īy 1988, Harvey formally named the summer solstice ritual 'Burning Man' by titling flyers for the happening as such. In 1987, the Man grew to 15 feet (5 m) tall, and by 1988, it had grown to 30 feet (9 m). Harvey later described his inspiration for burning these effigies as a spontaneous act of 'radical self-expression'. On June 22, Harvey, James, and a few friends met on Baker Beach in San Francisco and burned an 8-foot-tall (2.4 m) wooden man and a smaller wooden dog. He and Jerry James built the first wooden effigy on June 21, 1986, cobbled together using scrap wood, to be torched that evening. When Grauberger stopped organizing it, Harvey 'picked up the torch', with Grauberger's permission, and ran with it. Sculptor Mary Grauberger, a friend of Larry Harvey's girlfriend, Janet Lohr, held solstice bonfire gatherings on Baker Beach for several years before 1986, some of which Harvey attended. History 1980s Two of the founders of Burning Man: John Law (left) and Michael Mikel (right)īurning Man began as a bonfire ritual on the summer solstice. The Burning Man Project endorses multiple smaller regional events guided by the Burning Man principles, in the United States and internationally. Black Rock City LLC was formed in 1999 to represent the event's organizers and is now considered a subsidiary of the nonprofit organization. īurning Man is organized by the Burning Man Project, a nonprofit organization that, in 2013, succeeded Black Rock City LLC, a for-profit limited liability company. Over the event's history, attendance has generally increased. It has since been held annually, spanning the nine days leading up to and including Labor Day. However, NPR said of Burning Man in 2019, 'Once considered an underground gathering for bohemians and free spirits of all stripes, Burning Man has since evolved into a destination for social media influencers, celebrities and the Silicon Valley elite.' īurning Man originated on June 22, 1986, on Baker Beach in San Francisco as a small function organized by Larry Harvey and Jerry James, the builders of the first Man. The event has been called 'countercultural revelry' and described by its organizers as an 'excuse to party in the desert'. These contributions are inspired by a theme chosen annually by the Burning Man Project. Artwork includes experimental and interactive sculptures, buildings, performances, and art cars, among other media. Instead, the participants design and build all the art, activities, and events. Īt Burning Man, there are no headliners or scheduled performers. According to Burning Man co-founder Larry Harvey in 2004, the event is guided by ten stated principles: radical inclusion, gifting, decommodification, radical self-reliance, radical self-expression, communal effort, civic responsibility, leaving no trace, participation, and immediacy.

Since 1991, the event has been at Black Rock City in northwestern Nevada, a temporary city erected in the Black Rock Desert about 100 miles (160 km) north-northeast of Reno. The event's name comes from its culminating ceremony: the symbolic burning of a large wooden effigy, referred to as the Man, that occurs on the penultimate night, the Saturday evening before Labor Day. 40☄7′6″N 119☁2′18″W / 40.78500°N 119.20500°W / 40.78500 -119.20500īurning Man is a week-long large-scale desert event focused on 'community, art, self-expression, and self-reliance' held annually in the western United States.

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