Aug 30: Burning Man and the Playa

Burning Man is a festival which takes place each year in the desert 

This year's event starts today.

Since 1990, the event has been held at Black Rock City in northwestern Nevada, a temporary city erected in the Black Rock Desert about 100 miles (160 km) north-northeast of Reno.

This year's event takes place at the end of August.

Those who take part in the event are called 'Burners'.

It has made the news a few times because of weather or other issues which have caused issues for festival goers and the landscape within which the festival takes place.

A heavy rainstorm in 2023 turned the desert surface, called playa, into a quagmire and trapped tens of thousands of people. This is a fragile environment and the potential for damage is controversial.

Unlike most festivals, the organisers have had to provide a 20 page Survival Guide which provides guidance on preparations and staying safe in what is an extreme - dry, hot and dusty environment.

Downloadable as a PDF.

Accompanying text:

Black Rock City has a way of bringing about once-in-a-lifetime experiences. While the big, flashy moments make the headlines and become the clickbait, many of the most memorable encounters come from small, personal, and whimsical interactions.
This year, I challenge you to do something personal that fosters interaction and connection. Think of traveling the backstreets, sharing your gifts with new friends, or sparking a moment of serendipity beneath a small art piece. These moments of self-expression and open-hearted connection are truly the ones that resonate, creating ripples in the dust and in our lives.
Joining a crew or communal effort is a great way to get involved. There are so many possibilities; find one that matches your interests and energy levels. However you choose to participate — organizing a camp, building art or a vehicle, helping with civic infrastructure or making the city run — know you are contributing to something bigger than yourself.
I am sure your time here will open new horizons and you’ll meet some amazing people. Ask anyone on a Burning Man crew or volunteer team what they love most about it, and they will tell you it’s about the work, and the friendships.

 

Imagine who you could meet — someone who could change your life, not just in Black Rock City, but forever.
Whether this is your first, or twenty-first Burn, I can’t wait to share this experience with you.
Charlie Dolman, Director of Event Operations

It contains some really interesting contents.

Would be useful to develop this as a tourism / extreme environments case study.

Via LinkedIn and a piece by Amanda Shendruk: a visual journalist.

Each year, 70,000 people gather on a dry lakebed in Nevada to build a city from scratch. This is Black Rock City, home to the infamous Burning Man event. Eight days later, it's gone.

But 150 people remain. They line up — side by side, an arms width apart — and slowly walk the 3,800 acres (15.4 km²) of dusty playa. They're looking for MOOP: Matter Out of Place. A screw, a sequin, a cigarette butt.

This forensic-style sweep takes weeks; everything they find is removed and logged. At the end, they're left with a remarkable accounting of what 70,000 people left behind: The MOOP Map. And I'm obsessed.

May 8: Derek Gifford -

Some details of an album which I came across when searching for information about Alex Gifford's 'Morecambe Bay'.

There’s a strong green thread running through the album, too. It’s topped and tailed with different takes on environmental damage: the poignancy of Land and Sea set against the cheerily scathing Coming in Further. 

Human damage to the natural world crops up in a number of the songs here, like the concertina-backed whaling chorus song Nantucket Sleighride, with its updated conservation message, or the acapella Do You Remember?, cataloguing 25 years of environmental decline.

May 6: Kaleo in Þingvellir

A cross-posting from my Fieldnotes from Iceland blog.

KALEO is playing at Þingvellir National Park, in the Bergmál festival in Iceland on the 20th of June 2026.

On the summer solstice, the midnight sun will become part of the experience: an endless golden hour against one of Iceland’s most iconic landscapes.

Bergmál (Echo) draws from the natural acoustics of Þingvellir, where voices once carried across the rift valley during Alþingi gatherings. 

Known for their powerful, emotionally-charged live shows, KALEO is one of Iceland's most internationally recognized music acts, with roots that trace back to the country's vibrant music scene.

IcelandAir are offering a package which includes return flights, a festival pass and shuttle bus transfers between Reykjavík and the Bergmál festival at Þingvellir National Park.

Located between the drifting tectonic plates of North America and Eurasia, Þingvellir is not only a UNESCO World Heritage Site, but also the historic heart of Iceland, where the nation’s parliament was founded over a thousand years ago.

KALEO will headline BERGMÁL at Þingvellir, joined by a handpicked group of artists. The lineup features some of Iceland’s most celebrated musicians, including Emilíana Torrini, Mugison, Stuðmenn, Helgi Björnsson, Hjálmar, GDRN, Júníus Meyvant, KK, and Árný Margrét – with more special guests to be announced.

I have to say I'm tempted, but we haven't quite finished for the summer by then....

 

The venue is significant as it is a World Heritage Site and has special cultural and historic significance to the people of Iceland as well as its stunning landscape: it's one of my favourite places on the island. 

