50 Fun Facts About Burning Man

Burning Man has been held since 1990 in the Black Rock Desert of which US state?

The temporary Black Rock City rises about 100 miles north-northeast of the nearest airport city and vanishes again each September.

The event's name comes from burning a large wooden effigy on the Saturday evening before which holiday?

The event spans the nine days leading up to and including the holiday; the Temple burns the following night.

Burning Man began in 1986 with a solstice bonfire at which San Francisco spot?

Larry Harvey and Jerry James burned an 8-foot wooden man and a smaller wooden dog there on 22 June.

The first Man burned in 1986 was how tall?

It hit 15 feet the next year, 30 feet in 1988 and settled at 40 feet from 1989 to 2013.

Larry Harvey formally named the event 'Burning Man' in 1988 partly to head off comparisons with what?

He said he had not seen the 1973 cult film until years later and that it did not inspire the ritual.

The 1990 desert move, 'Zone Trip No. 4', was organised by which San Francisco group?

The Zone Trips were inspired by Tarkovsky's film Stalker; the trip was billed as 'A Bad Day at Black Rock'.

Which novelist based Fight Club's anarchist organisation on the San Francisco society behind the 1990 Zone Trip?

Project Mayhem was the result; that society was founded in 1986 by survivors of the defunct Suicide Club and also spawned the Santa Rampage.

Which volunteer group did 'Danger Ranger' Michael Mikel found in 1990 on the playa?

They still act as informal mediators when disputes arise; the ranger-patrolled perimeter began in 1997.

From 1991, John Law fitted the Burning Man with what to serve as a beacon in the dark desert?

He drew on his experience in the sign business; there were no planned roads yet.

1991 was the first year Burning Man obtained a legal permit from which federal agency?

The same year fire dancer Crimson Rose, later the event's first art director, first attended.

Why was Burning Man forced to relocate to the Hualapai lakebed just west of the playa for 1997?

Andy Green's jet car went supersonic on the Black Rock playa that autumn; the event returned in 1998 with its first fence.

Which supersonic car set the world land speed record of 763 mph on the Black Rock Desert playa in 1997?

Driven by Andy Green, it remains the only supersonic car; Richard Noble's Thrust2 had set a record there in 1983.

The flat playa of the Black Rock Desert is the dry bed of which prehistoric body of water?

At its Pleistocene peak the lakebed lay under about 500 feet of water, which laid down the famously level silt.

In which year did Larry Harvey write Burning Man's 'Ten Principles'?

They run from gifting and self-reliance to leaving no trace and immediacy.

Which of these is one of Burning Man's Ten Principles?

It is why almost nothing is for sale on the playa; the two exceptions run by organisers are ice and Center Camp drinks.

Which one of the Ten Principles states that 'anyone may be a part of Burning Man'?

It is the principle critics invoke against exclusive luxury camps, and the one Harvey used to defend letting billionaires in.

In Burning Man slang, what does MOOP stand for?

The Leave No Trace ethic means every scrap of litter is hunted down after the event.

Cash on the playa can officially buy ice and drinks at Center Camp Café; ice sales benefit whom?

Everything else must be brought in, gifted or done without.

Radial streets in Black Rock City are named using what system, with the Man at the centre?

Addresses like 6:00 or 9:15 place you on a 240-degree arc; the innermost ring is the Esplanade.

Which architect designed the Black Rock City street grid and every Man base from 2001 to 2012?

He served as city designer until his death, aged 76; the grid exists so emergency vehicles can find an 'address'.

The 'trash fence' enclosing the event's pentagon of desert is roughly how long?

The four-foot plastic barrier was first meant to catch wind-blown debris; since 2002 the land beyond it is off limits.

What is the speed limit for vehicles inside Black Rock City?

Ordinary driving is banned anyway; only approved mutant vehicles and service vehicles may move.

Motorised art cars must be approved in advance by the event's own 'DMV', which stands for what?

The term mutant vehicle was coined to distinguish radically rebuilt machines from merely decorated cars.

The Temple, the event's second great structure, is burned when?

It is a non-denominational space where people leave messages and mementos for the dead.

