Burning Man is a week-long desert festival held each year in Nevada, built around community, art, self-expression and self-reliance. It takes its name from a ritual on the second-to-last night, when a large wooden figure called the Man is burned. The event began in 1986 on Baker Beach in San Francisco as a small gathering, and it moved to the Black Rock Desert in 1990. There are no headliners or scheduled performers: participants create all the art, performances and interactive sculptures themselves. Its ten principles include radical inclusion, gifting, decommodification and leaving no trace, and the temporary city it builds is dismantled afterwards.

Hampi is a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Karnataka, India, with more than 1,600 surviving remains spread over 4,100 hectares. It was the capital of the Vijayanagara Empire from 1336 to 1565. Travellers from Persia and Portugal described it as a prosperous, wealthy and grand city with temples, markets and farms along the Tungabhadra River. By 1500 it was estimated to be the world's second-largest city after Beijing, and probably India's richest at the time. In 1565 a coalition of Muslim sultanates defeated the Vijayanagara Empire, its capital was conquered and destroyed, and the city was left in ruins. Hampi remains a religious centre, with the active Virupaksha Temple at its heart.