Sep 4, 2024 - Culture

Meet Burning Man staple El Pulpo Magnifico

Claire Reilly

fire coming out of a structure — A crowd watches a flame show from El Pulpo Magnifico at Burning Man in 2003. Photo: Julie Jammot/AFP via Getty Images)

While Burning Man, which just wrapped up over the weekend, is known for revelers clad in dust masks and dancers wearing desert rave gear, perhaps the most famous visitor each year is El Pulpo Magnifico.

Catch up quick: Created by artist Duane Flatmo and a team of artists working out of Flatmo's workshop in Eureka, California, El Pulpo is a 28-foot-tall flame-throwing octopus made out of recovered metal.

Fitted out with gas lines and filled with 200 gallons of propane, the octopus roams the Burning Man playa on a retrofitted truck, shooting fire that's synced up with the music playing onboard.

What they're saying: "People walk up to it and the minute we hit the big flames at full blast, you just see all these people scatter," Flatmo says. "They slowly come back in and then, right when they're not expecting it, you hit it again."

Behind the scenes: I went to Burning Man for the first time in 2023 and saw El Pulpo in person. Everywhere it went, a pack of LED-lit cyclists chased after it.

"As we're driving around the playa it's always nice to see, like, 100 bicycles following us," said Flatmo. "They're like moths to the flame."

What's next: Check out my video on Axios San Francisco's Instagram to see Flatmo DJing while flames shoot all around him!

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Meet Burning Man staple El Pulpo Magnifico

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