Burning Man — the annual festival held in Nevada's Black Rock Desert — kicked off August 27. Though tens of thousands of people travel there by car, those who can afford it choose to touch down on the playa by private plane or helicopter.

Every year, volunteers build Black Rock City Airport from scratch on a dusty road a week before the festival starts. As USA Today notes, crews section off runways, make customs checkpoints, and direct planes and 'copters when they arrive. Neither the FAA nor the TSA is officially associated with the BRC airport, but they keep in close contact with airport's managers.

Not every Burner that uses the airport is ultra-rich, but most of the Burning Man's wealthiest attendees arrive there. Paris Hilton, for instance, flew into the playa by helicopter with a group of friends mid-way through the 2016 festival.

Helicopter companies also offer special charters just for Burning Man. Santa Monica-based company Burner Air, for example, is offering direct, private flights from Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Reno to the playa. 

"Our flights land on the playa at Black Rock City Airport so you can be at your camp within minutes of landing,"its website reads. "Burning Man flights start at $599 and are a great way for Theme Camps to fly to Burning Man. Avoid the traffic and travel in style."

Black Rock Helicopters is also advertising a ride between Reno, Nevada, and the Black Rock City Desert on a S76 jet. The company recently posted an Instagram of Will Smith, who presumably took a chopper to the playa.

The video below, which boasts that the helicopter has room for eight people and 600 pounds of cargo, makes it look pretty luxurious. White girls in the ad even wear fashionable lingerie and native-American–style headdresses, despite numerous other Burnersrecent pleas against the cultural appropriation.

Though Black Rock Helicopters doesn't post the price for its service, Burners often pay between $500 to $2,500 for other similar, luxury charters (depending on the plane and distance). Here's one from Santa Barbara Helicopters, which decorated the craft's interior with colorful pillows and rugs for Burners.

 In recent years, some Burners have spoken out about the exclusive nature of people flying in on jets. Larry Harvey, the festival's founder, wrote in 2014 that wealthy Burners who throw their own exclusive ragers on the playa clash with the fundamental principles of Burning Man: self-reliance and community. In the recent years, billionaires like Google's Larry Page and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg have also been spotted on the playa with the who's who of Silicon Valley.

But a fancy ride and luxe party sure do look good on Instagram.

SEE ALSO: Giant, laser-cut glass orbs will glow at Burning Man this year

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Today, we know Burning Man as an oasis in the Nevada desert where the tech elite and modern-day hippies gather in the shadow of some pretty crazy art installations.

But not too long ago, the annual festival looked a bit more like "Mad Max" set on the playa.

A video clip from 1997 has resurfaced that shows a news crew from ABC's "Nightline" discovering Burning Man for the first time. 

This was Burning Man before it became a survivalist-themed summer camp for adults — before the likes of Paris Hilton and Katy Perry turned out.

The reporter in the video described the event as "a loosely organized, frenetic explosion of community, creativity, and chaos," while footage played showing attendees dance and riot around a burning human effigy (a long-standing Burning Man tradition). There are no luxury camps in sight, or electronic dance music DJs throwing it down before a crowd high on drugs.

A young man explained to the camera that he used to be shy and reserved.

"I thought if I came out here — in such an open atmosphere — I could really be myself," he said.

"It sounded like it was the last cool thing to do," another attendee, dressed in monk's robes and sunglasses, said.

The reporter said that the event is so remote, festival-goers must bring their own food, supplies, and lodging. Most so-called burners still rough it on the desert floor, but a growing number of attendees drop into for-profit, luxury accommodations, known as "plug-and-play" camps.

Often at these sites, hired help assist the camp with production and concierge services around the cafeteria and lounge spaces. C-suiters shell out as much as $10,000 for a reservation.

Entrance to Burning Man in 1997 cost just $75. In 2017, it was $425.

The sea of costumes and nudity was just as shocking two decades ago. People shown in the ABC news report wore Native American-inspired garb, tuxedos with masks made from tree branches, and pleather— lots of pleather. An occasional nude bicyclist rides across the frame.

Oh, yeah, and this happened:

If you've seen "Mad Max: Fury Road," you might think that instrument-wielding burner looks familiar. The flame-throwing guitarist on wheels from the movie became a cult favorite.

