The Burning Man Art Festival[1] is an annual performance arts event that takes place in Black Rock Desert, Nevada the week before Labor Day. There are no paid or scheduled performers or artists. There is no distinction between art space and living space. The one constant is the burning of an enormous and elaborate art display. What was once an underground gathering for bohemians (there were 250 participants at the first Nevada event) has since become the destination for social media influencers and celebrities. In 2019 there were an estimated 78,850 attendees. Founder John Law could never have imagined that what started out as a bonfire on a San Francisco beach would turn into the sensation that it continues to be today.
Baker Beach is a mile-long stretch of shoreline at the southwest corner of the Presidio[1A] located on the ocean side of the Golden Gate Bridge. The land was originally purchased by John Baker in the 1850s who named it the Golden Gate Milk Ranch. After Baker died in 1863, his widow could not pay the mortgage and the land was purchased by the US Government and became part of the Presidio military base. In 1977 the Golden Gate National Parks acquired the land, including a 97,000 ton cannon that can still be cranked in and out of its hidden spot. Today Baker Beach is a popular destination, especially on those rare warm summer days, as there are restrooms and a picnic area with grills[2].
For several years prior to 1986, a friend of landscaper Larry Harvey had an annual bonfire at Baker Beach to celebrate the summer solstice. On June 22, 1986, Harvey and his friend Jerry James built an eight foot tall human effigy with a smaller wooden dog, brought them to the bonfire, and burned them. Harvey would later claim that he was possessed that day by the sudden need for “radical self-expression”. The following year, he showed up with a 15 foot effigy. In 1988 he showed up with a thirty foot effigy. “Burning Man” became an annual event, and through word of mouth, a crowd of onlookers grew exponentially every year.
In 1991 the City stopped Burning Man from taking place, citing a lack of required permits. Harvey and James dismantled that year’s creation and stored it. Meanwhile, San Francisco’s Cacophony Society was in full swing. Think of the Cacophony Society as San Francisco’s club of merry pranksters. It was comprised of “culture jammers”: individuals committed to disrupting the media culture, specifically corporate advertising. Their antics are memorialized in John Law’s book, Tales of the San Francisco Cacophony Society. The Society faded away in the late 1990s, but two of their events, the Chinese New Year’s Treasure Hunt and SantaCon, still take place today (though SantaCon has devolved from a protest against holiday consumerism into a drunken pub crawl that the City will no longer sanction[3]).
In 1991 John Law, along with two other Cacophony Society members, organized a performance art event at Black Rock Desert in Nevada that they named “Zone Trip #4”. When Law heard that Larry Harvey’s event had been shut down, Law reached out Harvey, asking him to bring his effigy to Nevada. Agreeing to participate, Harvey obtained a burn permit from the Nevada Bureau of Land Management, and Burning Man, as we know it today, was born.
Burning Man was cancelled in 2020 and 2021 because of the COVID-19 pandemic, but is set to resume this fall.
[1] Visit them at https://burningman.org
[1A] Presidio: https://thesanfranciscophoenix.com/?p=5121[2] Visit them at www.nps.gov
[3] Visit their website at www.santacon.info
