Burning Man is a counterculture festival that began in 1986 and is best known for its concluding event, in which a giant, humanesque sculpture is set alight.
The event attracts tens of thousands of people each year, from ordinary partygoers and emerging artists, DJs and performers, to celebrities and influencers.
Two festival goers walk through the mud at Burning Man.Credit: NBC
To take part, attendees create a fleeting, self-sustaining community that is dismantled at the end of the event. Part of the Burning Man experience is to borrow, barter and trade instead of exchanging money.
According to its website, more than 60,000 people travel to and from the city along a two-lane highway to attend the festival. The schedule began on August 27 and was due to end on Monday.
The muddy morass at Burning Man is reminiscent of the scenes at Australia’s Splendour In the Grass festival last year when organisers were forced to cancel the first day of acts after non-stop rainy weather along the NSW coast created hazardous conditions.
Fans had been looking forward to the return of the Splendour three-day festival, which featured international acts like Liam Gallagher, Gorillaz, and The Strokes after a two-year hiatus during the global pandemic.
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