Every year since 2011, thousands of fans of George Miller’s cult film Mad Max gather on the edge of the Mojave desert in southern California for the best part of a week immersed in the dusty dystopia depicted in the film. This is Wasteland Weekend, the world’s biggest post-apocalyptic festival. Fittingly, the permanent festival site sits in between the defunct Nevada nuclear test site – where from 1951 a total of 928 nuclear warheads were tested during the cold war – and Hollywood.

Vehicles during the Saturday Car Cruise, where every themed vehicle is invited to cruise around the outskirts of the festival site

Top (left): Tank, an Elite Guard, watching over the City Gates, making sure only attendees in costume enter the main festival site. Top (right): Gerhard, preparing for a Jugger match, a Wasteland contact sport best described as a mix between American football (but the ball is replaced with a dog skull) and the 1990s TV show, Gladiators. Bottom (left): Fennec, from the Da Vinci tribe. Bottom (Right): Mr Wendey Go, in the lineup for the best costume contest after winning best in show at the motorcycle contest.

For five days attendees live out what life might be like after a societal restart. Crowds drift through the blistering 100F heat in haphazard combinations of leather, weathered sportswear and pseudo-military uniforms. The majority of attendees sleep in tents battened down with large spikes to stop them being blown away during sandstorms. “It may FEEL like a survival event, but it’s far from one. It’s not about prepping for a real apocalypse, it’s about having a great time in a fantasy apocalypse. The Hollywood version,” says Jared Butler, the event director.

Left: Attendees watching the swimsuit competition. Right: Side panel of an attendee’s car referencing the LAPD’s motto and the Iraq war

Customised dune buggies outside the War Spawn tribe camp.

Overlooking the themed camping area along ‘Damnation Alley’.

The Thunderdome the morning after the first night of battles. At night attendees climb the steel frame to watch two foes on bungee cords battling it out with padded batons.

What started out as a few dozen fans of the films getting together in the desert is now 4,000 enthusiasts from around the world drawn to the promise of anarchy and freedom. Costumes are mandatory; any attempt to pass through the guarded City Gates not dressed as a character from Mad Max is greeted with chants of “NEEDS MORE DIRT” and gestures for the ill-prepared attendee to roll around in the gritty sand before entering the main festival site.

Top (left): Mumma Giddy, at the City Gates as the sun sets on the last day of the festival. Ace, from the War Spawn tribe dressed as a War Boy from Mad Max: Fury Road. “Once you attend the event, it feels like a big family gathering with everyone welcoming you in.” Top (right): Ashley, on the last day of her third WW; “People here are utilizing the opportunity to explore ways to be prepared when major events do occur. Humans have always been fascinated with the idea of the end of the world.” Bottom (left): Thunder Cat (left) and Possum (right) outside the City Gates. Bottom (right): Ace, from the War Spawn tribe dressed as a War Boy from Mad Max: Fury Road. “Once you attend the event, it feels like a big family gathering with everyone welcoming you in.”

Attendees’ tents in the non-themed general camping area

For Eric Davidson, an IT professional from Fontana, “Going to wasteland is leaving your real life behind, no worries about traffic rush hour, paying your bills … People get to escape reality for a time, and that’s when the best in true human nature emerges ... Brotherhood and peace with your fellow man.” Wasteland Weekend offers those in attendance not only escape from the complications of their everyday lives but for many a way of processing an uncertain future.