Burning Man: puts other festivals in the shade

Piers Moore Ede tells us why America's premier counter-culture event is far more than just a naked camping fest.

In late 1986, a beach party celebrating the summer solstice marked the first official Burning Man. Within a few years, its participants had become so many, and its activities so outlandish, that founder Larry Harvey and his friends decided to move the festival to somewhere more appropriate. They chose the Black Rock desert, a 100-mile prehistoric lakebed in north-western Nevada, where temperatures regularly reach 110°F.

By 1997, Burning Man was already well on the way to becoming a cultural phenomenon. That year 10,000 people turned up to experience a week of desert living, far outside the mainstream culture of the United States.