Wasteland In Pictures
by Tod Seelie
A few years ago, I packed my van and headed into the post-apocalypse.
Wasteland Weekend is a fully immersive dystopian festival held annually in the Mojave Desert, built around a theme and aesthetic strictly informed by films like Mad Max and games like Fallout. Attendees must wear world-appropriate costumes, joining in the creation of a roleplay-like experience; there are performances and vehicle parades, a marketplace called "Bartertown," jousting in the Thunderdome, gambling at the Last Chance Casino, and the full-contact sport of Jugger (think rugby with weapons and armor with a ball that impersonates a dog skull).
Unlike Burning Man, where your experience can vary a lot camp by camp, Wasteland does an excellent job of creating a truly shared world. People spend all year building out their cars, their outfits and designing their theme camps in an amazing display of dedication. There are truly no spectators, no one who isn’t participating to some degree—the lone exception I ever saw being a European photojournalist who attended my first year covering the event; he wandered around getting in everyone else’s shots, dressed in flagrantly conspicuous white jeans, a blue button-down shirt and blindingly clean shoes.
Keep us breathing fire!
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