BLUSH | U L T I M AT E T R AV E L
@ no ma
d.ness
Inside
Burning Man Take a look behind the doors of one of the world’s most exclusive events, set in the heart of the Nevada desert…
T
HE secretive, yet magical world of Burning Man is on every festival-lovers bucket list. Except, you’re not allowed to call it a festival. The nine-day, 70,000-person event is held each year in the middle of Nevada’s Black Rock Desert, and is home to a celebration of creativity, selfexpression, community, and culture. It’s for this reason it’s gathered a cult following of celebrity and wealthy tech elite attendees (also known as burners), and is centred around the burning of a
54
BLUSH | S U M M E R 2 0 2 2
large wooden effigy. “Burning Man is not a festival, Burning Man is a community.” The website reads. “A temporary city. A global cultural movement based on 10 practical principles.” These practical principles include radical inclusion (“Anyone may be a part of Burning Man”), gifting, and radical self-reliance. Burning Man does not book any entertainment for the event, but instead encourages participants to perform for the community free of charge. That means you could end up getting
massages, making art, going ziplining, and even wine tasting all for free. A ticket to the experience will set you back $575 (around £425), but in line with the event’s values, no money can exchange hands while there, meaning you’ll need to bring food, shelter, supplies…and pretty much anything you might need to survive in a desert for a week. But that doesn’t mean you should hang around to decide if you can hack it, because tickets can sell out within hours of being released. The first tickets that go on sale are priced far higher than the regular price,
blushmagazine.org.uk
