Burning Man, a late-summer arts festival and adventure for creating expressive communities held annually in the Black Rock Desert in northwestern Nevada, United States. Burning Man opened in 1986 when Larry Harvey and Jerry James, two members of the San Francisco art community, burned a six-foot-high wooden painting of a man on Baker Beach in San Francisco in honor of the summer solstice. Twenty people watched the event. Over the next four years, Harvey and James (and the growing crowd) returned to the scene with bigger and bigger images. However, when the 40-meter high painting was prepared to burn on the beach in 1990, police intervened at the last minute and banned the building from being lit. Hence, the event was moved to the Black Rock Desert that same year, where the monsters were set on fire on Labor Day weekend in early September. After being moved, the festival never returned to San Francisco or the solstice; Instead, it turned the desert into a long-term home and Labor Day into a calendar landmark.
The Burning Man Festival expanded dramatically over the next two decades. Its duration was extended to a week leading up to Labor Day, with the image regularly detonating on the Saturday before the holiday. Since then, visitor numbers have increased exponentially and exceeded 50,000 in 2010. Each year, temporary cities are built in the desert - with the names of roads, villages and camps where everyone can be accommodated. However, after the festival ended, the city was completely destroyed, according to the festival organizer's "no trace" policy. Each Burning Man festival has a unique theme announced long before the event, and almost every aspect of the festival reflects that theme. For example, in 2000 the theme was "The Body" and city streets were renamed "Head Way" and "Feet Street". Many camps and villages in the city are based on relevant subtopics and can be further regulated in relation to specific food, sports, disciplines or arts.
Anyone who participates in Burning Man is expected to be an active participant, especially by putting up an art project or attending one of the camps or villages. Unlike most other festivals, Burning Man is practically not a salesman. With minimal sales of goods, people were expected to bring all they needed for a week's livelihood in the desert and exchange for lost items. Ultimately, Burning Man is an exercise - indeed a challenge - to balance collaboration, independence, individual expression and creative collaboration in forming artistic communities.
Burning Man did not order entertainment for the event, but encouraged attendees to introduce themselves to the community for free.
People roam the camp on foot, ride bikes and scooters, cook together, dance, drink, do art and generally just party.
With no money changing hands, you can participate in activities like wine tasting, zip lining and massages for free.
Even though drugs are technically illegal, they are easier to find than Halloween candy.
Many people even got married at Burning Man.
Nearly 70,000 people went to Burning Man in 2017, according to the Black Rock City census project.
Those who visit Burning Man, nicknamed "Burners", include celebrities and tech-rich CEOs.
It was reported that the participants first rolled around in the dust upon their arrival.
The name "Burning Man" comes from the symbolic ritual of burning a large wooden statue ("The Man"), which is usually performed on the Saturday night of the event.
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