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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. The event's name comes from its ceremony on the second last night of the event: the symbolic burning of a large wooden effigy, referred to as the Man, the Saturday evening before Labor Day. Since 1990, the event has been at Black Rock City in northwestern Nevada, a temporary city erected in the Black Rock Desert about north-northeast of Reno. According to Burning Man co-founder Larry Harvey in 2004, the event is guided by ten stated principles: radical inclusion, Gift Economy, decommodification, radical self-reliance, radical self-expression, communal effort, Civic engagement, leaving no trace, participation, and immediacy.
Burning Man features no headliners or scheduled performers; participants create all the art, activities, and events. Artwork includes experimental and interactive sculptures, buildings, performances, and , among other media. These contributions are inspired by a theme chosen annually by the Burning Man Project. NPR said of Burning Man in 2019, "Once considered an underground gathering for Bohemian style and free spirits of all stripes, Burning Man has since evolved into a destination for social media influencers, celebrities and the Silicon Valley elite."Bowman, Emma (July 14, 2019) "Federal Clampdown on Burning Man Imperils Festival's Free Spirit Ethos, Say Burners" . NPR.com. (Retrieved July 14, 2019.)
Burning Man originated on June 22, 1986, on Baker Beach in San Francisco as a small function organized by Larry Harvey and Jerry James, the builders of the first Man. It has since been held annually, spanning the nine days leading up to and including Labor Day. Over the event's history, attendance has generally increased. In 2019, 78,850 people participated.
Burning Man is organized by the Burning Man Project, a nonprofit organization that, in 2013, succeeded Black Rock City LLC, a for-profit limited liability company. Black Rock City LLC was formed in 1999 to represent the event's organizers and is now considered a subsidiary of the nonprofit organization. The Burning Man Project endorses multiple smaller regional events guided by the Burning Man principles in the United States and internationally. The 1979 film Stalker by Andrei Tarkovsky heavily influenced the Cacophony Society, which began in 1986 in the San Francisco Bay Area and which organized "Zone Trips" for participants. The first burning of a wooden, symbolic man at Black Rock Desert, Nevada, occurred on "Zone Trip Number 4" in 1990, laying the foundation for what would become the modern Burning Man.
By 1988, Harvey formally named the summer solstice ritual "Burning Man" by titling flyers for the happening as such. This was done to ward off references to "wicker man", the reputed Celtic paganism practice of burning live sacrifices in human-shaped wicker cages. Harvey has said that he had not seen the 1973 cult film The Wicker Man until many years after and that it did not inspire the action.
Park police, arguing that the organizers did not have a permit, objected to the solstice burn at Baker Beach. After striking a deal to raise the Man but not to burn it, event organizers disassembled it and returned it to the vacant lot where it had been built. Shortly thereafter, the legs and torso of the Man were chain-sawed, and the pieces were removed when the space was unexpectedly leased as a parking lot. The Man was reconstructed, led by Dan Miller, Harvey's then-housemate of many years, just in time to take it to Zone Trip No. 4.
Michael Mikel, another active Cacophonist, realized that participants unfamiliar with the environment of the dry lake would benefit from knowledgeable persons helping to ensure they did not get lost in the deep dry lake and risk dehydration and death. He took the name Danger Ranger and created the Black Rock Rangers to assist them. 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.
In its early years, the community grew by word of mouth alone, and all were considered (and generally not invited until they could be expected to be) participants in their contribution to the cacophonous situationist vibe. There were no paid or scheduled performers or artists, no separation between art and life nor art space and living space, no rules other than "Don't interfere with anyone else's immediate experience" and "no guns in central camp".
1991 marked the first year that the event had a legal permit through the BLM (the Bureau of Land Management). It was also the year that art model and fire dancer (and later Burning Man's first art director) Crimson Rose attended the event. 1992 saw the birth of a smaller, intensive, nearby event named "Desert Siteworks", conceived and directed by William Binzen and co-produced (in 1993 and '94) with Judy West.() There were about 20 participants the first year, and approximately 100 in the second and third year. The annual, several weeks-long event, was held over summer Solstice at various fertile hot springs surrounding the desert. Participants built art and participated in self-directed performances.
Some key organizers of Burning Man were also part of Desert Siteworks (Law, Mikel) and Binzen was a friend of Harvey. Hence, the two events saw much cross-pollination of ideas and participants. The Desert Siteworks project ran for three years (1992–1994). 1996 was the first year a formal partnership was created to own the name "Burning Man" and was also the last year the event was held in the middle of the Black Rock Desert with no fence around it.
Before the event opened to the public in 1996, a worker named Michael Furey was killed in a motorcycle crash while riding from Gerlach, Nevada, to the Burning Man camp in the Black Rock Desert. Harvey insisted that the death had not occurred at Burning Man, since the gates were not yet open. Another couple were run over in their tent by an art car driving to the "rave camp", which was at that time distant from the main camp. After the 1996 event, Law broke with Burning Man and publicly said the event should not continue.
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. The LLC founders consisted of Larry Harvey (chief philosophy officer), Harley K. DuBois (chief transition officer), Marian Goodell (CEO), Crimson Rose (art transition officer), Will Roger Peterson (Nevada relations director), and Michael Mikel (historian and archivist).
Will Roger Peterson and Flynn Mauthe created the Black Rock City Department of Public Works (DPW) to build the "city" grid layout (a requirement so that emergency vehicles could be directed to an "address"), designed by Rod Garrett, an architect. Garrett continued as the city designer until his death in 2011, at age 76. He is also credited with the design of all of the Man bases from 2001 through 2012, the center camp café and first camp. 1998 saw a return to the Black Rock desert, although not to the deep playa, along with a temporary perimeter fence. The event has remained there since.
