Mass exodus from Burning Man begins

The mass exodus of more than 70,000 revelers from Burning Man is underway as the mud from torrential rainfall begins to dry.

So-called "Burning Man" is really a week-long large-scale desert campout focused on community, art, self-expression, and self-reliance held annually in the western United States. The interesting name of the event comes from its culminating ceremony: the symbolic burning of a large wooden effigy, referred to as the Man, that occurs on the penultimate night of Burning Man, which is the Saturday evening before Labor Day. The event has been located since 1991 at Black Rock City in northwestern Nevada, a temporary city erected in the Black Rock Desert about 100 miles (160 km) north-northeast of Reno. According to Burning Man co-founder Larry Harvey in 2004, the event is guided by ten principles. These stated principles are radical inclusion, gifting, decommodification, radical self-reliance, radical self-expression, communal effort, civic responsibility, leaving no trace, participation, and immediacy.

At Burning Man, there are no headliners or scheduled performers. Instead, the participants design and build all the art, activities, and events. Artwork at Burning Man includes experimental and interactive sculptures, buildings, performances and art cars, among other media. These contributions are inspired by a theme that is chosen annually by the Burning Man Project. The event has been characterized as "countercultural revelry" and has been described by its organizers as an "excuse to party in the desert".