Thousands flock to Nevada for the annual Burning Man Festival where larger-than-life art installations take over the desert

Tens of thousands have braved massive traffic jams to get to a remote stretch of Nevada desert for the annual Burning Man festival. The highly-anticipated art and music festival runs over nine days from Sunday until September 4 in Black Rock Desert, which is about 120 miles north of Reno. Black Rock City has been transformed into a 'metropolis dedicated to community, art, self-expression and self-reliance' where about 70,000 people have descended upon. In a matter of days, volunteers for the event built what is likely to be the state's busiest airport in the middle of an ancient dry lake-bed. The airport, formally known as 88NV, is built every year and averages as many as 800 takeoffs and landings a day before it's taken down completely at the end of the event. According to the event's website, dozens of art installations were constructed before the end of the weekend, some made from wire, others as patterns on the ground and some as immersive experiences. Stunning photographs show the larger-than-life art installations that are the focal points of this year's festival theme of Radical Ritual. The Radical Ritual theme this year is to honor rituals that humankind has made, including the festival. The event's website says: 'Burning Man is permeated with rituals. These rites speak of soulful need; the desire to belong to a place, to belong to a time, to belong to one another, and to belong to something that is greater than ourselves, even in the midst of impermanence. 'Throughout all ages temples have been built in order to induce these feelings.'...more