Burning Man 2023: From Mud to Madness

Once a year, right between August and September, in the scorching-hot desert of Black Rock, Nevada, tens of thousands of people gather to unleash their inner artist and get wild at a festival called Burning Man. The “anything goes” reputation guided by its 10 sacred principles has made the festival one of the most controversial, and therefore one of the most popular events in the world, gathering many celebrities.

A week of dancing, arts, and spiritual cleaning ends with a massive bonfire that devours a colossal stuffed puppet. Hence the name - the Burning Man.?

Except if Mother Nature has a different plan. Like this year.

A Look Back - How It All Started

The official Burning Man story kicked off in Black Rock back in '91, but the very first time folks gathered to let loose was already in '86. It looked something like this: 30 people celebrating the summer solstice and torching a 3-meter-high puppet on a San Francisco beach. Over the years, it has grown to an event with almost 70,000 visitors, coming armed with camping gear and ready to tackle 40-degree temperatures in the desert within a phone-free zone.

Quite an adventure. At 575$ a ticket.

Black Rock City is the name of the temporary city that is set up for the event and disappears just a few days after it and a place where anything is possible. As long as it abides by the community’s 10 rules .

First off, money's a no-go; it's all about exchange and donation. You've got to be self-sufficient, bringing your own food, water, and electricity. The only shops you'll find are the ones selling ice and coffee.

Civic and environmental responsibility? You bet. They've got a handbook for participants that spells out all the principles and ethical stuff you need to follow.

The event always forms a giant semi-circle, like a cosmic hug for art and personal expression. There's space for quirky installations, impromptu theater performances, banging concerts, zen yoga classes, mind-blowing exhibitions, and music that'll rock your world. Plus, DJ sets that'll keep you grooving all night long.

Oh, and the theme? Changes every year, the organizers, a non-profit organization called the Burning Man Project, spills the beans on the official website right before the event.

A (Non)Exclusive Event?

Here's where it gets wild. Over the past few years, this mega festival has boosted its reputation so much that started drawing people from all over the world, including quite a number of celebrities. They usually jet in on private planes, roll up in luxury campers, and have their own wait staff. It has become so common that there are entire zones closed off, forming small “high-end neighborhoods” devoted to very wealthy campers. Talking about inclusivity.

But anyone is indeed welcome, the sense of it all is anarchy against precise rules. As long as they can pay around 1500$ for the entire experience.

One of the most important rules? Leave no trace behind.

That worked out just fine until this year.

Rain turns site to mud

This year, a slow-moving rainstorm turned the event into a mud bath, thus leaving tens of thousands of “burners” trapped in the desert. Burning Man was expected to run from Aug. 27th through Sep. 4th. In the end, it took a little longer due to the aforementioned.

The weather conditions that took hold on Friday, Sep. 1st, were described as “treacherous” with “thick, slimy mud that clung to shoes and anything else it touched”. No driving was permitted except for emergency vehicles, and attendees were asked to conserve food and water and shelter in a warm place as temperatures dropped to 10 degrees Celsius.

On Sunday, Sep. 3rd, what was supposed to be the last day of the festival, frustration apparently grew amid those unable to leave by vehicle. Although organizers said people could leave the event by foot, there was a 5-mile trek to the nearest paved road, and organizers advised that it shouldn’t be done at night.

Among those choosing to leave Burning Man were some celebrities. Diplo tweeted that he and Chris Rock walked out of the festival before being picked up by a fan.

Social media was having a field day, as there was supposedly an Ebola and E.coli outbreak. Despite some burners’ efforts to minimize accurate media reporting on the event as ‘clickbait', it was a rough time. Toilets were full to the brim with feces, parents were stranded with their children, tents were flooded out, and vital systems broke down. There was even a death reported at camp.

The viral outbreak turned out to be misinformation, but the rest was true. Festivalgoers were advised to urinate in bottles to conserve space in the porta-potties. Camps began rationing meals, and people preemptively popped anti-diarrheal Imodium tablets.

And then there was the potential environmental damage. Far from civilization, the empty lake bed in the remote reaches of Northern Nevada makes the event’s signature creativity and generosity feel magical - but also makes the risk of ecological impacts far higher.?

Usually, attendees religiously patrol the site for “moop” (Matter Out Of Place - any litter, detritus or human waste) and crews spend weeks combing the site for any signs of the festival's impact on our planet.

This year, after the rain, moop was everywhere. The porta-potties were surrounded by a halo of shredded toilet paper that clung to shoes. Flip-flops, bikes, clothes, scraps were mashed to the ground and tents were abandoned by fleeing visitors. The remains thus became a testament to humanity’s damage to the environment.

Come day 11 of the festival, “burners” were finally able to leave home in what is know as the “Exodus”.

The Aftermath: Did this Course of Events Affect the Reputation of the Festival?

If we take a look at the mentions of the festival through Determ and how the sentiment towards the term Burning Man changed, we can see 2 significant spikes of negative sentiment, one right when the festival started and the other right after the storm.

The first spike can be attributed to the events prior to the festival and climate change activists raising their voice.

Setting up what has become an entire metropolis in the middle of the desert has to have an environmental cost - a fact very much disaligned with the “leave no trace” culture Burning Man’s promoting. It was estimated that that more than 54,200 metric tons of CO2 was released by the festival in 2019, due to transportation (RVs, private jets, cars) and aur-conditioned tents. It’s like burning 27,215 metric tons of coal. The festival is a huge polluter.

All of this came to the boiling point this year when a group of climate change protesters blocked the road leading to the festival site in an attempt to stop people from going. The protests were neglected and the event, naturally, took place. We can see that the second spike happened when the situation with the storm got out of control. Will this have a lasting effect on the Burning Man reputation? Probably to a degree.

There’s a sense of irony in the whole thing, right? One day you’re raging at environmental protesters, the other you get stuck in a climate-induced crisis.

In any case, the protests brought one very important fact under the highlight - this festival is a huge polluter. And the only way to make this image better is by introducing serious measures for the future events and cleaning up the mess (in every way) after this one.?

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*All metric screenshots are taken directly from Determ, a media monitoring tool.