“It does have this feeling that, ‘Oh, look, the rich people have moved into my neighborhood.’ “
— Brian Doherty, author of the book “This Is Burning Man.” The annual festival in Nevada has evolved from a “hippie” destination to a getaway for the tech industry’s gazillionaires — although the New York Times points out that some tech execs, such as Larry Page and Sergey Brin, have “been making the pilgrimage to the desert for years, happily blending in unnoticed.” Some of the changes festival-goers have seen in the past couple of years: Tents have given way to RVs or even “structures”; luxury restroom trailers instead of porta-potties; chefs instead of brown-bagging it; beds and air conditioning instead of the hot, hard ground.
Photo: “The Man” burns in the Black Rock Desert in Nevada at the close of the Burning Man festival Sept. 1, 2007. (Andy Barron/Reno Gazette-Journal/AP)