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. Some critics of the later phase of the event cite these rules as impinging on the original freedoms and principles, diminishing the scope of the experience unacceptably, while many newer attendees find the increased level of activity more than balances out the changes:
Another notable restriction to attendees is the 9.2-mile- (14.8 km) long temporary plastic fence that surrounds the event and defines the pentagon of land used by the event on the southern edge of the Black Rock dry lake. This 4-foot- (1.2-meter) high barrier is known as the "trash fence" because its initial use was to catch wind-blown debris that might escape from campsites during the event. Since 2002, the area beyond this fence has not been accessible to Burning Man participants during the event.
One visitor who was accidentally burned at the 2005 event unsuccessfully sued Black Rock City LLC in San Francisco County Superior Court. On June 30, 2009, the California Court of Appeal for the First District upheld the trial court's grant of summary judgment to Black Rock City LLC on the basis that people who deliberately walk toward The Man after it is ignited assume the risk of getting burned by such a hazardous object. Beninati v. Black Rock City, LLC, 175 Cal. App. 4th 650 (2009).
On September 3, 2017, a 41-year-old man, Aaron Joel Mitchell, fought his way past a safety cordon of volunteers and firefighters and threw himself into the flames of the Man. Mitchell died the next day due to cardiac arrest, bodily shock, and third-degree burns to 97% of his body. His death was ruled a suicide.
On September 7, 2020, an estimated 1,000 Burners celebrated on San Francisco's Ocean Beach. San Francisco Mayor London Breed tweeted about the event, "This was reckless and selfish. You aren't celebrating, but are putting people's lives and our progress at risk. No one is immune from spreading the virus."Holcombe, Madeline (September 7, 2020) "A 1,000-person gathering to celebrate Burning Man culture put people's lives at risk, San Francisco mayor says." CNN Several thousand also showed up in the Black Rock desert for an unofficial event and some described it as a return to the "old days".
The 2021 event was canceled on April 27, 2021, due to the continuation of the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite progress on vaccination, organizers said that "uncertainties that need to be resolved are impossible to resolve in the time we have". On May 14, 2021, the Burning Man Project released tickets on their website for online events slated between August 22 and September 7, 2021.
The unofficial event was more extensive than in 2020, with an estimated 20,000 attending. Various groups loosely coordinated it, including Black Rock Plan B and Rogue Burn. The Bureau of Land Management implemented restrictions including no structures other than shade structures and no fires other than campfires. There was a massive illuminated drone display outlining the Man instead of the burning of a Man effigy.
An epic dust storm was reported on the final day of the event, snarling departure traffic and causing lines to last more than four hours.
The Burning Man Project is currently engaged in a fundraising campaign that began in October 2024. The campaign aims to collect $20 million. On December 19, 2024, CEO Marian Goodell emailed supporters that the project still requires $14 million to meet its financial goal for the 2025 event.
After starting at and growing taller each of the next three years, the height of the titular Man remained at between 1989 and 2013. During those years, changes in the size and form of the base on which the wooden Man stood accounted for the differing heights of the overall structures. In 2014 the construction of the Man changed to a tall figure standing directly on the ground with no base. From 2015 to 2019 the Man returned to in height.
| 1986 | Baker Beach | None | 35 | Not on BLM land | Free | None | ||
| Larry Harvey and Jerry James burn a wooden effigy of a man at Baker Beach on the summer solstice, following a tradition begun by Mary Grauberger of burning art at Baker Beach on the summer solstice. | ||||||||
| 1987 | Baker Beach | None | 80 | Not on BLM land | Free | None | ||
| Whereas the previous year's effigy was assembled from scrap wood on the morning of the solstice, the 1987 Man was built over several weeks from cut lumber. | ||||||||
| 1988 | Baker Beach | None | 200 | Not on BLM land | Free | None | ||
| Larry Harvey first names the annual event "Burning Man." | ||||||||
| 1989 | Baker Beach | None | 300 | Not on BLM land | Free | None | ||
| First listing of Burning Man in the San Francisco Cacophony Society newsletter, "Rough Draft" under "sounds like cacophony". | ||||||||
| 1990 | Baker Beach & Black Rock Desert | None | None | $15 (requested donation) | None | |||
| The Man was erected at Baker Beach on the summer solstice but not burned. The Man was then "invited" to the San Francisco Cacophony Zone Trip No. 4 on Labor Day weekend in the Black Rock Desert. | ||||||||
| 1991 | Black Rock Desert | None | 250 | None | $15 (requested donation) | None | ||
| The Man was decorated with neon lighting in 1991 for the first time, and it has been decorated with neon every year since. | ||||||||
| 1992 | Black Rock Desert | None | 600 | None | $25 (requested donation) | |||
| First year amplified music appeared at Burning Man. Craig Ellenwood and TerboTed set up a camp, approved by Larry Harvey one mile from center camp and launched the first EDM camp. | ||||||||
| 1993 | Black Rock Desert | None | 1,000 | None | $40 | |||
| "Christmas Camp" becomes the first theme camp, with its two members dressing up as Santa Claus and giving out fruitcake and eggnog. | ||||||||
| 1994 | Black Rock Desert | None | 2,000 | None | $30 | |||
| First year of wooden spires and lamp lighting. | ||||||||
| 1995 | Black Rock Desert | 4,000 | None | $35 | ||||
| The Center Camp Cafe began selling coffee. | ||||||||
| 1996 | Black Rock Desert | heLLCo | 8,000 | None | $35 | |||
| Theme was a satire referencing Dante's Inferno, heLLCo (a corporate takeover of Hell). First year the Man is elevated on a straw bale pyramid. First fatality in motorcycle collision. Three people seriously injured in a tent run over by a car. 10 of 16 BLM stipulations violated, putting BM on probationary status for next year. An injury claim drives liability coverage up by a factor of 6. Featured in an article in Wired magazine. | ||||||||
