Founded in 1986, Burning Man's 10 core principles are about celebrating self-expression, civic responsibility, and art.
It's an experience hard to be defined in a few words or even from just someone's perspective. It is radically beyond what most people outside of it thing: as a large electronic music rave in the desert. The desert part of it is very real and you better be well prepared!
Burning Man is first of all an amazing display of human creativity and self-expression when you give them space and the freedom to exercise it. The 75,000 participants are simultaneously the spectators and the "creators" of the event.
The huge space is divided into two main areas: the camping area formed by a series of concentric and radial streets and an "open playa" reserved for art instalations. Exploring these areas is an endless experience as they are always changing with hundreds of mutant and art vehicles of all sizes, shapes, colors, sounds and light effects "gliding" through the streets or the vast open landscape of the playa.
Artists and engineers from every corner of the planet bring their ideas and designs to build a huge variety of art instalations on the playa. This year instalations included a giant orb 100 feet in diameter and a five-story sphere covered with a moving skin of origami shells and radiant spikes illuminated with over 100,000 LEDs. Many of the art instalations including "The Man" and the Temple are burned to the ground at the end of the event to follow one of it's main principles which is "leave no trace".
On top of all this there are tens of mutant vehicles, some of them with massive sound systems and world renowned DJs, that ride through the playa with parties that start at sunset and finish away after sunrise!
Going to Burning Man takes preparation. Lot's of it. Everyone must bring their own food, water and lot's of accessories to help survive the inhospitable conditions of the desert. Reading the "Survival Guide" is a must.