Chaos at the Burning Man festival: one dead and thousands still stranded in the middle of the desert

Tens of thousands of participants in Burning Man, where one person died, were still trapped on Sunday, September 3, 2023 at the site of this annual gathering in the middle of the Nevada desert, transformed into a quagmire after heavy rains. Police in the western US state announced on Saturday that they were investigating a death "which occurred during this episode of heavy rain", without providing further details on the circumstances of the death.

Burning Man is a nondescript annual gathering, part counterculture celebration and part spiritual retreat, created in 1986 in San Francisco. Since the 1990s, it has taken place in the Black Rock Desert, a protected area in northwest Nevada, which organizers are committed to preserving.

On videos posted on social networks, the “Playa”, a huge open-air site, has visibly become impassable. “Just over 70,000 people” were still stuck at the site Sunday morning, according to county sheriff Nathan Carmichael, interviewed by CNN. Access to Black Rock City, the name of the rally site, a few dozen kilometers from the first homes, was closed on Friday due to bad weather. Some, frightened by the situation, try to leave the site on foot, shoes sometimes wrapped in plastic bags instead of boots, to reach the only passable road located some 8 km away.

“It was an incredibly grueling 10 kilometer walk, done at midnight through heavy, slippery mud, but I managed to get out unharmed,” said Neal Katyal, a lawyer who attended the festival, on his account X (ex-Twitter). "It was very slippery and the mud is like cement, it clings to your boots" and can "act like quicksand", he warns, urging people to attempt the crossing only in groups and to condition of being in good physical condition. Others tried unsuccessfully to do so by car, an SUV vehicle buried in mud up to the underside, according to one of the few videos posted, internet access being limited.

A 40-year-old Dutchwoman, Pascale Brand, decided, after having “cried a lot”, to leave “whatever happens”. "I got scared of what is happening so many people are running out of toilet paper, water and food, I felt I had to get out of it," she told AFP. AFP. She got into a neighbour's car, with whom she managed to leave despite the mud.

According to a White House official, President Joe Biden has been briefed on the situation. "Participants in the event should listen to national and local authorities, as well as the organizers of the event," the official advised. Local authorities are asking people to “stay put until the ground becomes solid and safe enough” to allow movement.

The event is supposed to end on Monday, but festival-goers could be stuck until Tuesday or Wednesday, should it rain again. "I'm a surgeon and I have to work on Tuesday, but I'm starting to realize that it's not going to be possible, and that patients are going to need me, but there's nothing I can do about it," Dr. T , a Ukrainian festival-goer living in California who requested anonymity.

The organizers have been inviting participants since Saturday morning to “keep water, food and fuel and find warm and safe shelter”. They were also busy deploying antennas to provide internet access. “We come here (in the middle of the desert, editor's note), knowing that this is a place where you have to bring everything you need to survive. It is for this reason that we are all well prepared for this type of meteorological event”, they assured Saturday in a press release sent to AFP. Some participants testify to the mutual assistance in force. “People are very generous,” assures Mr. Katyal. The firing of the wooden giant installed in the center of the "Playa", which marks the end of the festival and gives it its name, has been postponed to Monday evening, the organizers said on Sunday.

The rains caused flooding elsewhere in Nevada, including in the city of Las Vegas. The Burning Man had been confronted last year with an intense heat wave with strong winds which had already made the experience difficult for the “burners”, nickname of the festival-goers.