Burning Man goes digital: Burners head into the multiverse, while renegades go rogue

Strap on your Steampunk dust goggles, double-knot your vegan leather platform boots and head straight for your… computer. Yes, Burning Man is going virtual for the second year in a row (thanks, Delta variant). The 2021 "Virtual Burn: The Great Unknown" will take place from Aug. 22 - Sept. 7 on Kindling. Of course, the new live virtual event platform was created by Burning Man Project, the nonprofit behind the annual festival. (Props to the org for keeping that fire theme blazing.) Since 1991, Burning Man has taken place at Black Rock City in Northwestern Nevada, a temporary town erected in the Black Rock Desert about 100 miles outside of Reno. Even with the official pivot to Kindling, thousands of Burners (as attendees are lovingly called) are planning an unofficial event on the playa. However, it will be dicey for these onsite revelers. "Renegade Man" or "Plan B" attendees will have to go without medical tents, emergency teams or bathrooms. Score (free) tickets here, if storing human excrement for a week in the desert seems fun and manageable to you.  For those playing it safe from COVID (and E. coli), Virtual Burn will follow five self-prescribed actions. Gather, Experience, Play,...