Proof if proof were needed that climate chaos is increasingly a factor to bear in mind if you’re a festival organiser, performing artist, or indeed punter. The first few days of this year’s Burning Man have seen the US fest hit by dust storms, 50 mph winds and flood warnings.
Most festival-goers made their way to the site, in Black Rock City Nevada on Saturday 23. That evening the area was hit by a wall of dust blown in by gale-force winds. The following day, there was rain and thunder.
Instagram posts from the Burning Man site make it look like a movie set in some post-apocalyptic dystopia a la Mad Max. One punter captioned theirs with: “Crazy winds demolished camps at Burning Man on Saturday, including ours. 2-3 days of 8-hour builds in the hot sun, all gone. We also had some injuries from poles and things flying around in the wind.”
By Monday, the festival organisers were warning of more thunderstorms and rain to come, saying “It may or may not hit us, but we should prepare as if it will. We have been through this drill on Sunday night and we are prepared for it again.”
The worry is that continued rain this week will lead to flooding and the festival site will deteriorate into a muddy morass. This is what happened in 2023 when two days of downpours stranded thousands of punters in thick mud in the desert.
According to the organisers there have been just four minor injuries so far, though the festival runs for another five days. Up to 70,000 people are expected on site between now and the final day of the event on Monday 1 September.
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