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BLACK ROCK DESERT, Nev. - Tyler ''Scarecrow'' Averell is dressed as a nearly 10-foot tall pink mushroom - a costume he says took him 30 hours to make.

''It took a lot of American know-how and elbow grease,'' the 26-year-old from San Francisco said. ''People look at me and they say, 'You look like a funny guy.'''

Welcome to Burning Man, a yearly counterculture arts festival and weeklong party on the desert playa about 120 miles north of Reno.

More than 35,000 people are expected to set up tents and camps in so-called Black Rock City where the makeshift streets are named in alphabetical order - Anxious, Brave, Chance, Destiny, Eager, Fate, Guess and Hope. The cross streets are named between 2 o'clock and 10 o'clock.

Burning Man's Web site says it is an ''experiment in temporary community dedicated to radical self-expression and radical self-reliance.''

Clothing is optional and while some drug arrests are made each year, for the most part, a wide variety of old hippies, Silicon Valley executives, outdoor enthusiasts and other thrill seekers coexist peacefully on a landscape that resembles Mars.

''I like this because it lets you express yourself in the way you want,'' said Nadav Reboh, a 22-year-old Israeli who was dressed in a white tutu for his first Burning Man.

One of the highlights of the festival that runs through Labor Day is the annual burning of a 40-foot tall wooden man tonight. The event got its start in 1986 when Larry Harvey and Jerry James burned a wooden effigy on San Francisco's Baker Beach. It moved to Nevada's desert in 1990.

This year's art theme is ''Hope and Fear: The Future.''

Electronic voting booths are set on the playa and people are encouraged to vote early and often. The candidates are ''Hope'' and ''Fear'' and there was no word yet on which was winning.

Cari Lockett, a Reno resident on her eighth trip to Burning Man, is hanging out at the ''Last Resort'' camp. She said it was named in 1996 after a ''flop house'' in Dayton that people frequented if they were too drunk to drive.

''We're all native Nevadans and this is our backyard, and Burning Man is the best thing in cultural evolution to happen,'' Lockett told the Reno Gazette-Journal. ''In essence, the Black Rock Desert is the last resort.''

Lincoln Patrick, 24, Los Angeles, stood at the Ironica Camp's podium on Thursday and yelled at passers-by with a megaphone from underneath a sign that read ''Compliments Here.''

''Who doesn't like getting compliments?'' he said as he told people how good they looked or how he liked their costumes.

Kent ''Jiffypop'' McMillan of Pasadena, Calif., has a sign on his Black Hole bar that tells people to ''be nice or leave.''

So far, he hasn't had to kick anybody out. His late father started the camp five years ago and McMillan said he's continuing it.

Among the signs on the bar are one that reads ''Safety Third.'' ''I've got Playatude'' and ''This Phone is Tapped.''

McMillan, 35, said the bar serves a drink called ''blue thingy.''

''What's in it? I can't tell you,'' McMillan said. ''But it's an alcoholic beverage.''

Jim I. Morrison, 25, Brattleboro, Vt., wandered from camp to camp with 15 stuffed monkeys attached to himself.

''It seemed the most playful to have them hanging off me,'' Morrison said. ''People ask me if they can spank my monkey or if the monkeys have been bad or they make monkey noises.''

Aaron Blakeslee of Honolulu was busy Thursday dipping his hand in mud and putting his imprints all over a blue Nissan pickup he borrowed from his mother, who lives on the mainland. Plants were sticking out of its windows and doors.

''I'm trying to make the vehicle blend into the playa instead of it standing out like all the other vehicles,'' said Blakeslee, 36. ''It's comforting in a weird way.''

Across the playa at the corner of Fate and 5:30, Christian ''Dillhole'' Hunter, 34, Alexandria, Va., was making comments to people on a megaphone as they passed his tent.

When a truck from the Nevada Division of Forestry drove by, he asked the officials ''where's the forest?''

''Have you seen the forest here besides sagebrush?'' he said. ''I once took sagebrush and rolled it up in a newspaper and smoked it. I was trying to cleanse my soul. It didn't work.''