After a week in remote north-west Nevada attending his fifth Burning Man festival, a day of sheeting rain had turned the festival’s 10-square-kilometre makeshift city into a series of camps separated byBurning Man 2023: a utopia of mud and dreams.For the former Goldman Sachs investment banker, who now considers “burning” a fixture in his annual calendar, coming to accept he was marooned in a sea of mud only amplified an experience he searches out – and pays serious cash for – every year.
In operation since 1986, the festival has morphed into a celebration of counter-culture and utopian ideals, against a backdrop of dramatic performance art and installations, a “gifting” culture and a madcap Mad Max-meets-psychedelia party atmosphere. His journey to the festival site always starts from LA with a 10-hour drive to Reno and then queuing up to reach Black Rock City the following day, equipped with everything his group of mates needs to survive for a week in the dusty hot days and freezing nights.
Hugh Stephenson recalls his first “burn” almost a decade ago as an executive director at Goldman Sachs working in Sydney and was instantly hooked, primarily by the prospect of being able to “lock” his phone away in a box for a week.