Between heat waves and torrential rains
The festival gets its name from its culminating act, the burning of a large wooden structure called “the Man” on the penultimate night.
Launched in 1986 on a San Francisco beach, Burning Man has grown into a structured festival, with a budget of nearly $45 million (2018 figures).
Since the 1990s, it has been held in the Black Rock Desert, a protected area in northwestern Nevada that organizers have vowed to preserve.
According to the event’s website, more than 60,000 participants travel to and from remote Northwest Nevada each year and gather in the temporary town to create art, dance and enjoy the community, priced at $575 per person. the regular input. Local media reported that there were about 73,000 people in Black Rock City.
Last year, the festival had to deal with an intense heat wave and high winds, which have already made the experience difficult for “burners”, as event attendees are nicknamed.
What happened at Burning Man 2023?
As a result of heavy rain on Saturday night, the “beach”, the huge outdoor area where the event is held, was impassable. Organizers urged participants to “conserve water, food and fuel and seek warm and safe shelter.”
The organizers were forced to close the doors of Black Rock City, the name of the venue, and festival-goers could not enter or leave if they were already there.
It is expected that it will rain again on Sunday, the last day of the festival.
Access to and from Black Rock City, the venue of the event, was closed “for the remainder of the event,” organizers said in a statement on social media.
The Washoe County Sheriff’s Office said the entrance to Burning Man was closed by flooding and anyone trying to enter “will be turned away.”
Videos shared on social media showed festival-goers in high spirits walking through ankle-deep mud. The site is in Nevada’s Black Rock Desert, a vast, flat ancient lake bed.
With information from Reuters and AFP