Nowhere

Nowhere is a European counterculture festival held every July near the Spanish city of Zaragoza, the capital of the autonomous community of Aragon. It was inspired by the famous American festival Burning Man and thus embraces its main principles, but the atmosphere of the Spanish event is truly unique.

The inaugural Nowhere festival took place in 2004 in the Bardenas Reales, a semi-desert natural region (badlands) in Navarre province. The name of the festival resulted from a thread discussing names for the event at a public board. One of the users wrote that he couldn’t wait to meet the others “in the middle of nowhere”. Several other people liked the idea of calling the festival Nowhere. After a vote, the event was officially christened.

Originally held in the Bardenas Reales, Nowhere subsequently relocated to the region of Monegros near Zaragoza. The area has a very dry landscape with a desert-like feel. Many people think that it resembles the desert in Nevada, United States where Burning Man is held.

The landscape isn’t the only thing that makes Nowhere similar to Burning Man. Nowhere is based on ten principles modeled after the core principles of Burning Man: self-expression, self-reliance, no commerce, leave no trace, participation, inclusion, gifting, co-operation, community, and immediacy.

Nowhere attracts over 2,000 participants every year. Although most of them come from Europe, there are attendees from the United States, New Zealand and other remote countries. The participants of Nowhere are called nobodies.

The Nowhere festival is centered around The Middle of Nowhere, a large communal central which hosts a series of workshops and other activities throughout the festival. Like other Burning Man-inspired events, Nowhere is about participation and sharing therefore nobodies are encouraged to organize theme camps called Barrios (“neighborhood”). A Barrio is a group of people who camp together and provide a certain attraction or service to other nobodies.

Along with The Middle of Nowhere and Barrios, Nowhere has its own Post Office, Costume Camp and an information booth called NoInfo. The program of the festival is filled with concerts, workshops, parties, spectacular art installations, yoga sessions and other attractions and activities organized by the participants for the participants.

The main difference between Nowhere and Burning Man is that Nowhere doesn’t include fire as a key feature of the festival. Due to the very dry and harsh climate of the area, the municipality has forbidden to have any open fires, especially in summer, to prevent wildfires. So the festival doesn’t culminate with burning the artwork created by the participants.