Oops! Burning Man stuck upside-down, headless

BLACK ROCK CITY, Nev. — The main attraction at Burning Man is stuck — upside-down.

Burning Man, a 70,000-person arts gathering in Northern Nevada’s Black Rock Desert, centers around the torching of a greater-than-40-foot-tall effigy built of wood each year.

This year’s effigy was inspired by the Vitruvian Man, a drawing of a man with perfect proportions sketched by Leonardo da Vinci in 1490. The theme for this year’s burn is da Vinci’s workshop.

Crews raised the man above the Renaissance-style piazza Sunday but discovered that the gear designed to rotate the man like a Ferris wheel was broken. He still is without a wooden head as well.

The "man" site, including the piazza, is planned to open Tuesday morning since crews are expected to work through the night on a project.

What is Burning Man? Whatever you want it to be

Usually the man is hoisted upright by Sunday, the opening day of the event, but various large-scale projects on the playa have been delayed and are behind after sporadic dust storms and rainfall before the event. The Catacomb of Veils and the Temple also have yet to open.

The "man" is expected to burn Sept. 3, and the temple is set to burn Sept. 4. Other art installations will burn throughout the week beginning as early as Thursday night.

Follow Jenny Kane on Twitter: @Jenny_Kane

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