On Monday, August 29, thousands of people will converge upon the Black Rock desert 120 miles north of Reno, Nevada, to create an ephemeral arts utopia known as Burning Man. For eight days, their nomadic community in a city of tents and caravans will flourish in the desert. On the sixth of September they will depart, and the desert will be as empty as it was before they descended upon it.

Burning Man is an annual event which has grown from an interactive performing and visual arts community of twenty people in 1986 to its current manifestation of over 35,000 in 2004. Its “Leave No Trace” manifesto both preserves the integrity of the desert environment as well as perpetuates one of its many reasons for being: Burning Man has been described as an alternative to modern consumerist, capitalist society.

The festival takes shape from the supplies its visitors bring with them in their cars. Since weather is extreme, “radical self-reliance” is advised in order to avoid overexposure to a drastic range of temperatures. The only goods sold are ice and coffee: participants must bring with them everything they will need to survive for a week in the desert. Tickets are sold in advance to discourage last-minute participants from traveling into the desert unprepared.

The focus, according to founder Larry Harvey, is to create a visionary utopia where participation, creativity, diversity and self-expression are valued above consumerism and capitalism. Each year artists are given a different theme. This year participants are invited to explore the Psyche: the amorphous, ever-changing territory of identity and dreams.

Burning Man has been viewed as a modern-day Woodstock, a Las Vegas which rises each year from its own ashes to which many escape the obligations of modern life. However, the tremendous success of the festival, well-documented on the website, suggests that Burning Man has transcended mere escapism and has accomplished what many artists aim to achieve with their work: an inspiration which outlasts the moment of contact between audience and artwork and follows the public into their homes.

The “Afterburn Report,” published by Burning Man organizers each year on its website, details the evolution of the festival and of efforts to respond to the needs and interests of its participants. Last year’s report describes a recent effort to organize a regional network “designed to aid and enhance the independent efforts of our far-flung communities,” providing “a means for regional groups to gather, collaborate, and interact all year long.”  

For the many participants motivated to extend the ideas of the community they helped create to their daily lives, Burning Man has become more than a laboratory for social change: it is a growing grassroots movement which is gaining momentum and crossing continents.