For a week surrounding Labor Day about 15,000 festival organizers and attendees assemble a huge city in the middle of the Black Rock Desert in Nevada. It is said to be the fourth or fifth largest city in Nevada for one week of the year. The festival still culminates in the burning of the man on Sunday evening. But for the week leading up to the burning, the focus of the festival is on creative participation. Everyone passing through the gate is expected to contribute their creativity to the festival.
Groups form theme camps to build a creative space focused on a particular idea.
The wild diversity of imagination evident was staggering. While some of the theme camps spent tens of thousands of dollars on impressive high tech creations, some of the best camps were just talented people with art supplies. The 15,000 attendees were predominantly from the San Francisco Bay Area. But there was an impressive number of people from all over the globe. I met people from Canada, all over Europe, all over the United States, Australia and more.