People fleeing on foot from Burning Man with rumours of virus outbreak
Thousands of revellers are trying to flee Burning Man on foot after the week-long counterculture festival was turned into a quagmire of knee high mud following a sudden downpour.
This came amid rumours of a viral outbreak striking down festival-goers. Organisers shut the festival down and one death was reported after more than a half an inch (1.3cm) of rain fell at the festival site on Friday. The annual gathering in the Black Rock Desert about 110 miles (177km) north of Reno attracts nearly 80,000 artists, musicians and activists for a mix of wilderness camping and avant-garde performances.
Many were left stranded with no working toilets following the freak weather. After the deluge the ground has dried out enough for campervans to drive out the area without getting stuck. Organisers say they are ready for a mass exodus of the 72,000 still stranded from Monday morning, local time.
More than a half an inch (1.3cm) of rain fell at the festival site on Friday, disrupting this year’s festival. One reveller recalled his escape saying: "It was an incredibly harrowing 6 mile hike at midnight through heavy and slippery mud, but I got safely out of Burning Man. Never been before and it was fantastic (with brilliant art and fabulous music)…except the ending."
A rainbow amid the murd (UGC/AFP via Getty Images)“We are a little bit dirty and muddy but spirits are high. The party is still going,” said Scott London, a Southern California photographer, adding that the travel limitations offered “a view of Burning Man that a lot of us don’t get to see.”
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The event began on August 27 and had been scheduled to end Monday, according to the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, which oversees the Black Rock Desert, where the festival was held.
Rumours of a mass virus outbreak due to the unsanitary and confined conditions swirled on social media and users on TikTok and Twitter, now known as X, reported Ebola cases and a FEMA response in the area.
Jenna Roxbury, who works in a hospital at the festival as a nurse, posted several videos to her nearly 700,000-follower TikTok account debunking those myths. In one that garnered nearly 6,000 likes and over 100,000 views, she asked her coworkers about the rumours.
"OK, these rumours are getting wild. I'm going to ask my coworkers here if they have seen Ebola on the playa," she begins the video, which is captioned: "I'm currently at my hospital ON the Playa with other doctors and nurses! Don't believe the rumours!"
John Asselin, a spokesperson for the Bureau of Land Management, said he had seen “a steady stream” of vehicles leaving the festival site. “People are getting out,” he added.
The road closures came just before a large wooden effigy was supposed to have been burned Saturday night. Organisers said that all burning had been postponed, and authorities were working to open exit routes by the end of the Labor Day weekend.
Attendees walk through a muddy desert plain on September 2, 2023 (AFP via Getty Images)President told reporters in Delaware on Sunday that he is aware of the situation at Burning Man, including the death, and the White House is in touch with local officials. Biden said he did not know the cause of death.
With their party closed to motorised traffic, attendees trudged through mud, many barefoot or with plastic bags on their feet. Revellers were urged to conserve supplies of food and water, and most remained hunkered down at the site.
A few, however, managed to walk several miles to the nearest town or catch a ride there. Celebrity DJ Diplo posted a video to on Saturday evening showing him and comedian riding in the back of a fan’s pickup truck. He said they had walked six miles through the mud before hitching a ride.
A satellite view of the camp before the rains hit (Satellite image ©2023 Maxar Tech)“I legit walked the side of the road for hours with my thumb out,” wrote Diplo, whose real name is Thomas Wesley Pentz. The event is remote on the best of days and emphasises self-sufficiency — meaning most people bring in their own food, water and other supplies.
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Those who remained Sunday described a resilient community making the most of the grim conditions: Many posted selfies of themselves covered in mud, dancing or splashing in the makeshift lakes.
“We have not witnessed any negativity, any rough times,” organiser Theresa Galeani said. “Some people … were supposed to leave a few days ago, so they’re out of water or food. But I am an organiser, so I went around and found more water and food. There is more than enough here for people. We just have to get it to everyone.”
Tens of thousands of festivalgoers were stranded after the deluge (AFP via Getty Images)London, the Southern California photographer who was attending his 20th Burning Man and just published a book on the festival, “Burning Man: Art On ,” spent much of Saturday walking barefoot across the site, which is about 5 square miles. He said that the biggest challenge was logistics because no vehicles could across the site, supplies could not be brought in and most people could not leave.
“Usually it’s very crowded with art cars, bikes and people all over the place. But yesterday it was like an abandoned playground,” he added.
Rebecca Barger, a photographer from Philadelphia, arrived at her first Burning Man on Aug. 26 and was determined to stick it out through the end.
Willonius Hatcher, 39, comedian and screenwriter plans his escape on September 3 (AFP via Getty Images)“I’m not leaving until both ‘The Man’ and ‘The Temple’ burn,” Barger said, referring to the wooden effigy and wooden structure that are traditionally torched during the event’s last two nights.
She said one of the biggest concerns has been the lack of toilet options because the trucks that normally arrive to clean out the portable toilets multiple times a day haven’t been able to reach the site since Friday’s rainstorm. Some revellers said trucks had resumed cleaning on Sunday.
To prevent her shoes from getting stuck in the muddy clay, Barger says she put a plastic bag over each of her shoes and then covered each bag with a sock. Others were just barefoot.
Campers and festival decors are seen in a muddy desert plain (AFP via Getty Images)“Everyone has just adapted, sharing RVs for sleeping, offering food and coffee,” Barger said. “I danced in foot-deep clay for hours to incredible DJs.”
The Pershing County Sheriff’s Office did not release the identity of the deceased person or the suspected cause of death but said it is being investigated.
On their website, organisers encouraged participants to remain calm and suggested that the festival is built to endure conditions like the flooding. They said cellphone trailers were being dropped in several locations Saturday night and that they would be briefly opening up the internet overnight. Shuttle buses were also being organised to take attendees to Reno from the nearest town of Gerlach, a walk of about five miles (eight kilometres) from the site.
More than half an inch (1.3cm) of rain and possibly close to 1 inch (2.5cm) fell this weekend in parts of northwest Nevada, which includes the area where the Burning Man festival was being held, said Mark Deutschendorf, a meteorologist with the National Service in Reno.
For the Reno area, which is about 141 miles (227 km) south of the festival, the average rainfall for the whole month of September would be 0.21 inches (0.53 centimetres), Deutschendorf said.
“Already, everywhere from Reno up to the Burning Man area, Black Rock, we’ve already exceeded that — and it’s only three days into the month,” he said. Rainfall for the area around the festival was ending on Sunday, he said.
Disruptions are part of the event’s recent history: Organisers had to temporarily close entrances to the festival in 2018 due to dust storms, and the event was twice cancelled altogether during the pandemic.
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