It’s Star Wars on parade with the art cars at Burning Man’s own DMV
For a certain kind of person, the idea of attending Burning Man, the yearly art festival held in the deserts of Nevada, where thousands of non-conformists slow-roast themselves in a fine marinade of community, drugs, and gallons upon gallons of sweat, is akin to a living hell. That being said, there are some pretty incredible art projects debuted every year at the festival, including the bizarre phenomenon of “art cars,” slow, heavily decorated vehicles deployed in the hundreds every year by dedicated artists and mechanics.
Of course, even in a free-expression zone like Burning Man, vehicles have to be regulated for safety (especially since many of the art cars contain pyrotechnic effects), requiring a stop at the festival’s DMV (Department Of Mutant Vehicles, because of course that’s what it’s called). Luckily for people who’d like to see (but not smell, taste, or feel) this year’s crop of fascinating automotive monstrosities (including a telephone car, some sort of giant mobile crab vehicle, and a massive recreation of one of Jabba’s sand barges from Return Of The Jedi), filmmaker Mark Day has released a three-minute video of the DMV line for this year’s event. It’s the next best thing to being there (or, again, significantly better, depending on your opinion of roasting to death in a desert full of Burning Man attendees).