2023-09-04 12:49:53
By Le Figaro with AFP
Posted 1 hour ago, Updated 1 hour ago
Born in 1986, the Burning Man festival had already experienced a very difficult 2022 edition, marked by fiery heat and strong winds. TREVOR HUGHES/USA TODAY NETWORK/REUTERS
IN IMAGES, IN PICTURES – The American rally, organized in the Black Rock desert (Nevada) was paralyzed by torrential rains. Trapped on site on Monday, tens of thousands of festival-goers are desperately waiting for the end of the ordeal.
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 are investigating a death “occurred during this episode of heavy rains“, without providing further details on the circumstances of the death.
Burning Man is an indefinable annual gathering, between celebration of counterculture and 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 the organizers are committed to preserving.
The giant and emblematic wooden structure, set on fire at the end of the festival, rises more than 20 meters from the ground. TREVOR HUGHES/USA TODAY NETWORK/REUTERS
«Like quicksand»
On videos posted on social networks, the “Playa», a huge open-air site, has visibly become impassable. “Just over 70,000 peoplewere still blocked on 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.
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«It was an incredibly grueling 10 kilometer walk, done at midnight through heavy, slippery mud, but I managed to get out unharmed“, says Neal Katyal, a lawyer who participated in 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, inviting people to attempt the crossing only in groups and provided they are 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.
Prolonged paralysis
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. 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. “Event participants should listen to national and local authorities, as well as event organizers“, advised the manager. Local authorities are asking people to “stay put until the ground becomes solid and safe enoughto 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 the patients are going to need me, but there’s nothing I can do about it.“, explains to AFP, doctor T, a Ukrainian festival-goer living in California who requested anonymity.
Free for years, Burning Man has become a real business. A ticket to the festival now costs several hundred dollars. JULIE JAMMOT / AFP
Help each other to survive
The organizers have been inviting participants since Saturday morning to “conserve 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 it’s 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 weather 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 faced an intense heat wave last year with strong winds which had already made the experience difficult for the “burners“, nickname of the festival-goers.
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