I’ve just been reading about something called the Nimbim Mardi Grass festival (no spelling mistake). The town is, apparently, the ‘marijuana capital of Australia’.

I’m always a bit sceptical about such labels being applied. How many cities in Europe are ‘the Venice of the north’, for example? Bruges? Amsterdam? Giethoorn? St. Petersburg?

So if you’re Australian, please don’t write in to tell me that ‘no…there’s a place up near Alice Springs, or wherever, that is Australia’s real marijuana capital’ 😀

As usual, with bits of the counterculture, a bit of body freedom, body painting and general chilling is part of the event, as the photos above demonstrate.

During the Nimbin Mardi Grass, an annual rally to legalize marijuana, this woman interprets the style of the traditional Bundjalung aboriginal people. She dances for freedom of expression and to reject the prudish cultural preoccupation with clothing and the shame surrounding our inherent sexuality.

Nudity, in part, also connects with the indigenous Bundjalung people, as the caption that accompanied one of the photos I found describes.

In Second Life we’ve got Burn2, an inworld version of Burning Man, and it seems many people are drawn to counterculture events and lifestyles within SL. I’ve certainly noticed more ‘hippies’ or ‘boho’ avatars (and clothes styles) in SL over the past year or so.

Piercings appear to becoming more widespread in SL, with a septum piercing being particularly popular. In recent months I’ve noticed a septum ring being offered as free gifts from various stores, so I’m assuming there’s a market for them. Our new blogger Amaris, who would say she isn’t ‘naturist’, per se, has numerous avatar piercings.

A septum piercing

Over the summer we’ll being doing numerous spreads and articles on ‘the counterculture’ as it manifests itself in SL, particularly as it is very often nude-friendly.

Ella