About 30,000 revelers are expected to descend on a remote lakebed in the Nevada desert this week for the 17th annual geek-culture phenomenon known as Burning Man.

The event -- part fire ceremony, part party, part indescribable surreality -- began in 1986 when co-founders Larry Harvey and Jerry James constructed an improvised wooden figure in honor of summer solstice, then burned it on San Francisco's Baker Beach. The yearly happening grew over time, migrating to Black Rock City, Nevada, in 1990, where it will return from Aug. 25 through Sept. 1...