Burning Man, what to know about the event
It happens from the last Sunday of August to the first Monday of September, the Labor day. A whole new city comes to life in the vast dried lake bed called the Black Rock Desert, in Nevada. It goes by the name of “Burning Man” but don’t mistake it for a festival. You can call Tomorrowland as a festival, Coachella is a festival, but the Burning Man is a participatory, temporary, and vibrant metropolis having its own citizens and practical principles.
The History
It was Jerry James and Larry Harvey who organized a small gathering in June 1986. It took place on Baker Beach in San Francisco as they themselves built the first “Man.” After four years, the festival changed location, date, and adopted a new meaning to the celebration.
The desolate and surreal plains of the Black Rock Desert a.k.a The Playa became a new site for this self-sustained cultural city. This year, Burning Man came alive from August 25 to September 2, on the 7-square mile patch, housing more than 70,000 people who came from all over the world!
The Essence of Burning Man
This flourishing vent is dedicated to creating art, self-reliance, community, self-expression, and self-discovery. Every year a theme is chosen for the whole event; in 2019 it was “Metamorphoses,” an idea that is an “embrace of the elusive now,” and “Exploration of uncertainty and a celebration of change.” Burning Man intends to connect everyone to their creative powers.
Whoever enters Black Rock City doesn’t stay passive, he/she is an active participant. One of the ten principles set by Larry Harvey in 2004 is Participation, the other nine are: Gifting, Radical Inclusion, Communal Effort, Radical Self-Reliance, Decommodification, Civic Responsibility, Radical Self-Expression, Immediacy, and Leaving No Trace.
What is its Uniqueness?
The Burners set base here during the 9 days in tents and their recreational vehicles (RVs), there’s no booking of any entertainment, rather the burners themselves perform free of charge for the community. Some people even get married at this famous event!
The name Burning Man is derived from a symbolic ritual burning of an effigy, a large wooden sculpture of a “Man.,” kept in the center of the city. It takes place on a Saturday evening. Another important structure to this city is the Temple, named as “Temple of Direction” at Burning Man 2019. It is where burners assemble to let go of things and negative feelings from their life. The temple is not associated with any specific religious belief, but is a spiritual experience as a whole, for many.
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You may also find some celebrities and wealthy tech CEOs among the burners as personalities like Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos, etc. have participated in this event.
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Participants bring everything with them that they need, including gifts for others, and pack it or burn it in the end. You can only buy coffee and ice. No exchange of any currency is involved at this event, everything happens on a gifting system.
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Right from a newborn toddler to those in their 90s, people of all ages participate and contribute in this artistic city.
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No one is allowed to take their vehicle inside except a bicycle. The only vehicles driving will be artistic, registered with the DMV (Department of Mutant Vehicles).
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All day and night you will hear music, parties, and an overall rocking atmosphere. The art structures are so unique and creative, they will forever be etched in your memories.
The ticket prices of this mega event range from $400 to $1200, and are usually in high demand so they get sold out in quick time. If you truly want to understand Burning Man, the only option is to be a participant and experience it. There exist no event in the world that can match this colossal, weird, bizarre Burning Man.
