The 1st Burning Man

The Burning Man of today evolved originally from an annual art party hosted by Mary Grauberger. Taking place on or around the summer solstice on San Francisco's Baker Beach prior to 1986, the art parties had sculpture burning as a central theme. Then in 1986 Larry Harvey, inspired in part by Mary Grauberger's events, asked his friend Jerry James to help him build an 8' effigy to be burned on Baker beach. This event, unnamed at this point, continued annually until 1990 when, the effigy having grown to 40', the police pulled the plug on the parties climactic burn. Meanwhile, Kevin Evans and John Law, of the Cacophony Society, were planning a similar event called Zone Trip #4 - A Bad Day at Black Rock in Nevada's Black Rock Dessert. Harvey and friends, having nowhere to burn the 40' effigy, joined forces with the Zone Trip #4 group and this was the birth of what we now know as Burning Man. The following clip contains footage of an earlier burn at Baker Beach and also the first burn to take place on the Playa.