Travelogue

A bit of Burning Man history

Burning Man was born on June 22, 1986 (so he’s a Millenial) as a small, spontaneous bonfire ritual on Baker Beach in San Francisco, where a group of about 20 people gathered to watch the first burning of “The Man,” which at that time was an 8-foot-tall wooden effigy to celebrate the summer solstice,

The event became an annual tradition, each year attracting more and more people. By 1990, the crowd had grown to 800 and the “Man” had grown into a 40-foot structure.

By 1990, the event had grown too large for the beach with as many as 800 people attending. Citing fire hazards, the Golden Gate Park Police wouldn’t let them burn “The Man,” so the organizers picked him up and took him to the Black Rock Desert, a vast, flat, and harsh ancient lakebed in Nevada.

Then on Labor Day weekend to an audience of only 90 people, they successfully burned “The Man,” and its new, permanent home was established.

To this day, each year he is burned on the Saturday of Labor Day weekend.

In the 1990s the event grew from a small desert gathering into a temporary city, built each year from scratch by its participants.

For one week, it rises from the flat, arid lakebed of the Black Rock Desert in Nevada, becoming one of the largest "cities" in the state, with over 70,000 temporary residents, only to be completely dismantled and removed at the end, as if it were never there.

In 2000, the “Temple of the Mind” was built as an art project. However, when one of the building crew was killed in a motorcycle accident, the structure became a memorial.
It was so emotionally powerful that it became a tradition to build a temple each year to serve as a spiritual center where attendees could come to grieve and remember loved ones who had passed on.

Every year, the temple is burned on the Sunday of Labor Day weekend. It is a quiet, somber ceremony, in contrast to the celebratory burn of "the Man" the night before.
In 2004, Larry Harvey, one of the co-founders of burning man wrote the 10 Principles that participants were expected to follow:

• Radical Inclusion: Anyone is welcome
• Gifting: You give gifts without any expectation of return
• Decommodification: There is no commerce, advertising, or corporate sponsorship
• Radical Self-reliance: You must bring all of your own survival supplies (water, food, shelter) for the week
• Radical Self-expression: You are encouraged to be your unique self
• Communal Effort: People work together to build the city, art, and camps
• Civic Responsibility: Participants are responsible for public welfare and following laws
• Leaving No Trace: This is a critical rule. The community is committed to leaving the desert exactly as it was found. Everything you bring, including trash, must be packed out with you
• Participation: Everyone is expected to contribute to the experience
• Immediacy: The event is focused on being present in the moment and experiencing the world around you

Burning Man 2025 Theme

Each year, Burning Man has a unique theme, which is meant to inspire and guide the artistic, cultural, and personal expression at the event.

Themes are announced in advance and influence the art installations, camps, and participation of attendees throughout the week.

For example, the 2024 theme was "Curiouser & Curiouser," inspired by Alice in Wonderland, and the 2025 theme is "Tomorrow Today," which focuses on innovation and creating the future.

This theme invites participants to imagine the future in new ways, and to make it real through our collective actions, drawing inspiration from past world fairs that celebrated progress, culture, and art.

This futuristic theme also allowed attractive young ladies to dress in shiny silver metallic costumes.

Burning Man City Layout

The city is laid out as a massive C-shaped arc, resembling a giant clock face.

The vast, open area inside the C-shape is known as the "playa," filled with massive sculptures, art installations, and "mutant vehicles" (art cars). This is why I came to Burning Man.

The Man stands out on the playa at the absolute center of the “clock”. This is the central landmark from which the entire city radiates.
Far out on the playa beyond The Man, directly at the 12:00 position is the Temple, which serves as the city's spiritual and contemplative heart, a place for remembrance and letting go.

From The Man, a series of radial streets extend outwards, named for their corresponding time on a clock face, from 2:00 to 10:00. These radial streets make navigation across the vast cityscape relatively straightforward.

