Burning Man

Art Festival and experimental living

time frame: Start Date: 1986

End Date: Ongoing, yearly

One week at the end of August, up to and including the American Labor Day holiday

initiators: Founded by artist Larry Harvey and friends

users: Local, state and federal law enforcement present at event

municipal role: Federally owned land, managed by Bureau of Land Management (U.S. Department of the Interior), and local counties

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Burning Man is a week-long event, part art festival, part experiment in community living, held in late August in the Black Rock desert of Nevada, USA. It has been held yearly since 1986, and has grown to include over 25,000 participants who bring their own survival necessities, shelter and materials to construct themed art installations. Once dissasembled, Black Rock City leaves no trace on the desert.

TYPE OF USE
Experimental arts community/event

OPERATIONAL COSTS
total operating costs (2001) = $5,255,200 USD
regulatory tax for use of public land (2001) = $502,000 USD to Bureau of Land Management

LEASING COSTS
Individual tickets for the week range from $165 - $200 USD

AMOUNT OF PEOPLE
Temporary users
15 year round, salaried staff members
over 25,000 participants in 2001, from all over the US and the world
including over 1000 volunteers and over 200 members of the press

DEVELOPMENT

The Burning Man project began in 1986 when Larry Harvey constructed a wooden figure and burnt it before an audience of twenty people, on a small beach in San Francisco, CA, in honor of the Summer Solstice. The celebration continued in San Francisco until 1990, when police banned burning on the beach site and the Burning Man was moved to the Black Rock Desert, NV. Through 1996, attendance grew yearly and the event expanded to include performances, larger sculptural installations, theme camps and villages laid out around the Man and on site media. In 1997, to accommodate the growth of the event, the Black Rock Limited Liability Company (LLC) was formed, and the event moved to private land on the Hualapai Playa. The ensuing struggle to gain a Festival Permit from the local Washoe County government, precipitated the move back to public land. Since then, Black Rock LLC has received a special recreation permit from the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and worked in conjunction with government agencies, local communities and businesses to ensure that the 25,000+ particpants can enjoy the week-long festival and leave no adversary trace.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

a) LOCATION

The Burning Man event takes places in Black Rock City, a city that last for one week on a 18.1 kilometer square (7 mile square) patch of the Black Rock Desert, 190 kilometers (120 miles) north of Reno, Nevada, in the Southwest USA. The site is the playa, a barren ancient lake bed exposed to extreme sun, wind, and intermittent rains. Historical trails are located on the public land surrounding the site, which during the year is used for scattered recreational camping and activities, and in 2000 the land was declared a National Conservation Area by a congressional bill.

b) USERS AND USE
Burning Man is a combination of arts festival, social event, temporary city and experiment in community living. The 25,000+ atendees are encouraged to participate, express themselves freely and creatively outside of the constraints of a consumer, capitalist society. Participants participate in visual and performing arts, spontaneous social interactions and barter. Other activities include biking, dancing, landsailing and exploring the desert area. The celebration culminates with the spectacular burning of the 50+ foot tall wooden Man on Saturday night.

Burning Man is "no-profit", accepts no commercial sponsorships, refuses endorsements and there is no vending (except coffee and ice) at the event. The organizational structure is composed of the Black Rock City LLC and a non profit arm, the Black Rock Arts Foundation to support efforts of the communitys artists.

c)SPATIAL AND TIME PATTERNS OF USE

The Burning Man event lasts one week, and the duration of set up and clean up of Black Rock City totals one month, as stipulated by the BLM permit. Participants must bring everything they need to survive for their stay in the desert food, water, costumes and creative temporary shelter and take it back home with them, following the Leave No Trace outdoor ethic.

The public infrastructure, built by the Black Rock Department of Public Works and volunteers, includes a central café structure, an ice vending structure, rented portable toilets, roads with street signs and lanterns, shade structures, steel camp fireplaces and a surrounding fence with access gate. Burning Man participants create their own large scale camps and villages associated with the yearly theme, whimsical art and technological installations, elaborate temporary shelters, art cars and burning art.

Black Rock City is laid out in an arc, with radial and annular streets centered around the sculpture of The Man. The plan of the city and the street names correspond to the yearly theme, such as The Wheel of Time and The Body. The city is zoned into areas for theme camps (residential), art displays, performance art, and an airport. The total area encompassed by Black Rock City within the pentagonal perimeter security fence is about 10.36 square kilometers (2,560 acres).

In 2000 the LLC bought a 0.81 kilometer square (200 acre) tract of land, Black Rock Station, a permanent location for necessary workshops, housing and storage facilities, in the Hualapai Valley near the present location of Black Rock City. The temporary city is supported by a 15 person staff working year round in rented office space in San Francisco and by a Department of Public Works working 4 months a year on an 323,700 meter square (80 acre) leased property adjacent to Black Rock Station.

d) BENEFITS AND CONFLICTS OF PARTIES INVOLVED
Black Rock LLC / Burning Man (user agency)
+ serves on community board, has official voice in decisions
+ receives help from outside service providers
- high taxes owed to BLM for land use and to federal, state and local governments by LLC
- difficult negotiations with BLM and local municipalities to receive permit

Bureau of Land Management (Federal Agent / owner)
+ income from $ paid by Black Rock LLC for permit
- negative publicity over disputes for permit

Local Communities
+ financial benefit from increased tourism/business, and from charitable donations
+ oportunity to teach school children about environmental ethics
- increased traffic and displacement of other recreational users of playa during event

e)EFFECT ON NEIGHBOURHOOD 7 OVERALL CITY
By operating in accordance with Leave No Trace principles, Burning Man causes little or no environmental impact. The festival does positively impact the nearby community, donating money raised from ice sales and recycling to the local school system and charitable organizations, as well as creating tourism-related economic activity. A network of Burning Man participants has begun to form worldwide, year-round over the internet, with events in satellite locations in the spirit of Burning Man.

f) SPIRIT 7 IDEOLOGY OF PROJECT
radical self-expression and radical self-reliance

FINANCIAL SUMMARY
total operating costs (2001) = $5,255,200 USD
regulatory tax for use of public land (2001) = $502,000 USD to Bureau of Land Management
total taxes = $792,000 USD (2001)
charitable donations of $41,000 from ice sales to town of Gerlach

Web links
http://www.burningman.com/ - official web site
http://www.nv.blm.gov/Winnemucca/recreation/burningman/index.htm - Bureau of Land Management site
http://home.pacbell.net/bullnose/bluetarp.htm - desert temporary structures

SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY
Ed. John Plunkett, et al. Burning Man. Wired Books, Inc. 1997.

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legal: event is organized by a limited liability corporation, Black Rock City LLC
special recreation permit for use of land from Bureau of Land Management

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