An alternate universe of joy, creativity and dust springs to life every year at the end of August when artists from around the globe gather in Black Rock City, Nevada, to create the utopia called Burning Man.
When you tell an average person about Burning Man, their automatic assumption is of an orgy of drugs, sex and loud music. While that exists in Black Rock City, Burning Man is about much more.
Andrew Chou, a United Airlines flight attendant, has attended Burning Man for three years in a row. He says it is the only time of year he feels like he belongs.
“I am surrounded by people who give freely — gifts, food, love and air — without expecting anything in return,” he said. “For one week, [I] get to exist in a place where belonging isn’t earned, it is given, and being yourself is not strange, it is celebrated.”
For eight days, 70,000 Burners — the name given to Burning Man attendees — endure the harsh desert environment. Temperatures can push 100 degrees, which makes riding a bicycle around the festival unbearable. There is no running water or electrical power available anywhere, and Porta-Potties become every Burner’s best friend.
Burning Man is not staged at a five-star luxury resort. Yet tens of thousands of people from around the world, including major artists and architects, converge to transform the Nevada desert into a countercultural phenomenon.
Ben Romberger waited 19 hours in line to get in.
“I got in line at 11 a.m. on Saturday and stayed until 6 a.m. [Sunday],” Romberger said. “This year was the longest I have waited to get into Burning Man, but we made the best of it.”
He and fellow Burners in line partied for hours into the night.
“While we were in line, people were getting out of their cars and RVs to walk around and hang with other Burners,” he said. “Some of the bigger RVs had a DJ on top of their roof, playing some music. It was all part of the Burning Man experience.”
Patience was not the only virtue Burners needed. This year was also a test of nature. The festival kicked off with 70 mph winds across Black Rock City. The high winds ushered in two days of pouring rain, creating a total “whiteout” — a term Burners use to describe intense storms that reduce visibility to nearly zero.
The festival closed temporarily. It forced people to wait until the storm passed for the gate to re-open. Because of the rain, there was no more dust for the rest of the week.
The heavy winds destroyed major camps like “Orgy Dorm” and “Comfort and Joy,” both queer orgy camps. “Comfort and Joy” soon reopened after the storm, while “Orgy Dorm” remained closed for the week.
These were the exact same conditions as the famed 2023, “Mud Burn,” with most people stuck in their RVs or helping Burners camping out in tents.
Leroy Vook, known as Smash by fellow Burners, took in three stragglers trying to get their belongings out of the tent before they got covered in mud.
“With the wind, rain and mud, it feels like we had three Burns in one,” Smash said.
In the real world, people would write a scathing Yelp review, saying they never want to return to the festival again. But Burning Man has its own unique charm. Burners must trust whatever nature provides in the desert, roll with the punches and continue to make the best of it.
The city came to life on Wednesday. Large-scale installations, which define the landscape and the collective experience, were on grand display throughout the playa.
Renowned DJs like John Summit and Benny Benassi mixed their sets, while celebrities like Emma Watson and Channing Tatum roamed as if they were just another person on the playa.
At the end of the festival, Burners ignited a giant 75-foot wooden figure, “The Man,” and burned it to the ground. All 70,000 Burners watched in astonishment. After, most spectators danced the night away until morning, then caught one of the most beautiful sunrises in the world.
Just as quickly as Burning Man went up, it came down. One of the core tenets of Burning Man is Leave No Trace, which means leave no evidence of the 70,000 people in the middle of the desert who had the time of their lives.