Intersecting these radial avenues are a series of concentric, curved streets. The innermost of these is the Esplanade, the city's bustling main promenade that faces the open playa and its stunning art installations.

Moving outwards from the Esplanade, the subsequent streets are named in alphabetical order. For the 2025 gathering, the city's concentric streets pay homage to visionary writers whose works have explored the complex intersections of humanity, technology, and the future. So the first street after the Esplanade is Atwood (A) for Margaret Atwood, author of the Handmaid’s Tale and the furthest street is Kilgore (K) for Kilgore Trout, a recurring character in Kurt Vonnegut’s science fiction stories.

We stayed on Kilgore Street, because it was at the very edge of the arc, where it was much quieter because instead of being in the thick of things, we were right on the edge of another playa.

This logical system made navigating throughout the city easy, even for the spatially challenged, such as me.

The Concept of Camps

There are two categories of “Burners” at Burning Man: those that are part of an official “camp” or those who go on their own (which is what we were).

A camp is an organized group of participants that creates a specific interactive experience, art installation, or service to share with the rest of Black Rock City. These “gifts” are given freely to any citizen of Black Rock City who wanders by.

Some examples of camp “gifts” are food and drink, sound and entertainment, services such as bike repair, workshops such as yoga classes and meditation sessions, and art and absurdity.

Camps are the heart and soul of Burning Man. They are the living, breathing neighborhoods that transform the empty desert into the vibrant metropolis of Black Rock City.

People that are not part of an official camp, such as us, are citizens of Black Rock City. We fell into this group. We even got a passport.
Participants like us camped in “open camping” areas, typically located on the outer streets.

Camp sites are available on a first-come, first-served basis, so we drove around a bit before selecting ours on Kilgore Street, which was as far out as you can go.

Art on the Playa

The art on the playa at Burning Man is unlike art in any other gallery, museum, or even sculpture park in the world.

There are four major categories of artworks:

• Honoraria Installations: These are the large-scale, often theme-related projects that have received funding grants from the Burning Man Project to help bring them to life. They form the core of the planned "art gallery" on the open playa
• Spontaneous Art: These are the smaller, unregistered art pieces pop up, created by participants who simply want to contribute to the creative landscape
• Mutant Vehicles (Art Cars): These are radically modified vehicles, transformed into everything from fire-breathing dragons and giant fish to pirate ships and glowing jellyfish. I think they are the most fun in that they create an ever-changing dynamic environment
• The Man and The Temple: These are the two central, iconic pieces that are created new each year, often reflecting the annual theme.

The Man's design is handled by a hand-selected crew of builders and managers within the Burning Man organization. While the iconic figure of the Man remains constant, the structure it stands upon—the Man Base or Pavilion—is designed to reflect the festival's annual theme.

In contrast, the Temple is designed by different artists each year, chosen through a grant program. This year’s Temple, called the Temple of the Deep, was designed by Miguel Arraiz, a Spanish architect. The fractured, black rock-like structure he created is meant to symbolize grief, loss, and healing.

The vast, barren landscape of the playa serves as the canvas for massive artworks, sometimes several stories high. The sheer size of the art against the vastness of the desert is a breathtaking sight, designed to evoke a sense of awe and wonder.

Many of them are so large that they art landmarks across the playa, serving as navigational aids and gathering points.

In line with the Burning Man principle of Participation, the art at Burning Man is not meant to be passively observed from afar, but rather to be touched, climbed on, crawled through, and experienced. The participant's interaction is often what completes the piece, turning it from a static object into a dynamic experience.

At night, the playa transforms into a surreal, dreamlike landscape as lit up mutant vehicles cruise across the playa and many artworks designed for night-time viewing are lit up with LEDs, lasers, and fire. This was my favorite time of day to be on the playa.

Another characteristic of the art is its ephemeralness. They are installed in the days leading up to the event and must be completely removed without a trace afterward. Some of the art is moved to private collections, museums, or public spaces. Others, like the iconic “Man” and the “Temple” are burned.