Burn2: The Temple Burn

Sunday November 4th was the second of the two burns at the Burn2 festival: the Temple Burn. Like the burning of "The Man," it was scheduled to take place three times, morning, Noon, and evening. Due to the technical glitches that weekend, the early morning burn was postponed until the following day. So the first one that day was at Noon.

At Noon, the Temple begins to catch fire.

The temple brazier, which had been lit the entire time of the festival, is now joined by other flames.

Before lighting, people had been sending various messages to the temple, which it read aloud before and the early part of the burning.

"Peace love and friendship to all," "Love and light," "Life and love are best when both made fresh dailey :-D ," "I will always love you M," "Computers are useless. They can only give us answers. (Pablo Picasso)," "May the God and Goddess bless us all," "Pip is the greatest/Christ is the bestest," "Beautiful Dreamers~May love always lead your way," "I was never able to tell you how much I love you, it was always there deep in my heart, and will stay there till the end, I love you .. I wish you would know it!"

"May the long time SUNSHINE upon you, all LOVE surround you, and the pure light with in you GUIDE your way Home," "Truth and Love are gifts from the Universe to us! Reach out and receive Love," "Kindness is free share it!" "Hope for a gentle warm wind blown upon your mind and sail away to a dream state of harmony!" "I love Second Life, and all it's creative bliss," "We are spirits having a human experience!" "For those who burn, those who wish to burn, and those that have burnt before, (love), ""Which ever way I end up here I'm always home, Burn On, Burn on ツ "It is well to be born in a decadent age, one may obtain a reputation for virtue at a bargain price - Voltaire, " "Goodbye Paul David Addis, the dark impish soul of Burnin Man."

The sims adjacent to the burning Temple were packed. Among those were was blogger Daniel Voyager in his owl avatar, "I'm really excited!"

It wasn't long before the whole temple was afire, "Here comes the flame, boy!"

The Temple was soon consumed by the virtual flame, and began coming apart, "There she goes!" "Hot grits a'flyin, y'all!"

"Moar C4!" "Whoah!"

Parts didn't just fall down, but sometimes flew off a short distance, "Ow! I got hit by falling burning temple!"

Eventually, the Temple had completely collapsed.

And the all-clear was given, "Rabbit Hole is open now!" "Be brave and enter." And it was quickly filled with enthusiastic burners, "It's not letting me in." "Damn, this sim fills fast!" "Please try to take turns going in and out so everyone has a chance to enter." "Rabbit Hole is a homestead sim, so only 20 allowed at a time. Please take turns."

A close up of one of the Burners, a few items on her face still not completely showing, but the light made for a picturesque view.

People darted around, and even in, the virtual flames, "This temple burn was, and is, beautiful!"

One Ranger approached with a fire extinguisher.

With the flames dying down, some left. Others hung around, a few offering words of thanks and poetry, "Rebith, renew, not the same, better, again, brighter, for the past, renew, another opportunity, gifted, like each day, we burn, we renew."

The temple burn would take place again in the evening, and the next morning. After that, the Burn2 festival was officially over, although the sims remained up for a few more days and there were some smaller parties.

And so, the largest art and music festival in Second Life came to a close for another year. But fans won't have to wait a whole year for another taste. Saturday the 10th is the Skin Burn. And some smaller Burn-related events had been organized between the 2011 and 2012 festivals, so there will likely be more. But there's only one Burn2.

"Can't wait till next year, goodnight everybody!"

For more pictures, check the Burn2 Flickr. 

Bixyl Shuftan