2027 edition🇺🇸 Black Rock DesertArt & Spectacle

Burning Man

A city of 80,000 that exists for one week, then leaves no trace.

Dates

30 August – 7 September 2027

Location

Nevada, United States

Duration

10 days

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Read the story

The story

What it is, and why it matters

Category: Art & Spectacle
Tradition: Secular & Civic
Attendance: 80,000 participants
Region: Black Rock Desert, Nevada
UNESCO: Not listed

PlayaArt carsRadical self-expression

No cash, no headliners, no vending. The desert supplies the silence, the participants supply absolutely everything else.

Black Rock City is laid out as a semicircle of radial streets named for clock positions, with the Man at the centre. Everything — art cars, mutant vehicles, theme camps, bars — arrives on trucks and leaves with them.

The event runs from the Sunday before Labor Day to Labor Day itself. Saturday night burns the Man; the Temple burns on Sunday, which is the quieter and more emotional of the two.

Countdown to 2027

334

days

hrs

min

sec

See the month Art & Spectacle

Traditions

What actually happens

The Man — a 30-metre wooden effigy burned on the Saturday night. The Temple — written on, hung with, and then burned on the final night.

01The Man — a 30-metre wooden effigy burned on the Saturday night.
02The Temple — written on, hung with, and then burned on the final night.
03Decommodification — no cash transactions anywhere inside the city.
04MOOP sweep — matter out of place; you leave with everything you brought.

Food

The table, widened

There is nothing to buy. Camps cook for each other; bacon and grilled cheese travel by art car.

01There is nothing to buy. Camps cook for each other; bacon and grilled cheese travel by art car.
02Bring 2.5 litres of water per person per day, plus electrolytes. This is not negotiable.

Music

Sound of the crowd

Sound-restricted art cars replace stages. Genres are assigned to vehicles, which cruise the deep playa at night and stop when asked. Sunrise sets at the far end of the city are the most sought-after slot.

Religion

Why this date

Formally secular, functionally ritual. The Temple burn has become the event's closest thing to liturgy — a public, anonymous mourning that does not require any shared belief system.

History

How it survived

Started on Baker Beach in San Francisco in 1986 by Larry Harvey and Jerry James, who burned an eight-foot wooden figure. Moved to the Black Rock Desert in 1990. Attendance is now capped by permit at around 80,000, and the region's art grant programme funds large-scale work that would otherwise never be built.

Gallery

Frames from the field

7 images · Black Rock Desert · 2027

Timeline

How it got here

1986
Baker Beach
An eight-foot wooden figure and a small group of friends on the San Francisco shore.
1990
To the desert
The event moves to the Black Rock playa and acquires its radial street grid.
2000
The Temple
David Best's first Temple introduces the memorial structure burned on the final night.
Today
80,000 cap
Attendance is limited by federal permit; the surrounding region now hosts satellite burns worldwide.

Travel & practical