A Desert Burn

Burning Man 2023 officially started Sunday in the Black Rock Desert—100 miles north of Reno, Nevada—with tens of thousands already in attendance for the nine-day event, despite a small group of environmental activists staging a demonstration on the route to the gate. The annual event, which blends art, self-expression, and communal living, originated in 1986 with the burning of a wooden effigy on a San Francisco beach, evolving into a temporary desert city centered around art installations, music, workshops, and the symbolic burning of a massive wooden sculpture. The “burners,” who build the approximately 7-square-mile temporary city from scratch each year, bring everything they need to survive in the desert. The event will conclude with the burning of the "man" statue tomorrow, the Temple burn Sunday, and a mass exodus Monday. This year's theme is “Animalia,” officially described as celebrating the animal world, both real and imagined, and our place in it. See some of the large-scale art here, including a massive wooden box that revealed a steel phoenix when burned, representing war-torn Ukraine.