Burning Man is a week-long large-scale desert event focused on "community, art, self-expression, and self-reliance" held annually in the western United States.

[1][2] The event's name comes from its culminating ceremony: the symbolic burning of a large wooden effigy, referred to as the Man, that occurs on the penultimate night, the Saturday evening before Labor Day.

The film Stalker by Tarkovsky heavily influenced the Cacophony Society, which began in 1986 in the San Francisco Bay Area and which organized "Zone Trips" for participants.

[15][17] In 1990, a separate event was planned by Kevin Evans and John Law on the remote and largely unknown playa, known as the Black Rock Desert, about 110 miles (180 km) north of Reno, Nevada.

Thus, Black Rock City began as a fellowship organized by Law and Mikel, based on Evans's and Grauberger's ideas and Harvey's and James's symbolic man.

Drawing on experience in the sign business and with light sculpture, Law prepared custom neon tubes for the Man starting in 1991 so it could be seen as a beacon to aid navigation at night long before there were any planned roads.

Before the event opened to the public in 1996, a worker named Michael Furey was killed in a motorcycle crash[24] while riding from Gerlach, Nevada, to the Burning Man camp in the Black Rock Desert.

[25] In 1999 to comply with the new requirements and manage the increased liability load, Harvey and five organizers formed Black Rock City LLC with the assistance of "Biz Babe" Dana Harrison.

As the population of Black Rock City grew, the BLM added more restrictions, and changes were made in how people were invited to the event, notably the addition of publicized online ticket sales to all comers; further rules were established concerning its survival.

[36] One visitor who was accidentally burned at the 2005 event unsuccessfully sued Black Rock City LLC in San Francisco County Superior Court.

[54][55] Organizers arranged for some cellular service and shared a 2023 Wet Playa Survival Guide: "no driving is permitted until the playa surface dries up, with the exception of emergency services… Participants are encouraged to conserve food, water, and fuel, and shelter in a warm, safe space" and told attendees about Burning Man Information Radio (BMIR) 94.5 FM and Gate Information Radio Station (GARS) 95.1.

[citation needed] The population count is a stipulation of the Special Recreation Permit (SRP) granted to the Burning Man Project, formerly Black Rock City, LLC (BRC), by the BLM, for the event each year.

It is not a temple in recognition of any religion; it's a neutral, non-denominational spiritual space where everyone can gather to share in the experience of remembering the past, honoring or cursing the present, and pondering the future to come.

[170] Source:[173] Jack Haye Jack Haye Tim Dawson Tucker Teutsch Marrilee Ratcliffe Jess Hobbs Peter Kimelman Diarmaid Horkan Ian Beaverstock Terry Gross Melissa Barron Steve Brummond Mark Sinclair Kelsey Faery Casey Sphinx Monera Mason The design consisted of a large, colorful shade structure that was surrounded by small altars with burn barrels.

[190] Sylvia Adrienne Lisse Reed Finlay A hallmark of Burning Man is large-scale interactive installation art inspired by the intersection of maker culture, technology, and nature.

Aggregate funding for all grants varies depending on the number and quality of the submissions (usually well over 100) but amounts to several percent (in the order of $500,000 in recent years) of the gross receipts from ticket sales.

The exhibit featured room-sized installations, costumes, and jewelry, while photographs and archival materials from the Nevada Museum of Art trace Burning Man's growth and its bohemian roots.

In addition, multiple large-scale public Burning Man art installations were exhibited throughout the neighborhood surrounding the museum, for an extension of the show No Spectators: Beyond the Renwick, which included works by Jack Champion, Mr. and Mrs. Ferguson, HYBYCOZO, Laura Kimpton, Kate Raudenbush, and Mischell Riley.

This is in response to constraints imposed by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, which grants permits to hold the event on federal property, and to participants who want to maintain a pedestrian-friendly environment.

Major producers and DJs representing various eras and genres have performed at Burning Man, however DJ events or "lineups" are discouraged from being publicized in the spirit of decommodification and immediacy.

[229] In 2010, The Sierra Club criticized Burning Man for the "hundreds of thousands" of plastic water bottles that end up in landfills, as well as ostentatious displays of flames and explosions.

Derisively nicknamed "plug-n-play" or "turnkey" camps, they in general consist of lavish RVs and luxury restroom trailers that are driven into the city and connected together to form de facto gated areas.

These billionaires then fly in to the airport on private planes, are driven to their camps, served by hired help, nicknamed "sherpas", and sleep in air-conditioned beds.

In addition, Nevada lawmakers have modified the state's entertainment and sales tax code to include nonprofit organizations like Burning Man that sell more than 15,000 tickets.

[249] According to the racial makeup of Burning Man attendees in 2014, 87% of them identified themselves as White, 6% as Hispanic / Latino, 6% as Asian, 2% as Native American, and 1% as Black (figures rounded).

[254] Similarly, James Goll and Lou Engle write that Burning Man "exalts Satan, mocks God, and demeans Christianity" because of its nudity, open sexuality, and neo-paganism.

[256][257] The amount of casual nudity at the event has significantly decreased over the years, due to the rise of ubiquitous cell phone cameras and the ability to easily upload photos to the Internet.

A Burning Man spokeswoman replied that the policies are not new, were written by a former head of the EFF, were used when suing to block pornographic videos, and ultimately arose from participant concerns: "We're proud that Black Rock City (a private event held on public land) is widely acknowledged as a bastion of creative freedom.

[B]ut that protection [of participants' freedoms] does necessitate the acceptance of some general terms of engagement when it comes to cameras.... EFF seems to think that anyone attending any event somehow has an absolute right to take photographs, and then to do whatever they want with those images without any effective restriction or manner of enforcement.

The regional event organizers are enabled to exchange best practices with each other on a global level via online platforms and in-person conferences, which are partly sponsored by the Burning Man Project.