Burning Man is an annual, nine-day gathering in the desert that includes artistic performances, installations, and music but don’t call it a festival.
“Burning Man is not a festival. Burning Man is a community. A temporary city. A global cultural movement based on 10 practical principles,” the official website reads.
A few of these principles include radical inclusion (“Anyone may be a part of Burning Man”), gifting, decommodification (no money passes hands at the festival), radical self-reliance and self-expression, leaving no trace (” We are committed to leaving no physical trace of our activities wherever we gather”), and participation.
Burning Man is organized by a non-profit organization called the Burning Man Project.
Burning Man does not book any entertainment for the event, but instead encourages participants to perform for the community free of charge.
People wander around the camps on foot, bicycles, and scooters, cook together, dance, drink, make art, and generally just party, according to INSIDER reporter Aly Weisman, who attended the event in 2013 and 2016.
Because no money changes hands, you can participate in activities such as wine tastings, zip-lining, and massages all given out by various attendees for free.
“While drugs are technically illegal, they are easier to find than candy on Halloween,” Nick Bilton wrote of Burning Man in The New York Times.
Many people even get married at Burning Man, Weisman reported.
The name “Burning Man” comes from the symbolic ritual burning of a large wooden sculpture (“the Man”) that usually takes place on the Saturday evening of the event.
In order to truly understand Burning Man, you probably just have to go. The nine-day gathering of more than 70,000 people includes wild costumes, art installations, spontaneous musical performances, and lots of partying.
Burning Man 2018 closed with the burning of the Temple Galaxia, a 65-foot wooden structure that symbolizes how the fabric of the universe connects all living beings. For the burning of the temple, people created memorials for deceased loved ones and past relationships, according to the Reno Gazette-Journal.
Before you go for the burning man festival, know these things:
Burning Man is an annual, nine-day gathering in the Nevada desert.
It’s held the week prior to and including Labor Day weekend each year and includes artistic performances, installations, music, and a lot of partying.
No money is exchanged at Burning Man, so participants are expected to bring food, supplies, shelter, and anything else they might need.
The cost of tickets in 2019 ranged from $425 to $1,400.
