Burning Man 2023

Last updated
Burning Man 2023
Date(s)August 27–September 4, 2023 (2023-09-04)
Location(s) Black Rock Desert
Pershing County, Nevada, U.S.
Attendance73,000
Website burningman.org
Burning Man 2023
Location of Burning Man 2023

Burning Man 2023 was a week-long gathering in the Black Rock Desert in Pershing County, Nevada. The 35th Burning Man event, it took place from August 27 to September 4, 2023. An estimated 73,000 people attended the festival.

Contents

Torrential weather severely affected the festival near its conclusion, leaving attendees stranded as some began an exodus. One fatality was reported.

Background

Burning Man is a week-long gathering of art, community, self-expression, and self-reliance held in the Black Rock Desert in Pershing County, Nevada. The festival lies on Lake Lahontan, a large lake that desiccated due to Pleistocene climate change, leaving a dry lake, or playa, in the northwestern Nevada region. [1] Burning Man attracts tens of thousands of attendees, including artists, musicians, and activists. The event is guided by self-sufficiency; most attendees must bring their own food, water, and supplies in an event similar to wilderness camping with performances. Burning Man features an eponymous burning of a large, wooden effigy known as the "Man". [2] Attendees, known as "Burners", create a civilization known as Black Rock City comprising villages, a medical center, and an airport. [3] To enter Burning Man, participants must either use the airport or a section of Nevada State Route 447. [4]

Festival

The theme of Burning Man 2023 was "Animalia", celebrating the "animal world and our place in it". [5] Organizers closed Burning Man's gates before the event due to Hurricane Hilary. [6] The beginning of the festival was disrupted when protesters blocked the highway to the Black Rock Desert asking for organizers to ban private planes, single-use plastics, and limit its power usage. Four people were arrested. [7] A box representing war-torn Ukraine entitled "Phoenix" was burned at the festival, the work of fabricators in Kyiv and Chicago. Before its burning, the box played audio of explosions and air raid sirens as an opera singer performed a Ukrainian song. [8] An estimated 73,000 people attended the festival at a cost of US$575 per person for a regular ticket. [9]

Among celebrities who attended the festival were Diplo, [10] Chris Rock, [11] Kelly Gale, and Joel Kinnaman. [12]

Rainfall and exodus

Rainfall on September 2 Rainbow and LED Zeppelin 3, Liminal Labs, 6-15 and F, Black Rock City, Black Rock Desert, Pershing County, Nevada, USA.jpg
Rainfall on September 2

On September 1, heavy rainfall hit Nevada. The National Weather Service issued a flash flood warning through September 4. Burning Man advised attendees that they should shelter in place and closed the front entrance. Between .5 inches (13 mm) and 1 inch (25 mm) of rain fell on September 1. [13] Despite organizers stating that the gate and airport in Black Rock City were closed, authorities said participants were free to leave. The Bureau of Land Management urged attendees heading to the event to turn around. Organizers suggested that participants should walk to Gerlach, although most hotel rooms in Gerlach were already fully booked. They ended up discouraging attendees from walking in the dark and provided buses to Reno from there. [14] Heather Richards, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Reno, told the Los Angeles Times that playa mud is "so thick that you'll sink right into it and be stuck there for a while". [15] Festival officials released a "Wet Playa Survival Guide" to help attendees deal with the conditions. [16]

The Nevada Department of Transportation closed travel lanes on Route 447. [17] According to Pershing County sheriff Jerry Allen, some vehicles have caused damage to the playa. Allen urged attendees to avoid driving out of the festival. [18] The Burning Man Organization pledged to open up internet access and deploy mobile cell trailers. [19] The burning of the Man was delayed [20] and one person died. [21] Disc jockey Diplo and comedian Chris Rock attended the festival and walked six miles (10 km) through mud before catching a ride in a pickup truck; Diplo had a scheduled performance in Washington DC the next day and arrived in time. [22] Former acting solicitor general Neal Katyal took a six-mile (10 km) hike, describing the journey as "harrowing". [23] Some attendees remained defiant to the pluvial weather conditions. [24]

