“Imagine a hallucinogenic state fair,” reporter Rick Marin wrote of Burning Man in DailyExpertNews in 2000.
The article described an environment of countercultural revelry, where hippies and Silicon Valley types let loose in an environment reminiscent of both “Mad Max” and Cirque du Soleil.
But this year’s festival, held in a remote Nevada desert, was an entirely different scene. The event was battered by rain that began Friday night, trapping thousands of attendees and dealing with thick sludge. Because access to the site is restricted, attendees have been told to conserve food and water. Police are investigating the death of one participant.
The extreme conditions have challenged the free-spirited atmosphere that has long been central to Burning Man’s appeal. Below is a look at the origins and development of the festival.
What is a Burning Man?
Burning Man is a nine-day celebration of art and self-expression held in Black Rock City, a temporary community about 125 miles north of Reno, Nev. The festival, which has attracted some 70,000 people in recent years, is held at the end. of each summer and culminates in the burning of a towering wooden sculpture in the shape of a man – hence the name.
What does the festival normally look like?
Visitors, who call themselves Burners, describe the festival as an exercise in creativity and community building. Organizers have also described it as “an excuse to party in the desert.”
The event takes place on the playa, a dusty mini-city whose streets stretch out like the face of a clock with the wooden figure in the middle. Unlike Coachella, Burning Man has no headliner or scheduled performers. Burners do their own construction, including housing and colossal art installations. They use a system based on gifts, rather than money, to exchange goods.
“It’s an experiment in a participatory, decommodified, self-expressive culture,” says Benjamin Wachs, who wrote “The Scene That Became Cities: What Burning Man Philosophy Can Teach Us About Building Better Communities” under the pseudonym Caveat Magister. “All booze is free, except maybe you have to sing a song or offer a poem or something.”
The festival’s freewheeling attitude is also associated with nudity, sex and drug use. According to The Reno Gazette Journal, most of the 16 arrests last year at the event were for drug possession.
How did Burning Man start?
Burning Man began as a more humble gathering in June 1986, when founders Larry Harvey and Jerry James held a bonfire with friends on San Francisco’s Baker Beach. They burned an eight-foot-tall wooden figure, legend has it, to mark the end of a romantic relationship. A crowd of about 35 people gathered to watch it burn.
The event was held annually at Baker Beach until the fire department intervened in 1990. That year, it moved to Black Rock Desert, where 350 revelers gathered to burn a 40-foot-tall effigy, according to the Burning Man Project, the nonprofit that organizes the festival. By the 2000s, the event had grown into a day-long desert rave that regularly attracted more than 50,000 attendees, including tech moguls and celebrities.
The modern festival is organized around the ’10 Principles’, a set of guidelines introduced by Mr Harvey in 2004. These include “radical inclusion,” meaning no prerequisites to join the community, and “leave no trace,” which requires participants to leave the desert clean.
Who is present?
The festival attracts a mix of dedicated Burners and new party goers each year, with a curious mix of tech moguls, influencers and celebrities.
Paris Hilton was a DJ there in 2017. Mark Zuckerberg was there, as was Elon Musk, who has appeared almost every year for the past two decades (although there was no sign of him at the festival this year). The music producer Diplo placed on Xformerly known as Twitter, that he had escaped this year’s festival by walking five miles in mud.
How much is it?
Tickets to Burning Man cost $575, though CNBC estimates the entire experience could end up costing around $1,500, including lodging, travel, and clothing.
How has the festival changed over time?
According to a survey conducted annually by festival volunteers, the average Brander is getting older (last year the average age was 37, compared to 32 in 2013) and richer. According to the survey, attendees are still predominantly white, with 13 percent identifying themselves as people of color.
The influx of wealthy visitors – some of whom have brought chefs and air conditioning – has led some old Burners to lament the loss of the festival’s DIY ethos.
The festival ran into obstacles earlier this year. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, it was held virtually in 2020 and 2021. The festival took place last year amid extreme heat and dust, and environmentalists blocked access to the gathering this year.
Burners are typically prepared for tough conditions, Mr Wachs said, but not to this extent. “I do think climate change is creating an environment where this is going to become unpredictably more difficult,” he added.