Blowin’ in the Dust: The Ephemeral Urban History of Black Rock City

Burning Man has evolved from bohemian solstice celebration into the world’s largest intentional community. Held annually on a playa in Nevada’s Black Rock country the ‘city’ site supports a population of 70,000 over eight days. Participant-inhabitants embrace an ethos that radically challenges mainstream culture through place (re)formation, negotiation, immolation, and deconstruction. It begs for examination of rituals associated with this transitory yet international-scale event since such happenings imply a human need to seek clarity, dwell in close confines, and engage with utopian desires for concerted communal participation and built imaginations. Yet, there exist historical-cultural paradoxes, including steep entry barriers that reinforce an elite homogeneous population no longer representative of Burning Man’s distinctive and multicultural California roots.