| 1997 | Hualapai Flat | Fertility | 10,000 | Not on BLM land | ||||
| Burning Man's founders form a management structure, and created the DPW to meet strict permit requirements newly imposed. The first year the city has Grid plan and a driving ban. Washoe County officials impounded gate receipts to ensure payment after the fire and protection fees along with more than 100 new fire and safety conditions are imposed before the event. | ||||||||
| 1998 | Black Rock Desert | Nebulous Entity | 15,000 | None | ||||
| Burning Man returned to the Black Rock Desert although much closer to Gerlach than before. The "Nebulous Entity" was Harvey's satirical concept of alien beings who thrive on information – who consume it but do not understand it. The First Google Doodle from Google to Celebrate. | ||||||||
| 1999 | Black Rock Desert | Wheel of Time | 23,000 | None | ||||
| Listed in the AAA's RV guide under "Great Destinations." | ||||||||
| 2000 | Black Rock Desert | The Body | 25,400 | None | ||||
| First active law enforcement activity, 60 Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and police arrests and citations. Most are for minor drug charges following surveillance and searches. | ||||||||
| 2001 | Black Rock Desert | Seven Ages | 25,659 | None | ||||
| See Seven Ages of Man. Over 100 BLM citations and 5 arrests. | ||||||||
| 2002 | Black Rock Desert | The Floating World | 28,979 | None | ||||
| First year for FAA approved airport. 135 BLM citations and 4 Sheriff citations. | ||||||||
| 2003 | Black Rock Desert | Beyond Belief | 30,586 | None | ||||
| Dogs are banned for the first time. 177 BLM citations, 9 police citations, 10 arrests and 1 fatality. | ||||||||
| 2004 | Black Rock Desert | The Vault of Heaven | 35,664 | None | ||||
| 218 BLM citations, some issued from decoy 'art car'. Camps giving away alcohol subject to state law compliance examinations and 1 arrest. Pershing County Sheriff's office: 27 cases, 4 arrests, 2 citations. Nevada Highway Patrol: 2 DUI arrests, 217 citations, and 246 warnings were issued. | ||||||||
| 2005 | Black Rock Desert | Psyche | 35,567 | None | ||||
| The Man, perched atop a "funhouse" maze, could be turned by participants, confusing those at a distance who use it to navigate. Dream related artwork. 218 BLM citations, 6 arrests and 1 fatality. | ||||||||
| 2006 | Black Rock Desert | Hope and Fear | 38,989 | |||||
| The Man goes up and down reflecting a hope/fear meter. Voting stations were set up around the playa, allowing residents to cast a Hopeful or Fearful vote for the future of Man. If the vote was hopeful he would burn with his hands in the air, otherwise with hands down. They voted hopeful, and his arms were raised until the end. 155 BLM citations and 1 arrest. Pershing County Sheriff's office: 1 citation and 7 arrests. Nevada Highway Patrol: 234 citations, 17 arrests, and 213 warnings. | ||||||||
| 2007 | Black Rock Desert | The Green Man | 47,097 | |||||
| The Man was prematurely set on fire around 2:58 am, Tuesday, August 28, during a full lunar eclipse. A repeat Burning Man prankster, Paul Addis, was arrested and charged with arson, and the Man was rebuilt for regular Saturday burn. Addis pleaded guilty in May 2008 to one felony count of injury to property, was sentenced to up to four years in Nevada state prison, and was ordered to pay $30,000 in restitution.Burningman.com 2007 news 331 BLM citations. | ||||||||
| 2008 | Black Rock Desert | American Dream | 49,599 | |||||
| First year that tickets are not sold at the gate. The size and layout of the city is enlarged to accommodate a larger central playa and a longer Esplanade. Because of excessively high winds and whiteout conditions on Saturday, the burning of the Man was delayed for over an hour and a half and the fire conclave was canceled. Many longtime contributors opted out allegedly due to the chosen theme ("The American Dream"), the jailing of dissenter Addis, and the founders' rift. The perimeter of BRC extended to 9 miles. The BLM made 6 arrests and issued 129 citations. | ||||||||
| 2009 | Black Rock Desert | Evolution | 43,558 | |||||
| As the result of some criticism, the size and layout of the city were returned to roughly the same as the 2007 event. The BLM officials said that as of noon Saturday, 41,059 people were at Burning Man, and the crowd peaked at 43,435 at noon Friday, a noted decline after years of steady attendance growth, due mainly to the 2008 financial crisis. BLM issued 287 citations and 9 arrests. | ||||||||
| 2010 | Black Rock Desert | Metropolis | 51,525 | |||||
| Attendance over 50,000 mark, for the first time. The gate opened early, at 6 pm Sunday, for the first time. Coincided with the inaugural Black Rock City Film Festival. BLM issued 293 citations and 8 arrests. | ||||||||
| 2011 | Black Rock Desert | Rites of Passage | 53,963 | 50,000 | ||||
| According to Black Rock LLC, 27,000 tickets (all discounted tiers) were sold by midday the day following the opening of ticket sales. For the first time in Burning Man history, tickets sold out before the event on July 24, 2011. | ||||||||
| 2012 | Black Rock Desert | Fertility 2.0 | 56,149 | 60,900 | ||||
| Due to the sellout of the event in 2011, Burning Man Project opted for a complex multi-round, random selection system of ticket sales with a separate low-income program. On January 27, Burning Man Project announced that the number of tickets requested in the Main Sale was around 120,000 vis-à-vis the 40,000 that were available. In consequence, a significant number of registrants would not be awarded tickets in the Main Sale. The Main Sale was originally planned to be followed by a secondary open sale of 10,000 tickets. However, as the huge demand from the Main Sale left many veteran burners and theme camps without tickets, Burning Man Project opted for a "directed ticket distribution" (DGS) instead, i.e., "manually redirect them to some of the vital groups and collaborations that make up Black Rock City" rather than an open sale. | ||||||||
| 2013 | Black Rock Desert | Cargo Cult | 69,613 | 68,000 | ||||
| The year's theme was based on John Frum and . Ticket tiers were eliminated and a flat rate price structure was adopted (except for low-income ticket program). | ||||||||
| 2014 | Black Rock Desert | Caravansary | 65,922 | 68,000"The population cap does not include volunteers, government personnel, emergency service providers, vendors and contractors." | ||||
