goes atmosphere.

It's a place where men can be seen walking in diapers or skirts and nude
women can be seen bouncing on pogo sticks - and no one thinks anything of it.

Organizers and participants criticized the media for focusing on the
festival's nudity and drugs, insisting the artwork, such as fire-belching
sculptures and fish-shaped vehicles, is what makes Burning Man unique.

A Santa Cruz, California, couple, Patrick Flanagan and Stephanie Sutton,
spent about dlrs 120,000 on their Emerald City attraction, which features a
dome with a 360-degree surround sound laser show that spoofs the movie,
"Wizard of Oz."

"People here definitely march to a different drummer," Sutton said. "We do
this for the pure art and enjoyment of it. Burning Man is not like society,
which does everything for profit and greed."

Participants also operate hundreds of theme camps such as the Costco
Soulmate Trading Outlet where celebrants can line up dates and the Barbie
Death Camp and Wine Bistro where revelers can dispose of unwanted Barbies
while sipping wine.

Other activities include bicycle soccer, egg volleyball, body painting, a
"weird" underwear fashion show and dominatrix training.

"Burning Man helped me understand how I'm confined by normalcy," said Misha
Collins, a 27-year-old Los Angeles actor.

"I used to think Burning Man was just a party, but it's a life-changing
event," added his 27-year-old girlfriend Vicki Vantoch. "You're forced to
reconsider your life and reassess your values after you come here."