Watch the full news report below:

SEE ALSO: Photos of tech workers having the time of their lives at Burning Man

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The INSIDER Summary:

• Every year, Burning Man festival organizers rebuild and take down Black Rock City for the festival.
• The festival grounds are shaped like a giant clock.
• It has a symbolic meaning, but it also allows for a helpful address system.
  

Every year, the Burning Man festival creates and destroys a temporary city in the Black Rock Desert. Black Rock City is shaped like an enormous wheel, with eight different segments and an open space on one end.

Why the weird shape? There are aesthetic reasons for it, of course. There's a symbolism that goes into the "Wheel of Time," as the organizers call it. But there's also a functional purpose to the circle: it makes an address system.

In 1999, Burning Man organizers came up with the shape to mark the close of the millennium. On the inside, the famous "Playa" at the festival's center is supposed to be a giant circle divided into 60 units. They're encased in 12 larger units, so it looks like a clock spanning half a mile of desert.

Surrounding that are eight sections, each one named after a planet that orbits the sun. The sections are separated by "circumferential streets," crossing through the circle. And then there are "radial streets," which go around the arc.

It's a little confusing, so here's an illustration to show you how it works, modified from the Burning Man website.

With even more subdivisions, for minutes and second, you can effectively given an address for every person in the circle. One example address is "5:24 Mars."

The whole planetary system is pretty confusing. In more recent years, Black Rock City started using just hours and minutes to denote addresses.

Having an address is helpful for meeting up with people and scheduling your time at Burning Man. It's also helpful for emergency vehicles, who are on hand in case of fire, or if the dusty Nevada desert conditions get too tough.

At the end of each festival, Burning Man attendees clean up after themselves and leave no trace of it behind. The next year, they build it all up again. It works thematically with the shape of the festival itself, ending and renewing itself as time goes by.

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Temperatures reached near triple-digits in Black Rock City, Nevada, on Monday — where the music and arts festival Burning Man is underway — but it didn't stop winter from coming.

Attendees at Burning Man were treated to a screening of the "Game of Thrones" season seven finale the day after it aired, after festival-goers made pleas across the internet for a way to watch it.

The annual counterculture festival takes place in a remote swath of desert, where high-speed internet and cable TV are hard to come by.

Reddit user jaxdesignsaid their theme camp, Beans Beans the Musical Camp, projected the highly anticipated finale on a screen inside the camp, shortly after sundown on Monday. 

"It's real. Beans beans the musical camp at 9:30 and E. our setup is really amazing, projector with huge screen, massive speakers. See you then," jaxdesign posted earlier in the day.

"Game of Thrones" fans rejoiced. "Thank you for your service," one Redditor wrote.

When burners first caught wind that the season finale fell on day three of Burning Man, some diehard fans of the show took to the internet to express their heartbreak.

"I hate to be this guy but I really don't want the episode spoiled for me while I'm on the playa," reddit user Cassaroll168 wrote a month before the event.

People who stayed behind while their friends went to Burning Man had a laugh.

See pictures of the "Game of Thrones" screening at Burning Man? Send us your photos at mrobinson@businessinsider.com. 

SEE ALSO: Burning Man has wild copycat festivals around the world — here's what they're like

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Every year, around 70,000 people flock to Nevada's Black Rock Desert for the annual Burning Man Festival. This year's festival began on August 27 and will end on September 4.

Festival attendees have been known to make some crazy fashion choices in the past, and so far this year is no different. While trends like unicorn-themed memorabilia, tutus, and LED lights have been popular in the past, there's no way of predicting which trends will dominate at this year's music and arts festival.

As the festival goes on, INSIDER will keep an eye on Burning Man and the craziest styles to come out of the Playa. Keep scrolling to get an inside look at the legendary festival's fashion so far.

To shield themselves from desert sandstorms, Burners wear protective gear. This festivalgoer wore oversized goggles, a scarf with a penguin print, and a captain's hat.

A group of people wore white robes with flames on them as they walked through the desert.

