This year, Burning Man 2023, the renowned nine-day art and music festival located in Black Rock, Nevada, has taken an unexpected turn.
Oorganizers have urged attendees to remain in place, conserve essential resources, and endure the consequences of heavy rain that has transformed the festival grounds into a swampy wasteland.
The festival, known for attracting billionaires such as Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk, as well as numerous celebrities and influencers, is usually a backdrop for glamorous social media posts. However, this year presents a starkly contrasting scenario.
Burning Man 2023: 70,000 Festival-Goers Stranded Due To Rain
Numerous videos shared on social media by attendees, among the 70,000-strong crowd, illustrate the deteriorating conditions that followed the storms that struck on Friday.
Festival-goers have resorted to donning plastic bags over their shoes to trudge through the mud, sleeping in tents partially submerged in water, and enduring overflowing porta-potties.
On Sunday morning, the event organizers reported that the roads remained inaccessible due to excessive wetness and mud, with the likelihood of further uncertain weather approaching. While some vehicles managed to depart, others became trapped in the muddy conditions, as communicated on the event’s official website.
They issued a stern advisory, stating, “Please do NOT drive at this time,” and mentioned their intention to provide updates on the driving ban once the inclement weather had passed the area.
The remote region in northwest Nevada experienced an extraordinary amount of rainfall, equivalent to 2 to 3 months’ worth, accumulating up to 0.8 inches within a mere 24-hour period from Friday to Saturday morning.
This heavy downpour saturated the typically arid desert terrain, giving rise to a thick, clay-like mud that festival attendees found exceedingly challenging to traverse on foot or by bicycle.
Despite the grim circumstances, there is a notable lack of empathy from some observers for those currently enduring the hardships at Burning Man, even though some attendees paid as much as $2,750 for the experience.
In response to a video posted by attendee Christine Lee, which was later shared by CBS reporter Betty Yu, commentators expressed their difficulty in empathizing with individuals who willingly chose to attend Burning Man in the first place.
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