Burning Man

About Burning Man

For a week leading up to Labor Day, tens of thousands build the temporary Black Rock City on a Nevada desert playa, living by principles of radical self-reliance, gifting and self-expression before burning a giant effigy and leaving no trace behind. It is less a festival than a temporary civilisation — no money changes hands, art cars roam the dust, and vast sculptures rise from nothing. The environment is punishing: searing days, cold nights and white-out dust storms. People come home changed, and spend the year planning to return.