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The History of Burning Man

Tens of thousands of free-spirited revelers (and tech bros) are making the trek to Burning Man this weekend. Here's how the festival has changed since its inception.

Burning Man Controversy

8 nights, 10 principles, tens of thousands of attendees. Burning Man is an annual event held in Black Rock Desert in Nevada. It was started in 1986 by Larry Harvey, John Law, Jerry James — three friends who built the first "Man." The 10 principles of Burning Man were written by co-founder Harvey in 2004. They include radical self-expression, radical self-reliance, communal effort. Some of the technology elite who have attended Burning Man: Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg and Sergey Brin.

But in recent years, Silicon Valley’s elite have been accused of ruining Burning Man. Bloomberg reported anyone that paid for the camp, they had to pay about $16,500 for the week. Reno’s KTVN interviewed artists from the festival about the change. In 2019, organizers decided to make changes to “support economic diversity” and reduce “convenience culture” according the Burning Man Journal. In principle the annual Burning Man festival sounds a bit like a socialist utopia: bring thousands of people to an empty desert to create an alternative society. Ban money and advertisements and make it a gift economy. Encourage members to bring the necessary ingredients of this new world with them, according to their ability. he weeklong

Burning Man festival takes place once a year over Labor Day weekend in a remote alkali flat in northwestern Nevada. Two hours north of Reno, the inhospitable Black Rock Desert seems a poor place to create a temporary sixty-thousand-person city — and yet that’s entirely the point. On the desert playa, an alien world is created and then dismantled within the span of a month. The festival culminates with the deliberate burning of a symbolic effigy, the titular “man,” a wooden sculpture around a hundred feet tall. Burning Man will be remembered more as the model for Google CEO Larry Page’s dream of a libertarian state, than as the revolutionary Situationist space that it could have been.

Brut.

08/25/2019 10:22 AM
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120 comments

  • Mids B.
    08/25/2019 10:39

    🔥🔥🔥🔥

  • Nikhil M.
    08/25/2019 13:39

    Dashehara?🤔🤭🤪

  • Roy H.
    08/25/2019 22:32

    ah yes, the largest gathering of those infected with herpes

  • Tere K.
    08/26/2019 03:48

    Absolutely stupid lol! 🙄🙄🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️

  • Mike M.
    08/26/2019 10:56

    awe look at all those trump supporters!! 🤣🤣🤣

  • Sharif G.
    08/26/2019 13:00

    On my bucket list

  • Brut
    08/26/2019 13:48

    "Leaving no trace" is one of its core principles, but Burning Man's environmental impact regularly causes controversy.

  • Ayzar M.
    08/26/2019 14:22

    Un referente

  • Rachid B.
    08/26/2019 18:46

    Said Abbes c'est ici quand doit aller

  • Shahrukh P.
    08/26/2019 19:12

    Love

  • Mohsin K.
    08/26/2019 19:15

    Great Music, Lots of Fun & Entertainment But i just want to tell all the People here That Indian Prime Minister & Army has Closed the Innocent People Of Kashmir in their Houses For Last of 23 Days Under Curfew...! Killing Innocent people in Kashmir & Threatening Pakistan for Nuclear War Following the RSS Idealogy...! PM of India Wants to be the Next Hitler & Usama bin Ladin which is Really Danger Not for South Asia But For the Whole World...! Pakistani Prime Minister Imrankhan offer very Humble Request To Indian PM Modi To solve the Problem Through Political Dialogues But He Refused & Sent 1 Million Army To kashmir & Started Killing Innocent people. UN has Already Passed Resolutions On Kashmir that Let those people decide that with whome they wants to Live, Pakistan Or India But India Gone Against the UN Resolutions & Wants to Destroy the Peace of Whole World Again which is Very Difficulty Maintain By America & Pakistan through Huge Sacrifices especially Pakistan Lost Over 70 Thousands People & Billions Dollars lost to the Economy & Thousands of Soldiers Martyred...! This Peace Given by Pakistan to the Whole World, Should be Thankful to Us...! Just want to say that Indian Fascist PM wants to be a Hitler & Next Usama Bin Ladin...! This is the Time For International Community & All Peaceful World to Stand with Pakistan & People of Kashmir to stop Modi to be the next hitler or Usama Bin ladin & let the world live Peacefully otherwise We will never hv a Happiest Life with a Music After Nuclear War Between Pakistan & India...! Thank You

  • Mi D.
    08/26/2019 19:56

    Mad Max

  • Giannina D.
    08/26/2019 20:12

    como quisiera ir

  • Patrick T.
    08/26/2019 20:56

    I wanna go

  • Khaledon A.
    08/26/2019 21:16

    good love sax

  • Trasco W.
    08/26/2019 21:19

    Cult 🤔😏

  • Yohan C.
    08/26/2019 21:22

    hombre en llamas

  • ﺑﺎﺳﻢ ﺳ.
    08/26/2019 22:00

    ما هذا بحق الجحيم

  • Jhan J.
    08/26/2019 23:10

    This is the place told in the bible when moses throw the written cement of 10 commandments of God to the sinnfull people...exact place... forgive these people o GOD!

  • Kim H.
    08/27/2019 02:41

    one way to spread HIV disease around.. 😂