This festivalgoer wore a colorful head covering with a pair of jewel and Troll Doll-adorned ski goggles, a scarf wrapped around her face, a printed bodysuit, and several necklaces.

Burning Man— the enormous festival held in Nevada's Black Rock Desert each year — hosts giant art installations, wild dance parties, and a mega-tall wooden structure of "the man" that attendees set on fire at the end of the event.

Burning Man's organizers set up an official livestream, which has broadcast the playa since August 30. It shows tents and RVs as far as the eyes can see, as well as burners riding across the desert by bike.

Take a look at the livestream, which resembles a scene from "Mad Max:"

Since 1990, Burning Man has been held in Nevada's Black Rock City, a temporary, large-scale camp burners set up in the shape of a semi-circle for the festival. (For four years prior, the event happened on a San Francisco beach.)

In 2016, approximately 70,000 people descended on Black Rock City. Just as many are expected to have come to this year's festival, which began on August 27.

2017 may be Black Rock City's hottest year on record, according to SF Gate. Forecasters expect temperatures to exceed 100 degrees on Saturday and Sunday.

SEE ALSO: 24 photos that show the 30-year evolution of Burning Man's wild fashion

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Over the last 31 years, Burning Man has evolved from a bonfire among friends in San Francisco to an international mega-event attended by modern-day hippies and tech moguls alike.

Nearly 70,000 so-called burners descended on the "playa" in a Nevada desert last week for the annual counterculture gathering. The festival is offering its standard fare of surreal art installations, over 130 musical acts, celebrity sightings, and out-of-this-world fashion.

Some say you have to experience the world of Burning Man to understand its magic. In the meantime, these photos of Burning Man 2017 offer a glimpse of what it's like to attend.

SEE ALSO: Photos of tech workers having the time of their lives at Burning Man

Each year, a city rises on a remote swath of desert in Nevada. Burners call this temporary metropolis "Black Rock City."

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The festival forms in the same shape every year: a giant semi-circle.

Nearly 70,000 people, known as "burners," come for the nine-day event.

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Juicero — the Silicon Valley company known for its $400, Wifi-enabled juicer — shut down and suspended sales of its presses and produce packs Saturday.

Meanwhile, its founder and raw food evangelist Doug Evans is in the Nevada desert for Burning Man, the annual festival known for its wild art, costumes, and parties.

Evans has posted several Instagrams at the festival in the past few days. In the one below, he blows fire from a tricked-out bicycle:

Juicero shuttered after nearly four years of operation. The company initially priced its juicer at $699 in 2016, but then reduced it to $399 earlier this year. That was after Bloomberg reported that Juicero's fruit and veggie packs didn't actually need a Juicero machine. Users could just squeeze the juice out by hand.

For that reason, the company — which had become a poster child for Silicon Valley's lavishly funded gadget startup culture — was routinely criticized for attempting to solve a problem that didn't exist. It also raised some $120 million.

In another recent Instagram video below, wearing a rainbow tutu, Evans disappears from view into a sand storm. 

(Update — September 5: Evans has since deleted the aforementioned sand storm Instagram.)

SEE ALSO: Surreal photos from Burning Man take you deep inside the madness

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A man has died after running into an inferno at Burning Man.

Aaron Joel Mitchell ran through two layers of security officers and into an effigy at the annual gathering in Nevada's Black Rock Desert on Saturday night, Pershing County Sheriff Jerry Allen said, as cited by the Associated Press.

The 41-year-old was pulled from the flames by firefighters, treated on the scene, and transported to Burning Man's on-site medical facility.

He was then airlifted to the UC Davis Firefighters Burn Institute Regional Burn Center, which is 300 miles away, according to a statement by Burning Man's organisers.

Mitchell died shortly after arriving at the burn center on Sunday morning.

Officials said attempts to rescue Mitchell from the flames were obstructed because parts of the effigy were falling and firefighters had to wait for the structure to fall before saving him, according to the AP.

Reuters photographer Jim Bourg captured the moment Mitchell ran into the flames and fell over. Business Insider has chosen not to publish the whole sequence of images.

Mitchell was an American citizen who was living in Switzerland with his wife, Allen said. This was his first time at Burning Man, Mitchell's mother Johnnye Mitchell told the Reno Gazette-Journal.

