Week of revelry underway in Nevada desert for the return of Burning Man
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Nearly 80,000 revelers are braving three-digit high temperatures and dusty conditions in the Nevada desert for the first in-person Burning Man celebration since the COVID pandemic began.
The weeklong counterculture party has been a tradition in the Black Rock Desert since the early 1990s, after San Francisco officials became concerned over the annual burning of an effigy in their city.
But it was halted in 2020 due to concerns about COVID, and the next year, organizers decided to plan a ‘Virtual Burn’ — though thousands decided to take matters into their own hands and hold a make-shift event in the desert themselves.
Now, Burning Man is finally back on track and thousands of free-spirited individuals, some of whom have even donned costumes for the event, are again enjoying multitude of parties, art installations and even some orgies as they trade with each other for free food through the weekend.
Photos show partiers wearing colorful outlets checking out the many sculptures on The Playa, attending various events at different camps and walking and biking around the premises.
‘After several long years, we are going Home,’ event organizers announced on their website. ‘It’s time to resume our Waking Dreams, and look to the future as we rebuild and recreate together.’
The theme of this year’s event — dubbed a ‘temporary metropolis dedicated to community, art, self-expression and self-reliance’ — is ‘Waking Dreams.’
According to the organizers: ‘After a long hazy blur of pandemic insomnia, adrift between sleeping and waking, it’s time to start imagining the future again.’
Some of the hard-core Burners — as the revelers are known — donned costumes for the raucous celebration
A man is seen riding his scooter at the week-long festival in the Black Rock desert for the first Burning Man since the COVID pandemic began back in 2020
The revelers have to contend with the desert’s wild weather as daytime temperatures remain in the triple digits before dropping down to lows of the 60s at night
The return to The Playa — as the section of the Black Rock Desert where the festivities occur every year — marks a return for some hardcore Burners, for whom the annual week-long festival is a tradition.
‘Most people are really excited to get back,’ Adam Simons, a San Francisco resident who first attended the week-long party back in 2000, told Axios.
‘A lot of these friends are friends that we really don’t get to see except for at the Burn,’ he added.
Another Burner, a DPW worker who helped build this year’s Black Rock City who goes by Austin Tacious also told the Nevada Public Radio: ‘I think it kind of brings out the best in us in a weird way.
‘People might not understand,’ she said, ‘but I think we’re all sharper out here.
‘I think we’re more compassionate out here. I think we’ve got a really, really unshakable revelry.’
The return to The Playa — as the section of the Black Rock Desert where the festivities occur every year — marks a return for some hardcore Burners, for whom the annual week-long festival is a tradition
The theme of this year’s event — dubbed a ‘temporary metropolis dedicated to community, art, self-expression and self-reliance’ — is ‘Waking Dreams’
Volunteers are seen putting together the finishing touches on one of the sculptures at Black Rock City on Friday
The week-long festivities finally began Sunday morning at a seven square mile makeshift encampment called Black Rock City, where free-spirited individuals — who spent $575 each to attend this year’s event — can enjoy a multitude of activities
Nearly 80,000 revelers are braving three-digit high temperatures and dusty conditions in the Nevada desert for the first in-person Burning Man celebration since the COVID pandemic began. Craig Chapman, left, and Frank Ozaki, right, are seen enjoying some martinis outside their camp at Black Rock City
The week-long festivities finally began Sunday morning at a seven square mile makeshift encampment called Black Rock City, where free-spirited individuals — who spent $575 each to attend this year’s event — can enjoy a multitude of activities, ranging from the mundane to the extreme.
Among the events expected this year are plenty of scheduled parties where so-called Burners can meet with one another, enjoy some music and, of course, some alcohol.
There will be music choices for everyone, from Latin music to jazz sessions, to 80s pop concerts and discos.
More meditative activities will also be offered for those who want something a little calmer, including a hammock forest, a hypnotherapy session and communal peppermint bomb breathwork exercises, according to the San Francisco Gate.
Meanwhile, more active revelers can stack and climb milk crates, and for those who are expecting to get physical with one of the many projectile throwing contests or a foam weapon fight, a bikini armor crafting workshop is recommended.
Burning Man is known for its art installations like this large sculpture of a naked woman
Among the events expected this year are plenty of scheduled parties where so-called Burners can meet with one another, enjoy some music and, of course, some alcohol
Cars are discouraged at the annual weeklong festival in the Nevada desert, but it encourages mutant vehicles and art cars, which are ‘unique motorized creations that either show little or no resemblance to their original form or to any standard street vehicle or is out of context for its normal setting (a pirate ship or space ship on the desert, for example)’
A couple are seen here taking in the various sculptures in the desert despite the heavy winds kicking up some dust
And for those who want to expand their mind, Burning Man will also offer several educational sessions on topics like the intersection of artificial intelligence and astronomy, as well as the use of psychedelics in surgeries.
Also new this year is a camp on The Playa called Consensual Abduction, where guests can climb through a ‘wormhole’ slide to arrive at a dance floor for all-night raves.
Consent is a major theme of this year’s event, the Gate reports — a crucial component given that so many of the experiences on this year’s schedule involve sex, from after-hour orgies and flogging to black-light bondage.
The sun set on the sculpture garden in Black Rock City at the heart of the Nevada desert earlier this week
The festivities will end on September 4 with the burning of an effigy — known as the burning man (pictured here)
The National Weather Service has said this year’s Burning Man will be ‘hot, dry and dusty’ as temperatures remain above 100 degrees during the day
But Burning Man is also known for its art installations, which this year feature various sculptures like a dragon and bear-shaped honey containers.
It also encourages mutant vehicles and art cars, which are ‘unique motorized creations that either show little or no resemblance to their original form or to any standard street vehicle or is out of context for its normal setting (a pirate ship or space ship on the desert, for example).’
And while all that’s going on, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Media Lab researchers will hand out 600 small vessels that look like Altoids tins, in hopes that people pass them around and use the pen and paper inside to notate where and when they received the item as well as where they’re camping.
Using however many tins make their way back to the team after the weeklong event, Axios reports, the researchers will ‘map the economy of Burning Man,’ where people operate on a gifting system.
It will all wrap up on September 4 with the burning of an effigy — known as the burning man.
Several of the sculptures light up at night, providing a nice glow to the otherwise barren desert
Revelers are seen here at the entrance to one of the many parties at Black Rock City this week
Organizers wrote on the event description: ‘It’s time to resume our Waking Dreams, and look to the future as we rebuild and recreate together’
Burning Man focuses on 10 principles including ‘radical self-reliance,’ ‘radical self-expression’ and ‘radical inclusion’
All of the festivities occur on a seven square mile section of Black Rock Desert, known as Black Rock City
An aerial view shows the multitude of campers and makeshift camps set up for this year’s Burn
The tradition began back in 1986 on San Francisco’s Baker Beach, when two friends built an eight-foot effigy out of scrap lumber, doused it in gasoline and set it on fire in front of a group of about 35 people.
It grew more popular in the years that followed focusing on 10 principles including ‘radical self-reliance,’ ‘radical self-expression’ and ‘radical inclusion.’
But eventually the Golden Gate Park Police raised their concerns about the annual fires in California.
So, event organizers decided to move it to Nevada’s Black Rock desert in the early 1990s.
But now revelers have to contend with the desert’s wild weather as daytime temperatures remain in the triple digits before dropping down to lows of the 60s at night.
Strong winds are also expected to kick up some dust on Black Rock City.
‘It’s pretty much an assured thing out there: hot, dry and dusty,’ Amanda Young, a forecaster with the National Weather Service in Reno told the Reno Gazette Journal.