Every year on the last Monday of August, an unusual Burning Man festival opens in America in the Nevada desert.
The history of its appearance is as unusual as the holiday itself.
In 1986, on a San Francisco beach, a statue of a wooden man was burned by several young street show performers.v
According to legend (and the events of those days have long turned into a legend), the symbol of unrequited love that illuminated the beach, created by a sad sculptor, attracted cheerful vacationers and onlookers. Someone pounded the drums, someone started dancing, and a small celebration, the center of which was a figure blazing in the dark, continued until morning.
The participants liked the action, so they decided to repeat it in a year.
Now the holiday-festival “Burning Man” attracts people from all over the world. Thousands of artists, sculptors, glassblowers, potters, musicians, circus actors, and simply lovers of vivid self-expression gather here. The venue was the Black Rocks Desert in Nevada.
Sculptors and artists erect pavilions of various architectural forms and colors in advance.
Trailers and tents line up in predetermined streets, in a strict order. Sculptures and installations, arenas and stages appear on improvised squares and crossroads. You need to come in original costumes, create them with your own hands, for example, using Craft Online.
Ghost town in the desert
Burning Man is unlike any other festival in the world. This is a large-scale fantastic event, during which every year participants and organizers build a real tent city in the Nevada desert.
A temporary “settlement” with an area of several hectares is being built in a semicircle. It has a mandatory infrastructure with streets, dozens of dance floors, art objects and installations of unrealistic forms.
The symbol of the event is the same wooden statue of a man – “Burning Man”.
The celebration and carnival last for five days and nights. All this action ends in the evening of the sixth day. This is the time when fireworks open the fire show and the culmination of the spectacle comes. The sculpture of a wooden giant is set on fire and it bursts into a bright flame!
The next day, everyone folds up and leaves, leaving behind a bare desert. And, it’s completely clean. To do this, the organizers of the festival hire special staff who monitor the cleanliness during the festival. After the end, all garbage is carefully collected and taken away from the desert.
The most harmless holiday for the outside world
Sustainability is one of the most important principles of the Burning Man festival.
Interestingly, after the end of the eight-day festival, absolutely all the garbage, parts from the installation are taken away by the participants and organizers.
Littering in the tent-car camp is strictly prohibited. After the end, nothing should remain on the territory that would remind of the festival. The perfect place for creative people to express themselves
Those who think that freaks from all over the world gather here are deeply mistaken.
“Burning Man” allows you to reveal the talent of absolutely anyone: an artist, inventor, architect, designer, musician. Each visitor carefully thinks over his image, personal involvement in what is happening is an indispensable condition of the festival. Here the rule works perfectly – they are met by clothes and the more creative the outfit, the better. Each sculpture, costume, installation is symbolic and reflects the spirit of the holiday itself.
The most interesting thing is that in a suit, first of all, the image, originality and idea are highly valued rather than the quality of workmanship.
An oasis of creativity and freedom in this lifeless space will be reborn in a year.
You can also become the creator of this holiday, of course, if you are lucky enough to get tickets
No money relations and commerce
On “Burning Man” you can forget about money. Generally. The relationship is based on the exchange of original gifts. For example, you can get a drink at a bar for a dance or an interesting story. Barter that you will not find anywhere else.
For money, you can only buy coffee at the central camp and ice at the Arktika camp.
According to the rules, any advertising and commercial activities are prohibited. Any logos are prohibited.
Here you can meet a billionaire or a pop star
Over the years of its existence, Burning Man has been visited by many world famous people. Most often, the names of major figures in the IT world come up. Sergey Brin (one of the founders of Google), Mark Zuckerberg (the creator of Facebook), Elon Musk (the founder of Tesla) have been here.
Since 2012, top managers of leading companies in Silicon Valley have been coming here. Apparently, to get inspiration for their future projects.
It was thanks to Burning Man that the Google search engine got its famous themed doodles, those very funny “animals” on the main page of the search engine. The history of their occurrence can be read on a separate Google page.
Among the famous DJs who performed at the festival, one can single out, for example, Paul Oakenfold. Participants in recent years have included model Heidi Klum, actresses Cara Delevingne, Anne Hathaway, Susan Sarandon, singer Katy Perry, actor Scott Eastwood, singer Puff Daddy, actor and singer Jared Leto and many more.
About the Author/s
The New Jersey Digest is a new jersey magazine that has chronicled daily life in the Garden State for over 10 years.
