Burning Man is an annual week-long desert gathering in Nevada focused on community, art, self-expression, and self-reliance, culminating in the symbolic burning of a large wooden effigy called "the Man" on the Saturday before Labor Day. The event originated on June 22, 1986, when Larry Harvey and Jerry James burned an 8-foot-tall wooden man on Baker Beach in San Francisco, a ritual that grew from a small solstice bonfire into a massive temporary city known as Black Rock City, located about 100 miles from Reno. Guided by ten principles like radical inclusion, gifting, and leaving no trace, the event features no scheduled performers—instead, all art, activities, and experiences are created by its participants, who numbered 78,850 in 2019. The modern event took shape in 1990 when the Cacophony Society, inspired by the film Stalker, brought the burning to the Black Rock Desert on "Zone Trip Number 4." Now organized by the nonprofit Burning Man Project (which succeeded Black Rock City LLC in 2013), the event has evolved from an underground bohemian gathering into a destination for celebrities and Silicon Valley elites, as noted by NPR in 2019.