Rumours that David Bowie‘s ashes were scattered at the Burning Man gathering in Nevada have reportedly been confirmed, with a source telling E! News that the singer’s grandson brought a portion of his ashes and spread them during the event.
Bowie’s ashes were apparently spread at The Temple, a wooden structure that is built during the yearly gathering in which people are encouraged to bring objects honouring dead loved ones. The Temple is set alight at the end of Burning Man, which is intended to be a kind of metaphorical or spiritual ‘release’.
We spoke to Aussie TV presenter Danny Clayton about his experience at Burning Man last week, and he discussed the Bowie rumour and The Temple:
There’s a place called The Temple. They build it up, and on the final day they burn it down after the Burning Man. It is filled with things that people want to let go. In particular, it’s a shrine to people’s loved ones. Maybe someone lost a dog – they’ll put a photo of a dog in there.Other people have written these gigantic posters to their friends who have gone. I heard a rumour – there’s so many rumours at Burning Man – that somebody put David Bowie’s ashes in The Temple. This one guy, a complete stranger, came up to me and asked for my help to put up a poster really high because I’m quite tall.It was a poster to his mother who had died. He started bawling once it was up. I’m hugging this guy I’ve never met, and we’re both crying. I felt so bizarre. This whole temple is full of people who are collectively mourning about other people’s losses. It’s something you rarely get to do in our culture: genuinely mourn as a community. It was really beautiful.
Apparently, Bowie had often discussed Burning Man prior to his death. “David’s godchild and David had long talks about Burning Man and what it stands for, and David loved the message behind it,” a source told E!
The ceremony was apparently attended by approximately 70 people. The sheer bloody vastness of Burning Man and the piecemeal way info travels around the gathering makes that very small ceremony fairly unsurprising.
Despite this, a spokesperson for the late star denied the claims when contacted by the Daily Mail. So its all a bit of hearsay. But look – between an unconfirmed source speaking to E! and former Channel V presenter Danny Clayton, we’re marking this one as BLOODY TRUE.
Got a hot tip? Did your drugfucked mate witness this ceremony? Shoot us an email at editor@pedestriangroup.com.au.
Source: Daily Mail.
Photo: Getty Images.