| This year, the Burning Man Traffic Mitigation Plan went into effect. All vehicles entering Black Rock City needed a $40 vehicle pass. Only 35,000 passes were available. A woman is killed in a vehicle collision. The entrance to the event was closed on August 25 due to rain, with attendees forced to stay temporarily in nearby parts of Nevada. | ||||||||
| 2015 | Black Rock Desert | Carnival of Mirrors | 67,564 | 70,000 | Night temperatures plummeted to the 20s. Winds were over and sustained for long periods of time. | |||
| First time in nearly 10 years that the Man base is on the ground (vis-à-vis a raised base). Only 27,000 vehicle passes were made available this year. | ||||||||
| 2016 | Black Rock Desert | Da Vinci's Workshop | 67,290 | 70,000 | ||||
| Tying in with the 2016 theme – the works of Leonardo da Vinci, the Man was a large-scale interpretation of the Vitruvian Man on a circular frame; contained within its base was a wheel and gear system that was to allow groups of visitors to manually rotate the Man. The gear system was damaged during setup, however, and was not functional during the event. | ||||||||
| 2017 | Black Rock Desert | Radical Ritual | 69,493 | 70,000 | Theme Camps: 1395 Mutant Vehicles: unknown | |||
| A 41-year-old man, Aaron Joel Mitchell, died after running through the security cordon into the already ignited Man. | ||||||||
| 2018 | Black Rock Desert | I, Robot | 70,248 | 70,000 | Theme Camps: 1472 Mutant Vehicles: 618 | |||
| Due to ticket overselling, the population of Black Rock City exceeded the 70,000 participant limit, and on Thursday of event week the BLM requested that the gate be closed. New participants were only let in once another had left. | ||||||||
| 2019 | Black Rock Desert | Metamorphoses | 78,850 | 80,000 | Theme camps: 1545 Mutant vehicles: 632 | |||
| The BLM's definition of "population" was changed to include BRC staff and volunteers in addition to paid participants. The maximum population limit was increased by 10,000 to accommodate, accordingly. | ||||||||
| 2020 | Black Rock Desert | The Multiverse | N/A | 5,000 | N/A | N/A | Unknown | |
| Burning Man was canceled in 2020 due to the global COVID-19 pandemic. On July 2, 2020, the eight virtual Universes were announced as The Infinite Playa, Multiverse, SparkleVerse, MysticVerse, BRCvr, BURN2, Build-A-Burn, and The Bridge Experience. Approximately 5,000 people showed up in the Black Rock desert for a ticketless, unofficial burn. | ||||||||
| 2021 | Black Rock Desert | The Great Unknown | drone display | 20,000 | N/A | N/A | Camps: 500+ | |
| The theme was originally announced as "Terra Incognita" then later changed to "The Great Unknown". The event was canceled for the second year due to the global COVID-19 pandemic. An estimated 20,000 showed up for a loosely organized "rogue" burn. | ||||||||
| 2022 | Black Rock Desert | Waking Dreams | 64 ft (19.5 m) | 75,069 | 87,000 | Highs during Burn week were between 98 and 103 °F. | Not yet public information | |
| On December 15, 2021, the Burning Man Project announced that the 2022 event would take place in person. | ||||||||
| 2023 | Black Rock Desert | Animalia | 75 ft (23 m) | 74,126 | 87,000 | About 0.8" of rain fell on Thursday of Burn week. | Not yet public information | |
| The event experienced inclement weather and flooding for the first time, forcing the gates and the roads leading to Black Rock City to be closed for a period of time. A death was also reported. | ||||||||
| 2024 | Black Rock Desert | Curiouser & Curiouser | 87,000 | Mild rain and sustained high winds during build week. Burn week had highs between 80s and mid 90s, Lows in the 40s and high 50s. Max winds were until Monday after the Burns concluded and it peaked at . | ||||
| For the first time in many years, tickets were available without registration through the OMG sale weeks before the event. One death was reported on the opening day. The 2024 event marks first time since 2011 that tickets weren't sold out. | ||||||||
| 2025 | Black Rock Desert | Tomorrow Today | 87,000 | |||||
The population count was originally used to calculate fees owed to the BLM. It was not long until the BLM began considering putting a limit on the number of people that would be allowed to attend the event. This became a point of contention as early as 1998 when the BLM proposed a complicated usage formula, effectively limiting the size of the event to that of the previous year.
Starting in 2006, the SRP stipulated that BRC manage "ticket sales in a manner to keep the maximum population of the event from increasing more than 6% above the highest population recorded in a previous year." Fees were based on the daily population counts of Black Rock City at noon. This was the first year where fees were explicitly exempted for BRC staff..
In 2011, the fee structure changed to be based on adjusted gross income and was no longer tied to daily population counts.
The 2012 SRP further defined who was to be counted in population counts. The term "participant" was introduced, as defined in that year's Environmental Assessment (EA), to include "all attendees of the event, including paid participants and volunteers. The population does not include government personnel, Humboldt General Hospital emergency service providers, vendors and contractors." The maximum authorized population now applied to "participants".
In 2014, volunteers were explicitly exempted from the population count and the population cap was further refined to now apply to "paid participants".
In 2019, the definition of "population" changed again, this time to include BRC staff and volunteers, now collectively referred to as "attendees". This coincided with the necessity of a new Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the 2019–2028 SRP application which introduced this change in definition. The Burning Man Project reported a population of 78,850 for that year, an increase of about 8,600 people from the previous year, noting that "everyone" was now being counted in the maximum population count."*Now including everyone!" This roughly correlates with the Burning Man Project's 2019 Form 990 disclosure which states it employs 986 people and has 10,000 volunteers.
In 2022, an additional restriction on the total number of attendees for the entirety of the event was introduced. "The cumulative maximum authorized population for the 2022 event is 87,000 total attendees." The maximum number of attendees on the playa at any one time remained as it was in 2019 at 80,000.
