Midburn

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Midburn
Camp at Midburn 2016
Location(s)Negev Desert, Israel
InauguratedJune 16–19, 2014[1]
Most recentOctober 10–15, 2022
Participants11,000 (2017)
Websitemidburn.org/en/

Midburn (Hebrew: מידברן; Arabic: ميدبيرن) is a 6-day event held in the Negev Desert in southern Israel.[2]

History[edit]

The first annual event was held in June 2014, and was attended by 3,000 people.[3] The second event was held on May 20–24, 2015, and was attended by 6,500 people. The name itself is a portmanteau of the Hebrew word for "desert" (מידבר midbar) and the English word "burn" in reference to the annual Burning Man festival in the Nevada desert.[4]

The festival is held near Sde Boker,[5] and the themes of the event are creativity, art and personal expression.[6]

The burn is held every year in May or June, around the Jewish holiday of Shavuot, and culminates in a bonfire of wooden sculptures. The third Midburn event, in 2016, had an attendance of 8,000 participants, making it the 2nd biggest regional event outside the US, after AfrikaBurn. As of 2018, it is the only Burning Man regional event in the Middle East. The 2023 event was cancelled following the October war.


Midburn 2016
Midburn 2017

References[edit]

  1. ^ "Past events". midburn.org. Archived from the original on 6 January 2017.
  2. ^ "Inside Midburn, Israel's version of Burning Man", Al Jazeera, 9 June 2014, retrieved 16 June 2014
  3. ^ "Midburn in Israel's Negev desert was a bizarre first attempt at the popular US festival Burning Man", News.com.au, 11 June 2014, retrieved 16 June 2014
  4. ^ "Now You Can Go to Burning Man After Birthright", TIME, 9 June 2014, retrieved 16 June 2014
  5. ^ "Israele: il Midburn festival, il deserto diventa "creativo"", la Repubblica (in Italian), 11 June 2014, retrieved 16 June 2014
  6. ^ Cyril Bonnet (10 June 2014), "Midburn : festival déjanté en plein désert d'Israël", Le Nouvel Observateur (in French), retrieved 16 June 2014

External links[edit]