Every year at Burning Man, one can get sponged in a human body wash, receive a naughty nude portrait, or even stop by the Orgy Dome for some risque fun.

While the counter-culture Nevada festival is known for its outpouring of music and art, it has also become notorious for a freeing intimacy found only in the desert heat.

From a Hug Church to spanking lessons, Burning Man has always encouraged forming special connections with fellow burners.

But where does this free spirit on the campgrounds - known as the playa - fit in amid the #MeToo era?

Burning Man is learning how to coincide its reputation of sexual liberation with the burgeoning #MeToo movement

That is the exact question organizers are attempting to tackle as they prepare for the onslaught of 80,000 burners in Black Rock City come the first week of September.

And it is one that all music festivals have had to grapple with recently as the issue of rampant sexual harassment has finally come to light.

A Teen Vogue article went viral earlier this year after the writer talked to 54 women who all said they had been harassed at Coachella.

And Burning Man is not immune. The festival's Sexual Assault Services department revealed it receives between five to 20 reports of alleged sexual assault each year. Last year two people were arrested on charges of sexual assault.

Unlike more traditional music festivals, Burning Man organizers are tasked with teaching Burners that freedom on the playa doesn't mean it's a free for all.

The issue of sexual harassment at festivals have finally come to light with the rising movement, and organizers must teach Burners that the festival's free spirit doesn't mean a free for all

'Just because we aim to be sexually liberated doesn't mean we are,' Donna Rae Watson told the Reno Gazette-Journal.

'In the Burn community, you run into this attitude where we welcome the stranger, but sometimes that translates into: We have to accept their behavior. That's not how it should be.'

Watson is the director of the Bureau of Erotic Discourse, a camp on the playa with the sole purpose of teaching Burners about consensual sex.

'We're an experimental community, but we still bring the problems from the default world into the burn,' she said.

'Our sole purpose is to bring consent front and center and incorporate it into the ethos of the culture, where boundaries are respected and our bodies are respected.'

'We're taught the basics of consent in first grade: Don’t touch people without their consent, but we fail to extrapolate that to the sexual arena. We aim to fill that gap'

That includes teaching Burners that scandalous costumes and nudity should not be considered an all-inclusive invitation.

At the forefront of teaching Burners about consent is the Bureau of Erotic Discourse, passing out buttons with messages like 'Consent is sexy' and even teaching classes

'Just because someone is dressed a certain way doesn't mean that they want you to touch them or kiss them or (have sex),' she said.

'[Some] automatically think consent is implied, but implied consent doesn't exist.'

B.E.D was founded in 2005 after a woman was sexually assaulted at the festival.

It is completely participant-run, teaching classes and passing out buttons with messages like 'Consent is sexy' and 'However you dress, wherever you go, yes means yes and no means no'.

B.E.D Burners now visit camps, especially the larger ones, to teach them about consent. Last year they visited more than 4,000 Burners across the playa.

And this year Burning Man organizers are also getting involved, sending attendees an email reminding them about the importance of consent for sex, touch, or photos.

B.E.D is now no longer the only camp on the playa that is teaching consensual sex, while others are forming to give women their own safe space entirely.

Burning Man organizers are now also getting involved, this year sending attendees an email reminding them about the importance of consent for sex, touch, or photos

And then there is Vika Viktoria, who hosts underground men's salons in order to help male Burners get in touch with different ideas surrounding masculinity.

'The men were immediately more fearless, there was an understanding that everyone there was curious and they wanted to be better,' she said.

'In the default world, there are several defenses that need to come down to get to that same crux of curiosity.'

But not everyone is ecstatic about the changes on the playa.

Ted Allen, who runs the Hug Church, has seen a sense of trust disappear since he first came to the festival 13 years ago.

B.E.D is now no longer the only camp on the playa that is working to preach consensual sex, while others are forming to give women their own safe space entirely

Allen said that he now offers a handshake before giving out hugs as a way of asking for consent.

'This is not a handshake culture, this is not a handshake society,' he said.

'You can get that anywhere else. We are bigger than that, better than that.'

But Viktoria welcomes the shift in conversations, believing it can actually create more intense experiences for Burners.

'The simmer trumps the boil,' she said. 'Allow that dance to start slow.'

'Touch someone's body with your eyes before you ever touch them with your hands.'