05 September 2013 | 10:09

Americans groove at Burning Man Festival

The Man burns during the Burning Man 2013 arts and music festival in the Black Rock Desert of Nevada. ©REUTERS

Burning Man is a week-long annual event held in the Black Rock Desert in northern Nevada, in the United States. The event begins on the last Monday in August, and ends on the first Monday in September, which coincides with the American Labor Day holiday. It takes its name from the ritual burning of a large wooden effigy, which is set alight on Saturday evening. The event is described as an experiment in community, art, radical self-expression, and radical self-reliance. This year the federal government issued a permit for 68,000 people from all over the world to gather at the sold out festival, which is celebrating its 27th year, to spend a week in the remote desert cut off from much of the outside world to experience art, music and the unique community that develops.

One of the roots of the annual event now known as Burning Man began as a bonfire ritual on the summer solstice in 1986 when Larry Harvey, Jerry James, and a few friends met on Baker Beach in San Francisco and burned a 9-foot (2.7-meter) wooden man as well as a smaller wooden dog. Harvey has described his inspiration for burning these effigies as a spontaneous act of "radical self-expression".

Lamplighters make their way across the Playa during the Burning Man 2013 arts and music festival. ©REUTERS

Daniella Priebatsch photographs an art installation. ©REUTERS

Pippin, his Playa name, chats on the phone with God during the Burning Man 2013 arts and music festival. ©REUTERS

Dust envelops art installations during the Burning Man 2013 arts and music festival. ©REUTERS

Ranger Beauty, her "Playa" name, mans the perimeter around the Man before it is burnt. ©REUTERS

Participants begin to gather for the burning of the Man. ©REUTERS

Baltazar Santana watches as the Temple of Whollyness is burned. ©REUTERS

Ashlie Jump (L) and Boonda, his Playa name, watch as the Temple of Whollyness is burned. ©REUTERS

The Man burns. ©REUTERS

A participant makes her way around the flames as the Temple of Whollyness is burned. ©REUTERS

A firefighter keeps people from getting too close to the burnt remains of the Man. ©REUTERS

The Man burns. ©REUTERS

Jed Vassallo (L) and Erin Bohlmann cheer as the Man burns. ©REUTERS

A Burning Man participant kneels as she pays homage to the Temple of Whollyness while it burns. ©REUTERS

Rhonda Clark cooks hash browns for breakfast on the burned remains of the Man. ©REUTERS

Messages are left by participants at the Temple of Whollyness. ©REUTERS

Christin Meador is towed along the Playa by Adam Johnson at sunrise. ©REUTERS

The Man burns. ©REUTERS

Rasika Mathur (L) and Grant Ball look at messages left by participants at sunrise at the Temple of Whollyness. ©REUTERS

An art installation burns during the Burning Man 2013 arts and music festival. ©REUTERS

Participants climb an art installation before sunrise. ©REUTERS

A participant who goes by the playa name "Honey B" drinks from bottles of champagne as she lies atop empty bottles in a shopping cart during the "Gold Bikini Happy Hour" hosted by Rat Camp. ©REUTERS

A Burning Man participant toasts the sunrise with a bottle of champagne. ©REUTERS

TENGRI LIFE

TENGRI TRAVEL