Burning Man is annual festival held at Black Rock City, Nevada, emphasizing art, ecology and community. This festival is popular not only with Davis locals, but also with Davis students—with more than 100 Davis-dwellers in attendance. With over 35,000 temporary residents, Black Rock City is the largest temporary city in the world, but it also qualifies (for one week) as Nevada's fifth largest city.
Clothing is optional, and it has a reputation for debauchery (including alcohol, drugs, sex, etc.) However, law enforcement is present and willing to uphold the law.
Events
The main event is the burning of a large wooden sculpture of a man on Saturday night.
Another notable event is Critical Tits an all-female (although some men do join in) topless bike ride, in which there is a particularly bumpy stretch of trail, causing the women's breasts to bounce alluringly or painfully depending on size and your status as a bicyclist or bystander. The ride is usually followed with a free meal for the participants.
Since this festival has an environmentalist bent, has a leave-no-trace (zero impact on the ecosystem), and emphasizes community, it makes sense that "Burners" from Davis would want to try to get a group together to go. There is an official Burning Man rideshare on their site.
2005-08-22 10:40:59 Who are the "many" staff that Burning Man consists of? In its "Senior Staff" page, I only see one UCD alumni. And why wasn't he (or they) listed on this Burning Man page? I don't see enough of a connection to Davis that warrants this page. Any disagree? —JesseSingh
2005-08-22 10:55:29 Jesse, you may not like this page, but it's sufficiently related to Davis. While I appreciate your thirst for specific data on who the UC Davis contributors of burning man are, I think the fact that "only one" of their 18 senior staff are UC Davis alumni suggests the opposite of what you think it suggests, really. —JaimeRaba
2005-08-22 11:42:23 Check out the hypocracy of Burning Man —JimSchwab
2005-08-22 14:35:56 Yeah, my brother loved Burning Man and went to it every year until it was "ruined" and became a sort of commercial theme park and the type of people attending it changed completely. —MikeIvanov
2005-08-22 15:53:49 Well, I think it's better enjoyed as an adventure and an escape. It's gotten so big that it's necessary to impose rules and tax commercial exploitation, otherwise it would be a bigger zoo than it is. It's obviously not what it once was, but I don't think it's hypocracy at stake. In fact, if you look at the hypocracy article cited above, it looks like the author is upset that the originzation is trying to preserve the identity of Burning Man which would otherwise drift into archistic oblivion with so many participants these days. Well, it's huge now and things change, so Jamie Zawinski needs to get over it. —JaimeRaba
His concern is that they attempt to control the public's perception of the event by not allowing free photographic reign. Many businesses (such as Nugget) don't allow you to photograph inside their stores, and they're perfectly within their rights to do that. These restrictions may be contrary to the notions that many associate (whether these are deserved or not) with the festival, such as freedom, cooperation, and anarchy. It's not just about them making some bucks off the photos, either, as they don't allow photographs of "nudity, sexual activity, the use of drugs" to be used by photographers.
I think the restrictions are more of an attempt to protect those who may be engaging in the above acts but do not want images of themselves doing so to become more public than within the sphere of the event. aec
Excellent point. However, if the people were readily identifiable then the photographer would have needed them to agree to a model release of their image, because the photo wasn't taken in public (it was taken within a controlled businessed area). Regardless, sometimes these releases are ignored and photos slip out where people are identifiable. The legality of photos of people is murky so I can see the policy as advocating protection.
2005-09-04 10:43:07 Did anyone from the wiki attend this year? —JasonAller
2006-11-28 17:05:30 I know someone who got dosed with LSD at burning man! —StevenDaubert
2010-10-14 02:24:26 The Burning Man festival is a total maddening experience one will have in the lifetime.The burning of a 40 foot wooden man in the middle of the Black Rock Desret is only a small part of the 8 day festive. Burning Man festival is an event which has grown from being a beach party celebrating the summer solstice to the incarnation of personal freedom, radical self expression. If you’re looking for a totally unique experience, The Burning Man Festival will provide you with one, but only if you participate. http://www.travelamerica360.com/the-burning-man-festival-expression-of-enigma-and-radical-expression.html
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