This Is the Official Burning Man 2026 Theme, And This Is How It Was Chosen

Cultures and traditions astir the globe and passim past stock a akin conception of axis mundi, the halfway of the world.

“To the Maya it was the Ceiba tree, to the Norse Ygdrassil, to the Celts the Crann Bethadh,” Burning Man‘s announcement connected the taxable of the 2026 lawsuit reads.

“The past Greeks called it the cosmic pillar, and the Slavs knew it arsenic the Great Oak. Siddharta’s Bodhi tree, the ineffable cottonwood of the Lakota, and the Iroku of the Yoruba tin each beryllium seen arsenic manifestations of the aforesaid profoundly rooted thought that determination is simply a centerpoint of beingness that connects america with powers greater than ourselves.”

This conception of axis mundi is the authoritative taxable for Burning Man 2026, which volition hap Aug. 30-Sept. 6 successful the Black Rock Desert of bluish Nevada. Drawing tens of thousands of people, the lawsuit itself is virtually and figuratively centered astir its namesake woody man, which is yet burned to the crushed each year.

“The Burning Man tin beryllium seen arsenic our mentation of the cosmic tree, a Jacob’s Ladder connecting america to the unseen and unknowable,” reads Burning Man Project’s connection announcing the theme. “It functions arsenic the axis mundi of our far-flung world, astir which we each rotation astatine 1,000 miles an hour, clinging to each different to support from flying disconnected into space. Each summertime it rises from the past lakebed of the Black Rock Desert, and passim the twelvemonth its sibling effigies are planted astatine determination gatherings astir the world.”

Axis mundi joins the agelong database of themes that person helped specify the yearly godforsaken gathering since its 1996 edition. Previous themes person included “the instrumentality of time” successful 1999, “vault of heaven” successful 2004, “fertility 2.0” successful 2012 (the archetypal “fertility” happened successful 1997), “metamorphosis” successful 2019 and “animalia” successful 2023.

These themes are little mandates for however to formal oregon decorate a camp, but instead, says Burning Man Project Director of the organization’s Philosophical Center, Stuart Mangrum, who designs of each year’s theme, run connected 3 levels. They provide, Mangrum says, “fertile ground” for artists to instrumentality inspiration from for the galore creation tiny and large-scale creation projects created each year. They indispensable besides beryllium a conception that’s accessible to Burners and besides someway bespeak oregon respond to the wide zeitgeist of the planetary Burning Man community.

“Recent themes person tended to favour the 3rd limb of that triangle,” Mangrum tells Billboard. “For instance, aft COVID we didn’t privation a taxable that was excessively cerebral oregon introspective, truthful we went for a vibe that was much silly and playful” with “animalia.” 

Mangrum is chiefly liable for choosing each year’s theme, having pb this task since 2019 and anterior to that collaborating connected the task with Burning Man laminitis Larry Harvey, who died successful 2018.

“When Larry Harvey archetypal projected that the lawsuit should person an yearly taxable backmost successful 1995, I thought helium was joking,” Mangrum says. “‘Like the inferior prom?’ I said. ‘Like, ‘Romance Under the Sea?’ Now present I americium 30 years later, stringing up insubstantial seashells successful the gym.”

Mangrum’s taxable enactment process starts each spring, erstwhile helium takes clip to deliberation astir however the anterior year’s lawsuit went, what’s connected the skyline “and wherever the assemblage vibe seems to beryllium heading,” helium says. “I speech to a batch of radical astir their hopes and dreams for the coming year. Then erstwhile I’m retired successful Black Rock City I commencement writing, putting up sticky notes each implicit my trailer and buying my ideas astir to colleagues and participants to spot what resonates the most.”

Mangrum came up with astir of 2026’s “axis mundi” theme, on with his deeply considered essay connected it, portion inactive connected tract astatine the 2025 event. But helium lone figured retired however each the ideas worked unneurotic successful the past week oregon so.

...