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Burning Man organizers have announced that thousands of attendees stranded in the Nevada desert will be “evacuated” as torrential rain turns the event, which attracts tech execs, venture capitalists and social media influencers, into a full-blown event. A “nightmare” of sludge and litter. The toilet didn’t work.
Organizers of the event in Black Rock City, Nevada, said “the evacuation will likely begin around noon (Pacific Time) today (Monday, Sept. 4)”. Days earlier, they urged participants to shelter in place and conserve food and water as roads were closed due to deepening mud. Stay away from the venue.
The burning of human statues and temples is now planned for Monday night, culminating the annual event.
News that roads away from the event would reopen as the mud dries ended days of agony for thousands of people attending the festival, which was once the hallmark of America’s counterculture but now attracts Celebrities, older hippies and families.
Burning Man began in San Francisco more than three decades ago, when dozens of people witnessed the statue’s self-immolation, but moved to a barren stretch of the Nevada desert in 1990.
It drew tens of thousands of attendees who traveled to “Praia” in trailers and even private jets to witness a dizzying electronic music and light show, punctuated by “Burns of Man” and a similar “Church of Babel” crash. flat event.
Organizers said the aim of the event was to “build a society that connects everyone with their creativity”.
This year’s Burning Man aims to celebrate the animal kingdom and challenge the belief that “despite all evidence to the contrary, humans are somehow not part of the animal kingdom”.
But heavy rains hit, turning what could have been a dry landscape for air-conditioned recreational vehicles and campers into a muddy “hellscape,” as one attendee described it on TikTok, with broken toilets surrounded by six inches of dirt. .
Some notable attendees, including comedian Chris Rock and former U.S. Solicitor General and current partner at Hogan Lovells Neal Katyal, hiked miles to escape the mud in search of a way to Reno road traffic.
Angie Peacock, a 44-year-old holistic health coach in Missouri, told the Financial Times: “If people can’t work remotely, they have to change their flights and work arrangements.”
Peacock, who hasn’t showered in 10 days, said portable toilets have started working again, but cleaning facilities have not yet resumed. Peacock and others in her camp pass the time by playing music and participating in naked mud runs.
Music executive Bryan Freeman, 54, bought a $94,000 RV with his travel buddies and drove from Los Angeles to Burning Man, where he celebrated in “beautiful” Playa I celebrated my birthday, and the lights there were like Times Square.
But he told the FT that things had changed on Friday, with heavy cold rain bringing “terrible” and “tragic” conditions.
After the portable toilet overflowed, rumors of the disease surfaced on social media, leading Burning Man organizers to say that “the online rumors about Black Rock spreading the disease are unfounded and untrue.”
Freeman’s travel companion was scheduled to fly Monday in a private jet from the makeshift airport set up by Burning Man, but his flight was delayed until Tuesday.
But he said “radical self-reliance,” one of the event’s ten principles, meant most attendees brought enough supplies, including “sufficient food and alcohol” to last until Monday.
“I’ll be back,” Freeman said. “If you asked people here what their biggest fear was, the answer wouldn’t be that something bad would happen to Playa . . . it would go away.”
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