Burning Man is not a festival, but rather a community and global cultural movement guided by 10 practical principles. It is a week-long large-scale desert event focused on "community, art, self-expression, and self-reliance" held annually in the western United States. The event is not centered around a single focus, but rather is subject to the participants and includes community, artwork, absurdity, decommodification, and revelry. The culminating ceremony of the event is the symbolic burning of a large wooden effigy, referred to as the Man, that occurs on the penultimate night of Burning Man, which is the Saturday evening before Labor Day.
Burning Man is a global ecosystem of artists, makers, and community organizers who co-create art, events, and local initiatives around the world. Tens of thousands of Burners gather annually to build Black Rock City, a participative temporary metropolis in the Nevada desert. The nonprofit Burning Man Project produces the annual Burning Man event in Black Rock City and provides year-round support, connection, education, and grants to an ever-growing network of Regional Burning Man communities in more than 40 US states and 35 countries.
The Burning Man event and its affiliated communities are guided by 10 principles that are meant to evoke the cultural ethos that has emerged from the event. These principles include radical inclusion, gifting, decommodification, radical self-reliance, radical self-expression, communal effort, civic responsibility, leaving no trace, participation, and immediacy.
In summary, Burning Man is a community and cultural movement centered around art, self-expression, and self-reliance. It is not a festival, but rather a participatory event where attendees are encouraged to create and contribute to the experience. The event is guided by 10 principles that emphasize inclusion, self-reliance, and participation.
