Burning Man at 40: the once anarchic desert festival faces a midlife crisis

The Burning Man festival on 31 September 2006. The tens of thousands of people who assemble each year are growing older, and it doesn’t seem that they’re being replaced by as many younger ‘burners’. Photograph: Carlos Avila Gonzalez/The San Francisco Chronicle via Getty

Burning Man, the infamous arts festival in the Nevada desert, turned 40 this year, and it’s showing some distinct signs of middle age.

It’s not just the tech billionaires who show up to party, the chartered flights straight to the desert or the HBO documentary about behind-the-scenes power struggles. The tens of thousands of people who assemble each year to create a tent city in the wilderness appear to be growing older, and it doesn’t seem that they’re being replaced by as many younger “burners”, as festival participants are called.