""It's a brutally hot day, but the kids don't seem to care. Near the corner, some young adults hand out free snow cones - rainbow for the children, Kahlua-spiked for their parents - and a gaggle of children sit on a nearby trampoline, chewing shaved ice as the sun beats down on their sunscreen-covered necks. A few tiny bikes lay on the ground, unlocked. It's a picture-perfect neighborhood scene, the sort of thing lifted straight out of the suburbia of "Leave it to Beaver." But "Kidsville," as this neighborhood is called, is no suburb. It's a part of Black Rock City, Burning Man's pop-up metropolis in the Nevada desert.""
""To an outside observer, the phrases "kid-friendly" and "Burning Man" sound contradictory. That Burning Man? The one with the Orgy Dome? The one that was swallowed up by mud, then blown away by the wind? But many fail to realize that since Burning Man's inception, children have been a small but consistent part of the event. Kids have been present at Burning Man since the first burn at Baker Beach in 1986, and kids 12 years old or under get into Burning Man for free - a handy perk at an event where tickets fetch for $750.""
Kidsville is a block-wide, kid-friendly neighborhood within Burning Man's Black Rock City where parents and children gather and open sexual acts and illegal drug use are forbidden within its bounds. Young adults hand out free snow cones while children sit on a trampoline, chew shaved ice and leave tiny bikes unlocked on the ground under the hot desert sun. Parents adapt routines at the event, keeping earlier bedtimes and moderating nighttime partying. Children have attended Burning Man since the 1986 Baker Beach burn, and children 12 and under receive free admission. The 2024 census reports roughly 0.1% of the 70,000-person population is 19 or under.
Read at SFGATE
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