In 2007, Boogie Universal, a volunteer collective based in Bellingham, Washington dedicated to "building better community through music," decided to take their good music, good vibes and good peoples to Burning Man. The project that we organized around was the construction of the Boogie Pyramid, a 40 foot-tall performance/gathering space made of recycled billboard vinyl, rivets, grommets, cable and a galvanized steel mast. There was much amateur engineering and high school math skills involved as we tried to figure out how this prototype would work. Over 30 people pitched in with dozens of hours of labor, free welding work, generous use of a secret farm field construction site and good cheer.

But building the Boogie Pyramid was only one part of the story. Boogie Universal also met weekly to plan a myriad of camp logistics: food, Leave No Trace, transportation, camp theme, entertainment in the Pyramid, camping, furniture, costumage, generators and power production, booze, camp wellness, showers and grey water evaporation â the list goes on and on and then on some more. We hash through all this for hours -- impossible to say how many hours went in to this project, this dream, this folly â actually, we probably don't even want to know.

But many of us found an odd sense of satisfaction in focusing our free time on an endeavor that is ridiculous, a mission that that made no sense. I got a surprising jolt of inspiration in spending precious time, resources and energy on a project with aspirations that lie outside of normal boundaries: we won't make any money doing this. There is no fame and glory to be earned in all of this, no job promotion nor merit badge.

So why did we do it? Why work to set up an enormous 35,000 watt sound installation in a 3,600 square-foot pyramid a thousand miles away from home in the middle of a desiccated lake bed in Nevada? Hard to pin down the reasons, and I'm sure each member of the Boogie Universal collective would provide a different answer.

What is it that draws one to Burning Man anyways? An infinite amount of answers, all correct.

Anyways, this 19-minute movie documents much of the process, from backyard brainstorm to construction to transportation, erection and execution. Things didn't turn out exactly like we had planned, but that was part of the magic of our experience, and I hope this video succeeds in sharing the love we had for the Boogie Universal Pyramid Project at Burning Man 2007!

More videos from DJ Playaduster at www.destinationburningman.com. Feedback: [email protected]