Every year, participants in the Burning Man Festival descend on the playa of Nevada's Black Rock Desert to form a temporary city – a self-reliant community populated by performers, artists, free spirits, and more. Last week, an estimated 68,000 people came to Burning Man 2013 from all over the world to dance, express themselves, and take in the spectacle. Gathered below are some of the sights from the festival, which lasted a week and came to its conclusion yesterday

In a simpler time all a child or an adult needed to enjoy the outdoors was a ball and a stick. Or maybe an old tire tied to a high branch to fashion a swing. And the only instruction given to children was to “be home before dark”. Now there are iPads and computers and television screens and shrinking safe public spaces. But despite the distractions and limitations of space, these images show the charm of kicking a ball or skipping rope endures. Sometimes with modifications as a nod to changing times. Here: in this Saturday, June 20, 2015 photo, a boy runs while playing with a motorcycle wheel in Samugari, Ayacucho, Peru. (Photo by Rodrigo Abd/AP Photo)

Indian Air Force personnel parade during the 85th Air Force Day celebrations at Hindon Air Force base in Ghaziabad on October 8, 2017. (Photo by AFP Photo/Stringer)

Ethnic Miao women wearing traditional costumes take part in a parade during the traditional Lusheng (reed-pipe wind instrument) festival in Gulong, Guizhou province, China November 15, 2017. (Photo by Reuters/China Stringer Network)

An undated handout image provided by UNICEF Germany on 20 December 2016 shows the “UNICEF Photo of the Year 2016” by Iranian freelance photographer Arez Ghaderi. Ghaderi won the first prize for his picture of a girl in a makeshift tent city in the Razavi Khorasan province, Iran, it was announced at a ceremony in Berlin, Germany on 20 December 2016. (Photo by Ariz Ghaderi/EPA/UNICEF Deutschland)

Fireworks are seen above the Washington Monument and the White House at the conclusion of the final day of the Republican National Convention on August 27, 2020 in Washington, DC. President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence accepted the nomination as the Republican candidates for a second term in the White House. (Photo by Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images)

Police spraying protesters with pepper spray inside Central Station after a Black Lives Matter rally in Sydney, Australia, 06 June 2020, a protest against the deaths of Aboriginal people in custody and solidarity with the US protests for George Floyd. (Photo by James Gourley/EPA/EFE)

A horse rolls in mud in the Romani camp in Velykyi Bereznyi urban-type settlement, Zakarpattia Region, western Ukraine on February 28, 2021. (Photo by Ukrinform/Rex Features/Shutterstock)