What Is Burning Man? Facts And History Of Counterculture Festival

The Burning Man festival is all set to take place between Aug. 27 and Sept. 4 in Black Rock City, Nevada, and once again, thousands will gather to co-create a temporary metropolis dedicated to art and community. People from all walks of life, be it artists or CEOs, will head to the sands for enjoying the world's craziest festival.

During the nine-day annual festival, people build a temporary city in the Nevada desert. The event has been described as an experiment in community and art. The 10 main principles written by the Burning Man co-founder Larry Harvey in 2004 are: radical inclusion, self-reliance and self-expression, as well as community cooperation, civic responsibility, gifting, decommodification, participation, immediacy and leaving no trace.

This time, the art theme of the festival is "Radical Ritual," according to its official website. People from all over the world come to this event to express their inner beliefs and take part in various activities as a community. Many people also make art installations at the event, however, they need to ensure they do not leave behind any trace as the festival is a "leave no trace" event, according to its principles.

The event also sees the participation of many famous people joining the rebellious souls at the venue. In the past, electric car pioneer Elon Musk, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, Google co-founder Larry Page, and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerburg have attended the counterculture festival.

The quirkiness quotient of the event has been going higher every year where participants get to see obscure sculptures and don wacky outfits. They even get to experience the popular attraction, Orgy Dome, run by a group called "And Then There’s Only Love." The tent creates a sex-positive, consensual space for couples during their stay at the desert festival. Whether you are straight, lesbian, gay, bisexual, polyamorous and monogamous, everyone is welcome at the dome. "We welcome the combination of love in all forms," the website says.

One attendant, who experienced the Orgy Dome last year, spoke to Cosmopolitan and said the process to get into the sex tent was long as the workers had to ensure participants knew about the importance of verbal consent. She told the publication, “I didn't realize there was such a process to getting in. We were interviewed to make sure we were sober enough to consent and [to check] that we understood all the rules.”

Those who want to take part in the Burning Man festival can choose different ways. You can participate either by creating an art installation, a theme camp, a mutant vehicle or by preparing a performance.

The festival was first held by Larry Harvey and Jerry James in 1986, who had built a human effigy and burnt it on a San Francisco beach. Over the years, the crowd that gathered for seeing the burning effigy kept multiplying and it gradually became a world-famous event.

Over 70,000 people attended last year's event. The 2016 theme was "Da Vinci’s Workshop" where the participants explored similarities between the Italian Renaissance centered in Florence and the burning man. This was done to recreate a new renaissance in the Black Rock City — the temporary town set up in the Black Rock Desert for the event — as was done in Italy centuries ago.