The 25th Burning Man Festival came to an end Monday. Nearly 50,000 people gathered in Nevada's Black Rock, where they lived, partied and celebrated community, artwork, absurdity, decommodification and revelry for a week.
The theme for this year's Burning Man was Rites of Passage. The event which used to be free now cost $360, with tickets going for as high as $1000 on Stub Hub.
Both the artistic central temple and the giant effigy, which is burned at the end of the festival, are the centers of Burning Man. This year, the Temple of Transition, a 120 foot tall, multi-building structure that resembles an alien church, was at the center of the temporary city in the desert.
What we call 'The Temple' is a collective Idea, a Feeling, an Aura projected from the Participants onto the blank template of the building itself. It is therefore our mission to create the Temple as an empty, yet simultaneously beautiful, inspiring, and supportive vessel, that gently suggests & enables Participants to both feel & interact with it's intangible essence, International Arts Megacrew said on Kickstarter.
A participant during the Burning Man 2011 "Rites of Passage" arts and music festival in the Black Rock desert of Nevada, August 31, 2011. More than 50,000 people from all over the world have gathered at the sold out festival which is celebrating its 25th year.ReutersA participant looks out from a platform before the burning of an effigy during the Burning Man 2011 "Rites of Passage" arts and music festival in NevadaReutersA participant shows her octopus hat to a friend as they visit the effigy of the man during the Burning Man "Rites of Passage" arts and music festival in NevadaReutersParticipants chant together inside "The Temple of Transition" during the Burning Man "Rites of Passage" arts and music festival in the Black Rock desert of NevadaReutersA Burning Man participant looks at an art project during the Burning Man 2011 "Rites of Passage" arts and music festival in the Black Rock desert of NevadaReutersA woman riding in an outrigger aboard a music camp art car playing dance music fires a flame cannon over the heads of Burning Man participants as they dance in the middle of the Black Rock Desert in the early hours of the morning after midnight during the Burning Man 2011 "Rites of Passage" arts and music festival in Nevada September 2, 2011.ReutersBurning Man participants look at an art installation in the Black Rock Desert in the early hours of the morning in NevadaReuters