Burning Man is an annual nine-day event, at which tens of thousands congregate in Black Rock Desert and build a new city from scratch, only to dismantle or burn everything before leaving. More than 70,000 people attended this year, the AP said.

Attendees — also known as "burners" — close the festival by torching massive structures, such as the one that killed Mitchell over the weekend. Attendees have attempted to run into the flames to symbolise rebirth, the AP noted.

Event organisers cancelled scheduled "burns" on Sunday afternoon but carried out its final burn of a massive wooden temple in the evening, Reno Gazette-Journal reported.

Federal officials originally wanted the Burning Man organisers to call it off, but organisers proceeded anyway, this time with the added security of a metal fence and more than 600 volunteers and staff surrounding the structure.

"We are showing the government we can step forward," Burning Man co-founder Crimson Rose said, according to the Reno Gazette-Journal. "It is a testament to our spirit. We have a ritual to complete."

Doctors said Mitchell wasn't under the influence of alcohol at the time, but a toxicology report is pending, Allen said.

"Our hearts and prayers go out to Aaron's family during this unexpected tragedy," he added, particularly "for juveniles who are allowed to attend the festival and may not have the same coping skills as adults do when they see something this tragic happen before their eyes."

Emotional support teams have been made available for participants and staff on site, Burning Man said in its statement.

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Every year, nearly 70,000 people flock to a desert city in Nevada for the annual Burning Man festival. Located in Black Rock City, Nevada, the week-long festival is known for extreme fashion, sandstorms, and a star-studded guest list.

This year, celebrities like heiress Paris Hilton and DJ Diplo made the trip to the Playa, as Black Rock City is affectionately referred to. In particular, there were a ton of Victoria's Secret models in attendance who turned up wearing everything from lace-up snakeskin boots to butterfly wings.

Keep scrolling to see the list of celebrities who made an appearance at this year's festival.

Victoria's Secret Angel Jasmine Tookes fittingly wore a pair of feathered wings to the festival.

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Tookes wore a sparkly face covering and headband, fringed black bodysuit, spiked bra, and a coin-adorned belt around her waist.

Victoria's Secret Angel Martha Hunt sported a pair of teal bike shorts and a decorated bra during the festival.

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Hunt completed the look with a pair of tie-dye socks. The model dressed practically to travel the large festival grounds via bike.

Paris Hilton attended Burning Man for the second time.

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The heiress, singer, and reality TV star enjoyed the festival so much last year that she decided to go back for a second time. And, of course, she rolled up in style.

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• Sergey Brin and Larry Page, the cofounders of Google, went to Burning Man with Eric Schmidt nearly two decades ago to see if he had what it takes to become CEO.
• Schmidt landed the job because he proved he could cut loose.
• The company announced on December 21, 2017 that Schmidt is stepping down as executive chairman of Alphabet, Google's parent company.

It's no secret that Burning Man is a stomping ground for tech moguls. The counterculture gathering draws rich people and naked hippies under the shared assumption that the future is what you make it.

In his book, "Stealing Fire," author and performance expert Steven Kotler explains how the founders of Google — Larry Page and Sergey Brin — found their CEO at Burning Man.

On Thursday, Google's parent company Alphabet announced that Eric Schmidt is stepping down as executive chairman of Alphabet. The change will be effective in January 2018.

Page and Brin were proud "burners"

"From the very beginning, Larry and Sergey have been kind of rabid attendees. The center atrium at Google for years was decorated with pictures of Googlers at Burning Man, spinning fire, doing various things," Kotler told Business Insider.

Part of what appealed to the duo about Burning Man was the sense of community at its core.

"So one of the things that happens at Burning Man — and there's recent research out of Oxford that sort of backs this up — is that Burning Man alters consciousness in a very particular way and it drops people into a state of group flow," Kotler said.

"Flow is a peak-performance state," he continued. " It's an individual performing at their peak. Group flow is simply a team performing at their peak, and everybody has some familiarity with this. If you've ever taken part in a great brainstorming session, where ideas are kind of bouncing everywhere — you're really reaching ripe, smart conclusions. If you've seen a fourth-quarter comeback in football. ... That's group flow in action."