I wonder whether there were some people who weren't impressed with the location for this particular concert and the environmental impact of it.

Here's a spot of KALEO for you:

Mar 28: John Denver

Everyone has musicians they listened to a lot some years back, but not quite as much now... and then when they listen to them again they remember how good they were.

One of my (many and varied) guilty musical pleasures is the music of John Denver: the stage name of Henry John Deutschendorf, Jr.

He was a fascinating person with a great many interests, including the development of aircraft, which ultimately led to his early death.

When I was younger I had a certain look of John Denver with my long blonde hair and round glasses. 

You will have seen my picture in Year 7 if you came to any of my lectures in the last ten years or so as part of my Everyday Geographies series of lectures leading up to and after my GA Presidency.

John was a superb live performer who my dad got to see play live - at Sheffield City Hall - but I never had the chance. I played the live album recorded around that time hundreds of times over the years.

He has written some classic tunes which have hundreds of millions of Spotify streams, and many of them will be familiar to people. 

Many of them link to his interests in environmental conservation.

Calypso was inspired by the work of French adventurer Jacques Cousteau, who invented the 'aqualung' and travelled the world making films.

His work was the inspiration for Wes Anderson's film 'The Life Aquatic with Steve Zizou'.

Here are some of the lyrics:

To sail on a dream, on a crystal clear ocean

To ride on the crest of a wild raging storm

To work in the service of life and the living

In search of the answers to questions unknown

Next up is Rocky Mountain High.

This one is about his own move to Colorado.

Lyrics:

He was born in the summer of his 27th year 

Comin' home to a place he'd never been before 

He left yesterday behind him, you might say he was born again 

You might say he found a key for every door 

When he first came to the mountains his life was far away 

On the road and hangin' by a song 

But the string's already broken and he doesn't really care 

It keeps changin' fast and it don't last for long 

But the Colorado rocky mountain high 

I've seen it rainin' fire in the sky 

The shadow from the starlight is softer than a lullabye 

Rocky mountain high

John Denver performed at a special Wildlife Concert.

The seventh stanza describes the despoilation of the mountains:

Now his life is full of wonder but his heart still knows some fear 

Of a simple thing he cannot comprehend 

Why they try to tear the mountains down to bring in a couple more 

More people, more scars upon the land

I recommend that you check it out.... and this is just a tiny sample of many more songs whose lyrics speak to a desire to protect the Earth and its wild places.

You will of course have heard Annie's Song too....

Mar 16: Pink Floyd in Venice

Pink Floyd's concert in Venice. was an interesting moment in music history and one which also links with the history of the city and its complex issues. 

The band had been trying to play in the city for some time but could not get permission for fears of the damage it may cause to the city.

In 1987, the band released their album "A Momentary Lapse of Reason".

The band toured the album around the world. I attended the tour when it reached Manchester, with a concert in the old Maine Road stadium which was home to Manchester City at the time. It took place on the 8th of the 8th, 1988 (and the concert started at 8 minutes past 8. More on that in August.
Here's the setlist that I saw: https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/pink-floyd/1988/maine-road-manchester-england-3bd76478.html

I've previously shared the story of the album cover's creation.


There were real concerns over the possible environmental impact of the concert on the ancient city itself.

The free concert was held in St. Mark's Square in Venice. This was to be a free concert so people travelled in various ways to be there.

The concert is shown periodically on Sky Arts on Freeview.

Local Italian news media were not impressed...

Despite local protests, they were allowed to play a free concert from a barge in the lagoon opposite St. Marks square, from where an estimated 200.000 people watched this concert. The concert was nearly cancelled on July 13th when the City's Superintendent of Monuments claimed that the vibration could damage buildings. 

To pacify critics Pink Floyd played a reduced volume, but there were still claims of damage to marble cladding after the concert. 

Lamp-posts were also broken by fans climbing them for a better view. The city authorities failed to provide facilities for the visiting fans, many of whom slept in St. Marks square. They left behind them 300 tons of litter, which had to be cleared by the Army. After a seven-hours sitting, the council apologized to Venice residents for the inconvenience, promising that no similar concert wouild ever be allowed. Therefore, this concert can be placed in the books as UNIQUE. The alderman in charge of Venice's Culture Committee, Mr. Silvan Ceccarelli, resigned, explaining: "I feel that I have to go, because I'm one of the people who gave the go-ahead for this concert." 

Despite initially refusing to do like wise, the rest of the council went soon after, leaving the city in the hands of an ad-hoc administration. 

Over 100 million viewers in 23 countries saw the show on TV.

Tradition vs modernity was at play here.

https://www.archpaper.com/2016/08/pink-floyd-venice/

Pink Floyd also famously played at Pompeii, and the movie of that concert recently had the 4K treatment and a re-release. It's a memorable concert with the band looking remarkably young.

