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As an electrical engineer with a traditional work-ethic, I always felt cursed that my only brother was a Bohemian/artist. Then my brother asked me to join him on a trip to Burning Man and I reluctantly agreed.

Not knowing what to expect, my brother privately took care of everything. He created several costumes so we could wear something different every day. He decorated our bicycles and designed elaborate canopies. He made drug laced snacks for barter and created games we could play in darkness of the desert night. Upon my arrival, he made me feel welcome despite my immediate realization that I was not worthy of attending this event. For I had contributed nothing. I had, for the first time in my life, felt like dead-weight to society. But instead of judging me, my brother made me feel loved.

Going to Burning Man is truly a humbling experience. The unimaginable massive spectacles of creativity are beyond my ability to describe. As much as we would like to return we both agreed we wouldn't unless we had an installation to exhibit. A fitting mission a for sibling artist-engineering team who feel obliged to give back to an event that gave them so much.

RIP Larry. I hope somehow in death you feel all the love and beauty that Burning Man inspired.

While the Burning Man experience had been one of the unforgettable for me, I'd spent at least a day there forced to think about economics of it all. The ticket to BM cost big money for most people ($450 + $80 vehicle pass). For example, right now the tickets are priced at $1200 per person at the official website. This is a significant revenues for the organizers with 50,000 attendees. I couldn't wonder but thinking why cost is so high? There is virtually no services provided by the organizers except for portable potties (which BTW stinks all over and is perhaps the biggest factor in ruining the whole experience). Almost all of the labor and even lot of material is provided by largely unpaid volunteers. I understand there is grants made to many artists, but still I'm not sure if some organizers have probably created this whole scheme to make a living out of this. There is not much of an explanation on why tickets are so pricey while number of attendees have kept increasing every year while the costs should have almost remained more or less same because of lack of services.

I was also surprised that while folks are encouraged to give and take gifts and keep the whole thing free of cash, there is indeed commercial establishment to serve coffee. Why can't it be made free? A cup of coffee costs less than $1 to make (especially when you have volunteer labor). Even if a person drinks 5 cups a day, 5 times a week - it's still $25. For a ticket that costs $400+ isn't that doable that would allow to make the event truly cashless and keep the spirit of the event?

This is a real downside of the festival. Just how financially burdensome it is filters and restricts the kinds of perspectives and culture that can enter. It's not just the ticket cost. It's the travel, the ability to leave work, family, and other obligations for so long, the typical costs of costumes and art projects and camp setup, the consumables... for fortunate attendees, these issues are trivial enough to perhaps not even notice. Most people are completely excluded by this.

The cult of positivity will want to justify and explain this away, but sometimes it's important to allow oneself to confront the negative things in life. Don't just blame the poor.

I highly recommend regional burns as a cheaper and more accessible alternative to Burning Man, which has been poisoned in many ways by its reputation as a club for the independently wealthy. A lot of people in attendance don't consider themselves that well off, but you really are if you can take that hit without consequences.

I think the regional burns really follow the intent and aspirations of Larry Harvey more closely than the big burn. But if you can afford it, definitely go to Burning Man and have a good time.

no need to speculate, the financials are publicly reported: https://annualreport2016.burningman.org/financial-report/

edit: here is a breakdown of expenses from 2016: https://burningman.org/expenses/expenses-2016/

Most tickets are priced at $425. The $1200 tickets are for people who can afford them but couldn't get them at $425. Some of the $$ from the $1200 ones goes to support the low-income ticket program fwiw.

I will say, if using a portapotty "ruins" the experience for you, you're going to be better off going to an event where you can stay in a hotel, vs a big camping trip to the desert.

I never went to burning man, but I definitely want to attend one of those years.

That being said, I cannot stand the Koolaid that you basically hear from everyone coming back from Burning man. It usually breaks down to the fact that Burning man is a perfect inclusive society and that everyone loves happy there without money and that's what society should be.

SURE, but never forget that the extremmely vast majority of the people at Burning man are rich yuppies from San Francisco or Bohemians//Artists that managed to find a way to live on the cheap. I'm pretty sure you will not find a lot of representation of average americans that can get only 10 days off a year.

