Enter the Thunderdrome: Inside the world's largest post-apocalyptic festival where thousands of Mad Max fans gather in the desert
- Wasteland Weekend is an annual four-day festival that allows lovers of the Mad Max movie franchise to see what it is really like to live in a society where civilization is crumbling
- For many, the end of the world might seem daunting, but for these festival goers a post-apocalyptic world in the middle of a Californian desert is a form of escapism
- At least this is the case for Mike Orr who is known as 'Sweet Lips' at Wasteland and who described the event as 'spiritual' and 'inspirational'
- The four-day post-apocalyptic party in the Mojave desert began in 2010 and has seen steady growth each year - this year's event is set to be held from September 22 to 25
For many, the end of the world might seem daunting, but for these festival goers a post-apocalyptic world in the middle of a Californian desert is a form of escapism.
At least this is the case for Mike Orr who is known as 'Sweet Lips' at Wasteland Weekend - the annual four-day festival that allows lovers of the Mad Max movie franchise to see what it is really like to live in a society where civilization is crumbling.
'It's the end of the world,' Orr said of Wasteland which attracts thousands from across the country. 'You get to do whatever you want to do.'
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For many, the end of the world might seem daunting, but for Wasteland Weekend festival goers, a post-apocalyptic world in the middle of a Californian desert is a form of escapism. Attendees pictured above at last year's festival
Wasteland Weekend is the annual four-day festival that allows lovers of the Mad Max movie franchise to see what it is really like to live in a society where civilization is crumbling
For Mike Orr (pictured at last year's event) who is known as Sweet Lips at Wasteland, the festival is an opportunity where 'you get to do whatever you want to do'
Attendees of the event are required to be decked out in costumes with festival organizers designing elaborate sets complete with Mad Max-style cars. In his first year, Orr built a car customized with a mermaid figure head from an underwater sunken pirate ship (pictured)
Orr, a life support aquarist at a public aquarium in Las Vegas, said he first learned of the festival through a former partner and their first year going, they decided to build a car. Last year, he refurbished the hulk of the Exxon Valdez from the 1995 thriller Waterworld (pictured)
Each year, attendees of the event are required to be decked out in costumes while at the festival's wasteland compound with organizers designing elaborate sets complete with Mad Max-style cars. Festival goers also drive out to the event in custom-made vehicles.
Orr, a life support aquarist at a public aquarium in Las Vegas, said he first learned of the festival through a former partner and their first year going, they decided to build a car.
He said he has worked on cars casually, rebuilding engines, but he described the competition to outdo himself by constructing a junkyard monster better than the previous year as an 'addiction.'
'It's an obsession,' he says in a documentary by MEL Films during last year's festival. 'But more than that, it's a passion. I'm married to this... even though I said I'd never get married again.'
In his first year at Wasteland, he acquired a '79 Camaro. For a week, they worked on the car, customizing it with a mermaid figure head taken from an underwater sunken pirate ship at the aquarium, and a harpoon made of air conditioning and heading duct work as well as a fence post anchor.
A group of festival goers walk through the gates of Wasteland for the annual four-day event in a Southern California desert in 2015
During the event, attendees get to see live bands and DJs from California, Nevada and Arizona perform as well as combat and stunt performers
Wasteland Weekend is held in a fenced-off area in the open desert and security, portable toilets and sinks are provided during the event. Scene's from last year's festival shown above
Attendees show up to the event in an armada of post-apocalyptic vehicles driven from around the country (one pictured above last year)
'As we're walking into the gate with the sign overhead that says Wasteland, it was like... being baptized,' Orr recalled of his first time entering through the gates of the festival.
The four-day post-apocalyptic party in the Mojave desert began in 2010 and has seen steady growth each year.
Now it is the largest post-apocalyptic themed festival in the world, with last year's being the biggest event to date with 2,500 festival goers.
Over the years, fixtures of the Wasteland Weekend environment have emerged and include bounty hunting games, a bonfire dance pit, a film festival and a fire spinning area.
'There's a spiritual aspect to Wasteland weekend and the people who attend it,' Orr said.
'You have all this armor on and spikes and everything like that... it's emulating the end of the world. It's an escapism. You come here and you can be whatever you want to be.'
He added: 'The big draw is really the creative, inspirational, off-the-wall things that it makes me do because I see what other people are doing.
'It's a spirituality, it's a philosophy and it's a family... it's the people that make this what it is.'
Two festival goers show off their junkyard creation. The festival also includes fire dancers, wasteland burlesque, a post-apocalyptic-style sideshow and circus acts
The festival's elaborate sets are meant to replicate a post-apocalyptic world and are based on the movie franchise Mad Max
Enthusiasts wear elaborate costumes for the festival, which is a requirement, and also carry life-like looking props during last year's event
One festival goer is pictured with his fellow pet which is also adorning a costume head adornment
Over the years, fixtures of the Wasteland Weekend environment have emerged and include bounty hunting games, a bonfire dance pit, a film festival and a fire spinning area
Orr who has now attended the festival for the past three years and plans to keep attending each year said as far as devising his next junkyard monster, he is scared considering his creation last year.
Last year's festival saw Orr refurbish the hulk of the Exxon Valdez from the 1995 Kevin Costner thriller Waterworld, measuring more than 100 feet long, which he bought for only $1.
'As far as developing the next big thing, that scares me. It really does,' Orr said during last year's festival. 'We built a ship in a desert. Next year, what, a 747?'
Wasteland Weekend, an adults-only event, is held in a fenced-off area in the open desert and security, portable toilets and sinks are provided. This year's festival is set to be held from September 22 to 25.
The four-day post-apocalyptic party in the Mojave desert began in 2010 and has seen steady growth each year
Over the years, fixtures of the Wasteland Weekend environment have emerged and include bounty hunting games, a bonfire dance pit, a film festival and a fire spinning area
A festival goer poses next to one of the Mad Max-style vehicles during the Wasteland Weekend festival in the Mojave desert
Wasteland Weekend attendees in outlandish costumes ride on one of their junkyard monster creations
Wasteland Weekend features more than 100 customized, fan-built Mad Max-style cars and motorcycles, driven out from all over the continent. This year's event is set to be held from September 22 to 25
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3564829/World-s-largest-post-apocalyptic-festival-sees-thousands-Mad-Max-fans-gather-Californian-desert.html#ixzz47HpXdCic
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