People shelter and dance in the central tent during a sandstorm. The Black Rock desert, where the Burning Man Festival is held, experiences extreme temperature shifts between night and day leading to sudden sandstorms. Each year tens of thousands of people amass in the Nevada desert to take part in what organisers describe as an experiment in community, radical self-expression, and radical self-reliance. One of the principles of the festival is to participate, and people are encouraged to construct pieces of art that, on the sixth and final day of the festival, along with a large effigy of a man, will be burnt in a huge bonfire to celebrate the spirit of renovation.