Burning Man lights up the desert sky

Burning Man has been hailed as the best and biggest yet - with a record-breaking crowd of 61,000 revellers - who watched the namesake 40-foot effigy burn to the ground on Saturday in northern Nevada’s Black Rock Desert. The crowd limit was raised this year after organizers agreed to security, public safety, resource management and clean up rules for the event. Burning Man, held in scorching temperatures, is a week long experience of music and art and becomes a unique community that develops every year. The Festival operates as a mass arts collective and visitors are encouraged to bring their own art installations and performances - or bring goods to barter in the community. This years festival, the 27th, was themed as "The Cargo Cults of Melanesia".Here's a quote from Quora on what the festival is really all aboutQ: What facts about Burning Man do virgin burners not believe until they go?A: That the dust will find its way into everything.A: That your parents and the parents of your friends represent such a tiny fraction of all the possible kinds of adulthood.A: The extent to which advertising and the notion that everyone is "selling something" permeate American societyA: Just how radical the concept of "radical self-reliance" is, and how terminally, obliviously, contentedly dependent most members of society are.A: How much more thought you could have put into your costumes.A: How much more deeply you could be invested in everything that you do.A: That the hours you spend waiting in line at the gates could be pure anticipatory glee, if only you knew what was waiting for you.A: That a piece of art could make you want to quit your job and spend your life with a welding torch.A: That boredom is always your fault. Q: What's Burning Man like?A: It is like camping in the desert with 10,000 artists and 40,000 art enthusiasts.A: Drive across country in an overloaded vehicle with some people that you are (hopefully) close to. Arrive Monday. Unpack and set up tents, group shade, other infrastructure. Get dehydrated from working in a super-arid environment and get really cranky. Push through, get it done, rest and then apologize to all of your friends/spouse/acquaintances. . . moreImage of the Pyrobar - their Kickstarter campaign is here More on Quora here http://spotlight.quora.com/A-Quora-Guide-to-Burning-Man-2013-Aug-26-Sept-2