“Burning Man is not a concert or a fair. Burning Man is more than just a gathering of individuals. Temporary settlements. A ten-point cultural manifesto that’s sweeping the globe, “According to the official website, Inclusion (“Anyone can be a part of Burning Man”), giving, decommodification (no money is exchanged at the festival), radical self-reliance and self-expression, leaving no trace (“We are committed to leaving no physical trace of our activities wherever we gather”), and participation is just a few of the core values that guide the festival.
According to INSIDER’s Aly Weisman, a reporter who attended the event in 2013 and 2016, the camps are filled with people who cook together, dance together, drink, and create art and overall have a good time.
The History of this festival
A wooden effigy of a man, eight feet (two meters) tall, was burned on San Francisco’s Baker Beach in 1986 by two San Francisco artistic community members as a celebration of the summer solstice. Twenty persons witnessed the event. Over the next four years, Harvey and James returned to the spot with ever-increasing puppets, and the crowds became even more significant. In 1990, a 40-foot (12-meter) tall puppet was created for immolation at the beach spot, but the police intervened at the last minute and prohibited the structure from being set ablaze. It was decided that this year’s ceremony would be held at the Black Rock Desert in early September, where the effigy will be burned on Labor Day weekend. The festival never returned to San Francisco or the solstice; instead, it made the desert its permanent home and Labor Day its calendar-marking event after it had gone. Over the next two decades, the Burning Man celebration grew tremendously. It was extended to cover the entire week leading up to Labor Day, with the effigy being set ablaze on the Saturday before the festival as usual. Attendance continued to rise rapidly, reaching 50,000 by 2010. To accommodate all of the visitors, a temporary city—complete with streets, towns, and camps—was built in the desert each year. After the festival, however, the city was entirely demolished by the festival organizers’ “leave no trace” objective.
All components of バーニング マン are influenced by the festival’s theme, which is revealed far in advance of the event. To illustrate this point, in 2000, the topic was “The Body,” and street names like “Feet Street” were assigned to streets in the city. Subthemes are used to arrange the city’s numerous camps and villages, which may further organize specific foods, sports, educational fields, or the arts.
How many people go to Burning Man each year?
According to the Black Rock City census study, more than 70,000 individuals attended Burning Man in 2018. Celebrities and wealthy tech CEOs are among the “Burners” who attend Burning Man. Upon arrival, it is said that first-timers are forced to roll around in the dust. Don’t wait until the last minute to buy a ticket if you want to attend, as the event usually sells out. Twenty-six thousand tickets were sold in the first 30 minutes of 2018, according to USA Today.
What is “Billionaires Row” at the Burning Man festival called?
Exclusive luxury camps for the rich and famous at Burning Man have been dubbed “Billionaire’s Row” by Recode in 2014. The New York Times spoke to a man who visited Burning Man with a group of Silicon Valley businesspeople who used to bring “R.V and precooked meals” to the festival.
As a result, “we now have the craziest cooks in the world, and individuals who create yurts for us that have beds and air-conditioning,” he claimed. It’s a no-brainer: Desert air-conditioning!
Conclusion
According to Recode, some have claimed that these camps dilute the event’s atmosphere and violate the rule of no commodification. According to Burning Man founder Larry Harvey, “We’re not going to criticize anybody in terms of the amount of riches they bring to the event.” The luxury campers, he said, were breaking the essence of Burning Man by distancing themselves from their fellow campers.
