# Burning Man festival **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 3, 2004, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/burning-man-festival/227365 "2004-02-03T20:24:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![neoof](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/a87d85/32.png) [@neoof](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/neoof)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2004, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/burning-man-festival/227365/1 "2004-02-03T20:24:23Z")
Can anyone tell me how this started, and why they burn a man? ---
**Author:** ![kp\_72110](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e68b1a/32.png) [@kp\_72110](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kp_72110)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2004, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/burning-man-festival/227365/2 "2004-02-03T23:54:36Z")
Here’s a good start: [http://www.zpub.com/burn/bm-history.html](http://www.zpub.com/burn/bm-history.html) Just go to yahoo or google or a search engine and type in burning man history. I got lots of hits with that. ---
**Author:** ![obfusciatrist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/4af34b/32.png) [@obfusciatrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/obfusciatrist)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2004, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/burning-man-festival/227365/3 "2004-02-04T02:47:22Z")
> **[The First Year in the Desert](https://burningman.org/culture/history/brc-history/event-archives/1986-1991/firstyears/)** > > by Louis M. Brill The celebration of Burning Man's annual fire ceremony began in 1986, created by Larry Harvey and Jerry James. For the next four years, its annual fire party was held at Baker Beach in San Francisco. In... ---
**Author:** ![Queen\_Bee\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/e480ec/32.png) [@Queen\_Bee\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Queen_Bee_1)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2004, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/burning-man-festival/227365/4 "2004-04-05T17:18:56Z")
Is there anyone going? I happened to catch a documentary on it yesterday. Well, ok - I caught part of it. The other part I ended up napping through. Looked fairly interesting, but I’d imagined there would be a lot more people. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2004, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/burning-man-festival/227365/5 "2004-04-05T17:32:53Z")
> [@](#): > > Can anyone tell me how this started, and why they burn a man? Og burn man! Fire good. Ug. Or to paraphrase, burning stuff satisfies a deep psychological urge in humans. This probably stems from the early days of our development, when our mastery of fire provided us with protection from the cold and from wild animals, and those protohumans who were comfortable with fire were much more apt to survive. ---
**Author:** ![DocCathode](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doccathode/32/18773_2.png) [@DocCathode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DocCathode)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2004, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/burning-man-festival/227365/6 "2004-04-05T20:09:15Z")
Mention of Burning Man reminds me of **Zenster**. I miss him. I’ve been trying to start a local Burning Man festival. But, I have been unable to locate a suitable desert in the greater Philadelphia area. ---
**Author:** ![ChunkyLover53](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c0e974/32.png) [@ChunkyLover53](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ChunkyLover53)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2004, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/burning-man-festival/227365/7 "2004-04-05T20:13:25Z")
> [@DocCathode](#): > > Mention of Burning Man reminds me of **Zenster**. I miss him. > > I’ve been trying to start a local Burning Man festival. But, I have been unable to locate a suitable desert in the greater Philadelphia area. Camden, NJ holds one every year…they call it Mischief Night. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Queen\_Bee\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/e480ec/32.png) [@Queen\_Bee\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Queen_Bee_1)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2004, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/burning-man-festival/227365/8 "2004-04-05T20:45:11Z")
> [@DocCathode](#): > > Mention of Burning Man reminds me of **Zenster**. I miss him. > > I’ve been trying to start a local Burning Man festival. But, I have been unable to locate a suitable desert in the greater Philadelphia area. There’s a local man here that I’d like to burn. But I don’t think he’d appreciate it. :eek: