The 2021 Dispatch ~ A Frolic Across The Great Unknown

Every year since Burning Man Project became a nonprofit, we’ve produced a report to share just some of the ways we facilitate and extend Burning Man culture into the world. With the pandemic, and all the other things that morphed and shifted in the past two years, we changed up our storytelling too. [Drumroll please…]

Welcome, Burners, to the 2021 Dispatch — the story of how YOU facilitated and extended Burning Man into the larger world last year. Enjoy this frolic through the Burnerverse, gorgeously illustrated by our very own Tanner Boeger.

“Have patience with everything that remains unsolved in your heart. Live in the question.” —Rainer Maria Rilke

“Burning Man’s 2021 theme, The Great Unknown, was framed as ‘an invitation to emerge from our collective isolation, to explore the unfamiliar contours of a changed world, and to reimagine ourselves, our community, and our culture in ways that might not have been possible before this period of plague and pause.'” —Stuart Mangrum, Director, Burning Man Philosophical Center

The Great Unknown needn’t be vast, or far away in the outer realms of our known experience; it can be right here. It’s a move within, and a step into a place apart. It’s the realm where we imagine and play, from which we bring forth dreams about what’s to come.

Some awakenings are small, others grandiose. All inspire awe. As the year drew to a close, we emerged into the world in small, intimate ways — being creative close to home, reconnecting with ourselves, and making gentle forays back into community. The Great Unknown sat at the precipice, the first steps of beginning anew as we wake, emerge, gather our friends, and start again. 

We see you.

The biggest story of 2021 is YOU. Thanks to your generosity, your curiosity, compassion and radical creativity, Burning Man Project made it through another turbulent year. 

Thank you!