Premature Man Burning: not the first Black Rock City prankage

Scott Beale says,

Many people are very upset about Tuesday’s premature burning of Burning Man, but others consider it to be the ultimate Burning Man prank. For years the joke on the Playa was to set the man on fire early and in the mid 90’s Bigrig Industries used to hand out match packs printed with the words “Burn The Man Early”.

Burning Man has a long history of prankster activity which is largely due to it’s association with the The Cacophony Society during the late 1980’s to mid 1990’s. Burning Man 1990, the first event on the Black Rock Desert was a collaboration with The Cacophony Society as part of their event “Bad Day At Black Rock (Zone Trip #4)”.

One of the most infamous Burning Man pranks took place during the 1996 event (the year of the HELCO theme) when a giant neon smiley face was installed inside the head of the Burning Man sculpture.

Link.

Previously on Boing Boing:

More on The Man who Burned The Man at Burning Man

Burning Man set on fire early

Suicide at Burning Man

Burning Man 2007: GPS data files, maps, and "Xeni Cup."

Greening Burning Man: how-to guide and best of overview

[#1 posted by Anonymous , August 31, 2007 2:11 PM]

It's pretty sad that an outlaw event now outlaws the outlaws. It's become more of a really dusty church social.

[#2 posted by Gilbert Wham , August 31, 2007 3:51 PM]

Ain't it always the way? Plus ca change, and all that.