LA Decompression - Burning Man Street Fair October 14, 2006

Coming to the Arts District on Saturday October 14, 2006 is the annual Los Angeles Burning Man street-fair known as Decompression. The fair is traditionally held the month following the Burning Man Festival. (Burning Man is the internationally recognized festival known as a radical experiment in community and self-expression that annually takes place in the Nevada desert). The regional post-events and street fairs that follow Burning Man are known as "Decompressions" and with Los Angeles boasting as one of the largest and most active Burning Man regions outside of the Bay Area the LA Decompression has become one of LA's most anticipated events. This year's event will take place from noon until midnight and the main entrance is located at 901 East 1st Street in Downtown Los Angeles.

As the Burning Man website attests: Decompression is an opportunity to dust off and share again playa art, performances, theme camps, photos, videos and stories from the playa; to re-connect with family and friends; and collaborate to create new art. It is, at its simplest, a reunion. But more significantly, it is a thoroughly participatory celebration of Burning Man art and community within our larger communities. And it is one of the more powerful ways many of us bring some of what is so inspiring about Burning Man to our cities and the public eye.

This year marks the 4th year for the street fair in Los Angeles and expects 5000 patrons joining costumed artists and participants with multiple stages, performances, theme camps and art installations. The street fair is also a fundraiser for the Black Rock Arts Foundation (BRAF) whose mission is to support and promote community-based interactive art through grants and exhibitions. Just this year, BRAF supported the installation of 'Passage', the massive steel sculpture of a mother and child created for Burning Man 2005 and is now as a public sculpture at Pier 14 in San Francisco.

The Burning Man festival has been a major source of inspiration for it's participants. Huge sculpture, art installations and performances grace the desert floor every year and Burning Man now gives over $400,000 a year in arts grants. To experience the event is well reputed as an eye opening and inspiration awakening experience.

Added to this year's event will be an art gallery exhibit; Burning Man, Awakening Inspiration which will preview at the Gallery Row Art Walk Oct 12th. Included at this exhibit will be a book signing of Desert to Dreams an unprecedented photographic record of a decade at Burning Man from Barbara Traub. This exhibition will take place in the Continental Building in Downtown's Gallery Row located at 4th and Spring Street.

Barbara Traub's new book Desert to Dream is an unprecedented photographic record of a decade of Burning Man celebrations. She captures the sacred and profane through images of otherworldly artifacts, structures, and costumes that defy description. Contributions from filmmaker Les Blank, Burning Man founder Larry Harvey, Star Trek's Mr. Spock, Leonard Nimoy, and beat poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti help to illuminate her unique perspective on this dynamically evolving event. You can learn more at: www.desert2dream.com

For more information and updates on the LA Decompression, please vist the website at: www.la-burningman.com

Official Website: http://la-burningman.com