The music kept blasting but not everyone was reveling this year at the Burning Man festival in the barren expanse of Nevada desert: rain turned the site into a muddy quagmire that made the festival a survival ordeal for some of the 70,000 participants.
For some veteran “burners,” a weekend of rain didn’t ruin the counterculture festival’s vibe on the so-called playa, even as a few attendees fled the sodden Nevada desert for civilization.
Despite reports of vehicles trapped in the sludge on the road out and warnings from organizers to shelter in place and conserve food and water, festivalgoer Willonius Hatcher said he felt “good.”
“I’m not worried,” he told AFP at one campsite where many were gathering in hopes of snagging a few minutes of internet access. “I’ve learned to go with the flow here.”
Attendees stomp around with clumps of dried mud clinging to their feet — some trade advice on how to rig plastic trash bags and socks into makeshift boots — while others go barefoot.
With their usual art installations and other entertainment canceled — including the festival’s namesake event, the burning of a 40-foot effigy known as “the Man” — burners make jokes to try to cheer each other up despite the desperate circumstances.
“Rain is a blessing in disguise low-key,” Hatcher said, “because we’re talking to so many people, and we’re forced to slow down.”
“There’s beauty in chaos and I’m choosing to embrace that,” added the 39-year-old comedian and screenwriter, who missed his flight out Sunday when he couldn’t escape the muddy site.
‘Had to get out’
For others, the risks of spending days stranded in a drenched wilderness with tens of thousands of strangers proved too great, and many chose to brave miles of mud in search of a paved road.
“I got scared with what happens when so many people run out of toilet paper and water and food, so I felt I had to get out,” Pascale Brand, a 40-year-old woman who hitched a ride in a neighbor’s vehicle, told AFP.
Laura Kennedy said she, her husband and a friend decided to leave Burning Man to get home to her son.
“We walked — through the city to the gates and across mud, dry patches of Playa, two shallow rivers, and (past) several abandoned cars,” she told AFP.
They met up with four other festivalgoers and eventually caught a ride — and Kennedy said she still hopes to come back to this remote pop-up society in the desert someday.
“Our journey was made possible thanks to the love and support of other burners,” she said.
