Burning man is in some ways an outgrowth of the Rainbow Festivals that have taken place since the 1960s

 Burning man took some of the ideas from the Rainbow Festivals of cleaning up after themselves and sharing food and water so no one starved or died during the festivals wherever possible. I had friends who regularly went to Rainbow Festivals and some likely still go to them now. However, at the time I was a young father and since the Rainbow festivals were to me a more Adult Venue because of things like marijuana and LSD and other things there and alcohol etc. I didn't go to these festivals because I didn't think it would be good for the children to expose them to such a druggy environment as a Rainbow Festival.

But, like I said they had the similarity of people there often being high on one thing or another and dressing all sort of outlandish ways or just going nude and high through these usually remote in the forests festivals where tents would be carried in and set up in remote beautiful places all over the world.

But, I believe Rainbow festivals are still happening worldwide even at this point in time and have since the 1960s whereas Burning Man has only existed in the same location every year in the Nevada desert in a place called la playa which is a dry lake bed which is the reason why it turns to clay mush whenever it rains there because the dry lake bed is clay all the time now and only becomes a lake in really heavy rains or solid mud pie very difficult to walk in or drive anything through when it gets wet like it did the last week or so.