Bigger, lusher, deeper, louder – better.

The L.A. Burning Man Decompression Arts Festival grew in scope and beauty this year. We were really staggered and touched by all of you gorgeous people who came by to play and chat with us – and we wish we had met even more of you, but Decom beckoned, so we left XyloVan in your busy hands and went off to explore. Here are a few of our clumsy snaps (we were “experimenting” with motion blur and grain … okay, we really need to invest in a new camera) and some more thoughts.

From Steampunk Saloon‘s vibrant carnival and Dancetronauts‘ wild abandon to the fire artists on Flow Arts Stage and the art-car throwdown between Charlie the Unicorn and the Dirty Beetles – Decom delighted us in more ways than we can catalog.

We took the Saucer Squadron out on a few sorties and danced through the crowds, we noshed (banana and nutella crepes … oooooohhh mama). And we hung out under XyloVan’s rooftop canopy and listened to you all play – so many styles of drumming, plinking and symphonic syncopation that we basically emptied the adjective jar trying to find new ways to describe what you all bring to the van.

This year we were also fortunate to join the crew that built Seraphim, the first communal sculpture created by L.A. burners. We helped visitors write their hopes, dreams, fears prayers and grief onto flame-colored pallet slats that we then attached to the sculpture for later burning.

Hats off to Split, Widget, Michael, Igor and all the engineers, artists and hardcore just-keep-making-till-it’s-done volunteers who built that gorgeous work over the past month, set it up last week and then pulled it down and loaded it into a van for storage on Sunday. We can’t wait to see it meet its intended fate – a glorious bonfire – at a place still to be determined.

We scraped ourselves up Sunday morning (after going to sleep at 3:30 a.m.) to break down XyloVan and rejoin the Seraphim crew for a few hours – still marveling.

L.A. Decom went big this year – in the best fashion possible. Kudos to all of you. Stand by for a few videos.