The Burning Man event and its affiliated communities are guided by 10 principles meant to evoke the cultural ethos that has emerged from the event. They were originally written by Larry Harvey in 2004 as guidelines for regional organizing, then later became universal criteria of the general culture of the multifaceted movement. The 10 Principles are:
The prime function of the Temple is to be a canvas upon which people can leave words and objects behind to be burned, and to serve as "a place of contemplation, a place to rest, a place of reflection, a place of rituals, weddings, reunions, etc". During the event, 400 volunteer Temple Guardians monitor the Temple 24 hours a day. The Temple is burned on the eighth and final night of the event, following the "Man burn" on the previous night.
| Temple of the Mind | David Best
Jack Haye | Temple of the Mind was dedicated to Michael Hefflin, a Temple builder who died in a motorcycle accident. Other people left remembrances over the course of the event week, and the tradition of the Temple at Burning Man was born. | |
| Temple of Tears / Mausoleum | David Best
Jack Haye | ||
| Temple of Joy | Temple of Joy was tall. | ||
| Temple of Honor | |||
| Temple of Stars | David Best | Temple of Stars was the first temple that allowed participants to walk on. | |
| Temples of Dreams | Mark Grieve | David Best stepped aside to allow for another artist, Mark Grieve, to build his own interpretation of a Temple. Grieve's temples were seen in both 2005 and 2006. | |
| Temple of Hope | Mark Grieve | ||
| Temple of Forgiveness | David Best
Tim Dawson | David Best took over the Temple building duties for what he thought would be one last time. Best stated that after 2007, it was time to hand the Temple over to the community. | |
| Basura Sagrada | Brent Allen Spears
Tucker Teutsch | The "Basura Sagrada" (Spanish for "sacred trash") was a collaboration of Shrine and Tucker Teutsch 3.0, built with the extensive help of their friends and the greater Burning Man community. It was constructed largely from burnable trash and recycled materials. | |
| Fire of Fires | David Umlas
Marrilee Ratcliffe | This was the first Temple built outside of California. Fire of Fires was built in Austin, Texas. | |
| Temple of Flux | Rebecca Anders
Jess Hobbs Peter Kimelman | This group was notable for drawing from a broad section of the Burning Man community, including the large-scale sound camps and other existing BM art groups who formed The Flux Foundation. Temple of Flux was a major departure from previous Temple design at Burning Man and was highly abstract in nature, consisting of five double-curved walls that formed cave-like spaces. | |
| Temple of Transition | Chris Hankins
Diarmaid Horkan Ian Beaverstock | This was the first Temple built in Reno, Nevada. The International Arts Megacrew, helmed by Chris "Kiwi" Hankins, Diarmaid "Irish" Horkan and Ian "Beave" Beaverstock returned to a more traditional style. Temple of Transition took the form of a central hexagonal tower, surrounded by five hexagonal towers. The towers were vaulted and lofty, cut with a profusion of gothic style arches. | |
| Temple of Juno | David Best | With the 2012 Temple came the return of David Best. The Temple of Juno incorporated a large central tower with central altar space, sitting within a walled courtyard lined with benches, accessed from four entrances. Intricately cut wooden panels and detailed shapes covered the courtyard walls as well as the interior space and altars. square walled courtyard. | |
| Temple of Whollyness | Gregg Fleishman
Terry Gross Melissa Barron | This temple was created by The Otic Oasis team, led by architect and artist Gregg Fleishman, Terry Lightning "Clearwater III" Gross, and Melissa "Syn" Barron. This was the first Temple built without nails, bolts, adhesives, or fasteners of any kind. This Temple incorporated a massive black basalt Inuksuk sculpture created by artist, James LaFemina to act as the central altar. Conceptual artist and composer, Aaron 'Taylor' Kuffner, who debuted at Burning Man with the 2011 Temple of Transition, returned to contribute musical elements with a different execution of the Gamelatron. | |
| Temple of Grace | David Best | Following the sudden withdrawal of chosen 2014 Temple builder Ross Asselstine, who backed out of building the Temple of Descendants due to contract disagreements with the Burning Man Project, David Best came out of retirement a third time to build his eighth Temple. The Temple of Grace was intended to be a spiritual and sacred space for memorials, reflection, celebration, and to commemorate life transitions. The structure incorporated a central interior dome within a graceful curved body made of wood and steel. Again, it had intricately cut wooden panels for the exterior and interior skin. Eight altars surrounded the temple inside a low-walled courtyard, creating a large exterior grounds for the community. | |
| Temple of Promise | Jazz Tigan | This temple was created by Dreamers Guild and built primarily in Alameda, California. The temple welcomed participants through an archway soaring overhead. As the path continued to curve, it opened into the contemplative altar and the heart of the Temple: a grove of three sculpted trees. The branches were initially bare, and participants wrote messages on long strips of cloth and attached them to the trees, creating the gentle shade of weeping willows, increasing as the week progressed. The structure of the Temple tapered in and curled around to form a small courtyard containing wireframe tree sculptures. | |
| The Temple | David Best | David Best came out of retirement yet again to build a pagoda style temple. The wooden components of the Temple were cut by hand without the use of a CNC machine. | |
| The Temple | Marisha Farnsworth
Steve Brummond Mark Sinclair | Designed by Steven Brummond, Marisha Farnsworth and Mark Sinclair (who acted as leads on prior David Best temples); two are architects and one is a structural engineer. It stood tall and across. They milled the lumber themselves, and most of the build was constructed at a sawmill in Sonora, California. | |
| Galaxia | Arthur Mamou-Mani | Designed by architect Arthur Mamou-Mani and built in two locations; Reno, Nevada, and Oakland, California. Galaxia was shaped by 20 timber converging as a spiral towards one point in the sky. The triangular trusses formed different paths towards a central space holding a series of giant 3D printed mandalas or lanterns at the center that collectively formed a chandelier centerpiece. The timber modules started large enough to hold small alcoves in which people could interact with the structure in peace. As participants walked through the path, the modules lifted up and became thinner towards the sky as they reached the central mandala. | |
