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Burning Man just bought a huge piece of Nevada desert to create a year-round experimental city

Burning Man
Jim Urquhart/Reuters

Burning Man, the Coachella-meets-"Mad Max" desert festival attended by hippies and the tech elite alike, announced a major expansion last week. The nonprofit behind the festival purchased a patch of Nevada desert 21 miles north of its Burning Man grounds to the tune of $6.8 million.

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Fly Ranch stretches 3,800 acres across Washoe County, and will operate as a year-round laboratory for innovation, art projects, and community development. Burning Man communications director Megan Miller tells Tech Insider it will host events and gatherings, and there is no near-term goal of turning it into a commune.

A company blog post calls it "the next step in the grand experiment that is Burning Man."

fly ranch burning man
Burning Man

Burning Man got its start on a beach in San Francisco in 1986, as a spontaneous bonfire where they burned a human effigy. It became a tradition among friends, until four years later when the local police intervened.

The so-called "burners" relocated to Nevada, where the annual festival continues to be held. Today, the event brings like-minded individuals together under the sun for music and activities centered on self-expression, like building creative vehicles, practicing yoga, and petting individuals at the "human petting zoo."

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Since Burning Man's temporary Black Rock City has been at capacity since 2011, the organizers are looking to Fly Ranch as a space for creative overflow. It used donations earmarked for the expansion, not ticket revenue or concessions sales, to buy the land, according to the blog post.

Burning Man emphasizes Fly Ranch as an extension of the community, rather than a mere commercial endeavor. A promotional video released by the company shows stunning aerial shots of the property for two minutes and ends with the words "Welcome home" superimposed on a misty lake scene.

What exactly will take place at Fly Ranch remains unclear.

It will be open 365 days a year, as a central hub of Burning Man culture. When Burning Man established itself as a nonprofit in 2012, it set out to create space that "incubate and showcase collaborative and interactive arts" and foster community. It may double as a sort of workshop, where creators can build everything from effigies to hardware.

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The website hinted at projects will revolve around shelter, clean energy, environmentalism, new models of living, and other innovations that drive social change.

Burning Man has not said when construction will take place, but Miller confirms the grounds will not be ready before the end of 2016. Opening day could be years away.

burning man
Flickr/Bureau of Land Management

Fly Ranch represents a massive undertaking by the nonprofit, which has broadened its programming beyond the festival over the years. Burners Without Borders is a grassroots initiative that helps solve community issues through creativity, and the Youth Education Spaceship gives Bay Area kids hands-on experience in the arts and technology.

The new property may require a dedicated governing body that schedules and democratizes work space, and ensures the land is taken care of.

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Unless organizers plan to keep Fly Ranch afloat on the generosity of donors, they will likely have to introduce some sort of membership infrastructure.

One thing's for sure. This is one undertaking that won't vanish at the end of a week.

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