Tipsheet

How Burning Man Turned Into a Nightmare, Though Organizers Disagree

Matt Vespa
Matt Vespa  |  September 05, 2023 7:45 AM

The Burning Man festival, which attracts 70-80,000 people annually, is over, but not before stranding scores of attendees due to torrential rains that made it impossible to leave the venue. The situation even caught the attention of the Biden White House. Organizers assured the outside world that all was well and appreciated everyone’s concern (via NBC News): 

 

Burning Man's estimated 70,000-plus attendees were isolated at the venue known as Black Rock City as rain returned Sunday and closed roads, muddy campgrounds, and one reported death darkened the day. 

But the CEO of Burning Man Project, Marian Goodell, told NBC News interview Sunday, "There is no cause for panic." 

"We're very pleased and surprised that there has been such a fuss over us," she said. 

Organizers under the nonprofit project planned an orderly exit Monday, which is the last day of the event, and have so far turned down help from the Nevada National Guard, she said. 

"We've made it really clear that we do not see this as an evacuation situation," Goodell said. "The water is drying up." 

The crowd at the countercultural music and arts festival was first advised to “shelter in place” and conserve food and water on Friday, according to notices from organizers. 

All inbound and outbound traffic was halted and remained so Sunday, and the shelter-in-place recommendation was still in place in the afternoon. Roads were essentially impassable, organizers said. 

[…] 

The reported death at the festival site is under investigation, local authorities said Saturday. It's not clear what the cause of death was at this time. 

 

The event is held in Black Rock City, Nevada, on a lakebed, where there’s a five-mile trek to the site from a paved road. The rains turned that path into a muddy bog, preventing attendees from leaving. The Nevada National Guard offered to help but was turned down. As conditions dried, the ‘all clear’ order was given for folks to return to the main road. Still, some vehicles completely sank in the mud. That's what happens when two months of rainfall is dumped in a 24-hour period. As CBS News noted, even walking around the mud carries the risk of chemical burns due to the alkaline (via NYT): 

Thousands of people who had spent days stranded at the Burning Man festival in a rain-gorged stew of mud and slop began to pack up their camps on Monday and stream away from the sprawling site in remote northwest Nevada. 

“Exodus operations have officially begun,” organizers wrote in a post on social media. 

But it was a mucky, uncertain trek. The ancient lake bed where the annual festival is held was beginning to dry and harden on Monday after days of torrential rain, but drivers said they were still encountering foot-deep puddles and stretches of muddy bog along the five-mile route from the camp to a paved road. 

“You had to haul,” said Kristine Rae, 50, a physical therapist from Idaho who made it out in her truck. On her way, she saw marooned vehicles that weren’t so lucky. “There were cars stuck halfway up their wheels.” 

Even in normal years, leaving Burning Man can take up to 12 hours as thousands of cars and trailers creep off the desert playa and onto a jammed two-lane road. This year, organizers urged the roughly 72,000 attendees to consider postponing their departure until Tuesday to avoid creating an epic traffic jam. 

[…] 

Some people had decided to stay in the hope that an improved weather forecast on Monday night would allow for Burning Man to stage the festival’s twice-postponed climax: the burning of a towering wooden effigy shaped like a man. 

“Of course I’m staying,” said Olivia Steele, 38, an artist whose trailer had become home to a half-dozen other campers fleeing their leaking tents. “We come here every year to get schooled. This time we got a great education.” 

It was a sloppy finish to the artistic event, though not without some incredible memories for some folks. Thomas Wesley Pentz, AKA Diplo, walked the five miles out of Burning Man with Chris Rock. 

Crazy weather and the inability of those to leave or enter the venue are not uncommon. If it’s not rain, then it’s a dust storm. The COVID pandemic also canceled the event twice. And then, there were these far-left climate protesters who blocked the roads leading to Burning Man, which Nevada Rangers wrecked. They plowed through their makeshift barricades, exiting their trucks, guns drawn to arrest the green warriors. So, yeah, there’s no shortage of entertainment.