Burning Man is a festival like no other, held in Nevada’s Black Rock Desert it is an annual celebration of an otherworldly kind. Here, in the middle of the desert, participants dedicate themselves to the spirit of community, art, self-expression, and self-reliance. After a week, the festival ends, leaving no trace of its existence.
Emphasis is placed on the surreal, where artistic self-expression of the most unconventional kind is celebrated. Water, food and shelter isn’t offered, participants must learn to survive on instinct and their own resources, whilst embracing the elements of the ‘new planet’.
The ‘community’ is encouraged to create, to offer gifts and to experience a world entirely detached from their own. From constructing your own artistic shelter to painting your body in dreamlike patterns and glitter, the emphasis is to connect the individual to his or her creative powers. The act of ‘gifting’ is also a fundamental part of the festival, an act which does not contemplate a return or an exchange of some of equal value.
Everyone comes together in the middle of Black Rock Desert to form a wild, free and diverse community of people who can enjoy and contribute to the many art installations and musical performances. From fire-breathing thistles, to serpents, to chandeliers, to balsa wood temples, it is a rejection of spoon-fed corporate culture and an affirmation of the idiosyncratic and personal.
According to Burning Man, explaining the festival is ‘like trying to explain what a particular colour looks like to someone who is blind’, so perhaps the video below may help. Created by Roy Two Thousand and publicly funded through Kickstarter, the mesmerising film shares the entire week-long Burning Man Festival experience in a magical 7-minute timelapse. Enjoy.