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Wastelanders experiment with ideas of what would happen in the event of an apocalypse. Who will you be at the end of the world?
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00:00This is not quite what I think of when I think of a commuter vehicle.
00:03No, it's not, but it's way cooler than a Prius.
00:07Totally.
00:28It's the end of the world, or at least it feels like it.
00:32The word apocalypse comes up frequently in conversation.
00:35Whether because of global politics, environmental issues, or economic uncertainty, America is
00:42haunted by the idea of its own demise.
00:47But there are some people who relish the idea.
00:50A national movement of dystopian events is cropping up where Mad Max enthusiasts play
00:55out the fall of man, or what comes after.
00:58The biggest?
00:59Wasteland Weekend, an annual event in the California desert that draws thousands of people from
01:04all over the world.
01:06But new post-apocalyptic parties are popping up across the country for those who never
01:11want Wasteland to end.
01:13Aries hasn't just wastelanded her clothes, she's wastelanded her life.
01:18Three years ago, she moved out to the middle of the desert to a home with no address with
01:23her husband Spud, whom she met and married at Wasteland Weekend.
01:29You did a great job with her husband Spud.
01:29Where am I?
01:30Where is this place?
01:31You are at Little Chaos on the Prairie.
01:33Little Chaos on the Prairie.
01:34Which is my happy little home.
01:41i'm broke malibu barbie yeah malibu barbie i married malibu barbie and then brought her
01:47out here and broke her you used to be super barbie doll with curly brown beach girl hair
01:53and like i talked about shoes a lot oh my god it makes fun of me for it perpetually there's
01:59nothing wrong with being malibu barbie but aries is clearly happy she traded in pink party dresses
02:04for combat boots can you tell me about what wastelanders are wastelanders are a surprising
02:12mix of individuals you have the crew that are like spud and myself that they live off grid you
02:18have people that work hr it's that mindset of who would i want to be at the end of the
02:24world you can
02:24be the best version of yourself you can be somebody entirely different when the world ends you can
02:30reinvent yourself and that's exactly what aries and her husband spud have done they become the
02:35people they've always wanted to be would you say you've created a utopia here i have definitely
02:40created a utopia to move out to middle of nowhere so that i wasn't ever beholden to anybody except
02:45for aries whatever she needs i give that woman i love her to pieces i will do anything for her
02:49without any hesitation at all does it ever feel lonely not really um i've gotten very good at
02:56keeping in touch with my friends and my girlfriends are all pretty good about keeping in touch so
03:01aries's friends aren't your average girls next door beans bam bam and sunshine they met years ago at
03:09wasteland weekend and take every excuse to get together work on wasteland clothes and have a drink
03:15so what does it mean to wasteland something out think of it if like recycling was a sport
03:22it's ultimate recycling you find something instead of throwing it away you make it into something
03:27else how much of this stuff do you wear on a day-to-day basis she wears a lot of
03:31it all the time i do
03:33i always manage to find a little bit of my wasteland gear to throw into an outfit for these ladies
03:38the
03:38end of the world didn't end i wanted to experience the end of the world for myself i'm in alabama
03:46want to party post-apocalyptic style
03:53middle of nowhere seems like as good a place as any
03:57huh hey you want to do something fun
04:11aftermath is kicking off at a family farm
04:16rather than a mad max metropolis this is more like a family reunion at the end of the world
04:21an unofficial offshoot of wasteland weekend aftermath was started by friends hoping to
04:26live out the end of days a bit closer to home and while it seems more organized than the anarchy
04:32i
04:32was expecting the event is drawing scores of people some of whom drove 15 hours to be here
04:38aftermath is a full immersion event which means the point is to feel like you're in another world
04:44within post-apocalyptic communities there are three rules no politics no religion and you have
04:52to dress up enter larry the unofficial aftermath fashion designer so you know how to make things i've
04:59heard this term like wastelanding things basically what wastelanding is is when you take a lot of junk
05:03and make it wearable and make it look good so the shoulder pads are a hard hat i cut in
