“I Come Back a Better Person”: Identity Construction and Maintenance at a Regional Burn Festival

Abstract

Burn festivals are participatory, non‐commodified festivals based in self‐expression, creativity, and community and are structured in the model of the original Burning Man festival, established in 1986. This study addresses reflexive identity processes among participants within the context of a regional burn festival. Building on prior research addressing identity processes in counter‐cultural social spheres we conceptualize a regional burn festival as a site for identity construction and maintenance. Specifically, we examine participants’ (1) involvement within this culturally subversive community as it may facilitate reflexive identity processes, (2) discursive and interactive negotiations of authenticity and who/what invokes the “spirit” of Burning Man, (3) conceptions of the relevance that this community and its guiding principles hold to participants’ everyday lives, and (4) politicized sensibilities and forms of lifestyle‐based action. Further, we specify the mechanisms through which identity is formed and elucidate the tensions involved in maintaining consistency between one's beliefs and actions while participating in festivals and living in the day‐to‐day “default” world.

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