| Temple of Direction | Geordie Van Der Bosch | Designed by Geordie Van Der Bosch, was a long, wide, and tall structure, with four entrances facing the four cardinal directions of Black Rock City, 12, 3, 6, and 9 o’clock.164 The Temple of Direction was a linear space, capturing the elegance and austerity of the Torii gates at the Fushimi Inari-taisha Shrine in Japan, where the artist has previously lived. | |
| 2020 | Empyrean | Laurence Renzo Verbeck
Sylvia Adrienne Lisse Jeremy Roush | Delayed due to the COVID-19 Pandemic |
| 2021 | None | None | There was no official temple in 2021 due to the COVID-19 Pandemic. There was however a virtual temple available online known as The Luminous Lotus Virtual Temple created by Simeone Scaramozzino and his Virtual Temple Team. |
| 2022 | Empyrean | Laurence Renzo Verbeck | Empyrean, originally selected for 2020, and which would have been the temple for 2021 if not for the COVID-19 pandemic became the de facto 2022 temple. During both years, with the event canceled, Empyrean was not built in the Black Rock Desert. However, in 2021 the Empyrean Temple Crew built a prototype in Santa Rosa, CA. In 2022, Burning Man resumed and Empyrean finally made it to the playa. |
| 2023 | Temple of the Heart | Ela Madej
Reed Finlay | The Temple of the Heart was a communal sanctuary at Burning Man, designed as an inverted desert flower to embody connection, love, and reflection. Featuring three key elements—the Rose Altar, a luminous collection of community-made flowers symbolizing grief and love; the Heart Chamber, a central gathering space for meditation, music, and stillness; and the Ring of Offerings, an intimate area for contemplation—the Temple fosters healing and collective experience. Co-created with the Burning Man community, it serves as a sacred space for remembrance and renewal. |
| 2024 | Temple of Together | Caroline Ghosn | Temple of Together consisted of a Central Chamber surrounded by "Chapels of Wishes", enclosed in a fenced courtyard with shrines |
| 2025 | Temple of the Deep | Miguel Arraiz | The Temple of the Deep, designed by Miguel Arraiz, is a high sanctuary of reflection and healing, inspired by the volcanic rock of the Black Rock Desert. Its fractured, glowing surface evokes kintsugi, symbolizing resilience through imperfection. Seven entrances represent the stages of grief, guiding participants toward a communal space that mirrors Black Rock City's layout. Merging raw, organic elements with a futuristic vision, the Temple invites radical acceptance, offering a place to honor personal journeys and find peace in transformation. |
Art on the playa is assisted by a department of the Burning Man Project called the Artery, which helps artists place their art in the desert and ensures lighting to prevent collisions, burn platforms to protect the integrity of the dry lake bed, and that fire safety requirements are met.Burningman.com Art Installations Art grants are available to participants via a system of curation and oversight, with application deadlines early in the year. Grants are intended to help artists produce work beyond the scope of their own means, and are generally intended to cover only a portion of the costs associated with creation of the pieces, usually requiring considerable reliance on an artist's community resources. 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. In 2006, 29 pieces were funded.
Various standards regarding the nature of the artworks eligible for grants are set by the Art Department, but compliance with the theme and interactivity are important considerations. This funding has fostered artistic communities, most notably in the Bay Area of California, the region that has historically provided a majority of the event's participants. There are active and successful outreach efforts to enlarge the regional scope of the event and the grant program.
Large-scale installations form the core of the exhibition. Individual artists and collectives featured in the exhibit include David Best, Candy Chang, Marco Cochrane, Duane Flatmo, Michael Garlington and Natalia Bertotti, Five Ton Crane Arts Collective, FoldHaus Art Collective, Scott Froschauer, HYBYCOZO, (Yelena Filipchuk and Serge Beaulieu), Android Jones, Aaron Taylor Kuffner, Christopher Schardt, Richard Wilks, and Leo Villareal.
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. All outdoor works had been installed as honorarium artwork at Burning Man in years past, except for the artwork by Hybycozo. This outdoor exhibition was co-produced by a first ever collaboration with the Golden Triangle BID (Business Improvement District in Washington DC), curated by Karyn Miller.
Burning Man participants who wish to bring motorized mutant vehicles must submit their designs in advance to the event's own DMV or "Department of Mutant Vehicles" for consideration. If a vehicle design meets the "Mutant Vehicle Criteria," the vehicle is invited to the event for a final physical inspection and licensing at the event. Not all designs and proposals are accepted.
The event organizers, and the DMV, have set the bar high for what it deems an acceptable MV each year, in effect capping the number of Mutant Vehicles. 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. Vehicles that are minimally altered, and/or whose primary function is to transport participants, are discouraged and not invited.
One of the criteria the DMV employs to determine whether an application for a proposed Mutant Vehicle is approved is "can you recognize the base vehicle". For example, if a 1967 VW van covered with glitter, dolls' heads, and old cooking utensils can still be recognized as a VW van, the DMV would consider it an "Art Car," but it would not be sufficiently altered to meet the Mutant Vehicle Criteria.
There were over six hundred approved Mutant Vehicles at the event in 2010.
To work around the rules, mutant vehicles with live DJs and large sound systems began to appear as well. A number of major electronic music camps have been well-known returnees at Burning Man, including Opulent Temple and Robot Heart. 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.
In recent years, concerns began to surface among attendees that a growing number of "mainstream" electronic dance music acts had begun to appear. In 2015, organizers established a new area known as the "Deep Playa Music Zone" to serve as a new host for art cars featuring live DJs.
The innermost street is named the Esplanade. The remaining streets are given names to coincide with the overall theme of the burn, and ordered in ways such as alphabetical order or stem to stern, to make them easier to recall. For example, in 1999, for the "Wheel of Time" theme, and again in 2004 for "The Vault of Heaven" theme, the streets were named after the planets of the Solar System. The radial streets are usually given a clock designation, for example, 6:00 or 6:15, in which the Man is at the center of the clock face. 12:00 is in the middle of the third of the arc lacking streets, usually at a bearing of 60° true from the Man.
