2023-09-04 01:44:37
festival site
Visitors are stuck on the festival grounds.
(Photo: via REUTERS)
Washington Tens of thousands of visitors to “Burning Man” can not leave the internationally renowned festival. They’re stuck at the site after rains swept across the Nevada desert.
All entrances are closed, said the Washoe County Sheriff. Organizers have asked visitors to conserve food and water. “If you have too much, share with your neighbors.”
One person died, as the broadcaster CNN reported on Sunday night with reference to the sheriff’s office. The death occurred “during the rain”. Details were not given. “The family has been notified and the death is being investigated.”
The White House said Sunday President Joe Biden had been briefed on the situation. His government will monitor the situation and remain in contact with the authorities in Nevada.
Festival visitors
According to CNN, the usual amount of rain for two to three months fell between Friday and Saturday morning.
(Photo: via REUTERS)
The annual festival is a scene happening with music and art events. It traditionally attracts artists, techno fans, pyrotechnicians and the curious from all over the world. In the desert, the participants build a temporary city called Black Rock City out of tents and mobile homes.
A core ritual at the end of the cult event is the burning of the “Burning Man”, an oversized wooden statue. “Currently all burns have been postponed,” said the organizers on Saturday evening. According to CNN, if there is no new rainfall, the statue could be set on fire on Monday night.
A temporary airport was also initially closed, it said. Cars threatened to get stuck on the muddy ground. Only emergency vehicles were therefore allowed to enter or leave the site, the website said. The organizers provided four-wheel drive SUVs for medical emergencies.
Diplo and Chris Rock walked
Some prominent guests got inventive in an emergency: successful DJ Diplo and actor Chris Rock left the site together on foot via an emergency path around ten kilometers long in the mud until they were picked up outside by a pickup truck.
He was on his way to be able to play a concert in Washington that evening, a fan offered him and Rock a ride, Diplo wrote in a video on Instagram that showed the two on the vehicle.
According to media reports, other festival-goers also walked for kilometers through the thick mud to reach main roads outside the site and to get home from there.
Others stayed in their tents, hoping for better conditions. Footage on social media showed festival-goers struggling on the muddy trails.
It was initially unclear whether the majority of visitors would be able to return home as planned on Monday. “The gate will be reopened as soon as possible, once it is safe to do so,” the organizers’ website said. “Late on Monday is possible – should the weather conditions be in our favor,” it said. “It may be earlier, it may be later.”
This year’s torrential rains fell on arid desert terrain, turning the ground into a mud bath. According to CNN, the usual amount of rain for two to three months fell between Friday and Saturday morning. More showers are expected on Sunday.
According to the organizers, up to 75,000 people stayed in the desert city in 2022. Precise information about the number of festival visitors stranded this year was not initially available. The event was supposed to end this year after nine days on this Sunday.
With agency material.
More: “You loot, we shoot” – Ron DeSantis warns thieves in hurricane areas
#Mud #drama #USA #tens #thousands #festivalgoers #stuck #Burning #Man