Burning Man, the annual tribal gathering held in Nevada's Black Rock Desert is an iconic and sometimes surreal celebration of community art, self-expression, and self-reliance. Since the mid-1980s, upwards of 70,000 people annually have descended upon the Nevada desert during the week leading up to the Labor Day holiday, creating art, activities and events culminating in the symbolic burning of a large wooden effigy, referred to as “the Man.”
The gathering grew steadily in size, diversity, and media coverage until it was necessary to cancel the event in 2020 and again in 2021 due to the global COVID pandemic. To stay connected with their constituents, promote future ticket sales and donations, and keep the “burn” alive, the Burning Man Project team wanted to redevelop their website to include an online virtual landing page called the Virtual Burn where visitors could explore the sights and sounds of this amazing event. Burning Man came to Balance Studios to design and develop an immersive, interactive web experience featuring 3D versions of venues, activities, and art installations to allow visitors to remotely experience the creativity, community, and drama of Burning Man.
Virtual Burn Web Landing Page
Upon entering the Burning Man website, visitors engaged a vast 3D desert landscape including many of the most iconic elements of past and upcoming Burning Man events. Visitors navigated through this 360-degree environment using simple up/down/left/right controls to explore amazing virtual destinations including the Temple, The Infinite Playa™, and the iconic Man itself. The virtual space also included detailed information about the history, site etiquette, and founding principles of Burning Man.
Visitors to the Virtual Burn site could gather highlights about recent Burning Man events, sample images and videos of past gatherings, and participate in a wide range of virtual engagements with others interested in attending the event. Our team created a deep, visually compelling environment that was both entertaining and educational, providing a deeply immersive experience for both casual visitors and hard-core burners. The Virtual Burn was as amazing at the Burning Man event itself!
We worked closely with the Burning Man Project team developing a series of clickable 3D hotspots throughout a virtual desert environment that allowed visitors to drill down through an amazing amount of content. For each of six “World” hot spots, first we created compelling 3D versions of the destinations, then incorporated photos, videos, text, and other assets into informative, entertaining pages that helped visitors to understand what to expect and how to access these captivating virtual destinations.
“Worlds” accessible through the Virtual Burn site included:
BRCvr, a diverse Burning Man-inspired creative community offering immersive and inclusive social experiences in virtual reality that encourage collaboration, elevate artists, and delight participants.
SparkleVerse, a magical online city accessible from desktop computers, accessed through a 2D browser-based map. The SparkleVerse includes social features allowing visitors to wander through art, music and experiences co-created by participants.
Man Burn Live Stream, a live streaming presentation of the remote burning of the iconic wooden effigy that caps each Burning Man event. Live burns were streamed in both 2020 and 2021 while in-person events were not held because of the COVID pandemic.
To access and manage the large amount of content contained in the Virtual Burn site, our team developed a comprehensive content management system to allow the Burning Man team to manage and update the content in each area of the site.