This event was started by two Americans in 1986 and is now a world-scale festival. Media from all over the world visit this festival every year. In such situations, there are some calls saying that the quality of the event has dropped recently. I surely felt so during my participation. But as long as it maintains its ‘No Spectators’ spirit, I think we don’t have to worry.

After dark, neon signs start to light up all around the place and performances start in earnest. Fire dances, flame-thrower, performance play using obscene expressions are plentiful, porn movies. The performance that artificially created a thunderbolt using a loud low frequency sound on a trailer was really surprising. Of course, people enjoy a rave. Dancing under a sky full of stars, the pitch-dark horizon and star-filled night sky was harmonizing and I felt as if I was dancing in the universe.

As the event name shows, the fifteen meter high Burning Man is burned on the final day. This was a terrible scene and more than ten thousand people were going on the spree around the Burning Man being engulfed in flame. Then this one week event finished.

Today we can participate in various raves. Club events are being held every night all over the world and outdoor raves are being held somewhere every week. But now, I’m wondering when this style started. We’re audiences who pay admission charges and there are DJs at clubs and raves. From the commercial point of view, rock’n’roll and techno were dead. So where will the ‘Next One’ come from? Burning Man may get an answer to this question.

Burning Man was definitely a good event which let me think of something like that in desert.

Burning Man 1999
Date: August 29th – September 5th, 1999
Place: Black Rock Desert in Nevada
https://www.burningman.com