Everyone Always Seems to Be Curious About Burning Man. Here Are Some Things You Didn’t Know about This Amazing Event.
Burning Man Festival attracts tens of thousands of people every year. It takes place in Black Rock City or BRC in a playa – a dried lakebed – located in the Nevada desert. It started off as a bonfire ritual in 1986 and at its last event in 2019 welcomed 78,820 people.
Let’s delve into 15 Things You Didn’t Know About Burning Man.
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1
Burning Man Cancels 2021 Festival
It’s the second time in a row that Burning Man Festival has been cancelled, and yes, it’s because of Covid. As reported by the New York Times and several other publications, “With vaccinations mounting across the nation, expectations were high that the festival, which began in San Francisco in 1986 and moved to the Black Rock Desert in 1990, would resume this year after being called off in 2020.”
Sadly, that was not to be.
Just like burning man, COVID has negatively affected many countries as well. Check out 15 Countries That Are Going Bankrupt Because of COVID.
2
Local Businesses Will Lose a Fortune with the 2nd Cancelling
In 2019, Burning man increased local economic impact by $60 million. With the 2nd cancelling, that money is gone.
KoloTV.com interviewed several business owners in the area and they all cited what a financial loss it would be. The Melting Pot World Emporium & Smoke Shop said, “about 20% of their profit comes from the sales they make during Burning Man each year,” and Bertha Miranda’s, a Mexican restaurant, are relying on the support of the community to keep going.
And Aluxers, it’s not just the small businesses that are going to lose a lot of money as you’ll see next.
3
Local Airport Also Loses Big Windfall
Burning Man Festival is a profitable time for Reno-Tahoe International Airport. They make around $11 million just from revellers flying in and out during that busy time.
Without the event, they lose that windfall…. Again.
As quoted by Brian Kulpin, spokesman for the airport, for mynews4.com “We love Burning Man. 20,000 to 25,000 Burners come to the airport every year. That’s arriving and departing. That’s a lot of people and a lot of seats.”
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4
How Much Money Does Burning Man Make?
So, we’ve looked at how much money is being lost this year with the cancellation of Burning Man, but how much money is made with the event?
First off – Burning Man is a non-profit organization. It’s categorized as a 501(c)(3) non-profit Burning Man Project, headquartered in San Francisco, California.
Non-profits still make money; they still have expenses and they still need to pay salaries.
The Reno Gazette broke the expenses down as follows…
Their staff expenses take up a third of their budget with the highest paid employees earning the following:
- Burning Man CEO Marian Goodell: $268,000
- Director Harley Dubois: $216,000
- Director Theresa Duncan: $192,000
- Attorney Ray Allen: $185,000
The 2018 event cost $44 million to run. Ticket sales brought in $43 million, there was $2 million in contributions and a few other miscellaneous income streams that totalled $46 million.
5
What’s It in Aid of Any Way?
Elon Musk once said, “If you haven’t been, you just don’t get it.” And it’s easy to sit from the side lines and pass comment, but until you’ve been to an actual event, you’ll never really know.
There are 10 principles which the event remains focused on: radical inclusion, gifting, decommodification, radical self-reliance, radical self-expression, communal effort, civic responsibility, leaving no trace, participation, and immediacy.
And honestly, they don’t always get every area 100% perfect. For example, MOOP. Moop stands for Matter out of Place. At Burning Man Festival there are no trash cans, and it’s everyone’s responsibility to remove their own trash. It doesn’t always happen though, and often there is a ton of cr*p left behind… including ditched bicycles that people couldn’t be bothered to take home.
6
Demographic Of a Typical “Burner”
White
Rich
Male
Average age – 35
59% of attendees identified as male in the surveys taken in 2018. BRC have been conducting this census since 2002, and the results have been pretty standard since then.
If you’re thinking that you need to fit these demographics to go, you absolutely do not. With their low-income ticket program, it really can be an affordable event.
7
Being a Black Burner
It shouldn’t surprise you that the event organizers are often criticised for the sheer lack of diversity at their annual event. In response to that, the festival’s founder once told The Guardian, “I don’t think black folks like to camp as much as white folks”. The quote was taken out of context and as Larry Harvey pointed out, his entire family is bi-racial.
Steven W Thrasher, a self-acclaimed “Black Burner” loves the event and despite their being only a handful of people of colour, he does agree that there are certain reasons why black people don’t head to Burning Man.
He documented his conversations with other Black Burners to find out their thoughts on the event and tells The Guardian, “we black Burners hailed from several countries and included virgins and veterans… we chatted about white hippies, the great outdoors, the problems of black hair and skin in the unforgiving desert and everything in between.”
Aluxers, we suggest you read the whole article.
8
What Really Happens at Burning Man?
Sex, drugs and rock n roll… well maybe more techno than rock n roll… the rest, absolutely.
