History of the hippie movement and the Holding Company, Merl Saunders and Babatunde Olatunji to speakers such as Timothy Leary, Terence McKenna, Paul Krassner, Stephen Gaskin, Robert Anton Wilson, Harvey Wasserman and Ralph Metzner. The Burning Man festival began in 1986 at a San Francisco beach party. Now an annual gathering, the event is held in the Black Rock Desert northeast of Reno, Nevada. Though few participants would accept the "hippie" label, Burning Man is a contemporary expression of alternative community in the same spirit as early hippie events. The gathering becomes a temporary city (36,500 occupants in 2005), with elaborate encampments, displays and many
Cacophony Society uniforms who, when they felt like it, delivered newspapers and other forms of "mail" at the Burning Man annual festival, until the Burning Man organizers outlawed their guns (which, reportedly, made some of them even more disgruntled). A kinder - gentler BRCPO (Black Rock City Post Office) which sends US postal mail from the Burning Man festival (with their own BRCPO postmark by special arrangement from the US Postmaster), is still run by PDX Cacophony associates. Other favorite events include; Stripper Bingo, Goodwill Hunting, Brides of March, Rest Stop at the Shamrock Run, Mondo Croquet, the Nuclear Family Picnic, the