Over Labor Day weekend, in an exercise in extreme self-reliance and creativity, 40 000 people gathered in a remote desert in northern Nevada to build and inhabit a temporary metropolis called Black Rock City. Center stage was dominated by the festival’s eponymous effigy, which was ceremonially burned at the end of the week. It stood on a platform whose elevation above the pavilion varied in accordance with a running average of visitors’ votes on hope or fear for the future, this year’s theme. Note: Mousing over an image area in this slideshow will bring up captions.

Here are two videos, showing a fire-breathing dragon and the fabulous Burninator II.