Is this the end of Burning Man?

In the summer of 1986, two men, Larry Harvey and Jerry James, built an eight-foot-tall wooden effigy of a man and set fire to it on a beach in San Francisco. The event – an impromptu bonfire attended by several dozen of their closest friends – spawned what has since become a cultural phenomenon: an event seen by some as the ultimate rejection of capitalism, and by others as a giant drug-fuelled knees-up in the desert. 

Thirty-seven years on, Burning Man still culminates in the razing of a wooden sculpture, but since then both ‘the man’, and the event itself, have grown exponentially. This year the structure measured nearly 80ft in height, and more than 70,000 people gathered to watch as it was set ablaze. And among them, rubbing shoulders with the traditional cast of ravers, hippies, and hedonists, is a growing celebrity clientele, made up of internet influencers, corporate titans, and Silicon Valley billionaires.