Every August for the past 13 years, thousands of freethinkers have trekked to Nevada's Black Rock Desert for a weeklong celebration of the new. The rules are few: participation and self-reliance are mandatory, money and spectators are not allowed. For a wild, anarchic, glamorous week, as many as 30,000 individuals have communed and shared their creations.The people who come include anarchists, Internet millionaires, ravers, gearheads, punks, hippies, academics, and suburban parents.And what they create ranges from a three-story temple made from discarded dinosaur puzzle pieces to a life-size whale on wheels to the bonfire of a massive human figure that is the culmination of each year's festival. The past two years have witnessed ever-growing media attention for Burning Man, and 2004's will be the biggest yet. For the first time there will be a book that captures the history, characters, and most of all spirit that have made Burning Man the most powerful underground idea to surface in decades-the new locus for Americans searching in new ways for community and meaning.
