When Was The First Burning Man? - And Other Facts About the Festival in the Black Rock Desert

What is Burning Man?

Burning Man is a yearly event that draws thousands of visitors to the impermanent Black Rock City in the Black Rock Desert of Nevada for 'community, art, self-expression and self-reliance.' Read on to learn more about the history of this infamous festival, which will take place from August 27-September 4.

The First Burning Man: 1986

The first Burning Man gathering took place in 1986 when Larry Harvey called his friend Jerry James on the summer solstice and said that he wanted to burn a man. They built an 8-foot man out of scrap lumber, soaked it in gasoline and burned it on San Francisco's Baker Beach. The initial group of 12 friends grew to around 35 as people gathered from other parts of the beach to watch the man burn.

Locations

While the first Burning Man event took place on Baker Beach, as did the ones from 1987-1989, by 1990, the Golden Gate Park Police considered it a fire hazard. Instead of being burned on the beach, the man was put back into storage. Several months later, the event moved to the Black Rock Desert, where the now 40-foot man was burned on Labor Day weekend.

In 1991, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) required a permit for the Black Rock Desert, and the event continued there through 1996. By 1997, the number of attendees had grown so much that organizers moved the event and what had become Black Rock City to Hualapai Flat and Fly Ranch.

Due to issues with the county and clean up, the event moved back to the desert the following year, but 1997 is notable as it was the first year that Black Rock City was planned and organized like a real city. The event is still held at Black Rock City, which exists only for Burning Man, in the Black Rock Desert. During the event, Black Rock City is the 10th-largest urban area in Nevada.

The Man

Although he was originally 8-feet tall, the Burning Man quickly grew, just like the scope of the festival itself. By the second year he was 15' tall, 30' by the third and 40' by the fourth. He remained 40' tall until 1996 when he was erected on top of hay bales and later various platforms, which caused the total height of the structure to fluctuate between 48' and 104' tall.

In 2014, the Burning Man no longer needed a platform, but rose to 105', the tallest in the festival's history. Often, the platform of the Man relates to the theme of the event. For example, in 2016, the theme was Da Vinci's Workshop, with the Burning Man designed as a Vitruvian Man surrounded by an Italian Renaissance-inspired piazza.

Themes

Each Burning Man event has a central theme. This began in 1995 with the theme 'Good and Evil.' Other themes over the years have included 'Fertility,' 'Hope and Fear,' 'American Dream' and 'Evolution.' The theme for 2017 is 'Radical Ritual'.

Additionally, many settlements and camps in Black Rock City have their own themes. According to the Burning Man website, 'An ideal theme camp should create a visually stimulating presence and provide a communal space or other opportunity for interaction.'

While the mid-1990s saw a few theme camps, there are now so many that they're sorted alphabetically. Many include email addresses so people can join their settlements on the Playa, or stop by to say 'hello.' In addition to theme camps, Burning Man is known for mutant vehicles, or art cars, that roam the city.

Tickets & Population

From those first bystanders who wandered over to the burning on Baker Beach in 1986, the festival has grown immensely. There were 300 attendees by 1989, 1,000 by 1993, 10,000 by 1997, 23,000 by 1999 and over 50,000 by 2010. The 2016 event saw over 67,000 attendees, slightly lower than the highest number of 69,613 in 2013.

While tickets to the event were initially free, the move to the Black Rock Desert and the necessity of a BLM permit required the event to start charging. Burning Man sold out in 2011: For the first time, the number of people interested in attending exceeded the number of people limited by the BLM permit. Ticket sales for Burning Man 2011 ended in July that year; the next year, the event used a lottery system. The lottery system was abandoned by 2013, replaced with directed group and open sales. Tickets for the 8-day festival in 2017 are $390, plus an $80 vehicle pass.

Counterfeit tickets have been a problem in the past, but the issue was resolved by a new ticket vendor in 2002 that offered foil-stamping; this was also the first year artwork was shown on the ticket itself. A ticket archive featuring tickets from 1996-2013 is available on the Burning Man site.

Burning Man does not allow vending or corporate sponsors, which is how many festivals make their money, so ticket sales are an important part of its revenue. Expenses for Burning Man are numerous as the event requires the creation of an entire city in the desert and the organization is committed to positively impacting people well beyond the yearly event.

The Community

At its core, the event is a week-long arts festival centered around ten basic principles, including decommodification, radical inclusion and self-expression. Most of all, however, this is a community in a city that exists for only one week a year. According to Burning Man, attendees are 'active participants in every sense of the word: they create the city, the interaction, the art, the performance and ultimately the experience that is Burning Man.'

Do you plan on attending the Burning Man festival in 2017, or have you attended the event in the past? If so, we'd love to hear from you; please share your experiences or thoughts in the comments area below.