The tale of how Burning Man the event became Burning Man the Limited Liability Co. offers a fascinating glimpse into how even the wildest, least commercial ideas can, almost against their will, become bankable. Eleven years ago, suffering from a broken heart after a split with his girlfriend, Burning Man founder Harvey, a bay-area landscaper, needed an emotional catharsis. On the summer solstice in 1986, he gathered a few friends on a beach at dusk, doused a crude 10-foot wooden figure made of scrap lumber in gasoline, and lit a match. From north and south, they converged as if by instinct. Well, as it turns out, that is an instinct.
Fire is a primal attractant, the primal attractant.
Anyway, we doubled our numbers instantly, and we've been doubling them ever since, and that was the first instance of it. In the beginning, Harvey and friends didn't charge admission, making Burning Man the best free party around. In 1990, several hundred people gathered on Baker Beach, and when Harvey heeded the instructions of a park ranger and refused to light the Man, a riot nearly broke out. After that, to make the event more manageable, the organizers moved it to the Black Rock Desert in northern Nevada, and, for a year, attendance dwindled. In 1994, Harvey began to charge admission, mostly as a form of crowd control, he says.