I would love to live the experience of it, but let's not forget what it is. A yuppie festival mainly targeted at the richest part of society

It would seem you haven’t done a lot of event planning. If I am wrong, I am sure Burning Man would love for you to come up with an alternate budget. Managing that many people in a space that large for so many days requires world class planning, insurance, expenses, and logistics.
The cost is high due to basic economics. The BLM permit doesn't allow them to let in as many people as now want to come. When they charged a "reasonable" price all the tickets got bought up instantly and people complained about not being able to get in without paying a ridiculous markup to scalpers. Rather than let resellers reap all the benefit of their event, they charged more the next year (especially for last-minute purchases, which complicate planning) and still sold out. So they kept raising the prices until most of the excess demand had been soaked up. Now people who care a LOT about going to BM pay a high price and/or book early, people who care less are dissuaded by too-high prices, and demand more-or-less matches supply. The extra income means they can spend a bit more on artistic grants to make the event somewhat more worth the high price...and also bump salaries and profits a bit.
I believe most of the money goes to the Bureau of Land Management, and all the equipment they have to rent for set up, security, and clean up (most at the behest of said Bureau).
Poor people are so often indignant - little do they know they're indignant because they are surrounded by people who think just like them. Crabs in a bucket [0]. The sad thing is - they're not upset that the system as a whole perhaps sucks - just that somebody has it better. So selfish.

When they are gifted a chance to experience something different, they can't help themselves, their indignation shines through even then! That's your post in a nutshell.

People who are happy, people who've worked their way into money, success, etc, want you to succeed too - so that you don't waste your life on petty things like 'coffee should've been free'. It is just so incredibly hard to get through to you when you're disempowered, stuck in negativity.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crab_mentality

I had many enlightenments from burning man and I hope to have many more; the participants are worthy successors once they pick up the dance, and so I think the event will go on.

One of my favorite memories is an early night at my first burn, there was a man on a stool with a walkie-talkie checking ID to enter the base of The Man.

I didn’t have my ID on me, but I patiently lined up with everyone else, planning on explaining that I only wanted to see the inside with my friends and wasn’t planning on drinking tonight at all.

Before reaching the man on the stool, someone in front of us made a break for it past him. He barked angrily at the guy, grabbing at him and shouting into his handset.

When it came to me, at this point I thought my chances were slim and I would have to sit this attraction out without an ID. I explained my situation to him anyways.

I will never forgot his reply: “I am just fucking with you all” he said, a twinkle in his eye. Indeed, there was only an air of official-ness around his outfit and stool, he had no real authority. We all just accepted a queue for ID checks voluntarily.

I walked past and learned more about society from that one prank than I had from any textbook or class since. And that is just one experience.

I hope to carry that on that tradition. There is a real magic in culture, and I am thankful that Larry stumbled upon it and decided to share. Thank you, and thanks to everyone who keeps it going!

The opening chapter of Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian has a story like that except a bit more intense.

Indeed, when you realize how much of human experience runs on autopilot and you try to consciously evolve past that, you can feel manic and begin to feel like anything is possible.

> begin to feel like anything is possible

You can do whatever you want. As long as you can bear the consequences.

Not burning man but I had an amazingly similar experience of normed compliance.

I was standing outside a bar waiting for a friend. A couple stopped to show me their ideas at random. I was so shocked I just muttered 'oh no you are fine'. Within about 10 seconds, there was a line of other people waiting to go into the bar trying to hand me their ID's.

No request, no effort, just...people assume authority and comply. Taught me something I have been trying to watch myself do and break a habit of since then.

> I will never forgot his reply: “I am just fucking with you all” he said, a twinkle in his eye. Indeed, there was only an air of official-ness around his outfit and stool, he had no real authority. We all just accepted a queue for ID checks voluntarily.

Reminds of my visit to Hacking At Random in 2009. Their entrance had an X-ray scanner where you could scan your own bags, and if that wasn't enough to make you feel safe, there were latex gloves so you could ask another participant to give you a body cavity search.

hah I love it.

A friend once did this at burning man. He was in a tower at an intersection with a light and a megaphone and as cars went by he'd tell them to stop or go or wait. It was overall pretty hilarious (and before people get on me about safety - this was not in a busy part of the city and you're supposed to go ~5 mph inside the city so there was no real safety issue fucking with traffic flow)

I don't get this story. Why did you have IDs if you didn't need them?
You still need to ask for ID if you are serving alchohol to strangers, since it’s still in Nevada. People often have an ID on them or a photocopy on their mug to show to people giving out drinks. Many people run a lot of exquisite bars as gifts to the community and the law doesn’t care if you are charging for alchohol.

The man on the stool was asking for ID’s as a prank. People assumed he was legit and you needed an ID.

Burning Man has been one of the 3 most important events in my life ! I never met Larry Harvey but he seemed like an amazing man. I learned so much about myself, life and everything in between going to it. I've gone almost 7 times, but havent gone in the last 5 years.

