The Burning Man is an event that is known and loved. A mass of people leave their city lives and cause chaos from the Black Rock Desert and back.
As intense and heavy rain covered the skies on the weekend, it flooded many campsites and made thick 5-inch deep mud that stuck to every shoe and everything it came in contact with. And with that came 70,000 plus Burning Man goers being stranded waiting for the Nevada city to dry.
The heavy rain that had been going on for the last 24 hours produced a situation that made the officials of Burning Man stop all vehicles from being driven on or around the “playa.” Following that, Burning Man organizers announced a driving ban. As there was no official time of the ban being lifted during the time people in the Black Rock Desert were told to conserve food, and water, and to find a place that is warm due to temperatures dropping to the 50s in the desert.
Soon after that at the midday of Monday, the driving ban was taken down. Meaning, Burning Man attendees were safely able to leave Black Rock City. This makeshift city is put up yearly for the event.
But safely doesn’t mean a smooth ride out of the makeshift city. Just to leave Black Rock City it was around a 12-hour plus wait. However, it was reported that the wait time was about eight hours on the morning of Tuesday.
Because of the long wait time to leave the city, some people decided to walk or take a different off-road path. A D.J. and producer named Diplo said he and Chris Rock decided to walk about five miles to get out of the Burning Man event.
Now what happened after?
As we know the playa is just a dusty and dry desert which turned into a muddy mess.
With most of the 70,000 people gone from the Nevada desert comes a very big cleaning job. “Every year a very large amount of trash is left especially due to where this event takes place but the trash this year had one of the most I had seen,” said Jerry Allen a Sheriff at Pershing County.
Allen also stated, “This year was different when it came to the clean-up because there were several vehicles being left and stranded all over for multiple miles. The reason for these vehicles being left behind was because people didn’t want to wait to leave. So they decide to leave their property with their vehicles.”
It was also reported that these Burning Man goers weren’t happy at all and didn’t show any understanding towards their fellow man. This is something that occurs often with “default world people” as these Burning Man attendees call them. This behavior is when people let emotions they might have overcome them and their reasonableness which makes them lash out at other people which isn’t behavior that most people at the event practice.
The Burning Man goers follow 10 principles some of which are as follows. Participation, civic responsibility, communal effort, and leaving no trace or leave it in a better state.
Sheriff Allen also has said the Ebola virus rumors were completely fake. The thing people should be more focused on is the one person who was reported dead. This report came on Tuesday which is three days after he died. The victim’s name is Leon Reece and he was 32 years old.
By Samuel Cruz
Sources:
The Guardian: Stuck in the mud, but the party hasn’t stopped: a dispatch from Burning Man
INDEPENDENT: Burning Man festival attendee’s suspected cause of death revealed as clean-up begins after exodus – live
The Guardian: Burning Man festival-goers trapped in desert as rain turns site to mud
Featured and Top Image Courtesy of Ryan/Debbie/Owen BuTeze Flickr Page–Creative Commons License
Inset Image Courtesy of Ben Weinstein-Raun Flickr Page–Creative Commons License
