Every year in the Nevada desert there is an incredible festival that you may have heard about. It’s held in Black Rock City, about 100 miles north of Reno, in the middle of the desert.
When Burning Man members from around the world gather here, the place comes to life as if by magic every summer.
The festival traditionally burns wooden sculptures and the “Burning Man” is ignited. Nowhere else in the world can you find so much art and fantasy, let yourself be enchanted.
1. The Generator
Many people got to know it at school, probably in physics lessons: the Van der Graaf generator.
But what you get to see here is the Mega-XXL version of it, just incredible!
In fact, most people think that the audience at Burning Man consists of many celebrities and personalities, but in reality this is not the case. By the way, there are no age limits either.
2. Odd ladder
Probably the most important thing you need to know about the festival is that every participant must be active in some way. Some make extraordinary works of art, or have become a work of art themselves. All others are active for the common good. In this picture you can see a ladder leading in a circle. Clearly dangerous to climb, isn’t it?
3. Inclusion
Here you have to integrate yourself radically, nobody who participates in this festival can pass by!
The motto is: Everyone is a piece in the puzzle of Burning Man and only if everyone actively participates, the artwork will be perfect!
There are some “Burning Man rules”, for example that every stranger is accepted and respected. Everyone on this earth is allowed to participate in Burning Man, there is no exception to this rule.
4. Own dress code
The clothes you will see at the Burning Man Festival are those of birds of paradise. Some of them remind us of the wardrobe from certain movies, but the couple in the photo looks like they came straight from the set of “Mad Max” to the Nevada desert.
5. Green lung
This attractive young lady wears a particularly unusual costume of her own making. There is one more thing it has, and that is a clear message! There is probably no better way to breathe fresh air than directly through plants, isn’t there?
It’s a silent, peaceful protest against greenhouse gases, in any case a very original idea, which also looks cool.
6. Exotic face painting
Painting your own face or the faces of the other party guests has already become something of a tradition at the Burning Man Festival. The more colorful and imaginative the better!
The more glitter and rhinestones, the better.
Some want to look more conservative, others want to provoke with a maximum of color. Always according to the motto: Allowed is what everyone likes!
7. Sparkling jewels on the skin
The woman in this picture may be exaggerating a little bit with all the jewelry she is wearing, but that is also one of the peculiarities of the Burning Man Festival. Many people make the jewelry they wear on their bodies themselves and then proudly present it to the other participants.
Barter is preferred at the festival, a great necklace with jade and turquoise for a bottle of water? Great deal!
8. Wonderful new tradition
Already in 1968 a man named Larry Harvey built a huge sculpture made of wood, lit it on a beach in San Francisco to ring in the end of the summer.
For him and his friends it became a cherished ritual and from year to year the figures became bigger.
9. The festival’s own language
The world-famous festival not only has art and the craziest people walking the planet, no, it has a vocabulary all its own! There are for example the “Burners” and the country where the festival takes place is called “La Playa”, which means “The Beach”. The new participants are encouraged by the old hands to learn the language.
10. Sometimes less is still more
With the temperatures that prevail in the Nevada desert, it is naturally difficult for the participants to keep a cool head! For this reason, most of the guests wear bikinis, hot pants or bodysuits, and the two ladies in the photo look like queens of the desert in their outfits. One important thing to remember though: It gets pretty cold at night!
11. Very versatile
The festival has also been criticized a few times for its diversity problem. A survey made in 2014 said that almost 90% of the participants were white, and only the remaining 10% were Latinos or Asians. Now that the festival is aware of this issue, they are trying to address the problem and increase the diversity, making the festival more inclusive.
12. Sneaking in unseen? Impossible
How does entry control work on a site that is so extensive? We can assure you that nobody comes in unseen. Every single car is examined meticulously, because to get entry you need a not exactly cheap ticket. But don’t worry, it is not the police who control the event but the organizer, because nothing is confiscated.
13. Even more festivals
Of course not everyone can make such a long journey to Nevada. But don’t worry about it too much! After all, this unique festival has inspired people all over the world to imitate it, or to create festivals with a similar spirit. In New Zealand, New England and China, for example, festivals are now being held that come very close to the “original”.
14. Sharing with each other
Surprisingly, there is in fact only one thing that you can officially purchase at the Burning Man Festival: Iced coffee! But keep calm, the festival’s visitors are very social and like to share or trade. There are even special camps that serve exactly this purpose. A kind of “exchange market”.
15. Alebrije from “Coco”
This very special, unique work of art immediately reminded us of something! Well, can you figure it out? It reminds us of the “Alebrijes”, the colorful ghosts, who in the Pixar film “Coco” have the task to accompany the deceased safely into the afterlife. The Mexicans make such figures that anyone can buy.
16. Rules made to be broken
A very important rule for the participants of “Burning Man” is the “Don’t leave any traces” rule! The nature, the neighboring town and therefore also its inhabitants, who spend not only a few days but their whole life there, should not suffer any disadvantage in the sense of a flood of rubbish. Nevertheless, not everyone seems to adhere to this rule, the environmental organization “Sierra Club” already criticized the organizer heavily.
17. Representing oneself: radical!
At the Burning Man Festival, everyone, even those who don’t have anything else to do with it, is encouraged to devote themselves body and soul to art or to become artistically active themselves.
Everyone can express their creativity in the way they personally feel is right.
Some do just that through their clothes, jewelry and make-up, others tinker and create with their hands.
18. Common objectives
Another central component of the festival is the community spirit of the event. It is of particular importance.
All participants have written on the flag to always help each other when needed. Whether it’s a simple sip of water at the right moment, something delicious to eat or a hug or the obligatory “shoulder to cry on”, everyone does their best here.
19. Rule Of Law
The festival grew steadily and every year more and more people came to Burning Man. Lee Harvey, who had brought it to life, suddenly realized that it was time to urgently establish concrete rules, because he feared that otherwise everything would end up in total chaos. The rules he set out were: radical independence – radical inclusion – giving – decommodification – radical self-expression – civic responsibility – leaving no trace – participation and immediacy.
20. Modify
There is nothing for sale on the whole festival except iced coffee. If you imagine that, it seems quite unworldly, especially for a festival, what do you think? But it’s exactly with this approach that the organizers want to achieve that people get intensively involved and deal with each other, a great approach for more humanity. We hope you are as enthusiastic about the pictures as we are!
