2023-09-03 15:45:00
Police in the US state of Nevada (West) announced on Saturday that they were investigating a death “which occurred during this episode of heavy rain”, without providing further details on the circumstances of the death.
On videos shared on social networks, the “playa”, a huge open-air field where the rally is held, appears to be impracticable.
“A little over 70,000 people” were still stuck at the site on Sunday, according to county sheriff Nathan Carmichael, interviewed by CNN. Some try to leave the site on foot to join the only passable road, 8 km further.
Local authorities, however, are asking people to “stay put until the ground becomes solid and safe enough” to allow movement.
Access to Black Rock City, the name of the festival site located in the heart of the Nevada desert, a few tens of km from the first dwellings, was closed on Friday due to bad weather.
“You can’t really walk or drive” because of the mud, testifies Christine Lee, a festival-goer, on a video shared Saturday on TikTok.
“The temporary structures have fallen”, explains the young woman, who says walking barefoot “because it is very difficult to walk with shoes”.
More rains expected
The festival should end on Monday, but “we will surely not be able to leave before Tuesday or Wednesday”, she adds, due to the lack of road and the rains to come.
More rain is expected on Sunday. Faced with this observation, several festival-goers, including comedian Chris Rock, decided to leave the festival on foot.
“We walked 8 km in the mud to get out of Burning Man with Chris Rock and a fan picked us up,” explains musician DJ Diplo on the social network X (ex-Twitter).
Others tried in vain to do so by car, an SUV vehicle sunk in mud up to the underbody appearing on one of the few videos posted, internet access being restricted.
The organizers have been inviting participants on site since Saturday morning to “conserve water, food and fuel and find a warm and safe shelter”.
The majority of the planned activities have been suspended, including the firing of the wooden giant installed in the center of “la playa”, which marks the end of the festival and gives it its name.
The festival had been confronted last year with an intense heat wave with strong winds which had already made the experience difficult for the “burners”, nickname of the festival-goers.
The festival had also been canceled in 2020 and 2021 due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Launched in 1986 in San Francisco, Burning Man aims to be an indefinable event, somewhere between a celebration of the counter-culture and a spiritual retreat.
Initially organized on a beach in San Francisco, Burning Man has become a structured festival, with a budget of nearly $45 million (2018 figures) and more than 75,000 participants in the last edition, down from the previous one in 2019. .
It has been held since the 1990s in the Black Rock Desert, a protected area in northwest Nevada, which the organizers are committed to preserving.
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