It’s difficult to describe Burning Man Festival. In the words of the organisers, “trying to explain what Burning Man is to someone who has never been is a bit like trying to explain what a particular colour looks like to someone who is blind“.
The “burners”, as they’re affectionately known, are key to the event. It is their creativity, community spirit and passion for the festival that, if you’ll pardon the pun, fuels Burning Man. That’s why there was a controversy this year when organisers introduced a lottery-based ticket system – a system that would, by the laws of chance, exclude many of the loyal followers that give the festival its identity.
Each year for a week, around 50,000 people rock up to festival site, an ancient lake bed in the Black Rock Desert (Nevada). Burning Man 2012 kicks off today.
The experience is all about total immersion. Rather than being described as ticket-holders, burners are considered members of an experimental community that challenges its members to express themselves and rely on themselves in a way they wouldn’t normally do during day-to-day life.
In the knowledge that a picture says a thousand words (our superb featured image is by Aflickion), we hope that the gallery below helps put you in the frame. We were thrilled that Christopher Michel allowed us to run 12 of his images from Burning Man 2012.
(We featured Nevada in another blog post recently: Quirky places in Nevada – just a ghost town, UFO capital, a ‘Thirst Parlor’ …)
Written by insider city guide series Hg2 | A Hedonist’s guide to…
