why is it called burning man festival

The Burning Man festival is called so because of its central and symbolic event: the burning of a large wooden effigy called "the Man." This tradition began in 1986 when co-founders Larry Harvey and Jerry James constructed an 8-9 foot tall wooden figure and burned it on Baker Beach in San Francisco as a ritual of radical self-expression. Since then, the festival evolved from that initial bonfire into a large-scale annual event held in Nevada’s Black Rock Desert where the burning of an increasingly larger wooden man effigy remains the culminating ceremony. The name "Burning Man" directly refers to this fiery ritual that marks the festival each year.