The annual pilgrimage of Bay Area pyromaniacs to a Nevada desert playa is over; now comes the inevitable Burning Man hangover, in which participants and haters alike bemoan the bacchanal's worst excesses.

"Welcome back from Burning Man," tweets Gregory McGarry. "You smell. Go get your car washed and reevaluate your life. We'll wait."

Or not! After all, burner, your friends have been bashing your festival for days:

  • Violet Blue said sex was better in your absence, since the mating pool was free of "hippies and vaudeville hipster performers... ravers and... wealthy tech industry wonks."
  • Environmentalists like SFGate's Cameron Scott are still complaining about the driving, generators, bottled water and, well, fire associated with the festival.
  • Civil libertarians are incensed at the festival's policy of owning your pictures for third-party licensing purposes.

Plenty of participants sound stoked on Twitter, to be sure, even those coping with morning-after headaches like backlogged emails. And even those people are stoked they have a job to come back to, unlike some participants:

UPDATE: Original photo removed at photographer's request.

(Pic: Burning Man 2009, by affinity1 on Flickr)