According to Kotler, Google relies on creating group-flow states to get the best work out of their employees.

In 1999, Page and Brin raised $12.5 million from Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, a top VC firm in Silicon Valley. As part of the deal, they promised the firm they would hire an outsider to replace Page as CEO — a common play to provide "adult supervision" to young founders.

They wanted the next CEO to be in harmony with these group-flow states. But they didn't really know how to screen for it. Then they met Schmidt, then-CEO of software company Novell.

Schmidt had a leg up on the competiton

Schmidt took the CEO spot in 2001 — a hire that Page would later describe as "brilliant"— and became executive chairman in 2011. In 2018, Schmidt will take on a new role as a technical advisor to Alphabet. The company expects to replace him with a non-executive chairman.

Joe Avella and Kevin Reilly contributed reporting to a previous version of this article.

If you liked reading about Google's culture, check out the BI Prime story on Apple's peculiar way of notifying employees that they're moving into its newly-built "spaceship" headquarters.

SEE ALSO: There's a 'Burning Man for the 1%,' where the tech elite dance and sleep in luxury pods

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In Japanese artist Hiroto Ikeuchi's designs, you'll find clusters of plastic, circuit boards, and electrical wiring. At first glance, you might not think his cyberpunk-style masks, headsets, and other pieces would be functional, but they are. Every last piece.

Take a look at his apocalyptic gadgets:

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Meet the Tokyo-based artist Hiroto Ikeuchi.

His designs take the shape of masks, headsets, goggles, earphones, and dioramas, all decked out with unmistakable cyberpunk fixings. 

If you've seen "The Matrix" trilogy or Ridley Scott's 1982 "Blade Runner," you probably have a good grip on the cyberpunk concept.

Cyberpunk is defined as a science-fiction subgenre of steampunk that usually features computer technology dominating futuristic urban societies.

Cyberpunk began as a literary genre before trickling into film. Ikeuchi told Business Insider that only recently had he seen "Blade Runner" and learned about cyberpunk generally.

When it's nearly 100 degrees in the middle of the Nevada desert, clothing is limited, and sometimes even optional at Burning Man — "an annual art event and temporary community based on radical self expression and self-reliance in the Black Rock Desert of Nevada."

But for those who do choose to wear clothing, it's all about the costumes.

And the ornate outfits have become a huge part of the festival.

Bikinis, body paint, tutus, masks, headdresses, wigs, floral crowns and feathers — it's all there!

Often all worn at once.

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Everyone uses bikes to get around the Burning Man desert.

But that doesn't stop people from breaking out their best costumes.

Fancy hats are common.

He would be hard to miss among the crowds.

Like this creative dog-in-a-cage one.

A Russian architect has launched a fundraiser to build a giant space blanket for this year's Burning Man festival.

Installation artist Sasha Shtanyuk's blanket is roughly 330 feet long by 330 feet wide, or about the length of a soccer field in each direction. It can change its silhouette constantly, looking like a wave,a mountain, and more.

The blanket will be constructed from more than 3,300 NASA space blankets, and nearly 25 miles of reinforced tape will hold it together. The lightweight emergency blankets were created by NASA in the 1960s to protect spacecraft and astronauts from the extreme temperature swings in space.

The Burning Man festival, which began as a bonfire among friends in San Francisco more than 30 years ago, has grown into an international spectacle. Now, more than 65,000 people descend on Nevada's Black Rock Desert to celebrate the annual event. The counterculture gathering includes surreal art installations, musical acts, wild fashion, and celebrity sightings.

Shtanyuk says the money raised will be used to cover the cost of materials, space to build the blanket, and transportation from Russia to Black Rock City. As of Thursday afternoon, Shtanyuk had raised more than $1,140 of his $17,500 goal.

SEE ALSO: One photo reveals how insanely big Burning Man is — and how completely it disappears every year

SEE ALSO: Surreal photos from Burning Man take you deep inside the madness

Shtanyuk estimates that acquiring space blankets for the project will cost $3,800.

The blanket will reflect up to 97% of radiated heat.

