Does Google own Burning Man? Corporate purpose theory behind the music festival emerges

Recently, news emerged on the internet that the Burning Man Festival is owned by Google. Turns out, the fact is true, as the festival is co-owned by the Burning Man Project and tech giant Google, with the latter having the majority of the share. While the Burning Man Festival can be traced back to 1986, Google only purchased 51.2 percent of it in April 2019, as first reported by Mixmag.

In fact, since Google has owned the festival, it has grown in popularity, with many celebrities visiting it every year ahead of Labor Day, when it takes place. But recently, a theory arose on social media as to why Google acquired Burning Man.

According to netizens such as X user @ShannenPill, Google had a corporate purpose theory behind the purchase of Burning Man, as “music is one of the primary programming tools of our generation.”

However, Google’s Chief of Fun and Games Division Marcus Fooly told Mixmag in April 2019 right after acquiring Burning Man that the company’s only purpose was to “compliment the essence of the burn.”

Google added its trademark Os as eyes for the Burning Man effigy

For the uninitiated, the Burning Man Festival is a week-long event that happens annually in Black Rock City, Nevada, and revolves around community building, art, self-expression, and self-reliance. The name Burning Man is derived from the event’s culminating ceremony, in which a 40-foot wooden effigy (referred to as the Burning Man) is symbolically burned on the penultimate night or the Saturday evening ahead of Labor Day.

The festival originated on Baker Beach in San Francisco in 1986 by the makers of The First Man, landscaper Larry Harvey, and carpenter Jerry James. Later, however, in 1991, its venue was shifted to Black Rock City in northwestern Nevada. In fact, this city was primarily built at the heart of the Black Rock Desert, 100 miles northeast of Reno, for this particular event.

In 1999, a limited liability company called Black Rock City LLC acquired the festival from its creators. However, it again changed hands in 2013 when the non-profit Burning Man Project purchased it entirely.

Fast forward to April 2019, tech giant Google purchased 51.2 percent of the festival and its Chief of Fun and Games Division Marcus Fooly told Mixmag that the company did not intend to “change much about the event” but rather “compliment the essence of the Burn.” The statement further read:

He also added that Google would henceforth be in charge of the festival’s logistics and annual running. While the acquisition amount was not disclosed, it was presumed that Google paid over 1.2 billion dollars, which according to the Burning Man website was a "real burning point" for the brand. Fooly also mentioned that Google will set up "an on-site search engine where people can request amenities like food, water, and glitter" at the festival.

What’s interesting here is that the co-founders of Google, Sergey Brin and Larry Page, were the original festival goers, which may have been a push behind the company’s purchase of the event.

Not only that, but as per Mixmag, the duo hired Eric Emerson Schmidt as the CEO of Google Inc. in 2001 after he managed to successfully pass a test conducted by Brin and Page, which included going to the festival and evaluating if Schmidt would be able to "let go of his ego and merge with the team, or was he going to stand in its way?" as reported by Boss Hunting.

Over the years, several Google employees also attended the festival, and some were even reported by the news outlet to have shipped in fresh lobsters from Maine for the festival-goers.

Exploring the claim of corporate purpose theory behind Google’s acquisition of Burning Man

This year, the Burning Man Festival was scheduled to happen from August 27 to September 4. However, on September 1, severe rainstorms and flash floods led to the cancellation of the event, with as many as 73,000 people stranded on the muddy and slippery ground. In fact, the condition worsened so much that the organizers urged the attendees to stay warm inside their camps and conserve and share food, fuel, and water.

However, many celebrities visiting the festival hiked on foot for miles to reach dry grounds, including musician Diplo, comedian Chris Rock, and attorney Neal Katyal. Meanwhile, singer Oliver Anthony was reported to be stranded in the venue with the majority of the festivalgoers.

In the wake of this, several conspiracy theories surfaced on the internet. While some said that the poor weather conditions were predicted before the event but were deliberately ignored, others claimed that a viral disease had spread in the venue with similar symptoms, such as Ebola, and the situation was declared a national emergency/disaster. Others even suggested that fairy shrimp would hatch due to the rain and called them predatory creatures.

Amidst this, now another theory has emerged where netizens claim that Google had a specific corporate purpose behind the acquisition of Burning Man. For instance, a Twitter user named @ShannenPill posted a video of herself explaining why the company purchased the event. According to her, Google wanted to turn the festival into a counter-culture event and use it to make "propaganda through lyrics and frequency."

She also mentioned how the festival was the ultimate recipe for “social engineering” and that the event was like a “testing ground.” According to her, this is nothing more than “corporatocracy” and people who attend the festival only have the “illusion of choice.” In addition, @ShannenPill said that Google not only controls the festival but the media and the culture around it.

The X user further continued by saying that the original purpose of the festival no longer exists and has been replaced by "corporate interest." She wrapped up her monologue by saying that the messages from the festival this year included all the negatives, such as inciting fear, claims of viral outbreaks, weather manipulation, climate emergencies, and lockdowns. She added that the core value of the festival was duplicitous, as it promoted freedom while also implying that it was that one thing missing from the real world.

While many people choose to believe her theory, there is no real evidence behind the claims. Rather, attendees such as San Francisco-based videographer Eddie Codel, who has been part of the festival since 1997, told Wired that old-timers like him "tend to relish the chaos" as it "allows him to lean into the principle of radical self-alliance a bit more." Not only that, he called out people who tried to exit the venue amid the crisis, including Diplo and Chris Rock, whom he tagged as "lightweights."

Meanwhile, a TikToker named Alex Pearlman, pointed out that the festival no longer revolved around self-expression and art, but was rather a get-together of tech people, influencers, and celebrities who all contributed to climate change by using single-use plastics, living in air-conditioned RVs, arriving in private jets, and utilizing unlimited generator and propane.

Interestingly, as per the Project’s LinkedIn page, its mission is to facilitate and extend the culture that has issued from the Burning Man event into the larger world.

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