All You Need to Know About Burning Man 2022

Fire has always been something almost magical for humans… and the desert too. If, in addition, a festival proposes to “create” a city out of thin air, for a few days, which disappears again after the burning of a giant figure, it can be understood why tens of thousands of people come every year to the Nevada desert, to participate in “Burning Man,” one of the most popular events in the world, which will be held between August 28th and September 9th. 

The celebration owes its name to the fact that, during the artistic meeting, a wooden man several meters high -it has reached over 39 feet- is set on fire, along with fireworks show. On the last night a large campfire is lit and during the previous seven days, participants will create a city, called Black Rock City, in the middle of the Nevada desert.

“Burning Man is not a festival! It’s a city wherein almost everything that happens is created entirely by its citizens, who are active participants in the experience,” is stated in the official webpage,

Like so many other massive gatherings, the meeting had to be suspended in 2020 and 2021 due to the pandemic and last year it was held virtually, so this will be the return after a two-year interruption.

So many people are already planning what their outfit will be to stand out from the crowd. In addition to being a space for artists to express themselves through their installations, it is also a space to wear the most striking clothes and that only imagination is the limit, since “radical self-expression” is favored.

How did this meeting started? In 1986, Larry Harvey and Jerry James decided to create, to celebrate the summer solstice, a wooden human figure and set it on fire on the San Francisco beach. They assembled it in a basement, dragged it through the sand, and used gasoline to see it engulfed in flames. People who were on the beach, came to see the show and someone started playing the guitar and singing.

As the event grew, both in number of attendees and the size of the wooden man being burnt, the authorities decided it was dangerous to let a campfire be ignited near the vegetation. So, the organizers decided to move it to what had been a huge lake in what is now the Black Rock desert.

Each year, the organizers propose a theme, and each participant must find a way to express it, through a large-scale art installation, a themed camp, outfit, costume, accessories, performance or by any other means. The theme of the Burning Man 2022 is “Waking Dreams” and the idea is “to explore the transformative power of dreams, both literal and figurative, and celebrate the dreamers who channel this potent energy in eye-opening, often surrealistic, sometimes life-changing ways”. 

Among the various ways of expressing this theme in 2012, Pablo González Vargas created the Mayan Warrior: an art car inspired by the astral wisdom and cosmic connection that the Mayans had. It is a truck whose cabin became the head of a Mayan supernatural being and has neon and laser lights, and a stage in which music is the protagonist.

People who attend the Burning Man, go camping in the desert for a whole week, so you need to bring the food and drinks you will consume on those days. Since it’s a countercultural event, which has as one of the objectives to show that, without money, human beings can relate in a more genuine way, food or drinks are not sold, nor can you find the usual merchandising products.

Another additional detail: there is no Internet signal, so if you want to share the experience on your social networks, you´ll have to wait until you return to “civilization”. The idea is that participants can disconnect or, in fact, experience connection with each other.

However, despite this proposal, in recent years there have been some objections to how the meetings have developed, since they have also been a space for some personalities to create exclusive luxury camps, quite far from that somewhat “hippie” picture of lighting a wooden man on the beach and singing accompanied by a guitar.

Burning Man states that there should be no vestiges of the presence of 70,000 people in the desert for a week. So, attendees have to make sure they don’t leave any residue. One of the The 10 Principles of Burning Man, written by co-founder Larry Harvey, is “Leaving No Trace. Our community respects the environment. We are committed to leaving no physical trace of our activities wherever we gather. We clean up after ourselves and endeavor, whenever possible, to leave such places in a better state than when we found them”.

This year, in addition, there will be fewer gas and diesel generators, and more solar power and battery technologies. And camps, events, and art projects have changed how they do things to lighten their impact on the planet’s ecosystems.

The tickets value varied throughout the year – the first ones went on sale in January – and in July was $575 each. Attendees must also buy a pass for the vehicle, which has a price of $140 each (plus applicable fees and taxes). There were also some tickets sold at $225 for people who proved they couldn’t afford the higher value.

On the official Burning Man site, the organizers explain that “Burning Man is a global ecosystem of artists, makers, and community organizers who co-create art, events, and local initiatives around the world”. And also, that the nonprofit Burning Man Project provides year-round support, connection, education, and grants to an ever-growing network of Regional Burning Man communities in more than 40 US states and 35 countries.