Burning Man: Outsider Art In The Nevada Desert

Celebrating grassroots creativity and experimental artistic activity, this free spirited liberal arts festival in North Nevada attracts more than 50,000 eccentric visitors a year from around the world.

The inclusive festival, which has the slogan ‘no spectators, only participants’, is described by the organisers as ‘an annual experiment in temporary community dedicated to radical self-expression and radical self-reliance’. This celebration of impromptu experimental art, music and performance takes place every year in the Nevada Desert during the last week of August. The main festival ground is known as Black Rock City, a temporary makeshift desert town which is located 90 miles outside Reno on the dried, prehistoric bed-lake of Lake Lahonton, and only exists for the duration of the festival before it is disassembled, but during the festival it qualifies as Nevada’s fourth largest city.
Defiantly non-commercial and not-for-profit, The Burning Man Festival has grown in stature over the years and features arts and crafts, themed camps, music and guerilla street theatre. The event originated organically in 1986, when Larry Harvey and a group of friends built a three meter high wooden effigy and set it on fire on a beach in San Francisco. The regular tradition began to attract visitors, and when it was banned by local authorities, it relocated to the desert, where it joined forces with other small scale festivals.
The burning of the now 50 foot Man is the traditional closing ritual of the eight-day event, where participation and unconventionality is actively encouraged. The Festival is an anarchic celebration of finding new ways of expression in a dusty experimental metropolis, and is also a rites-of-passage pilgrimage for artists to express themselves outside of the hermetically sealed confines, and economic pressures of the art world.

Since you are here, we would like to share our vision for the future of travel - and the direction Culture Trip is moving in.

Culture Trip launched in 2011 with a simple yet passionate mission: to inspire people to go beyond their boundaries and experience what makes a place, its people and its culture special and meaningful — and this is still in our DNA today. We are proud that, for more than a decade, millions like you have trusted our award-winning recommendations by people who deeply understand what makes certain places and communities so special.

Increasingly we believe the world needs more meaningful, real-life connections between curious travellers keen to explore the world in a more responsible way. That is why we have intensively curated a collection of premium small-group trips as an invitation to meet and connect with new, like-minded people for once-in-a-lifetime experiences in three categories: Culture Trips, Rail Trips and Private Trips. Our Trips are suitable for both solo travelers, couples and friends who want to explore the world together.

Culture Trips are deeply immersive 5 to 16 days itineraries, that combine authentic local experiences, exciting activities and 4-5* accommodation to look forward to at the end of each day. Our Rail Trips are our most planet-friendly itineraries that invite you to take the scenic route, relax whilst getting under the skin of a destination. Our Private Trips are fully tailored itineraries, curated by our Travel Experts specifically for you, your friends or your family.

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