Burning Man 2018: History, Facts About The Countercultural Festival

Burning Man, the annual countercultural festival, which takes place in the middle of the desert in Nevada is all set to commence on Aug. 27.

The festival, which is expected to draw thousands of people, began in 1986 on Baker Beach near San Francisco. The phenomenon is guided by 10 principles — radical inclusion, self-reliance, self-expression, community cooperation, civic responsibility, gifting, decommodification, participation, immediacy and leaving no trace.

In 1986, Burning Man co-founder and artist Larry Harvey gathered a small group of people to burn an 8-foot wooden structure of a man. Today, the festival is celebrated on an empty lake bed in Nevada's Black Rock Desert for six days.

“Larry Harvey and his friend Jerry James knock together an improvised wooden figure and drag it down to Baker beach on the Summer Solstice. They light it up, and a curious crowd gathers to watch it burn,” the festival’s official website says.

People from all over the world attend the event to take part in various activities that would help them express their inner beliefs. They also make art installations but they need to ensure they "leave no trace" of the event, according to the principles.

Here are some facts about the festival:

1. When a person enters the gate, he is asked if he is a “Burning Man virgin.” If yes, he is asked to dive onto the ground and rub himself with dust and scream “I’m a virgin no more!”

2. Since the festival is conducted in the middle of a desert, a person will be covered from head to toe with dust. There are bathing stations; however, a person must go through the process of being a rinser, scrubber, and soaper before getting to be scrubbed clean by someone else, Yahoo reported.

3. The 2007 dangerous artwork called “Crude Awakening” received a lot of criticism. Factinate reported “a 99-foot oil derrick consumed 900 gallons of jet fuel and 2,000 gallons of liquid propane to blast a mushroom cloud of 300 feet into the sky.”

4. Ice and coffee are the only things that can be bought at the festival with money. In order to buy things like food, drinks, and trinkets, a person needs to exchange it for things he is willing to share.

5. The festival costs over $8 million dollars to run. It is supported by ticket sales. A team of six people plan and oversee the festival and profits are invested in creating the following year's festival, Tech Target reported.

6. The event has been attended by several famous personalities including electric car pioneer Elon Musk, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, Google co-founder Larry Page, and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerburg in the past.

7. It is a custom to greet people with a hug at the festival.

8. According to the rules of the festival, photographers are required to sign a legal document, wherein they agree to potential censorship of their work.