Reno’s Hostel for Burners
The Northern Nevada Celtic Celebration put us up at the Morris Burner Hostel. We didn’t know what we were getting into. It turned out to be quite an experience.
It’s a four-story hotel (without an elevator) built in 1928. A “Burner” bought the hotel in 2013. Each room and the hotel’s common areas are decorated by artists run amok. It is as colorful as any hotel I have ever seen.
It has a fenced in back yard filled with some might call junk. Others might call it materials for future art projects. These include a full-size bus, a car made out of wood, numerous bar-b-que grills, theatre chairs, and who knows what else.
It is a good thing that the yard is fenced. An army of homeless people live on the corner. There is a homeless shelter there, and several charitable organizations and food kitchens. The shelter must have been full while we were there, for there were hundreds of homeless people sleeping outside.
The staff was wonderful and our stay was quite pleasant. We were even treated to fireworks – the ballpark for the Reno Aces is only a block away and we could see the post-game fireworks out of our window.
Morris Burner is a membership hostel, and somewhat of a gateway into the world of the Burners. The hostel is also a hangout for local and traveling Burners.
What is a Burner, you may ask. I wish I could tell you, but it is more than a bit confusing. It is someone who attends the Burning Man event, or adopts the Burning Man code. It is an annual festival. It is also a way of life.
I’m pretty sure I will never attend the Burning Man event. It’s a week in the desert with a whole lot of debauchery. It’s an anything goes cultural event, which is OK by me. I’m just not sure it is for me.
You might get a feel of the event from the Burning Man Project website. I, though, discovered everything I wanted to know by perusing the 2018 program. It contained 191 pages with short listing of scheduled events. An awful lot of the programs dealt with meditation, yoga, Tai Chi, dancing and massage. Many of the others were off-the-chart risqué. Here are some of the program titles – I won’t give you the entire descriptions, just the titles, which require only a modest amount of imagination:
The Beaver Dome — Naughty Nude Portraits — Gender Fluids
Anonymous Naked Yearbook — Interactive Spanking Extravaganza
The Orgy Dome Open Play Hours — Radical Intimacy
Get Married by Robot Elvis — Pussy Day Spa — Tea and Porn
Welding in the Nude — Polegasms — ClitTails — Bondage 101
Kinky Sex – Intro to BDSM (I have to confess, I don’t know what BDSM is)
No Tell Motel (it’s in the air conditioned love yurt).
I will give you one complete description, though, for The Orgy Dome Open Play Hours, from 1:00 pm to 1:00 am, Monday to Saturday:
“Open to couples and moresomes of all orientations til sunrise. Practice enthusiastic consent in the air conditioning. Just us and open sections. Bring a towel.”
(All photographs by Linda McDonnell)