I co-founded Burning Man. The festival has lost its soul

The festival of Burning Man, once an anarchistic collaboration of equals, has transformed into a commercialized escape for the wealthy. As one of the three founders of the festival, the reporter is constantly approached by media and publishers seeking to write about the event they helped create 36 years ago. Despite not attending since 1996, the reporter receives the same story from everyone: how a group of pranksters in San Francisco ended up building one of the most famous festivals on Earth.

The reporter reminisces about the early years of Burning Man, when it was an unstructured, self-organized gathering with no hierarchy or ideology. Collaborations between various organizations, including the Cacophony Society and Zone Trips, led to the creation of the festival. The first burn of a large wooden man occurred on Baker Beach in 1986, and the event was moved to the desert in 1990.

The reporter concludes that today's Burning Man, with its opulent camps and luxurious services, is a far cry from its original anarchist soul.