WHAT IS BURNING MAN?

Once a year, tens of thousands of participants gather in Nevada's Black Rock Desert to create Black Rock City, dedicated to community, art, self-expression, and self-reliance. They depart one week later, having left no trace whatsoever. Burning Man is also an ever-expanding year-round culture based on Ten Principles.

The Ten Principles of Burning Man

Radical Inclusion
Gifting
Decommodification
Radical Self-reliance Radical Self-expression
Communal Effort
Civic Responsibility
Leaving No Trace
Participation
Immediacy

Read more at BurningMan.com
  • Stacks Image 82

    Caption Text

    Link
  • Stacks Image 83

    Caption Text

    Link
  • Stacks Image 84

    Caption Text

    Link
  • Stacks Image 89

    Caption Text

    Link
  • Stacks Image 92

    Caption Text

    Link
  • Stacks Image 95

    Caption Text

    Link
  • Stacks Image 109

    Caption Text

    Link
  • Stacks Image 112

    Caption Text

    Link
  • Stacks Image 294

    Caption Text

    Link
  • Stacks Image 315

    Caption Text

    Link
  • Stacks Image 316

    Caption Text

    Link
  • Stacks Image 317

    Caption Text

    Link
  • Stacks Image 320

    Caption Text

    Link

Well, that's the "official" statement from the Burning Man organization anyways….

Ask anyone who's been to Burning Man and you'll get a lot more than this, probably more than you were expecting. Better have a seat and listen. You'll probably hear some stories that, viewed through the 'default world' lens, may be hard to visualize, let alone believe. Don't write it off. It's probably almost mostly true!

Here's are a few reports from Black Rock City for your education and edification….
Stacks Image 1370

SF Gate

"As I've been lured back to the sweltering, dusty sexed-up madness that is Burning Man again this year -- my sixth time -- by a gaggle of delicious friends, I am hereby reminded of a few hundred truths, half-truths, outright lies and astonishing epiphanies offered up by the world-famous, Christian-feared, beautifully debauched, sensory overloaded, impossible-to-describe art-survivalist-camping-rave megaspectacle now underway in the remote Nevada desert. If you've ever wondered at the appeal, the urge, the drive to attend such a thing, if you've heard wisps of the mythology and the mystery and the epic weirdness or even seen a few pictures and wondered, you know, WTF, maybe these tidbits can help."
Stacks Image 525

Moontroll

"When you have 40,000+ people all shooting for the moon together, trying to get to that place of deep cosmic inspiration, true magic is possible. All week long, we called our dreams in to reality. It was quite simple, really -- ask for it, and it will come. I don’t mean to get all “Field of Dreams” on you, but it really worked."
Stacks Image 225

Geoff Dyer

"But, in every way, the festival encourages people to give expression to their wildest dreams. The first half of Burning Man's famed rubric - "radical self-expression" - is balanced by the other, equally important half: "radical self-reliance". The latter anchors the former. Burning Man gives you unequalled freedom on strict condition that you be absolutely responsible."
Stacks Image 227

Guardian UK

"It would be all to easy to write off Burning Man as a desert rave, an escape valve for overstressed executives, a 21st-century update on Woodstock. But more than any of those things, Burning Man is a philosophy, an attempt to reinvent the parameters and constraints of society...Burning Man seems to effect a spiritual magnetism on those who attend. With its fire worship, close connection to nature, and emphasis on participation, Burning Man offers a transcendent experience to all comers."
Stacks Image 527

Hekter

"To hear and see photos of the infamous BM dust storms can't relay the minute stinging of the playa particles bombarding all open skin, the painfully slow resination of the lungs with an Elmer's Glue type substance, the cough that makes your belly button sneeze, the stinging of the eyes as somehow the particles groove their way through your "bombproof" goggles and get to work on brewing tomorrow morning's eye boogers, a complete white out of any sense of place or being."
Who We Are
Stacks Image 1019
Meet Camp Get Found and our extended tribe of freaky friends and family.
Other Burner Sites We Like!
Follow Us
Stacks Image 255
Stacks Image 258
Stacks Image 261
Stacks Image 280
Support

Please consider supporting Destination Burning Man with a tiny monthly donation so we can keep the flames lit all year long...

dBMcast Monthly Subscription Levels

…or make a one-time donation!
THANKS!
Give Us A Shout
Playa Portraits Project
Stacks Image 1084
For six Burns, I have brought a collection of old picture frames to the playa and shot portraits of all you beautiful Burners…..

"Burning Man" and the Man symbol are registered trademarks with Burning Man LLC and used for educational, not-for-profit uses.