It is currently impossible for them to leave the site, located in the middle of the Nevada desert, in the United States. Tens of thousands of participants in the American alternative festival Burning Man were trapped on Saturday, September 2, at the festival site due to heavy rain. They transformed the place into a field of mud, and forced the organizers to cancel the program of festivities.
“Black Rock City Gates and Airport [le nom du site] remain closed, any entry or exit is delayed until further notice”and access to vehicles prohibited, repeated at regular intervals since midnight account X (ex-Twitter) of the event, which began on August 27 and is due to end on Sunday. The organizers have also invited participants already on site to “conserve water, food and fuel and find warm and safe shelter”.
Due to heavy showers, “the beach”, the huge esplanade characteristic of the event, has been made impassable. Most of the planned events have been suspended, including the burning of the wooden giant installed in the center of “the beach”which traditionally marks the end of the festival and gives it its name.
Heavy rain expected again on Sunday
The authorities as well as the organizers have not yet declared when the entrance to the site could be accessible again or when the participants will be able to leave it. But if the rains stopped during the day on Saturday, they should be back on Sunday, while temperatures overnight should drop to around 10°C, again according to the organizers’ account.
The festival had faced an intense heat wave last year with strong winds which had already made the experience difficult for the “burners”name of the festival-goers.
Launched in 1986 in San Francisco, Burning Man aims to be an indefinable event, somewhere between a celebration of the counter-culture and a spiritual retreat. It has been held since the 1990s in the Black Rock Desert, a protected area in northwest Nevada, which the organizers are committed to preserving.
Initially held on a beach in San Francisco, Burning Man has become a structured festival, with a budget of nearly $45 million (2018 figures) and more than 75,000 participants in the last edition, down from the previous one in 2019.