According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary there are nearly one million words in the English language. But we’re not sure any of them can adequately explain the inspired madness that goes down in the northwestern Nevada desert every summer.
Burning Man started in 1986, when Larry Harvey and his buddy Jerry James assembled a 8-foot tall makeshift wooden figure and dragged it to San Francisco’s Baker Beach on the Summer Solstice. They lit it on fire, a curious crowd of around 20 people watched it burn, and thus one of the world’s weirdest, wildest parties was born.
From those humble beginnings, the Man grew (hitting 105 feet in 2014), as did the number of attendees (nearly 70,000 in 2017). Once an intimate gathering of friends and family, the festival is now an arty, apocalyptic paean to the wonder of self-expression, attracting a tight-knit community of bohemians and misfits from all around the world.
It’s part Mad Max, part Survivor, and part Comic-Con (see: CRAZY costumes & festival clothing), with an emphasis on experimental creativity, cooperation, and civic responsibility. It takes place from the last Sunday in August to Labor Day. And after the man is burned in the climactic culmination, the entire “city in the desert” disappears without a trace.