During the day, festival attendees will be able to gather under the blanket to cool down, nap, or dance.

Burning Man, the wild, dusty arts and culture festival that takes over the Nevada desert at the end of each summer, has become a cultural phenomenon since it began in San Francisco in 1986.

It moved to the Black Rock Desert in 1990, and attendance has grown exponentially since then — last year's event boasted an approximate attendance of 70,000. Burning Man 2018, which begins August 26, is estimated to be equally huge. 

Though the festival has gained a reputation for its party culture, one of Burning Man's mainstays is the incredible artwork that festival goers can find while wandering around. Teams spend months and even years designing, preparing, and raising funds for their projects. From elaborate temples to massive structures to illuminated domes, Burning Man is an architectural feast for the eyes. 

Take a look at the stunning works of design and construction that have been created through the years. 

SEE ALSO: Watch an extravagant wooden temple at Burning Man go up in flames

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Temple of Stars (2004)

Big Rig Jig (2007)

Basura Sagrada (2008)

Burning Man, the annual festival in Nevada's Black Rock Desert, features a slew of wild and elaborate art installations.

Sticking to Burning Man's tradition of returning the desert to its original state, many of the art pieces are burned at the end of the festival. Some of them, however, are transported elsewhere after their time in Black Rock City.

The festival began more than 30 years ago as a bonfire among friends on a beach in San Francisco; as it has evolved, its art installations have become increasingly more elaborate, with some costing hundreds of thousands of dollars to build. 

We've looked back through the years at some of the priciest installations. A caveat: Several artists would not disclose how much money they spent on their installations, adding that some of the funds were covered by anonymous donors. Many installations, however, collected large sums of money through crowdfunding campaigns. We took those campaigns — as well as how much money they ultimately raised — into account.

This year's Burning Man begins on August 26. Before 70,000 people gather on the "playa" for the festival, take a look at some of the most expensive art installations at Burning Man:

SEE ALSO: Surreal photos from Burning Man take you deep inside the madness

SEE ALSO: 23 of the most incredible works of Burning Man art ever made

The Temple of Whollyness was built in 2013 after a $65,000 fundraising campaign.

Since 2000, a new temple has been created each year for Burning Man.

In 2013, the tradition continued when a group of artists named The Collection Crew launched a $65,000 Kickstarter campaign to help fund construction costs. The artists surpassed their goal by more than $11,000. 

A 64-foot-tall pyramid was located in the center of the temple, built only out of interlocking pieces of wood. According to The Collection Crew's fundraising page, the design did not require any nails, glue, or metal fasteners. 

A massive sculpture of two human figures had a $265,000 budget.

Embrace, a sculpture of two human figures, stood 72 feet tall at Burning Man 2014.

A $47,000 Kickstarter campaign helped fund the project, which was estimated to cost about $265,000 total.  

More than 160,000 pounds of wood were used to construct Embrace, and festival attendees could make their way through its interior on spiral staircases.

"Embrace is our testament to the moment, a cathedral dedicated to the beauty of immediacy," the artists, The Pier Group, wrote on their Kickstarter page. "This is a sculpture made to honor all of the relationships in our lives, a pilgrimage route through our bodies and our minds."

R-Evolution was the final sculpture in artist Marco Cochrane's three-part Bliss Project.

Artist Marco Cochrane finished his Bliss Project in 2015 with R-Evolution, a 45-foot sculpture that cost hundreds of thousands of dollars.

An Indiegogo campaign raised $40,845 for the project, which followed the first two installations in this Burning Man series: Bliss Dance and Truth is Beauty.

On his website, Cochrane wrote that Bliss Project sculptures are meant to de-objectify women and inspire people to take action toward ending violence against women.

• It takes more than a month to build Black Rock City each year for Burning Man.
• The process begins with a ceremony to mark the center of the city, after which teams survey the land, build a fence, and prepare all of the infrastructure.
• About two weeks in, artists with the biggest installations arrive to set up. 
• Though the festival's attendance has continued to grow, the city's dimensions have largely remained the same.

