The reason for this card is that though I started the week proclaiming that the first ever incarnation of what became the Burning Man Festival was on June the 22nd, 1986.
However further research has proved this to be incorrect. It all started in the early 1980s, with a female sculptor and a group of her friends, who used to gather on the beach and light a bonfire to welcome in the Summer Solstice, which is illustrated on this card, that being the longest day of the year, at least in the Northern Hemisphere.
One of the sometime-attendees at these impromptu gatherings was a man called Larry Harvey, and it was he who took up the mantle of organising the bonfires when the sculptor stopped doing it. And it was also he, along with his friend, Jerry James, who built the first figure to put on the bonfire, in 1986. At that time it was only eight foot tall and it was simply part of the bonfire, not specifically named as "Burning Man", in fact the man was not the only figure, there was a wooden animal as well, vaguely dog shaped.
The following year saw the man, alone, and taller, almost double the size, and in 1988 it was doubled again, to thirty feet high, which is probably why the military and police started to get involved and try to close the ceremonies down. It was also in 1988 that the figure, but not the gathering, was called "The Burning Man".
You are right, we have used this set before, but nip along to our Card of the Day for the 9th of June, 2025, and you will see the back is a very different colour.
You will also find a list of the other cards that make up the set there.