Burning Man Event 2022
Burning Man Event 2022 returned with even more enthusiasm and creativity! Thousands of people flocked to the Black Rock Desert area of Nevada to create Black Rock City, a temporary cityscape. A blend of art, culture, human-nature relationship, spirituality, love, self-expression, and self-reliance, the event was held nearly 120 miles north of Reno, Nevada. Burning Man Event 2022 began from August 28 until September 5.
After a couple of years gap due to Covid-19, this year’s event saw a crowd of nearly 80000 people from across the world. This year’s theme was ‘Waking Dreams’, which celebrated dreamers who transform their dreams in both literal and figurative ways. Just like previous years’ themes, this year’s theme was explored to create awe-inspiring installations. As per the ritual, a massive wooden effigy of ‘the Man’ was burnt at the end of the festival.
History of Burning Man Event
Burning Man Event was interestingly started by Larry Harvey and his friend Jerry James in 1986 on a San Francisco beach. They created a human effigy using scrap lumber, called a couple of friends, and burnt the effigy on Baker Beach, SF. Since then the crowd size has increased from just 20 people to nearly 80,000 people in 2022. Attendees of the Burning Man Event are called ‘Burners’.
In 2004, the event’s co-founder Larry Harvey came up with 10 principles for Burning Man including radical inclusion, gifting, decommodification, radical self-reliance, radical self-expression, communal effort, civic responsibility, leaving no trace, participation, and immediacy. In past events, the festival saw celebrities like Susan Sarandon, Karlie Kloss, Paris Hilton, Heidi Klum, and Martha Hunt.
Highlights of Burning Man Event 2022
This year, temperatures in the Black Rock Desert surged higher than usual. But that didn’t stop artists from coming up with their best. In fact, the artwork at Burning Man 2022 was beyond expectations. The most impressive artworks included Gaia- a 40-foot metal sculpture of a woman made by Artist Marco Cochrane using stainless-steel rods, mesh, and LED lights, Empyrean Temple- an ornate temple with a stunning ariel view, ‘The Last Ocean’- an installation by artist-engineer Jen Lewin made out of recycled ocean plastic and a stunning nightly drone show.