Mar 2: Environmental Songs #2: 'Red Tide'

The second environmental song I am going to mention on the blog (following the first one back in January) is by Rush, from the 1989 album Presto. 

It is called 'Red Tide'. I saw this album's tour by Rush at Sheffield Arena.

Red Tides are algal blooms which are a sign that the water in a place has an imbalance of chemical nutrients.

They are becoming more common unfortunately as well as a result of environmental changes - partly the result of human activity of course.

Here's the song:

Neil Peart's lyrics pull no punches: 

Stay out of the sun
It only burns my skin
Sky full of poison
And the atmosphere's too thin

Bless the sun, the rain no more
River running like an open sore
Black wind falling through the ocean floor
And the red tide washes ashore

This is not a false alarm
This is not a test
Nowhere we can fly away
Nowhere we can rest
The party is disrupted by
An uninvited guest

What are your suggestions for further songs on this theme...

Feb 18: 'The Clock Winds Down'

This is a track by the Irish musician Christy Moore. 

It has an important message on the theme of climate breakdown.

The lyrics were written by Jim Page.

An extract from the lyrics:

Warning signs years ago

We did not want to know

All consuming selfish ways

Now there’s a price to pay

As the Clock Winds Down

The ice caps melt The Amazon burns

To the point of no return

The grid goes down Screens go blank

We’ll be walking down the plank

As the Clock Winds Down

See the children take to the streets

When they hear Greta Thunberg speak

Watch the young warriors climb down from the trees

Chain themselves to machinery

Can you suggest some songs with the theme of Climate Change / the Climate Breakdown.

Please add your suggestions to the Google Form below and I will share some of your suggestions in a later update post.

Update

A suggestion came in via the Google Form.

Oh Larsen B - (British) Sea Power: Easily the best song ever recorded about #Antarctic ice shelf loss e.g. 'You had 12000 years and now it's all over 500 billion tonnes of the purest pack ice and snow... Oh Larsen B desalinate the barren sea'

Sing along!

Jan 25: Northern Lights

Is it possible to capture the 'sound' or visual spectacle of the Northern Lights in musical form?

Jan Garbarek - All those Born with Wings is an excellent album with Jan's sax and the usual bandmates... and one of the best CD covers there is... showing a display of aurora. On the ECM label, which will also be showcased elsewhere on the blog.

From this album, check out the 3rd piece which perhaps best captures the atmosphere.

Suns of the Tundra - Aurora

A track on the 'Bones of Brave Ships' album from Suns of the Tundra, which tells the story of Shackleton's famous 'Endurance' expedition.

Apart from having a name which references a type of ecosystem, they also have chief examiner and top geographer Simon Oakes on lead guitar and vocals, adding to their geographical (and musical) credentials.

Why not head to the band's Bandcamp page. This is a good place to order their music too in various formats.

Lyle Mays - Alaskan Suite - Northern Lights, Invocation, Ascent

A track from Lyle Mays' debut album, and one of the finest albums there is.

Here's part of the three part movement...

I remember listening to this very loud while sitting on the shores of Loch Slapin on Skye. We'd been down to the Suisnish peninsula - an area cleared of crofters during the clearances, and across the loch was Bla-bheinn as the moon came up...

If you get the chance to go to Iceland during the winter months please do. 2025 saw a solar maximum of activity and some remarkable displays. 2026 will hopefully be just as good - January has certainly started out well.

Here's a picture of mine from 2024, taken at Laugarvatn.

Image by Alan Parkinson, shared on Flickr under CC license.

Have I missed other musical attempts to capture this remarkable phenomenon? 

Let me know in the comments...

Jan 17: Environmental Songs #1: 'Look out any Window' - Bruce Hornsby

There are many songs which feature environmental problems and concerns about what humans are doing to the environment. I'll be sharing these on the blog...

One that immediately springs to mind for me is from Bruce Hornsby and the Range's second album: 'Songs from the Southside'.

From the lyrics:

There's a man workin' in a field
See's the rain and it's burning
He's saying this can't be real
As he sees the color of the fields turning
Far away the men too busy getting rich to care
Close their eyes and let it all out into the air
Hoping nobody else would care
Look out any window
Look out any open door
Look out any window
See what's going on in the world around you

The song references some actions of businesses, leading to acid rain and pollution of the oceans affecting fish catches.

The Bruuuce website is a goldmine for any Bruce Hornsby fans as it includes all sorts of content including the meanings of the lyrics to songs.

Here's a live version with the Noisemakers... he reinvents his own songs in every concert that he plays...

come back to the UK soon Bruce!

If you have an idea for another song with an environmental theme, please add your suggestion into the comments....