These avenues have been identified in other ways, notably in 2002, in accordance with "The Floating World" theme, as the degrees of a compass. For example 175 degrees, and in 2003 as part of the Beyond Belief theme as adjectives ("Rational, Absurd") that caused every intersection with a concentric street, named after concepts of belief such as "Authority, Creed", to form a phrase such as "Absurd Authority" or "Rational Creed." These proved unpopular with participants due to difficulty in navigating the city without the familiar clock layout.
The Black Rock City Airport is constructed adjacent to the city, typically on its southern side .
Theme camps are a collective of anywhere between several, to several hundred participants, representing themselves under a unique value offering. To qualify as a "theme camp", and therefore be granted placement in BRC, you must apply through official Burning Man placement channels, and remain in good standing to be placed for future years.
Furthermore, "Villages" exist in Black Rock City and are collections of theme camps which share common values, and coordinate resources between their "village" of individual theme camps.
Theme camps and villages, as well as "open campers" who are free to camp outside of Placement boundaries, form to create an atmosphere in Black Rock City that they have collectively envisioned. As Burning Man grows it attracts an ever more diverse crowd. Subcultures form around theme camps at Black Rock City similar to what can be found in other cities.
Firefighting, emergency medical services (EMS), mental health, and communications support is provided by the volunteer Black Rock City Emergency Services Department (ESD). Three "MASH"-like stations are set up in the city: station 3, 6, and 9. Station 6 is staffed by physicians and nurses working with a contracted state licensed ALS Medical provider. Stations 3 and 9 are staffed by Black Rock City ESD personnel. While Station 3 and 9 provide emergency services and basic life support, the volunteers are generally doctors, nurses, EMTs/paramedics, and firefighters. Both station 3 and 9 have a small fire engine available in addition to a Hazardous material/Rescue truck and quick response vehicle for medical emergencies.
In documents from February 2013 first made public in August 2015, it was revealed that in August 2010, the Federal Bureau of Investigation had sent a memo to its field offices in Nevada stating that it would patrol Burning Man to "aid in the prevention of terrorist activities and intelligence collection". Although a threat assessment performed by the FBI determined that drug usage and crowd control were the only major threats to Burning Man, the Bureau still sent an unspecified number of undercover agents to the event, with "no adverse threats or reactions".
In 1993, the first sound camp was opened. It was known as the Techno Ghetto, and it was located two miles north of Center Camp. It was not a usual theme camp, but was instead a mini hub on its own. There was a small "center camp" with a message board and Portable toilet. The center was surrounded by a circle of camping area across. Six massive sound systems faced out from the circle. The Techno Ghetto was placed separately to keep the 'rave' out of the main event. As time has progressed, music has become more and more closely tied into the core culture of Burning Man, even spawning a unique genre known as Playa Tech.
The techno ghetto had its last year in 1996. Regardless, the spark of music had ignited, and other sound camps followed.
2000 saw the introduction of the Temple as a fixture on the playa, and it has grown to be easily as important as the Man. It was placed at 12:00 out in the deep playa in the open third of the circle. 2000 introduced the concept of a loud side. A quiet side was replaced by the rule that large scale sound camps would be placed at the 10:00 and 2:00 edges, facing out into the deep playa.
Extra annular streets have been added, as need has increased.
Vehicles then proceed from the Highway 34 entrance north to the main gate via Gate Road, a desert dirt road with a speed limit of 10 mph. All vehicles driving into the city must have the appropriate vehicle pass. All occupants are required to have valid tickets in order to get in. Vehicles are searched for any items that are prohibited in the city. For those who have their tickets held at Will Call, the booths are located between the Highway 34 entrance and the main gate.
All tickets and vehicle passes must be bought in advance. They are not directly sold outside the gate or at the Will Call booths. Unless they have a valid early arrival pass for the pre-event set up, any vehicle who arrives before the gate opens is turned away and told to go back to Reno, and not to wait along the side of the road on either Highways 34 or 447, which would be a safety hazard, nor stay in Gerlach, and overcrowd the small town.
When the Burning Man ends, and the mass exodus from Black Rock City begins, a road traffic control procedure called "Pulsing" is used to direct vehicles out of the city. At regular intervals, usually an hour during the peak periods, all vehicles are "pulsed" forward all at once for about a mile along Gate Road. This allows vehicles to stop and turn off their engines, while those at the southernmost mile of the multi-lane Gate Road slowly merge and then turn onto the two-lane Highway 34.
San Francisco International Airport, nearly six hours away by car, is the nearest airport with a high volume of international service. Other prominent airports, albeit with less international passenger traffic and more domestic services, are Sacramento International Airport, a 4.5-hour drive from Black Rock City, as well as other Bay Area airports such as Oakland International Airport and San Jose International Airport.
Salt Lake City International Airport, serving Salt Lake City, Utah, and Harry Reid International Airport, serving Las Vegas, Nevada, are both an 8.5-hour drive to Black Rock City.
Black Rock UNICOM and the airport are operational on that Radio frequency from 6:00 am to 7:30 pm PDT each day during the event. The runway is simply a compacted strip of playa, and is not lighted. Because of the unique air traffic and safety issues associated with the airport, pilots are strongly encouraged to familiarize themselves with published information and procedures provided by, for example, AOPA. Because of the changes in the surface of the playa each year, information about the airport is subject to change.
While fire is a primary component of many art exhibits and events, materials must be burned on a burn platform. From 1990 through 1999, burning was allowed to take place directly on the surface of the playa, but this left burn scars (fired pinkish clay-like playa surface). When it was determined in 2000 that the burn scars do not dissipate with the annual winter rains and flooding, the organization declared that fires had to be elevated from the playa surface for its protection.
When it was discovered by two of the founders of the Friends of Black Rock / High Rock (Garth Elliott and Sue Weeks) and BLM Winnemucca district director Terry Reid that burn scars from prior sites (numbering 250) still remained, they were eradicated in 2000 by the DPW clean up crew headed by Dan Miller.
