Introduction
There are several reasons why the annual Burning Man festival is unique among mass gatherings. Held in the Black Rock section of America’s Great Basin desert in Nevada, Burning Man’s 70,000 participants construct a city that houses—and in itself functions as—a participatory performing arts space, a communal spiritual retreat, and a cathartic experience of radical self-expression (Brill 2007). Then, one week later, they tear it all down, pack everything out, and leave no trace behind. It is an anti-market event (Cesewski & Giles 2007) whose participants rely on gift-giving and barter to secure any necessities ...
