The Burning Man Project is an American organization that annually plans, manages, and builds

Burning Man Burning Man is a week-long large-scale desert event focused on "community, art, self-expression, and self-reliance" held annually in the Western United States. The event's name comes from its ceremony on the penultimate night of the event: the ...

on the

dry lake A dry lake bed, also known as a playa (), is a basin or depression that formerly contained a standing surface water body, which disappears when evaporation processes exceed recharge. If the floor of a dry lake is covered by deposits of alkalin ...

of the

Black Rock Desert The Black Rock Desert is a semi-arid region (in the Great Basin shrub steppe ecoregion) of lava beds and Dry lake, playa, or alkali flats, situated in the Black Rock Desert–High Rock Canyon Emigrant Trails National Conservation Area, a silt ...

in northwestern

Nevada Nevada ( ; ) is a landlocked state in the Western United States. It borders Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. Nevada is the seventh-most extensive, th ...

. The company coordinates the year-round, behind-the-scenes work needed to build and remove a temporary city of 80,000 people. Burning Man ticket sales provide a multi million-dollar budget for the organization. These revenues help the organization obtain required permits from the

Bureau of Land Management The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is an agency within the United States Department of the Interior responsible for administering federal lands, U.S. federal lands. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., the BLM oversees more than of land, or one ...

, rent portable toilets and equipment, secure medical, fire, and law enforcement services, and cover other organizational expenses.

History

1986 to 1996

In the first ten years of Burning Man's history, from 1986 to 1996, the annual event was fully anarchical and run largely by the

Cacophony Society The Cacophony Society is a US-based organization that consists of individuals "united in the pursuit of experiences beyond the pale of mainstream society." In 1986, the organization was created by the surviving members of the defunct Suicide Cl ...

. Due to an increased need for structure and planning after a tumultuous 1996 year, Burning Man 97 LLC was formed to run next year's event on May 22, 1997.

1997 to 2010

For the first time, the event was run by a legitimate business; rules were implemented, and the Department of Public Works was formed to oversee the task of setting up a city of 10,000 people. Consequently, 1997 was the first year that the city had a planned layout and a map. The intent of the founders was to dissolve and form a new LLC for each event cycle, as evident by the fact that Burning Man 98 LLC was formed on November 24, 1997; this was deemed entirely unsustainable in the business world, however. On February 4, 1999, Black Rock City LLC was formed as an organization to run Burning Man in the long term, then an event of 23,000 people. On May 8, 2001, The Black Rock Arts Foundation was founded as a separate nonprofit to promote

Civic engagement Civic engagement or civic participation is any individual or group activity addressing issues of public concern. Civic engagement includes communities working together or individuals working alone in both political and non-political actions to ...

and to help fund

Interactive art Interactive art is a form of art that involves the spectator in a way that allows the art to achieve its purpose. Some interactive art installations achieve this by letting the observer walk through, over or around them; others ask the artist ...

. Additionally, Black Rock Solar was formed on May 21, 2008. The organization "promotes environmental stewardship, economic development and energy independence by providing not-for-profit entities, tribes and underserved communities with access to

clean energy Energy is sustainable if it "meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs." Definitions of sustainable energy usually look at its effects on the environment, the economy, and s ...

education Education is the transmission of knowledge and skills and the development of character traits. Formal education occurs within a structured institutional framework, such as public schools, following a curriculum. Non-formal education als ...

, and job training." BMP Structure

Decommodification LLC was formed on November 23, 2010 to prepare for the transition to a nonprofit that would begin the following year.

2011 to 2013

On June 2, 2011, Burning Man Project was formed as a California Nonprofit Corporation on June 2, 2011. It was approved as an IRS

501(c)(3) organization A 501(c)(3) organization is a United States corporation, Trust (business), trust, unincorporated association or other type of organization exempt from federal income tax under section 501(c)(3) of Title 26 of the United States Code. It is one of ...

on April 18, 2012 (EIN 45-2638273). The formation and reorganization was contested by some of the LLC board members, but it carried through. In the middle of the restructuring, the nonprofit Burners Without Borders was formed on August 21, 2012. They describe themselves as an organization "whose goal is to unlock the creativity of local communities to solve problems that bring about meaningful change." The following year, two LLCs were formed to hold the various property

asset In financial accounting, an asset is any resource owned or controlled by a business or an economic entity. It is anything (tangible or intangible) that can be used to produce positive economic value. Assets represent value of ownership that can b ...

s of the Burning Man Project. Black Rock City Properties LLC was formed on November 21, 2013, and Gerlach Holdings LLC was formed shortly after on December 19, 2013. Together they hold properties such as the Gerlach Office and the Work Ranch. On December 27, 2013, Black Rock City LLC was finally made a subsidiary of the new Burning Man Project.

2014 to present

In July 2014, the Black Rock Arts Foundation was made a subsidiary of the Burning Man Project. On September 6, 2017, Future Man LLC was established to hold the Fly Ranch property after the Burning Man Project acquired it in 2016.

History

1986 to 1996

1997 to 2010

2011 to 2013

2014 to present

See also

References

Further reading