In 2014 the Man was built without a base and stood how tall, the largest ever?

It went back to the standard 40 feet from 2015 to 2019.

Which department helps artists place work on the open playa and enforces burn platforms?

It also ensures lighting so mutant vehicles do not collide with sculptures at night.

Black Rock City LLC was formed in 1999 by Harvey and five others; Larry Harvey's official title was what?

Marian Goodell took the CEO role; Michael Mikel became historian and archivist.

In 2013 Black Rock City LLC became a subsidiary of which nonprofit?

The nonprofit had been formed two years earlier, won IRS 501(c)(3) status in 2012 and took over running the event.

Which property west of the Black Rock Desert, the event's 1997 refuge, did its nonprofit buy in 2016?

A holding company called Future Man LLC was set up in 2017 to own it.

The reported population of Burning Man in 2019, its largest to date, was about how many?

That was the first year staff and volunteers were counted; the permit caps attendance on the playa at 80,000.

The first-ever Google Doodle, in 1998, was created to announce what?

Silicon Valley's love affair with the playa has since drawn one Tesla boss to declare that Burning Man 'is Silicon Valley'.

Which Tesla CEO once said that Burning Man 'is Silicon Valley'?

In 2017 Google employees reportedly shipped in a box of lobsters for a meal.

Which years did Burning Man not take place, for the first time since 1986?

Thousands turned up unofficially anyway; in 2021 an illuminated drone display outlined the Man in place of the burn.

What stranded thousands of attendees at the 2023 event over the holiday weekend?

Organisers issued a Wet Playa Survival Guide and banned all driving until the surface dried; one person died.

In 2024, tickets went unsold for the first time since which year?

Organisers asked big sound camps to publish DJ lineups early to drive sales; Robot Heart replied with a game of hangman.

What was the individual ticket price, including taxes, in 2016?

CNBC estimated the real cost of attending, with travel, camp fees and costumes, at $1,300 to $20,000.

The 2014 Simpsons episode 'Blazed and Confused' features a Burning Man parody called what?

A character even says 'Burning Man' before correcting herself.

Which 2016 video game features characters visiting a Burning Man-themed event?

A 2005 Malcolm in the Middle episode was also set at the event.

The road-traffic technique used to move vehicles out of Black Rock City during Exodus is called what?

Cars are released a mile at a time along Gate Road at roughly hourly intervals.

The nearest commercial airport to Burning Man is in which city, more than two hours' drive away?

Shuttle buses also run to the tiny towns of Gerlach and Empire.

The FBI's threat assessment of Burning Man found the only major threats were crowd control and what?

It still sent an unspecified number of undercover agents, who reported no adverse threats.

Which official regional Burn takes place in South Africa's Tankwa Karoo?

Its central sculpture is called the San Clan rather than the Man; the others are in New Zealand, Australia and Israel.

Where is the regional Burn called Nowhere held?

Others include Burning Flipside, Apogaea in Colorado and Firefly in New England.

Larry Harvey, Burning Man's co-founder and figurehead, died in 2018 from complications of what?

Born in San Francisco and raised in Portland, Oregon, he was 70.

The regional Burn called Burning Flipside is held in which US state?

Apogaea is Colorado's, Playa del Fuego is Delaware's and Transformus is West Virginia's.

How many volunteer Temple Guardians watch over the Temple around the clock during the event?

The Temple is a non-denominational space where people leave words and objects to be burned on the final night.

Which Washington, D.C. museum staged the 2018 exhibition No Spectators: The Art of Burning Man?

The show took over the whole building, part of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, and spilled into the surrounding neighbourhood.

Terbo Ted, credited as Burning Man's first-ever DJ, opened his set with a record by which artist?

Electronic music camps began appearing in 1992, an offshoot of the San Francisco rave scene.

What nickname did the outskirts area where DJs set up in the 1990s acquire?

Later, particular spokes of the city were designated sound camps with volume limits and speakers angled away from the centre.

On what FM frequency does Black Rock City's public radio station BMIR broadcast?

Its camp sits at Center Camp along with Recycling Camp, the Ranger outposts and Arctica, the ice sellers.