For just one week every year, roughly 70,000 people from around the world come together in the Nevada desert to create Black Rock City, home to Burning Man, billed by its organizers as an “annual experiment in temporary community dedicated to radical self-expression and radical self-reliance.”

Because cash exchanges and the barter system are largely banned in Black Rock City (Burning Man instead relies on something called the “gift economy”), Burning Man is often seen as an attack on conventional libertarian principles.

However, as a voluntary community driven by freedom of association, self-governance, nonviolent dispute mediation, and emergent order, Burning Man is in many ways a quintessential example of the libertopian ideal.

On Wednesday, January 24th, please join the Cato Institute for a robust conversation about what libertarians can learn from Burning Man — and how these lessons can be applied to policy and philosophy.