Burning Man Festival has everything you’d expect from a 9-day event and then some. Each year there is a different theme, so 2019 it was Metamorphoses, 2018 was I, Robot, and 2017 Radical Ritual. These themes start as a guideline for everything moving forward.
Performers are not booked or paid for, with all entertainment provided for free by those attending the event. So, it’s a mixed bag of entertainment when you’re there.
Same applies to the camps… one year a camp might host an Alice in Wonderland high tea theme where you can indulge in a real fantastical world of Lewis Carroll. You might find someone doing flame throwing, doing bubble magic tricks or waxing lyrical… there are over 1,000 camps so you can never know what there will be.
Every year is different, with new ideas, experiences and challenges.
9
Barbie Death Camp and Wine Bistro
Burning Man is known for its art installations and there have been the most mind-blowing works of art displayed over the years.
Some of the most memorable installations include Mark Grieve’s Temple of Hope from 2006, Deep Thought by a creator from San Francisco and Bliss Dance made in 2010 by Marco Cochrane.
A controversial piece went up in 2019. According to Times Of Israel, An artist at the annual Burning Man festival presented an art exhibit featuring naked dolls being led into ovens at a simulated death camp.”
The piece was called “Barbie Death Camp and Wine Bistro,” created by Jewish artist James Jacoby. In his words, “Burning Man is not a safe space. It’s not Yale University. You don’t get to run and hide from something you don’t like. There’s 1,100 theme camps. If you don’t like ours, go to another one.”
If you’re keen to learn about the wealth of Jewish people, be sure you watch our video:
10
How Much Does It Cost to Go?
Tickets cost $475 plus an extra $140 for a vehicle pass.
That doesn’t take into account getting to the event and setting up inside. Depending on how big or fancy you go, this 9-day event could cost you thousands. Once you’re inside the area, there are no further costs involved.
The only things you can buy are coffee and ice.
Burning Man Festival does not make money off vending, sponsorship or charging higher prices for setting up in certain areas. Some of the art installations do get a sponsorship, which makes sense, considering the scope and size of the installations.
According to burningman.org, they offer “4,500 low income tickets (at $210 each) for those able to show proof of financial hardship.”
11
Negative Cultural Trends at Burning Man
Aluxers, as you’ve seen on Instagram, there are camps at Burning Man that most people wouldn’t be able to afford in their lifetime. This high-end glamping goes against what the event is meant to be about.
CEO Marian Goodell has said they will make a concerted effort to return to the events roots… but whether that will materialize is unknown, as those sentiments were shared in 2019 and since then, as you heard, 2 Burning Man events have been cancelled.
12
There Is No Currency at Burning Man
Burning Man is not a tit for tat scenario. You don’t go there thinking you’ll need to exchange something for something else. The event or city works on gifting, and you give your items without thinking what you’ll get in return or if the item you gave away has the same value as the item you’ve been given.
That’s not how gifting works, does it?
13
The Environmental Impact of Burning Man
Every year, this temporary city is built up and broken down in Nevada’s Black Rock Desert. Currently, there is a cap of 80,000 people but Burning Man are trying to increase the number to 100,000. As it stands, the Bureau of Land Management or BLM have denied the request.
One of the big parts of the festival is the burning of many of the artworks.
It has been calculated that Burning Man has a carbon footprint of 100,000 tons of CO2 per year.
Festival organizers are aiming to change that, and according to Dezeen aim to “eliminate all non-sustainable waste streams, have a net positive environmental impact, and remove more carbon from the atmosphere than it puts into it.”
14
Death and Sexual Assault
Like any major event, Burning Man experiences its fair share of controversy. Not everyone who attends events goes for the right reasons and at the last Burning Man event that took place in 2019, there were 58 arrests. That was an increase of 14 arrests as seen the previous year.
According to salon.com, “while most of the arrests were for drug possession, one arrest was for a sexual assault incident that occurred on-site…”
Oleg Gennadievich Ivanov was arrested for sexual assault which occurred just before the event was set to open. His bail was set at $152,500.
There were also 2 deaths associated with Burning Man in 2019. One occurred on a narrow, two-lane, stretch of highway that leads to the event. Lonnie Richey didn’t survive the car accident. A second death, 33-year-old Shane Billingham, was found unresponsive in his vehicle at his camp. The toxicology report stated that Billingham had a “poisonous concentration of carbon monoxide in his blood.”
15
You May Not Find Yourself
Aluxers, many people head to Burning Man thinking they’re going to connect with their inner self, discover something new about themselves or finally have an epiphany …. And while that may happen to a handful, it’s not going to happen to all 80,000 people there.
And it’s ok if you don’t leave there finding a lost part of yourself. You will certainly walk away from the event a wiser, more informed person than you were before you arrived.
Question:
Have you attended Burning Man? Share your experience with us in the comments below.
