Scene
Cover photo: Jeremy Bishop
Another Burning Man has ended, an event more like a social experiment than a festival, bringing together between 70 and 80 thousand people in Black Rock City and lasting for almost 40 years.
Burning Man is located in the Black Rock Desert in Nevada, USA. Each year Black Rock City is built from scratch and after the event ends it disappears as if it was never there. This festival is unique in many ways and often carries controversies with it, so here are some interesting facts about the event:
- Burning Man has a clear vision and 10 principles that need to be followed: Radical Inclusion, Gifting, Decommodification, Radical Self-reliance, Radical Self-expression, Communal Effort, Civic Responsibility, Leaving No Trace, Participation, and Immediacy.
- Those who do not respect the rules can be expelled from the festival and banned from participating in future years. This has happened when wealthy individuals were discovered to be paying staff to serve them, which goes against the rule that in every camp all contribute and no one works for anyone else.
2. No cash transactions are permitted between burners, except for a few exceptions such as the purchase of ice.
- Following the principle of gifting, money cannot be used at Burning Man. The goal is to create an atmosphere of community among people and the habit of giving without expecting anything in return. A large amount of money is required for preparation and for the trip to the festival, but once you arrive what you and your neighbors bring is all you can rely on. The only things you can buy are ice, café beverages (coffee, chai and lemonade) at Center Camp Café, fuel, and shuttle bus tickets to the nearest Nevada communities.
3. For similar reasons as with money, commercial sponsorships and advertising are strictly forbidden at Burning Man.
- In 2018, fashion brand Revolve reportedly sent influencers to Burning Man with full outfits and instructions to post content. This was immediately seen as covert advertising and sparked backlash among burners, who consider the festival a strict no commerce zone.
4. Since it is not a traditional festival, it has no scheduled lineup of headliners and performances, and DJs are not paid.
- At Burning Man, almost nobody gets paid in the usual “club/festival fee” way. That’s because the event itself has a principle of decommodification. Artists, DJs, and performers aren’t booked or paid by the official Burning Man organization. Instead, the sound camps are independently organized and funded, usually by wealthy individuals, big donors, or camp members pooling resources. So when you see a big name like Black Coffee performing there, he wasn’t paid by Burning Man. Over the years artists like Carl Cox, Diplo, Zeds Dead, GRiZ, Monolink, Skrillex, DJ Tennis, Jan Blomqvist, Rüfüs Du Sol, Keinemusik, Anyma and many others have played there.
5. The first Burning Man was held at Baker Beach in San Francisco in 1986 with around 20 people.
- Larry Harvey (the founder of Burning Man) and his friend Jerry James built a wooden figure about 2.5 meters high. It was a spontaneous gathering of friends at the beach, but when they lit the sculpture on fire, passersby joined in and started dancing, which gave birth to the idea to repeat it. In 1990, police in San Francisco banned large fires on the beach, so the crew decided to move the event to the Black Rock Desert in Nevada.
6. The temporary city also has its own “post office” and a radio station but no mobile signal.
- Black Rock City has an improvised post office (you can send a letter with a Burning Man stamp) and its own radio station, BMIR 94.5 FM, which broadcasts information and music. But in the middle of the desert there is no cell signal. Only private intranet networks and radio communication exist, which limits phone use and connection with the outside world and makes the experience even more immersive.
7. Leave No Trace is one of the most important and strict principles of Burning Man.
- Nothing, absolutely nothing, is left behind. Every detail is taken care of. The entire city disappears as if it never existed. Everything you bring with you into the desert you must also take away. This includes trash, ashes, food, water, feathers, glitter – everything. After the festival, Black Rock City must be completely cleaned so that the desert looks like it never held 70–80 thousand people. MOOP patrols (Matter Out Of Place) with volunteers and participants literally pick up every tiny item like a piece of paper, a cap, or a match. One of the reasons this rule is strictly enforced is the Bureau of Land Management (a federal agency of Nevada) which inspects the entire site. If too much waste is found, Burning Man could lose its permit.
8. Artistic sculptures are one of the most important elements of Burning Man.
- Every year the desert is filled with hundreds of installations that are mostly interactive, symbolic, and often gigantic. One of the most famous was The Trojan Horse in 2011, a sculpture around 17 meters high, made of wood and metal, hollow on the inside. People could go inside, with multiple rooms and floors, and it required thousands of participants to pull it across the desert to the city. After several days it was set on fire in front of tens of thousands of people, with flames so large they could be seen for kilometers.
9. A central motif of Burning Man is “The Man”, an artistic sculpture sometimes over 20 meters high, placed at the center of Black Rock City, and ritually burned at the end of the event together with the Temple.
- During the festival The Man also serves as a landmark and has in the past been covered with neon lights. It symbolizes the artistic spirit of the event, and its burning at the end is a ritual for all participants, representing release and transformation. Alongside The Man, the Temple is also set on fire, a structure where people leave messages or personal items they want to let go of.
10. Burning Man is also known for controversial situations such as extreme weather, storms, unexpected births, and even deaths.
- This festival is certainly not for everyone. Being located in the middle of nowhere and surrounded by desert requires certain survival skills, and several times Black Rock City residents have faced desert storms. In 2023 a participant died during torrential rain, in 2017 a man ran directly into the burning Man structure, and this year one body was found with suspicion of homicide still under investigation. A more positive but still bizarre story from this year is the birth of a baby in a camper during the event. The parents were unaware the mother was even pregnant. The baby was airlifted to a hospital and is currently in NICU in stable condition.
Burning Man remains one of the most unusual events of the year, far more than a festival. It is a temporary city, a social experiment, and an artistic movement that has for almost four decades gathered tens of thousands of people from around the world. In the harsh conditions of the desert participants build a community based on creativity, gifting, and collaboration, and then completely dismantle it without leaving a trace.
Controversies, extreme conditions, and high travel costs may make it challenging, but the contrasts between luxury and survival, chaos and order are what make it so unique.
