Burning Man attendees share ordeal with urine bottles as clean-up begins after exodus – updates

Organisers have three weeks to clear the sprawling Nevada desert campsite

Burning Man festival-goer shows grim conditions after flooding chaos

The Burning Man exodus appears to have come to an end — paving the way for a massive clean-up job to begin.

Thousands of attendees cleared out from the Nevada desert campsite after being trapped for days when the festival descended into chaos with heavy rainfall, flooding and muddy conditions.

Organisers will now spend the next three weeks cleaning up the sprawling site to fulfil the festival’s key principle of “leave no trace”, after the area was left littered with abandoned vehicles, furniture and trash.

People who attended this year’s festival said they were instructed to urinate in bottles to conserve space in the porta-potties. In the aftermath of the rain trash was left everywhere, wrote Rob Price in Business Insider.

“The porta-potties were surrounded by a halo of shredded toilet paper that clung to shoes,” he added.

The end of the tumultuous exodus comes after officials revealed the suspected cause of death for the man who died during the event.

The man, identified as 32-year-old Leon Reece, was found unresponsive on the playa on Friday, with emergency responders unable to revive him.

Key points

• Burning Man death caused by suspected drug intoxication
• Festival-goers share heartbreak as desert venue is flooded by storm
• In pictures: Burners leave this year’s festival
• Marjorie Taylor Greene claims Burning Man disaster was an ‘act of God’
• What is Burning Man?

[6 September 2023 06:30 · Alisha Rahaman Sarkar]

Daughter of Monaco princess Stephanie documents exit from Burning Man

Princess Stephanie of Monaco’s daughter, Pauline Ducruet, has shared her escape from Burning Man on social media.

The eldest daughter of the royal gave her followers a glimpse of her getaway from the muddy grounds of the annual arts festival in the Black Rock Desert of northern Nevada after organizers lifted the driving ban at 2pm on Monday.

Ducruet, 29, posted on her Instagram Story a photo of the Black Rock Desert range through a car windshield and the open route ahead, captioned, “We out”.

The Alter designer also posted a photo of herself among a group dressed up in festival-ready garments that appeared to be taken before rain stranded thousands of festival-goers. “When it was dry and fun,” Ducruet wrote over the photo on her Story.

Olivia Hebert has more.

[6 September 2023 07:30 · Alisha Rahaman Sarkar]

Elon Musk calls Burning Man ‘best art on Earth’

Elon Musk offered lofty praise to the Burning Man festival - after this year’s event descended into disaster with one person dead and thousands left stranded in the Nevada desert after intense floods.

“Burning Man is unique in the world,” Mr Musk wrote on his platform X. “Hard to describe how incredible it is for those who have never been. Best art on Earth.”

The post drew scrutiny for two reasons. First off, it came as the desert festival is suffering from utter chaos on all sides — torrential floods caused by Tropical Storm Hilary, false claims of an Ebola outbreak, tens of thousands of stranded attendees, and even a death caused by reasons “unrelated to the weather.”

On top of this mess, Mr Musk seemed to be commenting on a video from Paris Fashion Week in 2022 — not Burning Man.

Kelly Rissman reports.

[6 September 2023 08:00 · Ariana Baio]

A problem at last year’s Burning Man: trash left behind

Residents of a popular stop-over location for Burning Man attendees have complained about illegal waste being dumped in the neighbourhood after the annual Black Rock Desert event ended this week.

Tents, food and alcohol bottles have all been spotted around Lake Tahoe on the California-Nevada border and neighbouring Reno, Nevada, in the days following the 2022 addition of Burning Man, business owners, locals and officials told SFGate.

“What I’ve seen are large construction bags of trash, alcohol bottles, tons of food, tents and large aluminum poles from shade structures,” said a business owner in Truckee, California, to the news outlet.

[6 September 2023 09:00 · Alisha Rahaman Sarkar]

Burning Man death caused by suspected drug intoxication

A California man likely died at the mud-impacted Burning Man festival from drug intoxication, a coroner’s office has said.

Leon Reece, 32, was found unresponsive on the remote and weather-hit Nevada festival grounds on Friday evening, according to authorities.

The exact cause and manner of Reece’s death are still pending but the Washoe County Medical Examiner’s Office said in a statement that drug intoxication was suspected.

Graeme Massie reports.

[6 September 2023 09:30 · Alisha Rahaman Sarkar]

Diplo shares his experience from the Burning Man

Diplo managed to escape the Burning Man festival this weekend while some 73,000 attendees were stranded in the playa following heavy downpours in Nevada’s Black Rock Desert.

[6 September 2023 10:00 · Ariana Baio]

Danica Patrick describes ‘epic’ Burning Man

Danica Patrick, the former racecar driver, described an “epic” Burning Man experience complete with lots of mud thanks to the rain.

“The mud,” Patrick wrote on Instagram complete with several photos showing how deep and messy the mud was during this year’s festival.

“It was beyond memorable!!! The people and purpose make it so. Rain and mud can’t touch the spirit of BM,” Patrick continued.

[6 September 2023 13:00 · Ariana Baio]

Watch: Burning Man attendees leave site after flooded festival finishes

[6 September 2023 14:00 · Ariana Baio]

Ted Cruz tries to reclaim joke amid Burning Man chaos after he fell for shark hoax

After falling for the “Hurricane Shark” hoax during Tropical Storm Hilary, Ted Cruz wanted to let everyone know he was in on the joke this time.

The Texas senator, and prolific content creator, shared a doctored image on Tuesday purporting to show a shark on a flooded highway near the Burning Man festival on the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter.

“Holy crap,” Mr Cruz wrote, along with a crossed fingers emoji, to indicate he was in on the ruse.

The shark meme, which began circulating in 2011, has become an infamous online prank well-known to most savvy social media users, but apparently not Mr Cruz.

Bevan Hurley reports:

[6 September 2023 15:00 · Ariana Baio]

Burning Man reminds attendees to dispose of waste

As the final attendees of Burning Man hit the road to travel back home, organisers are reminding them to leave no waste behind in the Black Rock Desert.

“There is a small, yet significant, portion of people who do it wrong and unfortunately dump their trash at locations such as rest stops, RV parks, hotels, convenience stores, or worse — in front of people’s homes. This is a terrible insult to our neighbors and an absolute disgrace to the Burning Man community. It is also illegal, and if you are caught, can result in a $2,000 fine for littering and a run-in with local law enforcement,” a press release from Burning Man says.

“To be clear, dispose of your waste at these authorized Leave Nevada Beautiful locations or take it all the way home with you.”

Leave Nevada Beautiful is part of the network that helps Burning Man attendees recycle and throw away trash as well as dispose of waste.

[6 September 2023 16:00 · Ariana Baio]

ICYMI: Burning Man death caused by suspected drug intoxication

A California man likely died at the mud-impacted Burning Man festival from drug intoxication, a coroner’s office has said.

Leon Reece, 32, was found unresponsive on the remote and weather-hit Nevada festival grounds on Friday evening, according to authorities.

The exact cause and manner of Reece’s death are still pending but the Washoe County Medical Examiner’s Office said in a statement on Tuesday that drug intoxication was suspected.

Deputies were called to the festival grounds at 6.24pm local time on Friday but because of “the unusual rain event happening on the Playa, access to the area and investigative efforts were delayed,” stated the Pershing County Sheriff’s Office.