I really loved some of the snippets from this article about Larry. The bit about someone waking him up at 4am with a chainsaw to work on an ice sculpture made me laugh outloud. Definitely par for course at Burning Man, and his reaction says alot about him. RIP

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/larry-harvey-founder-and-le...

Larry's realized vision of community has inspired so much creativity that it's impossible to do justice to his impact on our world in a short comment.

Personally, I met my wife and many friends through his indirect action, and I've become much more creative and understanding of those around me in the process. There must be many more here with similar stories.

I didn't meet my wife there, but it was there, while sitting in Jeremy Lutes's Lily Pond[1], that my girlfriend and I decided that we wanted to start a family together. 15+ years, 3 kids, and one wedding later, we'll never know whether we'd have ended up together regardless of Burning Man, but it was that night that we knew for sure.

1 https://www.leonardo.info/gallery/burningman/lutes.html

Could you go into this more? I've never been to BM but have always been curious what people have gotten out of it.
Back in the day (around 1995) I used to go to parties that Larry Harvey and Marion (who called herself Maid Marion at the time) used to also go to.

I was told that the original burning man was an effigy of Larry's ex-girlfriend's new boyfriend.

At the time you could even find this story online in a number of places. Mysteriously, it seems to have been purged from the web. But I still believe it to be true, based on who told me and when.

RIP. He leaves ripples bouncing around and amongst countless peoples' minds, reverberating with the realization that there are no limits on what is possible.
Thank you Larry.

Burning Man photos that are favorites of mine by many photographers:

http://www.joelparkerhenderson.com/burningman/

Photos are by many people during many years.

Burning Man has changed my life. It will continue to for as long as I live.
I went in 2007 and keep saying I will go again.

Last year I watched all the videos here https://burners.me/shadow-history/ and found it very interesting and intriguing. An insider's perspective on the BM organization. Downloading the slide decks gives an overview of the materials.

> anti-establishment, anti-consumerist

Can't help but feel there is something insincere in that statement, I mean somehow it seems like exactly the product of consumerist society to me (I mean the attendance cost, cost of setting up you "booth" (?) there), so I wonder if somebody feels the same/gave it more thought.

A beautiful article of a beautiful man. So it goes. I will remain forever* transformed due to him.

* Until I die, I suppose :)

Is it ever brought up whether Burning Man is based on the Zozobra?
more on Larry : https://larry.burningman.org/
But will he be cremated?
You must pay to read about a great man who's vision went beyond money and to the core of humanity. Paywalls suck.
You can read about him for free elsewhere.
I realize there are other ways to read about him. I've received the email, posts, messages. I don't like that there is a paywall for an obituary. For an article like "Top 10 most popular puppies" I understand the paywall, who doesn't want to look at puppies? But the death of a person that has affected so many people's lives, like mine, why is there a paywall?
“I don’t think black folks like to camp as much as white folks”. - Larry Harvey on why there are so few black people at Burning Man[0]

[0]https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2015/sep/04/burning-man-...

As a person of South Asian decent, I can validate how few people

I attribute it to a first and second generation community - if you already have a community to call your own, you are less likely to search for others. I’m alternative enough to be interested; and don’t identify with that cultural background much.

Often I’m alone in alternative subcultures - gaming, the burn, the poly scene, etc.

You have to be somewhat privileged to have this level of self-actualizing activity on your activity list.
really?
This is a cute story, but for folks considering attending bartering of any kind at the burn is not a thing.
We detached this subthread from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16950705 and marked it off-topic.
You are right about this and we were both surprised at how sober Burning Man was. The media literally used the phrase "drug-fueled orgy" to describe Burning Man that year. Given all the nudity and psychedelic nature of the event I can see how one could come to this conclusion. Well, that and the fact that someone probably re-gifted our drug-laced snack for a masturbation session. Seriously there was an actual tent where you could trade snacks, pancakes, whatever, for a hand-job.

Jeez, why did you have to derail an intentionally sentimental comment by mocking it as "cute".

The HN mod should penalize those who says "this is cute" type of shit as much as they penalize heavy trolling. Actually "cute" is much worse than straightforward trolling, it's passive aggressive in the most pathetic way.
That's only sort of true. There are -plenty- of bars out there that will reward you with a drink once you entertain them in some way (flashing them, for instance).

But beyond that, it also depends when you're talking about. Bartering preceded gifting culturally at BM, and was definitely a thing in the early to mid 90s.

umm isn't that exactly the opposite of what you always hear?
Do you mean there is some kind of rule or law preventing that? Otherwise, it's not appropriate to generalize the microeconomic behavior of a population of 70,000+ (2017 attendance estimate).