The Burning Man – Take 2
The Burning Man: The anticipation finally ended in Black Rock City as the 40-foot wooden figure know as ‘The Man’ went up in flames late Saturday evening to mark the culmination of the 22nd annual Burning Man counter-culture arts festival in the Black Rock Desert.
Many of this years attendees were concerned they would not get to see the climax of this emotionally intense eight day festival. If you hadn’t heard by now, the festival this year was disrespectfully interrupted by a rather surprising arson attempt by San Francisco playwright Paul Addis [mugshot]. Fortunately since the arson took place four days ahead of the scheduled burn, festival attendees spent the next three days rebuilding the giant structure. The burning man was then officially set ablaze to the vast amount of excited onlookers, right on schedule.
The local SF Gate news has posted some pictures of Saturday’s event.
Burning Man is an eight-day-long annual festival that takes place in Black Rock City, a temporary city on the playa of the Black Rock Desert in Nevada, 90 miles (150 km) north-northeast of Reno, ending on the American Labor Day holiday in September. Though the event’s specific location changed from year to year in the past, recently the location has been quite constant. The event is described by organizers as an experiment in community, radical self-expression, and radical self-reliance and takes its name from the ritual of burning a large wooden sculpture of a man on the sixth day. The event is organized by Black Rock City, LLC, under the guidance of founder Larry Harvey. In 2006, nearly 40,000 people participated in The Burning Man Project.
Category: Culture