05:06half
05:07go-kart tires uh steel breastplate uh-huh chains uh the whole nine yards what if i want this umbrella
05:13wastelanded i can smear paint all over it make it look appropriately distressed yeah go ahead and open
05:17it for me all right heat up okay now i'll tell you what we're gonna do just to go ahead
05:23and get rid of
05:24some things this is fine right okay like i paid 3.99 for this oh man now i do feel
05:30bad this will help
05:31me survive the nuclear uh storm oh no you're hit you're done i'm done with this you're gonna die
05:39i have my outfit but in order to fit in at the end of the world there's one more thing
05:44i need to
05:44finish my look makeup do you think you can help me out with this i can totally help you all
05:55right
05:55well i'm really wanting to teach your hair out and make it kind of big it's already a little big
06:00but
06:01some grass like that grass and dirt yeah yeah yeah so let's start with that for a gathering based on
06:08the apocalypse an idea that's so rooted in religious lore and political anxiety
06:13to exclude the two things that the apocalypse is most often connected with feels incredibly ironic
06:19but maybe that's part of the draw
06:23i am i don't want to say this because i haven't seen everyone here yet but i might be the
06:27only one
06:27of color here um why do you think that is well i feel like a lot of the people that
06:35we draw to our
06:36community are part of like your local punk rock scene and um it's kind of caucasian too for the
06:45most part i guess we certainly don't mean to be that way all are welcome here seriously we would
06:50never turn anyone away i know from facebook that not all of sora's friends at aftermath share her
06:55politics imagining a situation where people with radically opposing viewpoints hang out together
07:00is hard for me but it's happening here without the constraints of society this is a safe place
07:09to experiment meet people and try something new got us some of the old world tunes keep us going in
07:18these dark days so wastelanding is all about immersing yourself all the way and part of immersing
07:25yourself all the way i guess is camping something i really really despise but in the spirit of
07:32community i will set up my tent here we go
07:40what's this thing
07:45keeps your brain flying
07:47the what
07:53i made a home
07:56i don't know how i'd fare if the world were to end tomorrow but these guys seem to have it
08:01figured out the doomsday plan fast friends and the best way to escape a stiff drink even i know that
08:09would you like a refill miss well i would like something yeah i brought my cup
08:15it seems like wastelandering happens after the sun goes down like this is when the good stuff happens
08:22yeah unless you ask charlie he's been back there hammering on his anvil making shit all day
08:27uh can i make a toast
08:29bad decisions
08:34it's easy to be disillusioned by the state of the world though there's a certain kind of relief that
08:38comes from leaving it behind and just dancing and drinking with friends who get you
08:43why not celebrate being alive
08:51after a long night i'm gonna take advantage of my tent
08:57good morning
08:58kind of
09:00what's the end of aftermath
09:02i'm not sure what happens after aftermath
09:04it's 9 30 a.m and to my surprise almost everyone is gone
09:09i need to get me coffee
09:12the impending doom that i'm feeling could be that i'm alone and it's time to pack
09:17or let's be honest a gnarly hangover from that green stuff i was drinking last night
09:29good morning
09:30good morning how you doing oh you know i feel great considering your hair's still kind of big
09:36how does it feel to be going back to pre-apocalypse
09:41so we call this like the come down it's literally like a come down you know because you get high
09:49being around all these people that you love all weekend and then you got to go back to the real
09:52world how are you feeling larry i don't think any of us want the weekend in what does real real
09:57life mean to you guys what does it look like to you from here boring no debauchery sadness
10:07delusion post-apocalyptic life is it a utopia or a dystopia that's all a matter of opinion i guess
10:14it's my utopia might be your dystopia
10:17post-apocalyptic events are more than a great party they're a lesson in community
10:23surviving the end of the world means surviving together no one can make it alone
10:29if these guys are right when the world ends value won't be measured in dollars
10:34things that are dirty destroyed and discarded will find new life and purpose and maybe so can people
10:41see you in the middle of the world
10:41you
10:42you
10:46you
10:50you
10:51You