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The Black Rock Desert is a dry lake bed in northwestern
Nevada in the United States. The desert is part of the
extended playa of the lake bed of prehistoric Lake Lahontan,
which existed between 18,000 and 7,000 BC during the last
ice age. During the lake's peak around 12,700 years ago, the
desert floor was under approximately 500 feet of
water.
Located in Nevada, the Black Rock Desert is a 400 square
mile, thoroughly flat, prehistoric lake bed, completely
devoid of any vegetation or animal habitat. Its name comes
from a large, prominent dark rock formation located at the
north end of the desert. During the summer, the lake bed is
primarily a hardpan alkaline playa. During the winter, it
becomes a temporary lake which flattens the surface sediment
and erases all footprints. This unique geological feature is
the reason Burning Man is held in the Black Rock Desert, in
Black Rock City. |
Burning Man Project
Burning Man is
an eight-day annual event that takes place in Black Rock
City, a temporary city on the playa of the Black Rock Desert
in the U.S. state of Nevada, 90 miles (150 km)
north-northeast of Reno, ending on the American Labor Day
holiday in September. The event is described by organizers
as an experiment in community, radical self-expression, and
radical self-reliance and takes its name from the ritual
burning of a large wooden effigy on Saturday evening. The
event is organized by Black Rock City, LLC, under the
guidance of one of the founders, Larry Harvey, and fie
other members of the board, including Marian Goodell, Harley
Dubois, Michael Michael, Will Roger Peterson, and Crimson
Rose. In 2007, 47,366 people participated in The Burning Man
Project. |
Las Vegas
travel guide
Restriction to
attendees is the 7-mile (11-km) long temporary plastic fence
which surrounds the event and defines the pentagon of land
used by the event on the southern edge of the Black Rock
playa. This 4-foot high barrier is known as the "trash
fence" because its initial use was to catch wind-blown
debris that may escape from campsites during the event.
Since 1998, the area beyond this fence has not been
accessible to Burning Man participants during the week of
the event.
In January 2007, in response to litigation initiated by
co-founder Larry Harvey and then by co-founder Michael Mikel,
co-founder John Law announced that he would be pursuing
Mikel and Harvey in a bid to make Burning Man and its
trademarks a part of the public domain
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Black Rock Desert and Burning Man Project