BRC

Black Rock City — the temporary municipality that Burning Man assembles each year in the Black Rock Desert of Nevada — is in many respects a fully functioning city. At its peak, it houses more than 70,000 residents and operates its own radio stations, medical services, airport, post office, and civic infrastructure. During its brief existence, it briefly ranks among the largest cities in Nevada.

The oval sticker format is immediately recognizable as the international vehicle identifier used across Europe, where drivers affix oval badges bearing country codes when crossing borders — "F" for France, "GB" for Great Britain. Applying this convention directly to BRC frames Black Rock City as a destination equal in legitimacy to any nation-state. The gesture is affectionate but pointed: the community that Burning Man creates is, in many respects, more deliberately designed than most cities, and its citizens are deeply committed to it.

This sticker was contributed by Courtney Driver for the 2010 "Metropolis: The Life of Cities" event year, a theme that invited reflection on what cities are, how they function, and what Black Rock City reveals about the possibilities of urban life.