Each night, when the sun goes down at the annual real life Burning Man festival, men and women in white, flame-trim robes and turbans appear, carrying long poles laden with kerosene lamps.  They make their way from Lamplighter Village out through Black Rock City, hanging glowing lamps along the virtual city's byways, to illuminate the night for festival goers.

 

Their work done, the Lamplighters congregate at Center Camp, in the heart of Black Rock City, where they are joined by drummers, fire dancers and other members of the Burning Man community to drum and dance  and celebrate fire throughout the desert night.

 

At BURN2, a virtual recreation of Burning Man in Second Life, there is also an active Lamplighter group.  Like their real life counterparts, the BURN2 Lamplighters build a nomadic village on the playa which serves as their home during the festival.  It also serves as a kind of community center for the broader BURN2 community, a place where anyone can drop in, anytime of the night or day, to play drums and fire dance, or just to socialize. 

 

Lamplighter Village is actually a cluster of four small villages, each representing one of the four drumming cultures from which Lamplighter drummers take their drums: Africa, Native America, Japan and Latin America. And drums from each of these cultures are always out for visitors to play.

 

Each night Lamplighters don their robes, form a procession at Lamplighter Village and make their way north, lighting lamps as they walk, through Center Camp, past The Man to The Temple where they will drum and dance and celebrate fire until dawn. BURN2 is meant to be a participatory event, not a spectator event, and in the Burning Man spirit of radical inclusion drums are always available for anyone who wants to join in.

 

Anyone can join the BURN2 Lamplighters, and anyone can participate in Lamplighter activities even if they don't choose to join the group, however only members of the group can wear the distinctive Lamplighter robes and wear the group tag.