I live in Carson city, Nevada. Pretty much everyone under the age of 50 or so has been to burning man. I'm 23 and when I was a stripper, most of my friends went to burning man, and so did their friends, and their friends friends. It's a huge community in the west.
To me, I see the hedonism as a byproduct of the spiritual conditioning. These people truly internalize what they learn here, and there is far more than music. There are workshops, group yoga sessions, and huge tantric sessions. It is much, much more than just art and music although those things definitely cement the overall experience.
I cannot even articulate how serious "burners" take this event. Many of them quite literally live for it. They spend the entire year collecting outfits, things for their bikes and vehicles and trailers, and so forth. They wait until the exact minute that tickets go on sale. They talk about it year round and they form their entire life philosophies upon their experiences and the people they meet there.
It is RIFE with spiritual deception- sacred geometry everywhere you look, mysticism, Kabbalah and occult ideology woven into new age philosophies, which I guess are one and the same.
Most videos I've heard on yt hone in on the debauchery, but do not touch on the spiritual aspect, so I suppose they don't truly understand what goes on there. This event literally leads people down a rabbit hole that many absolutely refuse to come out of. They start using crystals religiously, tarot cards, and psychedelic drugs.
It is quite literally its own community and religion, and it's starting to seep into dozens of other festivals that are popping up all over the country. If you check out the face books and insta grams of millenials, the vast majority are attending these music festivals, and are adopting the philosophies and doctrine into their everyday lives.