The roads were re-opened on September 4. On that same night, the effigy was burned, two days behind its original schedule. The five-mile-long dirt road leading to the nearest highway took over five hours to exit due to the amount of traffic, which had formed into ten lanes. Many vehicles were marooned. [25]

Reactions

Writing for Vox , Adam Clark Estes criticized Burning Man 2023 for harming the environment. [26] Several individuals compared the festival to Fyre Festival, which was also marred by rainfall. [27]

President Joe Biden was briefed on the weather conditions at the event, which is held on property managed by the federal Bureau of Land Management. [28]

Arrests and a death

There were 13 arrests at Burning Man 2023 and one confirmed death due to acute cocaine, ethanol, and MDMA toxicity. [29] [30]

Hoaxes

Pershing County's Sheriff's office reported receiving multiple false reports of a shooting and riot at the event, some from overseas phone numbers. After investigations, a sheriff's representative local media, “We don’t have any emergency concerns out there right now... People are calm and doing OK.” [31]

Social media posts claimed there was an ebola outbreak at the 2023 festival during the flooding event, but this was also a hoax. [32]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Burning Man</span> Annual experimental festival based in Nevada, United States

Burning Man is a week-long large-scale desert event focused on "community, art, self-expression, and self-reliance" held annually in the western United States. The event's name comes from its culminating ceremony: the symbolic burning of a large wooden effigy, referred to as the Man, that occurs on the penultimate night, the Saturday evening before Labor Day. Since 1990, the event has been at Black Rock City in northwestern Nevada, a temporary city erected in the Black Rock Desert about 100 miles (160 km) north-northeast of Reno. According to Burning Man co-founder Larry Harvey in 2004, the event is guided by ten stated principles: radical inclusion, gifting, decommodification, radical self-reliance, radical self-expression, communal effort, civic responsibility, leaving no trace, participation, and immediacy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Black Rock Desert</span> Northwest Nevada dry lake

The Black Rock Desert is a semi-arid region of lava beds and playa, or alkali flats, situated in the Black Rock Desert–High Rock Canyon Emigrant Trails National Conservation Area, a silt playa 100 miles (160 km) north of Reno, Nevada, that encompasses more than 300,000 acres (120,000 ha) of land and contains more than 120 miles (200 km) of historic trails. It is in the northern Nevada section of the Great Basin with a lakebed that is a dry remnant of Pleistocene Lake Lahontan.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gerlach, Nevada</span> Census-designated place in Nevada, United States

Gerlach, Nevada is a census-designated place (CDP) in Washoe County, Nevada, United States. The population was 130 at the 2020 census. It is part of the Reno–Sparks Metropolitan Statistical Area. Prior to 2010, Gerlach was part of the Gerlach–Empire census-designated place. The town of Empire is now a separate CDP. The next nearest town, Nixon, is 60 miles (100 km) to the south on a reservation owned by the Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe. The Fly Geyser is located near Gerlach.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dry lake</span> Area that contained a standing surface water body

A dry lake bed, also known as a playa, is a basin or depression that formerly contained a standing surface water body, which disappears when evaporation processes exceed recharge. If the floor of a dry lake is covered by deposits of alkaline compounds, it is known as an alkali flat. If covered with salt, it is known as a salt flat.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pineapple Express</span> Meteorological phenomenon

Pineapple Express is a specific recurring atmospheric river both in the waters immediately northeast of the Hawaiian Islands and extending northeast to any location along the Pacific coast of North America. It is a non-technical term and a meteorological phenomenon. It is characterized by a strong and persistent large-scale flow of warm moist air, and the associated heavy precipitation. A Pineapple Express is an example of an atmospheric river, which is a more general term for such relatively narrow corridors of enhanced water vapor transport at mid-latitudes around the world.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cloudburst</span> Short and very intense rain

A cloudburst is an enormous amount of precipitation in a short period of time, sometimes accompanied by hail and thunder, which is capable of creating flood conditions. Cloudbursts can quickly dump large amounts of water, e.g. 25 mm of the precipitation corresponds to 25,000 metric tons per square kilometre. However, cloudbursts are infrequent as they occur only via orographic lift or occasionally when a warm air parcel mixes with cooler air, resulting in sudden condensation. At times, a large amount of runoff from higher elevations is mistakenly conflated with a cloudburst. The term "cloudburst" arose from the notion that clouds were akin to water balloons and could burst, resulting in rapid precipitation. Though this idea has since been disproven, the term remains in use.

