In distressed denim, studded football pads, and recycled, well, everything, wastelanders are able to self-actualize who they’d want to be at the end of the world, even if that person is a variation on their real-life personas. So, what’s so appealing about the apocalypse? And is Wasteland Weekend a place of reinvention or destruction? By creating an entire event in a parallel time and space, wastelanders both engage with and dismiss the “real world.” There’s an inherent conflict there. At least for one weekend, these opposites can intermingle and rave on in the desert.