The Man burns

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Black Rock City (AP) - After the early torching of the Burning Man festival signature figure by an arsonist, the Burning Man Organization decided that all future copies of the "Man" would be made in China and shipped to Nevada.

"We already purchase all our fireworks from China", said Larry Harvey, one of the co-founders of the Burning Man festival. "So it made sense to outsource the Man too.

Chinese-built copies of the 40-foot tall Man will cost us about 10 times less than domestic copies, and this will save us a lot of green stuff", Harvey explained, referring to this year’s "Green Man" theme.

"The Chinese Man will be 100% identical to the domestic version, very combustible and based on the same original blueprints from my good friend John Law. We don't expect any lead poisoning problems", Harvey added.

There has been rumors that the significant cost saving will permit the festival organization to burn a copy of the Man every night of the week, which some see as environmentally questionable as well as a disguised way to prevent any future early torching of the figure."

"The first batch of Chinese-made Man is expected to ship early august 2008, and there are currently no plans to make Chinese copies available to the general public, although this is being discussed in the organization.

On the Net: www.burningman.com

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Photo taken at the Burning Man 2007 festival (Black Rock Desert, Nevada).