EXECUTIVE SUMMARY:

While Burning Man is often regarded as the purview of threadbare hippies, statistics reveal that 25% of the event’s die-hard fans earn between $100,000 and $300,000 per year. It’s tough to tell whether this demographic information reflects how attendees are climbing the income ladder as they age, or whether it shows that the event has become unaffordable for those earning less.

This year, everyone will be able to attend with greater ease, as Burning Man is taking to the virtual world. Passionate groups of developers, with backgrounds in virtual reality, blockchain, hypnotism and immersive theater, have built eight different “Multiverses” for online participants to explore.  Desktop and mobile options exist.

The festival is often a formative experience for people. One chief executive stated that Burning Man enabled him to develop “integrated, authentic self expression.” Within the organization that he co-founded, employees can expense burning man tickets.

Big tech’s most influential leaders are regular attendees; from Sergey Brin, Larry Page and Eric Schmidt, to the founders of Reddit and Dropbox, respectively.

To read more about the CEOs who love Burning Man, and the event’s networking superstars, visit Business Insider. To read more about this year’s virtual Burning Man scene, check out this piece from Tech Crunch.