2023-09-05 06:48:14
Update
September 05, 2023
08:48
Trapped for several days in the middle of the Nevada desert, Burning Man festival-goers have begun to leave the site, which has been transformed into a quagmire following heavy rains.
The thousands of festival-goers Burning Mantrapped for several days in the middle of the Nevada desert, transformed into a quagmire following heavy rains, finally began to return home on Monday.
As the sun once once more shines on the pop-up community of “Black Rock City”, home to 70,000 peoplethe roads were opened on Monday followingnoon, kicking off the official exit process.
©via REUTERS
©via REUTERS
Burning Man is a nondescript annual gathering, between counterculture celebration and spiritual retreat, established 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.
Access to Black Rock City, a few tens of kilometers from the first dwellings, had been closed on Friday due to the bad weather that transformed the “Playa”, a huge open-air field, into a muddy expanse obviously impractical.
©AFP
©via REUTERS
One person died during this episode of heavy rain, but the police of the American state of Nevada did not provide further details on the circumstances of the death.
Local authorities had asked people to “stay there until the ground becomes solid and safe enough” to allow movement and to “conserve water, food and fuel and find warm and safe shelter”.
Frightened by the situation, some still tried to leave the site on foot, with shoes sometimes wrapped in plastic bags as boots, to reach the only passable road located 8 km away. Others tried, in vain, to do it by car.
©REUTERS
©via REUTERS
The driving ban has now been lifted, but organizers have called on visitors to delay leaving the site – set in a dry lake bed in a remote part of the Nevada desert – until Tuesday in order to avoid massive traffic jams.
Among the festival-goers who left the site on foot were celebrities such as comedian Chris Rock and artist Diplo, who were hitchhiked by a fan following a grueling mile-long mud walk and recounted their journey on social networks.
The festival, for which tickets cost hundreds of dollarsculminates each year with the cremation ceremony for a 12-meter wooden effigy, which has been postponed to 9 p.m. Monday evening (6 a.m. Belgian time on Tuesday).
Last year, Burning Man faced a intense heat wave with strong winds which had already made the experience difficult for the “burners”, nickname of the festival-goers.
The rains led to flooding elsewhere in Nevada, including Las Vegas.
©via REUTERS
1693901299
#Burning #Man #festivalgoers #finally #leave #site
