Lara Pearson - Burning Man

Yay.

Thank you for having me.

So 20 years is a long time to do anything.

Um, maybe take us back to your first Burning Man.

Why did you go to this, and what did you think you were getting yourself into that first year?

Um, well, I don't research things very, very much when it comes to what am I gonna go do next.

My mother would call that my impulsivity.

Uh-

[laughs]

But I, I had heard, l-lots of friends had talked about it, 'cause I live in Ta- li- North, uh, Lake Tahoe, which is very close, relatively speaking, to Burning Man.

Mm-hmm.

Uh, where they hold Burning Man.

And, uh, so I was working at a law firm, and a friend of mine there decided, she told me she and her husband were going.

And a lot of my, um, friends that I saw live music with, and that I would maybe consider more... not more playful, but differently play- like, playful more in the way I am, that go to festivals, et cetera.

My friend and her husband were very lawyerly and more f- for football games, and just, uh, kind of a...

I, I wouldn't necessarily picture them at Burning Man.

But when she said she was gonna go-

Yeah

...

I was like, "Yeah, I'm gonna go.

That sounds...

That, that, that...

Even though my friends seem scared, if this lady thinks it's okay, it must be cool." Um, so we went.

This was 2002, and my husband and I, uh, drove out in a little RAV4 with a, uh, 10-by-10 tent and a, um...

Sorry, 10-by-10 tent and, and, and a tarp.

Yay.

Thank you for having me.

So 20 years is a long time to do anything.

Um, maybe take us back to your first Burning Man.

Why did you go to this, and what did you think you were getting yourself into that first year?

Um, well, I don't research things very, very much when it comes to what am I gonna go do next.

My mother would call that my impulsivity.

Uh-

[laughs]

But I, I had heard, l-lots of friends had talked about it, 'cause I live in Ta- li- North, uh, Lake Tahoe, which is very close, relatively speaking, to Burning Man.

Mm-hmm.

Uh, where they hold Burning Man.

And, uh, so I was working at a law firm, and a friend of mine there decided, she told me she and her husband were going.

And a lot of my, um, friends that I saw live music with, and that I would maybe consider more... not more playful, but differently play- like, playful more in the way I am, that go to festivals, et cetera.

My friend and her husband were very lawyerly and more f- for football games, and just, uh, kind of a...

I, I wouldn't necessarily picture them at Burning Man.

But when she said she was gonna go-

Yeah

...

I was like, "Yeah, I'm gonna go.

That sounds...

That, that, that...

Even though my friends seem scared, if this lady thinks it's okay, it must be cool." Um, so we went.

This was 2002, and my husband and I, uh, drove out in a little RAV4 with a, uh, 10-by-10 tent and a, um...

Sorry, 10-by-10 tent and, and, and a tarp.