Far from the prying eyes of the public, in a 1,080-hectare forest of towering redwoods to the north of San Francisco, the two-week Bohemian Grove meeting is the world's most exclusive summer camp.
Throughout its 124-year existence, the elite, strictly male Bohemian Club has been shrouded in secrecy and controversy. Ritual activities pursued by members include getting howling drunk, urinating on trees, dressing up as women and worshipping under a giant statue of an owl. After 16 days of hedonistic bonhomie, it ended on Sunday with a play.
Former US presidents and powerbrokers such as George Bush Snr, Donald Rumsfeld, Colin Powell and Henry Kissinger have all attended, as have actors such as Clint Eastwood and Charlton Heston. Former club president J. Edgar Hoover referred to the annual meet as 'the greatest men's party on Earth', while Richard Nixon was caught on the Watergate tapes as saying that 'Bohemian Grove, which I attend from time to time ... is the most faggy goddamned thing you could ever imagine'.
Yet while the club's motto, 'Weaving Spiders Come Not Here', implies that day-to-day business be left behind, the legion of conspiracy theorists, demonstrators and activists who turn up in protest every year claim otherwise. They maintain Bohemian Grove is where the rich and powerful cut secret, world-changing deals and give policy-sculpting speeches. The tone, nonetheless, seems light-hearted, with one of this year's addresses reportedly being, 'These Europeans: Do they understand us? Do they understand anything?'
'How do we know all of this? Because workers from inside the camp pass us information,' said 71-year-old Mandy Moore, whose Bohemian Grove Awareness Network has organised demonstrations outside the camp for the past 26 years.
It's widely believed that US leaders met at the Grove in 1942 to hammer out details for what would become the Manhattan Project, giving birth to the age of atomic weapons. Ms Moore also cites a 1981 speech made by then secretary of defence Caspar Weinberger about the need to re-arm the US. Considerable fortification under the Reagan regime subsequently ensued.
Six years ago, documentary filmmakers Alex Jones and Mike Hanson infiltrated the Grove's formidable security with two hidden cameras, and filmed the opening ritual, known as the Cremation of Care. In it, all 'cares' from the outside world are forgotten amid a bohemian rhapsody of theatre performances, music from guest artists (which have included Steve Miller and The Grateful Dead's Bob Weir), long lunches, lavish dinners and copious amounts of alcohol. Hooded monks and bishop-like figures clad in gold robes and mitres lead a procession that climaxes in the burning of a skeleton - known as Mr Dull Care - in front of a giant, 10.5-metre concrete owl, the club's logo. Jones' subsequent documentary, Dark Secrets: Inside Bohemian Grove, claimed that many members engaged in an 'ancient Canaanite, Luciferan, Babylon mystery religious ceremony'.