Press Kit

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About Burning Man

Burning Man Project is the nonprofit that works year-round in service to the Burning Man global cultural movement. Black Rock City is the nonprofit’s signature annual event, which convenes approximately 80,000 people in Nevada’s Black Rock Desert. Around the world, Burning Man Project collaborates with the global community to bring the Burning Man ethos to life through more than 80 official Regional Events in 33 countries around the world.

Through a network of Burners Without Borders (BWB) Chapters, Burning Man Project nurtures grassroots projects that develop creative ways to empower resilient communities. Fly Ranch, Burning Man Project’s 3,800 acre ranch in Northern Nevada, serves as an open source platform for innovation around ecological regeneration, creativity, healing and transformation.

Burning Man began in 1986 as a gathering of friends on Baker Beach in San Francisco. Seeking more space and creative freedom, Burning Man organizers relocated the event to the Black Rock Desert in 1990.

The Burning man Global cultural movement:

Brings people together. From neighborhood meet-ups to civic art projects to Black Rock City, the nonprofit supports gatherings that spark belonging and moments of awe and wonder.
Stimulates innovation and creativity. By supporting art, architecture, engineering, or emergent forms of expression, the nonprofit celebrates the inherent creativity in every human being.
Advances the culture through storytelling. Whether through media or person-to-person learning, the nonprofit develops storytelling content that inspires and educates.

Hot Topics for 2024

URBAN REVITALIZATION

Black Rock City and the Burning Man global cultural movement has long served as inspiration for bringing innovation, participation and awe into urban spaces. The fact that BRC is renewed every year, paired with its citizens’ remarkable capacity for creativity and innovation, make it a perfect space for iteration and learning about urban revitalization.

Revitalizing Center Camp: For 2024, Center Camp has been completely reimagined. City streets have been rearranged to facilitate flow into Center Camp Plaza. We’ve placed camps with distinctive interactivity around the plaza, and worked with the community to schedule round-the-clock interactivity beneath the Center Camp Canopy. This transformation is a radical renaissance of the city center designed to spark Immediacy and new cross-pollinations.

SUSTAINABILITY

Black Rock City and Burning Man Regional Events have long been testing grounds for sustainable technological solutions and practices. These innovations are reducing the event’s carbon footprint significantly. Once proven, sustainable technologies and practices developed in Black Rock City are implemented in communities and at events around the world.

A regenerative, net-zero Black Rock City: This year in BRC, event operations and participants continue to advance innovation, working towards Burning Man Project’s 2030 goals to: handle waste ecologically; be regenerative; and be carbon negative.

Event operations are coupling the city’s electrical grids with batteries to eliminate fuel waste, and supplementing remaining power needs with renewable generation and biogenic fuel sources.
The Green Corridor, located near 4:00 from A through F, is inhabited by camps known for regenerative technology and Earth-friendly practices.
All organic waste derived from BMP operations is being collected and composted. Event operations are supporting expansion of a participant-led composting operation in the Green Corridor.
The Man, Temple, Center Camp, Gate and the Department of Mutant Vehicles are powered by renewable energy.

Black Rock City in 2024

THE 2024 THEME: CURIOUSER & CURIOUSER

The 2024 Burning Man theme celebrates puzzles without answers, embraces the irrational and the absurd, and invites the unknown over for tea. All great journeys of discovery begin with a question; without that spark of curiosity no movement is possible. It’s in those timeless moments of not knowing, when we’re consumed entirely by curiosity, that we experience our most profound learning, growth, and creativity.

BY THE NUMBERS

Shape and Size of the City

The pentagon that encompasses Black Rock City is 3,879 acres or 6.06 square miles
The city grid (without open playa) is 1,113.9 acres or 1.74 square miles
The trash fence, which circles the city, is 9.2 miles long
The city grid itself is just over two miles wide from 3:00 and L to 9:00 and L
BRC is the unofficial largest clock in the world
We install approximately 1,700 porta-potties in Black Rock City
750 Department of Public Works staff build Black Rock City
625 yellow-clad staff lend their skills to the city’s Emergency Services Department
800 Black Rock Rangers help mediate disputes and foster a safe community

The Man & Man Pavilion

From toes to the top of head, the Man is 38’ tall
Including the Man Pavilion, the entire structure is 70’ tall
The Man and Man Pavilion are 100% solar powered

Theme camps create the city’s interactivity. There are:

1,189 placed theme camps
124 HUBs, through which camps share resources such as water and power
Many unplaced and impromptu camps in open camping

Art in Black Rock City

Burning Man art is an expression of the cultural movement’s participatory, inclusive and interactive ethos. In 2024 the Burning Man Project nonprofit allocated $1.45 million to art through the Black Rock City Honoraria program.

Pre-registered Art Projects in BRC:

76 funded Honoraria art projects
287 other registered pieces

Based on information Honoraria artists voluntarily shared in their proposals:

42% have a lead artist who is female or non-binary
70% are working towards the environmental sustainability roadmap

“The Other”: The 2024 Man Pavilion and Artists

The Man Pavilion serves as the base upon which the Man will rise, and functions as a playful gathering and happening space for Black Rock citizenry. This year’s pavilion, “The Other” by Jen Lewin, features eight gracefully curved tentacles that wind as stairways and ramps. Six artists — Julia Nelson-Gal, Hind Baghdadi, Matt Elson, Michael Garlington, Benjamin Langholz and NiNo Alicea — have created whimsical experiences to animate chambers nested beneath its tentacles.

“Temple of Together”

A space for release and remembrance, the 2024 Temple was created by Caroline Ghosn. The dominant motif in the design is the representation of two hands coming together in prayer. The cladding is based on reeded weaving techniques that allow for the use of sustainable and repurposed materials.

2024 Art Highlights

“Naga and the Captainess” by Cjay Roughgarden, Stephanie Shipman, and Jackie Scott

Largest Honoraria project in BRC this year — entire footprint is 200’
Led by three women, the crew is comprised of 75 skilled and unskilled artisans

“Coney McConeface” by Chris ‘Kiwi’ Hankins and the ConeCophony Collective

Artist collective from New Zealand; they built the Temple in 2011
50’ tall orange traffic cone that will burn and release fireworks

“The Speed of the Earth” by Kevin Kelly and David Rumsey

Demonstrates the speed at which the earth spins (784 mph)
Kelly is the founder of Wired magazine

“Release” by Dana Albany

At 33’ tall, it’s the biggest sculpture the artist has made to date
A female figure releasing into butterflies, it is featured on the 6:00 promenade

“Sky Gazing” by Patrick Shearn, Poetic Kinetics Studio

A colorful, 400’ long, 200’ wide x 60’ tall elevated tapestry
Shearn has been installing similar work all over the world

“Mona Mushroom” by Mona Miao He and Li Quan Sheng

26’ tall mushroom looks like an inflatable, in fact made from carefully crafted steel
Drone show (weather dependent) Monday, Tuesday & Wednesday nights

“Habitat” by Mark Rivera aka Kidnetick

An evolution of Rivera’s 2023 Honoraria piece, “Jibaro Soy”
Puerto Rican artist, building at The Reno Generator

Flame Effects and Scheduled Burns

There are 23 art projects with flame effects on the open playa, 69 registered flame effects in theme camps, and 120 registered mutant vehicles with flame effects.