Playa del Fuego, also known as PDF, is a regional event held annually in Tamaqua, Pennsylvania. It is inspired by the annual Burning Man festival in Nevada. The event is held in the Mid-Atlantic U.S. twice annually. The spring event is held over Memorial Day and the fall event is held over Columbus Day weekend. The event draws national participation from Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and other states. The 2024 event is scheduled for May 23 to May 27 in Tamaqua.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nevada State Route 447</span> Highway in Nevada

State Route 447 is a state highway in the U.S. state of Nevada. The highway is almost entirely within Washoe County but does for a brief time enter Pershing County, Nevada. The highway connects the town of Gerlach to the remainder of the state via Wadsworth. Though passing through extremely remote and desolate areas of Nevada, the highway has recently gained fame as the primary route to access the Black Rock Desert, the site of the annual Burning Man festival. The state maintained portion ends at Gerlach; however the highway continues as Washoe County Route 447 from Gerlach north to the California state line near Cedarville.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Law (artist)</span> American artist and cultural figure; co-founder of Burning Man

John Law is an American artist, culture-jammer, and neon sign technician. He was a primary member of the Cacophony Society and a member of the Suicide Club. He is also a co-founder of Burning Man which evolved out of the spirit of the Cacophony Society when a precursor solstice party was banned from San Francisco's Baker Beach and merged with another Cacophony event on the Black Rock desert in Nevada. Originally from Michigan, Law has lived in San Francisco, California since 1976, and has maintained the signage and clock face of the Tribune Tower in Oakland, where he also has an office, since 1996.

Hualapai Flat is a valley in northwestern Nevada, United States, located northwest of the Black Rock Desert. The two valleys are separated by the Calico Hills. The Granite Range marks the southern and western edges of Hualapai Flat. To the north the valley is constrained by the Granite Range and the Calico Hills. Washoe, Pershing, and Humboldt counties meet in the Hualapai Flat.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Trego Hot Springs</span> Ghost town in Nevada, United States

Trego Hot Springs is located in the Black Rock Desert at the location of Trego, Nevada, a former station on the Western Pacific Railroad. The name "Trego" dates from the 1910s, just after the railroad was built. Previously, the springs had names like Hot Springs, Kyles Hot Springs (1864), Butte Spring, and Butte Hot Spring.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Billy McFarland</span> American con artist (born 1991)

William Zervakos McFarland is an American businessman whose enterprises have been characterized by fraud. He has served time in prison for financial crimes related to Fyre Festival, having defrauded investors of $27.4 million. Vanity Fair describes him as "the poster boy for millennial scamming".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fyre Festival</span> 2017 fraudulent music festival

Fyre Festival was a fraudulent luxury music festival organized by Billy McFarland, an American businessman whose enterprises have been characterized by fraud, and the American rapper Ja Rule. It was originally created to promote the company's Fyre app for booking music talent. The festival was scheduled to take place on April 28–30 and May 5–7, 2017, on the Bahamian island of Great Exuma.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Weather of 2022</span>

The following is a list of weather events that occurred on Earth in the year 2022. The year began with a La Niña. There were several natural disasters around the world from various types of weather, including blizzards, cold waves, droughts, heat waves, wildfires, floods, tornadoes, and tropical cyclones. The deadliest weather event of the year were the European heat waves, which killed over 26,000 people, 11,000 of which were in France. The costliest weather event of the year was Hurricane Ian, which caused at least $112.9 billion in damages in Florida and Cuba. Another significant weather event was the Pakistan floods, which killed 1,739 people and a total of $14.9 billion in damages.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Old Razorback Mountain</span> Mountain in Nevada, United States