On the last day of the event, public shared burn areas are prepared for participants to use. It is an ongoing educational process each year to encourage participants to protect the environment and other participants by not burning toxic materials.
Even gray water is not to be dumped on the playa. Used shower water must be captured and either evaporated off or collected and carried home with participants or disposed of by roving septic-pumping trucks, which also service RVs. Methods used for evaporating water often include a plastic sheet with a wood frame.
The Bureau of Land Management, which maintains the desert, has very strict requirements for the event. These stipulations include trash cleanup, removal of burn scars, dust abatement, and capture of fluid drippings from participant vehicles. For four weeks after the event has ended, the Black Rock City Department of Public Works (BRC – DPW) Playa Restoration Crew remains in the desert, cleaning up after the temporary city in an effort to make sure that no evidence of the event remains.
In spite of the event's clean up policies, Pershing County Sheriff Jerry Allen has stated that each event "typically leaves a fair amount of detritus littered across the desert". He said that the leftover trash, including abandoned vehicles, was particularly heavy after the 2023 event.Merrill, Monique, " Abandoned Vehicles Reportedly ‘Strewn for Miles’ as Burning Man Revelers Finally Able to Leave ", San Francisco Chronicle, (reprinted on MSN.com), September 7, 2023
Body-camera footage was later released indicating that Hoekstra was arrested after Burning Man staff persistently delayed a female Pershing County Sheriff investigator, who was dressed in plainclothes, from speaking to two alleged victims of sexual assault. The investigator at the scene had told the staff that they did not wish to comply with their demands that the investigator wait until burning man staff had spoken to the alleged victims first. The investigator reasoned that similar cases resulted in event staff persuading alleged victims from not reporting their assaults to law enforcement. In the footage Hoekstra seemed to be insisting that she was speaking on behalf of one alleged victim and told the investigator that the victim did not wish to speak to law enforcement. It was at this point that the investigator's supervisor indicated to detain Hoekstra.
Burning Man's 2007 theme "Green Man" received criticism for the artwork Crude Awakening, a oil derrick that consumed of jet fuel and of liquid propane to blast a mushroom cloud high into the sky.Jolia Sidona Allen (May 2008) "Green Party", Common Ground MagazineElsa Wenzel (September 17, 2007) "How green was Burning Man?" Brian Doherty (August 2007) "Crude Awakening Arises at Burning Man" , Wired Blog Network Underwire
In an attempt to offset some of the event's carbon footprint, 30- and 50- were constructed in 2007 as permanent artifacts, providing an estimated annual carbon offset of 559 tons. The Burn Clean Project is a volunteer organization that has helped replace the use of fossil fuel with biodiesel. In 2023 a group of climate activists blockaded the road into Black Rock city.
Scientists have noted "scars" on the playa, the dry lake bed the event takes place upon, especially during rainy years. The playa hosts fairy shrimp, water fleas and tadpole shrimp eggs which hatch only after rain and which may be harmed by mechanical damage to the playa during the event. Burning Man also increases wind erosion, which changes the way that the playa absorbs rain in the future.
These billionaires have paid for more luxurious camps to be set up in recent years. 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. One venture capitalist billionaire threw a $16,500-per-head party at his camp. In 2017, Google employees shipped in a box of lobsters for a meal.
Despite allowing the rich to participate in Burning Man per the "radical inclusion" principle, many traditional attendees have spoken out against their exclusive practices. Larry Harvey wrote that they also conflict with the "radical self-reliance" and other principles, but has also said that permitting the wealthy to attend is beneficial to Burning Man. Vandalism that occurred at the White Ocean sound camp in 2016 was said to have been a "revolution" against these attendees, describing them as a "parasite class" or "rich parasites".
Meanwhile, the regular admission price has increased over the years. 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. As a result, an individual ticket, including taxes, cost $424 in 2016. Even tickets sold under Burning Man's low-income program are subject to these taxes. Including transportation, food, camp fees, clothing and costumes, and gifts, CNBC estimated in 2016 that the total cost of attending could range from $1,300 up to $20,000. In 2017, Money magazine estimated an average total cost of $2,348 to attend.
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). (Nevada's population, per the 2022 census, is 51% White, 29% Hispanic, 11% Asian, 2% Native, 11% Black). When interviewed by The Guardian about these figures, Harvey replied, "I don't think Black folks like to camp as much as White folks... . We're not going to set racial quotas.... This has never been, imagined by us, as a utopian society."
While there has been criticism that Burning Man has "jumped the shark," this proposition was criticized by cultural anthropologist Graham St John in 2020, who said that Burning Man was never a utopia in the first place.
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. But that protection of 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. While we believe that such rights do make sense for any of us taking pictures in purely public spaces, this is not true in the private space of Burning Man – if it were, it would mean that Burning Man couldn't protect participant privacy or prevent commercialization of imagery."
The Burning Man organization has since worked with the EFF and with Creative Commons and other parties and has revised and clarified the photography policies. Updated Terms and Conditions for 2011 . Burning Man blog.
Burners have created smaller regional events modeled on Burning Man, such as Burning Flipside in Texas; Apogaea in Colorado; Playa del Fuego in Delaware; Firefly in New England; Kiwiburn in New Zealand; Blazing Swan in Australia; Transformus in West Virginia; AfrikaBurn in South Africa; NoWhere near Zaragoza in Spain; Midburn in Israel; and many others.
Some of the events are officially affiliated with the Burning Man organization via the Burning Man Regional Network. This official affiliation usually requires the event to conform to the 10 principles and certain standards outlined by the Burning Man organization and to be accompanied by a "Burning Man Regional Contact," a volunteer with an official relationship to the Burning Man Project via a legal Letter of Agreement. The Netherlands was the first country outside the United States to have an event officially associated with Burning Man named Where the Sheep Sleep since 2016.
In exchange for conforming to these standards, the event is granted permission to officially communicate itself as a Burning Man Regional Event. 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.
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