Burning Man 2013: In pics

Up to 68,000 people just packed up and left Nevada's Black Rock Desert for home/ parts unknown last week. The mass exodus marked the end of the 27th annual Burning Man festival: a week-long celebration chock-full of mutant vehicles, themed campsites, art, infrastructure, and an overwhelming sense of community and "radical inclusion" (aka what that annoying camp counselor kept doing when he'd put you on the bad kickball team). As this year's fun has left the Playa, we get an inside look at the best from the experts at Fest300 so you can decide whether or not a dusty indulgence is in the cards for you next year.

Orson Welles' War of the Worlds would've been a bit more Hug-a-thon of the Worlds, had it been cast with Burners.

Bike culture is HUGE at Burning Man, as illustrated by this picture of a bunch of shirtless people hanging out in front of an imaginative wooden pyramid known as the Temple of Whollyness. Subsequently, temples of whollyness are also huge at Burning Man.

Myriad mobile parties come to the Playa, including these cats. Check out the dude pulling a sweet Winslet-approved "king of the world!" That guy's doing it right.

Champagne and mustache rides. This can be your reality.

These guys got lost during a feud with Mad Max at Thunder Dome, and they've been cruising the desert ever since... in style.

Not too sure what's going on here... looks like a pirate ship crashed into a narwhal that swam into a car. However, the captainish guy on the front seems wholly confident in his abilities to right this ship.

Burning Man "art cars" > totally like most floats you've seen in any city parade, ever.

The fact she's that wearing a wedding dress & bridal veil speaks volumes on what that sign probably means.

Oh, hello there, giant metal octopus shooting flames from your tentacles with, like, six sets of teeth!

For loads more pics and the lowdown from the ground, check out Fest300.com, the world's foremost experts on everything from Burning Man to Bumbershoot, and everything in between (including crowd-pleasers like Coachella and eyebrow raisers like the Penis Festival in Japan).