Old Razorback Mountain is a 5,650-foot elevation (1,722 m) summit located in Pershing County, Nevada, United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hurricane Kay (2022)</span> Category 2 Pacific hurricane in 2022

Hurricane Kay was a Category 2 hurricane that made landfall along the Pacific coast of the Baja California peninsula as a tropical storm. The twelfth named storm and eighth hurricane of the 2022 Pacific hurricane season, Kay originated from an area of disturbed weather that formed south of southern Mexico. Overall, damage from Kay totaled $10.62 million and it was responsible for five fatalities. Rain from the storm proved beneficial for firefighters battling the Fairview Fire in Southern California.

A severe flood occurred throughout the Las Vegas Valley on July 8, 1999, during the local monsoon season. The storm brought three inches of rainfall to the area, which usually sees only four inches annually. The flood resulted in two deaths, and left some motorists stranded. Police and firefighters conducted 163 rescues throughout the Las Vegas Valley. Flood waters damaged 353 homes and caused $20.5 million in public property damage. It was the most destructive flood in Las Vegas history. A flood control network, developed by the Clark County Regional Flood Control District, was 20-percent finished at the time, helping to mitigate the severity of the flood.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">September 2023 southwestern U.S. floods</span> Flood event in 2023

In a period of three days on September 1–3, 2023, flooding occurred as part of a seasonal monsoon season across portions of the Southwestern United States, including California, Nevada, Arizona, Utah and the Las Vegas Valley. Muddy terrain during the Burning Man festival stranded more than 70,000 people.

The following is a list of events of the year 2023 in Nevada.

