19 surreal photos show the mud, chaos, and glamour of Burning Man

Every year, the question returns: Has Burning Man lost its edge?

First tech billionaires turned the desert oasis into their playground. Then the festival’s younger crowd began to thin. Burning Man has been deemed uncool by Gen Z: In 2025, 10% of surveyed attendees were in their 20s, down from more than 30% in 2015.

And still, an estimated 70,000 made the pilgrimage to Black Rock City this year, braving dust storms and the logistical gymnastics of surviving for a week in the desert.

Maybe Burning Man is no longer the cutting-edge counterculture experiment it once was. But the art cars still rolled, the costumes still glittered, and the playa still became home to a group of revelers unlike any other. These photos offer a glimpse of what it looked like in 2026.

Additional reporting by Katherine Li.

For decades, a city has risen at summer’s end on a remote stretch of Nevada desert.

Burners call this temporary metropolis ‘Black Rock City.’

Roughly 70,000 people were expected to attend the art and music festival this year.

They hauled the food, water, shelter, and supplies needed to survive a week.

The ‘mutant vehicles’ were a sight to see.

Rain and heavy winds forced the gates closed on the first day.

Mud has dogged the festival in recent years.

These resourceful burners got creative with their footwear.

The weather didn’t appear to dampen the mood.

Some of the fashion channeled ‘Dune.’

Goggles were a practical accessory.

The Man structure rose above the Cryptomeria, a treehouse-like pavilion at the center.

Art installations took shape across the playa.

‘Titantic’s End’ showed two halves of a massive ocean liner sinking into the dry lake bed.

Gazelle Dasti’s artwork, ‘Zarvan,’ links Persian culture and the idea of endless time.

Burners escaped the heat under an acre-wide canopy at the festival’s center.

Organizers issued a new rule this year.

Smart glasses were allowed. But wearers needed to ask permission from anyone who might appear in the recording.

A Burning Man Project spokesperson told Business Insider that its privacy and consent rules are not new, but that it recently updated its guidance to explicitly include smart eyewear as the technology has evolved.

Burning Man came to an end with the burning of The Man effigy.