Photos: Wasteland Weekend
If you consider yourself a Mad Max fan, you’re certainly not alone. In case you consider yourself a rabid fan because you have all of the Max movies in your DVD collection, well it’s time to step your game up. Tired of seeing Mad Max-themed events being staged elsewhere, Mad Max fan Karol Bartoszynski set out to change things by organizing ‘RoadWar 101’ in 2004.
In his own words, “Roadwar 101 was based on the concept of bringing fans out for a highway drive in the spirit of the Roadwarrior car chase. Costumed people and costumed cars. A semi-truck was rented for a 45-minute run down California’s highway 101.” A number of RoadWar events have run around the country since then.
Bartoszynski and others have continued to look for new opportunities to celebrate the Mad Max enthusiasm and this year, WASTELAND WEEKEND 2010 will be held on October 22-24, at Soggy Dry Lake in California’s Mojave Desert. The three-day, post-apocalyptic theme party demands that all attendees are participants, by requiring a suitable costume.
Among the weekend’s features and events, you’ll find many top Industrial DJs from Southern California, fire dancers, grind acts and percussion performances, post-apocalyptic vehicles from around the country, post-apocalyptic vendors in the recreated Bartertown, gyrocopter fly-overs, staged combat shows and sufficient additional mayhem to satisfy the most ardent part-time anarchist.
This get-together is definitely not for the well-adjusted. With hundreds of fans anticipated to come and camp on the “wasteland compound”, you’ll live for three days in Max’s world, outside of civilization and perhaps beyond your expectations. If you don’t happen to have a tricked out Australian V8 Interceptor, an old Army truck will do.
Oh, do remember to make separate arrangements for the kiddies. The event is definitely not PG-13. Tickets and more information are available on the event web site.