References

  1. ↑ Galbraith, Kate (September 3, 2023). "About that famous Burning Man playa? It's actually an ancient lake bed". San Francisco Chronicle . Retrieved September 3, 2023.
  2. ↑ "Burning Man flooding strands tens of thousands at Nevada site; authorities are investigating 1 death". Associated Press. September 3, 2023. Retrieved September 3, 2023.
  3. ↑ Guzman, Francisco (September 3, 2023). "What is Burning Man? What to know about its origin, name and what people do there". USA Today . Retrieved September 3, 2023.
  4. ↑ Holpuch, Amanda (September 3, 2023). "Burning Man: What to Know About the Mud and Flooding". The New York Times . Retrieved September 3, 2023.
  5. ↑ Hetter, Katia; Palumbo, Jacqui; Holland, Oscar (September 3, 2023). "What to know about Burning Man — the festival where thousands are now stranded". CNN . Retrieved September 3, 2023.
  6. ↑ Chery, Samantha (September 2, 2023). "Burning Man attendees stranded amid harsh weather". The Washington Post . Retrieved September 3, 2023.
  7. ↑ Diaz, Alicia (September 2, 2023). "Burning Man Death Under Probe With Thousands Still Stranded". Bloomberg News . Retrieved September 3, 2023.
  8. ↑ Palumbo, Jacqui; Holland, Oscar (August 31, 2023). "At Burning Man, a 26-foot tall box sculpture paid fiery tribute to Ukraine". CNN . Retrieved September 3, 2023.
  9. ↑ "One death reported at Burning Man, thousands stranded in mud and rain". Reuters. September 3, 2023. Retrieved September 3, 2023.
  10. ↑ Cohen, Rebecca; Zitser, Joshua (September 5, 2023). "I went to Burning Man. The celebrities who fled the mud this year didn't understand the true spirit of the event". Insider. Retrieved September 6, 2023.
  11. ↑ Noyen, Maria; Erb, Jordan Parker (September 3, 2023). "Burning Man 2023 is basically just Fyre Festival 2.0 – here are 6 reasons why" . Retrieved September 6, 2023.
  12. ↑ Power, Shannon (September 4, 2023). "Full List of Burning Man Celebrities Who Got Caught Up in Chaos" . Retrieved September 6, 2023.
  13. ↑ Associated Press (September 3, 2023). "Heavy rain creates muddy mess at Burning Man, one death reported". ABC7.com . Retrieved September 5, 2023.
  14. ↑ Romero, Dennis; Alsharif, Mirna (September 2, 2023). "Death at Burning Man investigated as rain-soaked festival asks attendees to shelter in place". NBC News . Retrieved September 3, 2023.
  15. ↑ Mejia, Brittny; Watanbe, Teresa (September 2, 2023). "Rain, mud cause upheaval at Burning Man festival". Los Angeles Times . Retrieved September 3, 2023.
  16. ↑ Bartlett, Amanda (September 3, 2023). "Burning Man releases 'Wet Playa Survival Guide' amid disastrous conditions at Black Rock City". SFGate . Retrieved September 3, 2023.
  17. ↑ Thomas, Carly (September 2, 2023). "Diplo and Chris Rock Escape Burning Man Festival After Catching Ride in Fan's Pickup Truck". The Hollywood Reporter . Retrieved September 3, 2023.
  18. ↑ Deliso, Meredith; Hutchinson, Bill (September 3, 2023). "Death reported at Burning Man as attendees asked to conserve food after flooding strands thousands". ABC News . Retrieved September 3, 2023.
  19. ↑ Veltman, Chloe; Bowman, Emma (September 2, 2023). "One death reported after storms leave thousands stranded at Burning Man Festival". NPR . Retrieved September 3, 2023.
  20. ↑ Hughes, Trevor; Bacon, John (September 3, 2023). "Thousands still stuck in the muck at Burning Man festival; 1 death reported". USA Today . Retrieved September 3, 2023.
  21. ↑ Betts, Anna; Mayorquin, Orlando; Medina, Eduardo (September 3, 2023). "Authorities Investigate Death at Burning Man as Thousands Remain Trapped". The New York Times . Retrieved September 3, 2023.
  22. ↑ Barsanti, Sam (September 3, 2023). "Diplo and Chris Rock made a harrowing escape from Burning Man". The A.V. Club . Retrieved September 3, 2023.
  23. ↑ Alsup, Dave (September 3, 2023). "Attendee describes his "incredibly harrowing" 6-mile hike out of Burning Man". CNN . Retrieved September 3, 2023.
  24. ↑ Davis, Wes (September 2, 2023). "Burning Man access is closed as heavy rains muddy the playa". The Verge . Retrieved September 3, 2023.
  25. ↑ Mcknight, Matt; Tong, Anna; Mcknight, Matt; Tong, Anna (2023-09-05). "Burning Man festival road reopens, allowing thousands to escape muddy trap". Reuters. Retrieved 2023-09-30.
  26. ↑ Clark Estes, Adam (August 30, 2023). "Burning Man's climate protesters have a point". Vox . Retrieved September 3, 2023.
  27. ↑ Harrison, Ellie (September 3, 2023). "Fyre Fest 2.0? Chris Rock and Diplo escape Burning Man festival as 70,000 stranded in desert". The Independent . Retrieved September 3, 2023.
  28. ↑ Klein, Betsy (September 3, 2023). "President Biden has been briefed on the situation at Burning Man festival". CNN . Retrieved September 3, 2023.
  29. ↑ Valentino, Silas. "The police reports from Burning Man 2023 are out". SFGATE. Retrieved 2024-03-02.
  30. ↑ "Cause of Death for Burning Man Attendee Revealed as Drug Intoxication". Peoplemag. Retrieved 2024-05-09.
  31. ↑ McAndrew, Siobhan. "Burning Man attendees straggling out like refugees from a Mud-Torn Country". Reno Gazette Journal. USA Today Network/Gannett. Retrieved 16 August 2024.
  32. ↑ Matt Novak (September 2, 2023). "No, There's Not An Ebola Outbreak At Burning Man". Forbes .
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