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?

[8 September 2023 08:30 · Alisha Rahaman Sarkar]

FEMA dismisses Burning Man rumours

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has dismissed as fake a screenshot of a social media post allegedly urging Burning Man attendees to go to an on-site FEMA emergency station at the festival grounds.

The screenshot surfaced on social media after attendees were told to stay at the festival grounds and to conserve food after heavy downpours turned the playa to mud, leaving over 70,000 people stranded in the Nevada desert.

“There have been no requests for FEMA assistance or resources from local or state authorities related to Burning Man,” David Passey, a spokesperson for the federal disaster agency, told Newsweek.

“Therefore, there are no FEMA personnel or teams responding.”

[8 September 2023 09:00 · Megan Sheets]

Timeline: How the Burning Man fiasco unfolded

Here, Bevan Hurley explains how Burning Man 2023 descended into chaos - before the festival even began:

[8 September 2023 13:00 · Megan Sheets]

WATCH: Burning man revellers reveal grim conditions