Heh. Wasteland is a lot of fun. Got a bunch of friends who do it. Several of them in those photos, even! Heck, I even worked on at least 3 of the cars in those photos. Wasteland is NOT Burning Man. It is a Mad Max themed Renaissance Faire. That's it. Burning Man has a deeper intent and ethos, and a culture of experimentation. Wasteland is just a lot of fun that you can't have elsewhere. See... the desert public lands have way fewer rules than anywhere else in civilization. That's where you can launch amateur rockets, or do land speed records, or shoot big guns. That kind of stuff. A bumper made of shovel blades? Yeah. Can't even drive that in a PARADE. Super-illegal. But out in the desert lands, there is a higher level of personal responsibility expected. You get hurt out there, and - largely - its considered your own fault, for not being careful enough. Unfortunately, people need to shit. And permits need to be obtained once you get a certain number of people involved. Port-a-potties cost money, and so do permits. So then you have tickets. And once you have tickets, the Kern County Sheriff gets involved, and comes out to see what you are up to. There are still a few genuine off-the-grid, way out there, unregulated events that happen in the desert (and other places). But those of us who know of them, don't talk about them. Because we don't want them to become Wasteland Weekend. (And no, those guns are not real.)
It's just Burning Man trying not to be Burning Man but basically being another Burning Man. The telltale sign is the repeated use of the trope template phrase, "People don't do this at [other festival]...."
NSFW alert: titties. How can you mention a wasteland and trading bottle caps without acknowledging Fallout? And would I get in trouble if I showed up with a case of these?: OHHHhh maybe I should start collecting Art Car bottle caps. They just started distributing it in glass bottles. Holy shit, I wanna go, but by the time I have a garage/money, the event will be well past its prime :(.
I thought they were possibly replicas until I went back and looked more closely. There's a fuckin' ammo belt going into one of those car-mounted high caliber rigs! I was also trolling you a little, I know how much you love IPAs :P