Burning Man

Burning Man is a week-long festival with international draw, held annually on the week prior to and including Labor Day weekend in the United States. Its current location is on the playa of the Black Rock Desert in Nevada, 120 miles north of Reno. The temporary city (housing 37,000 residents in 2004) is generally held out as an experiment in community, radical self-expression, and radical self-reliance. The culmination of the event is the burning of a large wooden sculpture of a man on Saturday night, the sixth night of the event.

Primary foci of the festival

Participate! Burning man is held to be a "spectator-free" zone -- i.e., only participants are allowed. As such, all attendees are ostensibly expected to contribute to the community, but the nature of this participation is left up to each individual, and in reality a large number of spectators are present with cameras in hand. The concept of radical inclusion ("include yourself, include others") is the consensus-reality unwritten law that purportedly governs this Burning Man social principle.

Leave No Trace, an ecological concept. Burning man takes place in the middle of a normally uninhabited desert environment known as a or "the" playa, which is deep in the middle of a large, prehistoric dry lake bed. Participants are told to be very careful not to contaminate the playa with litter (commonly known as MOOP, or "matter out of place"). In addition, while fire is a primary component of many art exhibits and events, materials must be burned on burn platforms. At one time, burning was allowed to take place directly on the ground of the playa, but the formation of burn scars was observed. The Bureau of Land Management, which maintains the desert, has very strict requirements for the festival. Weeks after the festival has ended, a team of volunteers remain in the desert, cleaning up after the temporary city and making sure that no evidence of the festival remains. A similar mantra heard at Burning Man is, "Don't Let It Hit The Ground."

Commerce-free event. No cash transactions are allowed at Burning Man. The participants instead rely on a gift economy. Since the earliest days of the event, an underground barter economy has also existed, in which Burners exchange material goods and/or favors with each other. The only commerce that has been allowed are sales of coffee and ice at Center Camp, which benefit the local Gerlach-Empire school system, and the onsite commissary for staff. Additionally, the powers that be at Burning Man contract with Green Tortoise to provide a fee-based shuttle service that provides round trip bus rides into the nearby town of Gerlach, Nevada.

Arts and crafts, particularly outsider art and visionary art. Creative expression through the arts is encouraged at Burning Man. Large-scale art installations, theme camps, music, performance, and guerilla street theatre are amongst the most common art forms shared at Burning Man. Sculptures and interactive installations are generally placed on the playa, in specific art-walk pathways that lead to and from the central Burning Man complex. The largest, and most active, public theme camps are generally clustered on the Esplanade, Black Rock City's inner circle "main street." The Burning Man Opera was a significant interactive community performance that ran for over four consecutive years. Most recently, the ritual burning of David Best's temple projects have rivalled the burning of the central Burning Man complex in community significance and popularity. The ornately designed, three story high temple buildings borrow from Southeast Asian Buddhist architecture concepts, and are used as repositories for the memories of deceased loved ones.

Black Rock City

Black Rock City, often abbreviated to BRC, is the name of the temporary urban phenomenon created by Burning Man. The city is arranged in a large circle, with the Burning Man complex at the very center. Surrounding the central complex is an area of empty space reserved for art installations. Further out, arranged in concentric circles around The Man, are the streets and villages of Burning Man, where the participants camp out.

The innermost circles are the busiest, and are reserved for theme camps. Theme camps, as their name implies, are designed with a specific theme in mind. Some well-known camps that have been at Burning Man for quite some time include Thunderdome, where constestants battle in a large geodesic dome inspired by the Mad Max film Beyond Thunderdome; Eggchair, a camp with an Eggchair for passers by to sit in and watch the world go by; and IHOP, the Intergalactic House of Pancakes, which serves pancakes to all comers. BRC also is host to a growing number of Burners who experiment and innovate with the use of law enforcement agencies as well as the Bureau of Land Management Rangers. Burners refer to these people collectively as LEOs (Law Enforcement Officers). Burning Man also has its own in-house group of volunteer rangers who act as informal mediators when disputes arise between Burners. When the occasional eviction of a Burner from BRC becomes necessary, volunteer rangers typically enlist the assistance of LEOs.

BRC has, in recent years, been designated a motor vehicle free zone, with the exception of art cars that have been licensed by BRC's "Department of Mutant Vehicles."

Burners

Burning Man participants often call themselves "Burners." Although this usage may vary with region, a "Burner" is an annual denizen of Black Rock City, and anyone who embraces Burning Man as an expression in synch with their own identity is a Burner. In general, the term's use is only practical in contexts outside of the event itself. A Burner is usually someone who has been to the event and aspires to return, even if only in spirit. However, the concept also implies the sentiments and values inspired by the event itself, including a high regard for creativity, especially radical self-expression, and willingness to participate in a gift-based economy. Some Burners adopt (or are given) a playa name, a personal nickname a Burner may use while socializing with other Burners.

A Burning Man "virgin" is someone who is attending Burning Man for the first time or is planning to attend Burning Man in the future. "Yahoo" or "tourist" are pejorative terms used to refer to people who comes to Burning Man to spectate rather then participate in the event, often arriving not long before the the Burning Man ritual. As the stated purpose of Burning Man is to form community and to promote radical self-expression, non-participants are frowned upon by many participants, but this does not prevent spectators from attending the event.

Public nudity is common at BRC, giving rise to an undeserved reputation of rampant hedonism, including claims of casual and public sex acts and recreational drug use throughout BRC. In reality, hygiene concerns on the playa inhibit most sexual activity, with some noteworthy exceptions (i.e., e.g., the "Jiffy Lube" camp, where promiscuous sexual activity is encouraged, embraced, and notoriously rampant), and LEOs who are present at the event are ready, willing, and able to cite and/or arrest Burners who flaunt laws prohibiting the possession and use of illegal drugs.

