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

Timbuktu: A UN peacekeeper from Burkina Faso stands guard at the Djinguereber mosque, built in the 14th century, during a visit by a UN delegation on election day in Timbuktu, Mali, July 28, 2013. (Photo by Joe Penney/Reuters)

A man cools off under a pipe of flowing water on a hot summer day in New Delhi, India, May 11, 2022. (Photo by Anushree Fadnavis/Reuters)

Revellers participate in a colourful “flour war”, celebrating the “Ash Monday” or “Clean Monday”, a traditional festivity marking the end of the carnival season and the start of the 40-day Lent period until the Orthodox Easter, in the town of Galaxidi, Greece, on March 18, 2024. (Photo by Louisa Gouliamaki/Reuters)

American dancer and model Dita von Teese performs a strip-tease, 23 October 2006 at the Crazy Horse saloon in Paris. Von Teese is giving eight performances of her show “the bath” at the famous Parisian cabaret. (Photo by Francois Guillot/AFP Photo)

A man cries over the body of his girlfriend, who was killed by shelling in the Kalininsky district of Donetsk, territory under control of the pro-Russian Government of the Donetsk People's Republic in eastern Ukraine, Thursday, June 9, 2022, during the Russian invasion. (Photo by Alexei Alexandrov/AP Photo)

A giant devil figure burns during the annual celebration of the “Burning of the Devil”, a festivity associated with the Feast of the Immaculate Conception that honours the city's patron saint and marks the start of the Christmas season, at Colonia Arrivillaga in Guatemala City, Guatemala on December 7, 2024. (Photo by Cristina Chiquin/Reuters)

American actress Sydney Sweeney rolls around in the grass during a photoshoot early July 2025. (Photo by sydney_sweeney/Instagram)