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The Burning Man festival, held annually in the Black Rock Desert of Nevada, has become one of the most notorious gatherings in the world. A seven-day event held in the second largest and flattest expanse of land in the United States, Burning Man attracts up to 40,000 people each year, and continues to grow in popularity. “If Burning Man continues for several more years, it could easily turn into a religion,” says four-year Burning Man veteran and Seattle resident Larry S (pictured here with his tarot cards).
In 1986, a man named Larry Harvey (not the Larry interviewed here) started an annual ritual in Baker Beach, CA of burning an effigy of a man (rumored to be representative of an ex-girlfriend’s new lover) with a few friends. The ritual became increasingly popular and eventually moved to an expanse of desert in the middle of nowhere, miles outside of the sleepy town of Gerlach, NV (population 250).
The event is usually held around Labor Day weekend and attracts thousands of “believers.” The weeklong event covers a five-mile circle of desert, and becomes the third largest city in Nevada for just that week, complete with its own zip code. Attendees, along with paying an admission fee (ranging from $140-$250, depending on advance purchase), are simply required to bring seven days’ worth of food and water, and are asked to contribute to the event. “The only rule is that there are no spectators,” Larry notes. Once the attendees have arrived, the area explodes into a post-apocalyptic fantasy world of fire performances, body painting and just about anything imaginable. The event climaxes at the end of the week with the ignition and utter destruction of a nearly 100-foot tall effigy of a man.
Larry, a local construction worker and artist, reminisces fondly of his experiences at the festival. “This penetrated me to the core. After the first trip, I felt strongly that I had stumbled onto the real thing.” Many who have attended the festival say that it’s impossible to explain the event to someone who hasn’t witnessed it first hand. On Burning Man’s official website, it even states that trying “to explain what Burning Man is to someone who has never been to the event is a bit like trying to explain what a particular color looks like to someone who is blind.”
Larry’s past contributions to the event include the construction of a 13-foot tall pyramid made from PVC pipe, as well as helping found a group called “The Vagitarians,” a.k.a. “the G-Spot Retrieval Unit.” As anything goes at the festival, it becomes a haven for sexual exploration, nudity, living art projects and some of the most outlandish costumes and bodily adornments the world has ever seen. Money is prohibited from changing hands at the festival, with the exception of a little cafÈ in the center of the five-mile circle, whose proceeds go to the Boy Scouts of Gerlach, a town most likely inconvenienced by the thousands that pass through every year.
“This can’t just be dismissed as a party,” Larry concludes. “If you had the chance to design your life completely the way you want it to be, it would look something like this.”
CULTOMETER
Uniforms: 1
Charismatic Leader: 9
Devotion of Followers: 5
Group Rituals: 10
Overall: 6.25
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