Black Rock desert was flooded with life on 28th August 2 weeks ago, thanks to over 80,000 festival goers that flocked to attend the 9-day long Burning Man festival. While the desert in Nevada remains a place of void all year round, the annual festival creates a large-scale temporary settlement for over a week that is enough to leave a lasting impression. This year’s Black Rock city settlement could even be photographed from the space, and a sequence of satellite images just released by BlackSky highlight the event’s strength and growth over the days. Click here to see the shots.

The strong numbers were no surprise since Burning Man was returning with its ‘Waking Dreams’ theme after a 3 year long hiatus caused by Covid-19. The images follow the progressive formation of a beautiful and well-planned city that takes a huge C arc shape and becomes denser with every passing day. Small tents, RVs, stalls, large car parking, and an airstrip for private plans, all could be seen as pre-event preparations took place and people kept on adding up to the venue. 

The event saw the might of sandstorms in the iconic desert venue, marked as massive dust clouds that shrouded over half the city in the satellite images on August 31st and September 3rd. The satellite’s imaging capabilities were advanced enough to even capture dust trails left by vehicles and buggies in the sand.

The Man effigy, which has been a cultural element of every annual edition of the fest, was set on fire on September 4th, and the image sequence also includes before and after shots of the centre spot of the city where the effigy was installed and burned. 

The action then wraps up, with the city slowly fading away on the 6th and 7th of September as everyone moved out, leaving only a remnant image on the ground. The event has a ‘leaving no trace policy’, and this is what ensures that the desert is not left littered and is fit for the next year’s round.

All these images are the courtesy of BlackSky inc, a real-time geospatial intelligence and surveillance company, and have covered Burning Man 2022, the current drought situation of the Yangtze river basin, riots in Baghdad and other events in great detail, and provide detailed imaging services of global events on the clock. Click here to stay updated with BlackSky’s ventures.

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