For most of the year, the 9-square-mile area where Burning Man is held looks just like the rest of the barren Black Rock Desert. Artists all around the world spend months preparing elaborate installations for the festival, but the crews who build Black Rock City — an elaborate city with a grid, Department of Public Works, and law enforcement — hold off until the summer.

The city rises and then vanishes in less than two months.

The roughly month-long building process begins in July with the Golden Spike Ceremony, in which surveyors use a spike to mark where the Man — a large wooden effigy — will be placed. A small group of volunteers comes out and takes turns using a sledgehammer to drive the stake into the ground, giving speeches as they go around. San Francisco-based photographer Shalaco added that "Coyote"— Black Rock City's superintendent — smashes a champagne bottle as part of the tradition.  

Afterwards, at least 10 volunteers begin surveying the land, using the spike as a starting point for mapping out the streets. The work can be tough, especially given the heat in the Black Rock Desert, said writer and photographer John Curley, who documents the making of the festival for the Burning Man Journal.

This August, when the Nevada desert reached highs above 100 degrees, Curley said the team would get up before dawn and work until 10 a.m. before taking a break until the afternoon.

Surveyors carefully place wire flags in the ground; about a week later, the team begins hand-pounding stakes into the ground to create a fence for the city's perimeter. This year, the task took only about nine hours, Curley said.

"That’s a pretty amazing accomplishment, to build a nine-mile fence by hand in the middle of the desert in a day," he said. "It’s a big departure from the old days when they had 20 people working on it; it took them days."

Many more people arrive once the fence is up; a crew of about 200 to 250 people then begins putting all of the infrastructure into place, including an electrical grid, roads, emergency services, and an airport.

Curley, who has attended Burning Man since the early 2000s, said the building of Black Rock City leaves a lasting impression.

"It is amazing thing what they do, that out of this blank desert somehow they can translate what’s on a schematic or a map and actually place it into the ground," he said. "And it has to be done with a pretty good amount of precision because if you are off by a foot, that could affect hundreds of people."

The Man and the Temple — two installations that are featured each year — are first to descend on the desert. By the time the event rolls around, about 700 people are working on the city.

This year's Man is the last one to be made under the direction of Larry Harvey, the Burning Man founder who died earlier this year. 

Shalaco said the effigy includes tributes to Harvey; the Man's heart, for example, looks like a swordfish piercing a stetson. Harvey, who also went by "swordfish," used to wear a stetson hat that had belonged to his father, Shalaco said.

Attendance at Burning Man has increased over the years, reaching the cap of 70,000 people a few years ago. Despite this increase in population, Curley said the city's dimensions have largely stayed the same for the past two decades. 

For Shalaco, creating Black Rock City is "magical" on a city planning level. Whereas he can't experience San Francisco before the city's tech boom or the Gold Rush, Shalaco gets to see Black Rock City be built from nothing every year. 

Black Rock City is also special because its plan can be modified each year, Shalaco said. Other cities can't easily manage their perimeters or widen their streets to encourage interactions among people. 

"There is no other city that you can go to where the city planner can take information from the previous years and then change the city plan based on that, and then study it in person and see how it affects Black Rock City," Shalaco said.

Burning Man features a wide variety of activities for attendees, from sex parties to tea ceremonies. But for Curley, some of the most satisfying moments happened in the camps.

"It’s fun to go visit the big art and you know that there are fancy people here and Instagram is a thing, but the living and breathing heart of Burning Man is still in the back streets," Curley said. "If you really want to experience what made it be what it is, that’s where you should go."

SEE ALSO: One photo reveals how insanely big Burning Man is — and how completely it disappears every year

SEE ALSO: I Went To Burning Man And It Was Even Crazier Than I Expected

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• Thousands of people arrived in Black Rock City, Nevada, over the weekend for Burning Man, which officially began on Sunday.
• Dust storms caused dangerous driving conditions that day, prompting a three-hour closure of city gates.
• Wait times peaked around 10 hours and were still six to seven hours-long on Monday morning.
• During the closure, festival organizers told attendees to return to nearby Reno or stay put on the highway. 

Wait times to enter Black Rock City — the temporary city in Nevada where Burning Man is held every August — reportedly hit 10 hours on Sunday after dust storms caused dangerous driving conditions and prompted a three-hour closure of the gates, the Reno Gazette-Journal reported.

