2007
Height of Man: 40 feet standing on a 32-foot tall Green Man Pavilion resembling mountains and rolling hills, containing 30,000 square feet of exhibition space, combining art, earth sciences and technological innovation.
Location: Black Rock Desert, Nevada
Participants: Saturday (September 1, 2007): 47,097
Theme: The Green Man
- The Man and Man-Base Pavilion were powered entirely by solar panels donated under Nevadas new solar incentives. After the event the panels were permanently installed on the Gerlach High School and the Pershing General Hospital as part of Burning Mans community outreach efforts.
- The Green Theme marked the first political theme since 1996.
- Al Gore sent Black Rock City, LLC a video message in which he thanked Burning Man for its dedication to the environment with the Green Man theme.
- The playa was home to over 300 registered art projects, including 30 Burning Man-funded pieces.
- Crude Awakening, an art piece by Dan Das Mann, consisted of a 99-foot oil derrick and a group of large metal figures in worshipping poses to illustrate human beings dependency on oil. On Saturday night the derrick shot the tallest fire ever seen at Burning Mana 1,000-foot column of flame. The derrick was then burned to the ground.
- The overall footprint of Black Rock City was increased, and there was approximately 20% more camping space, due to adding more blocks to Black Rock City.
- The location of Black Rock City was moved approximately one-mile northeast so the increased size of the city would fit better on the playa.
- A joint project with Google led to the creation of Burning Man Earth, a virtual map of Black Rock City that can be viewed with Google Earth software.
- Over 750 camps registered as theme camps, and 681 were placed as part of Black Rock Citys urban planning efforts.
- In the second year of the Yellow Bike Program, Burning Man received an anonymous donation of 1,000 bicycles! Volunteers from the Black Label Bike Club in Reno painted, assembled and transported the bikes to the playa. Burning Man staff and volunteers, on a Critical Mass-style historical ride, transported the remaining bikes from Black Rock Station to the playa, where they were put to good use by participants.
- A total lunar eclipse was visible from the playa early Tuesday morning.
- Around the time of the eclipse, an arsonist set the Man on fire endangering the lives of several people who were underneath the Man, including two participants who had fallen asleep while watching the lunar eclipse. The perpetrator was apprehended by the Black Rock Rangers and turned over to the local Sheriff. The Man Crew volunteered to rebuild the Man on-playa and completed the monumental task in 35 hours so the Man could burn safely as scheduled!
- The Burning Man Regional Network grew to 133 Regional Contacts in 93 locations around the globe, with 50 more applications waiting to be processed. The Burning Man Project hosted the first-ever Regional Summit at Burning Man Headquarters. Organizers of other Regional events converged on San Francisco to share information and make connections.
- John Law, one of the owners of the Burning Man trademark and one of the early organizers of Burning Man (who dropped out in 1996) filed a trademark lawsuit against Black Rock City, LLC; Larry Harvey, Michael Mikel and PaperMan, LLC. (PaperMan is the organization that owns the name Burning Man, and Law, Harvey and Mikel are its three owners.) The suit was eventually settled, whereby Law relinquished his interest in the trademark.