Health and safety

The desert environment the event takes place in requires special attention to personal health. Specifically, you must bring, and drink, a large amount of water to avoid dehydration, heatstroke, and other problems. The military "four quarts a day" rule applies equally well to active burners. It is recommended that sunblock be worn at all times. Some suggest putting it on at night, too, in case of night journeys that lead to awakening without it.

You should expect alcohol and other substances, including prescribed medications, to have a potentially stronger effect in this environment, largely due to dehydration. The general rule is that if you need to drink water for something to be safe normally, you need to drink a lot of water for it to be safe in the desert. Do not substitute beer for water.

Bring at least a modest First-Aid kit, sunblock, and burn ointment. There are First-Aid stations around; learn where these are.

Black Rock City has no indoor plumbing. Portable toilets are made available throughout the city. You will want to become intimately familiar with the schedule by which the ones nearest you are cleaned, and you will not want to camp downwind of one. Alternatives include personal silica gel waste pouches, which can render urine into solid form. These are used by spelunkers and available commercially, but can be homemade using silica gel cat litter, a large container, and a stir stick. Note that they can get quite heavy over use. At a minimum, bring several rolls of toilet paper in case the portables are out of it. Women have found it useful to bring large funnels so that they can effectively leverage the "urinal" ports in the portable toilets (to avoid contact with the toilet seats); these are invariably referred to as pee funnels.

Lights are never good navigation points, and in the desert they become horrible navigation points. Learn the layout of the camps, and learn the locations of large installations by day so that you can find your way back with them at night. Don't go beyond the perimeter fence-- not only can you get lost, but you can get run over by patrol trucks (not that this is likely).

Do not run near tents that are not yours! Tents have guy lines to hold them under tension so they can keep their shape; these are supposed to be tagged with tape, but may not be. Worse, the use of rebar tent stakes has continued (though improved); these are supposed to be bent into loops, or covered with plastic one-liter soft drink bottles, but if you run onto one that isn't you can get a nasty cut. Likewise, try to make your own camp safe for pedestrians.

Be aware that the event has had fatalities and serious injuries. While almost all of these could have been prevented with the application of common sense, the thing to realize is that most of them were people who normally had common sense, but were either imparied by alcohol or other chemistry, or very confused by their environment. Do not<i> operate a vehicle-- powered or otherwise-- when intoxicated. <i>Do not<i> operate a vehicle-- powered or otherwise-- at night without lights on it. (Glowsticks abound at Burning Man-- find some and slap 'em on.) <i>Never<i> get off an art car by <i>any<i> other way than the way you got on-- a participant was killed by trying to get off the back of an art car and then being run over by the generator cart it was towing.

If you get confused, disoriented, or panicked, keep asking for help until someone gets you to a part of the environment you're able to get your bearings in-- and don't feel bad, this happens to a lot of people and doesn't generally last long. Many people take a day or so to adjust and then love it.

Golden rule: if you're not sure if something is a good idea, wait five minutes and watch the people around you. If they don't do it, you probably shouldn't either, at least not without asking.

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History

The annual event began in 1986 when Larry Harvey, Jerry James, and a few friends met on Bakers Beach in San Francisco and burned an 8 foot tall wooden man. The first Man was built by Jerry James. John Law, as well as members of the Cacophony Society and the Suicide Club, were heavily involved in the early years. Since then, the event has grown enormously, moving from San Francisco to the Black Rock Desert after crowd size and fire safety issues at the Bakers Beach location caused a shutdown by park rangers.

As the event has grown, one of the challenges faced by the organizers has been balancing the freedom of participants with the requirements of various land management and law enforcement groups. Over the years, numerous restrictions have been put in place, such as bans on fireworks, firearms, dogs, and driving non-art cars. A notable restriction to attendees is the trash fence that bounds the pentagon of land used by the event on the southern edge of the Black Rock playa. Land beyond this fence is not available to burners. Some artists and early attendees believe the underlying freedoms and concepts of the Burning Man event have been reduced or eliminated by these restrictions, leading to criticism of the current event as being too structured and controlled. Additionally, some believe the event's rapid growth and arid location (where the natural healing effect of the winter rains is not as effective) has caused environmental degradation of the Black Rock Desert.

The event has changed considerably as it grew from 70 people on a beach in San Francisco to over 30,000 people attending the festival last year. The scale of the event has increased enormously, and the Black Rock City LLC has in turn become more structured. In 1997 a group of people began a much smaller festival both as an alternative to and as a parody of Burning Man. The so-called Burning Shithead Festival takes place in Joshua Tree National Park every year at the same time as Burning Man. An Anti-BurningMan also formed with an emphasis on fewer restrictions, occurring just before Burning Man such that the less-ironic could still attend both. It is unclear what has become of it.

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Regional Events

The popularity of Burning Man has encouraged other groups and organizations to hold festivals similar to Burning Man, such as X-Day in New York, or the July long-weekend Phoenix Festival in Washington State. And In recent years, burners wishing to experience Burning Man more frequently than once per year have banded together to create local regional events. These events are typically much smaller than Burning Man itself, often consisting of no more than a few hundred participants. Some of the events are officially affiliated with the Burning Man organization via the Burning Man Regional Network, while others are organized and created by burners independent of the LLC.

One type of event is popular with those that find returning to the "default world" to be a little jarring after having enjoyed the experiences of the burn. To relieve this culture shock, burners may participate in decompression parties. These events seek to recapture the spirit of the main event.

Other regional events have been established that connect and grow localized communities of burners. These events build upon the cultural bond of Burning Man, yet add a particular unique flavor of their own. Most regional events last a few days, occur annually, and are much less formal than Burning Man itself.

This list notes many of the regional events. New events are being established continually.

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