Most of the 70,000 Burning Man attendees went to the desert this past Sunday, when the festival officially began. 

The drive from a local county road to the city gates can take as little as 15 minutes. However, it's common for attendees to experience whiteout conditions. Before the gates closed on Sunday, poor visibility led to multiple halts in traffic since festival participants were unable to drive safely.

Burning Man organizers told participants on their way to Black Rock City to either go back to Reno — which is two hours south of Black Rock City — or stay put on the highway.

“Entry to Burning Man remains closed and weather reports indicate this will last for hours,” the organizers tweeted on Sunday evening. “Please hold in Reno, Cedarville, or any other city capable of supporting an influx of waiting burners. We are turning away cars trying to reach the event, sending them back down CR34.”

As of Monday morning, the wait time was still six to seven hours long, according to an unverified Twitter account estimating Burning Man traffic times. The official Burning Man account has been retweeting some of these updates.

Some Burners were already inside the festival gates when the dust storms hit. Volunteers have been arriving over the past month to build the city and prepare all of the infrastructure for the festival.

According to the Reno Gazette-Journal, attendees put on masks and goggles and waited inside tents, RVs, or behind trucks.

SEE ALSO: How Burning Man's Black Rock City rises into a 70,000-person city and vanishes in less than 2 months

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• Rachel Hundley is running for reelection to the Sonoma, California, city council.
• The 35-year-old says she received an email earlier this month, threatening to publicize a website that included "racy" pictures of her at Burning Man if she didn't drop out of the race.
• She recorded a video in response to the group's threats, saying she would not be "slut-shamed" for "celebrating my body" at an "internationally renowned" festival. 

A California city councilwoman is hitting out at a group that allegedly tried to "slut shame" her into dropping her bid for reelection by creating a website full of pictures in which she is dressed provocatively while attending Burning Man. 

In a video posted to YouTube last week, Rachel Hundley, who is currently serving on the Sonoma City Council, said that she received an email earlier this month from an anonymous group called Citizens for Peace and Cooperation.  

The group said they found the 35-year-old's behavior "immoral and unethical" and threatened that her candidacy would be "full of disclosures" if she didn't end her campaign. The email also included a link to a website which Hundley said contained a mix of "outright lies" and "racy" photos of herself at Burning Man that she freely shared on her social media. 

Hundley told the San Francisco Chronicle she never considered dropping out of the race. While her advisers told her to ignore the email, she decided to record a video message as a response to what she called the "anonymous coward" who tried to "slut-shame" her. 

"Instead of challenging me on my votes this website relies solely on unfounded accusations and slut-shaming," she said in the video. "Its purpose is to make me afraid. To silence another strong female voice." 

She explained that for the last several years, she has voluntarily managed a "well-known wine bar" that is associated with a "consent-focused, sex-positive" camp at the "internationally renowned" Nevada festival. The work — which includes talking about Sonoma Valley wine —  is something she is proud of.

As for the photos of her at the festival, she says she "proudly" posted them on social media and won't be made to feel ashamed when she was just "celebrating" her body. The photos she posted to Instagram show her in just a bra or underwear at times, which appear to be in line with the costumes many Burning Man attendees wear.

"For too long, it has been seen as OK to control women by dictating what is acceptable for us to wear, say and do. Strong women have been fighting these double standards and hypocrisy for years — fighting a culture that says that our bodies and our lives are meant only for the consumption of men. 

"The attempt at blackmail assumes I buy into these lies, but I am here today to tell my faceless bullies that I cannot be shamed into quitting because I am not ashamed," she said. 

Hundley told The Washington Post she was so anxious after publishing her video response that she threw up. 

"I wasn't sure if this was going to blow up in my face," she said. 

Hundley has been serving on the city council since 2014, and served as mayor of the same town in 2017. The upcoming election will be held in November, and she thinks that she's only gained more supporters since receiving the email. 

Watch the full video below: 

SEE ALSO: Burning Man entry wait times said to hit 10 hours after dust storms forced organizers to close the gates

DON'T MISS: 10 of the most expensive art installations featured at Burning Man

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