19 surreal photos show the mud, chaos, and glamour of Burning Man

Every year, the question returns: Has Burning Man lost its edge?

First tech billionaires turned the desert oasis into their playground.

Then the festival’s younger crowd began to thin.

Burning Man has been deemed uncool by Gen Z: In 2025, 10% of surveyed attendees were in their 20s, down from more than 30% in 2015.

And still, an estimated 70,000 made the pilgrimage to Black Rock City this year, braving dust storms and the logistical gymnastics of surviving for a week in the desert.

Maybe Burning Man is no longer the cutting-edge counterculture experiment it once was.

But the art cars still rolled, the costumes still glittered, and the playa still became home to a group of revelers unlike any other.

These photos offer a glimpse of what it looked like in 2026.

Additional reporting by Katherine Li.