Burning Man festival draws attendees to desert despite storm floods

Burning Man festival will draw guests to a major event in the Black Rock Desert. Photo / Zoe MacFarlane

While the unexpected rebirth of the infamous and fraudulent Fyre Festival is capturing headlines, there’s another firey festival set to attract visitors next week.

The annual Burning Man event is scheduled to kick off on August 27. Each year, Burning Man hosts hoards of loyal festival followers (sometimes called ‘Burners’) at a temporary city called the ‘playa’, deep in the Black Rock Desert in the western United States.

The event features a firey ritual appropriate for its namesake – a giant wooden statue (called ‘The Man’) is set alight towards the end of the long week at the playa.

'The Man' is set alight at the Burning Man festival in Nevada. Photo / Dane Deaner, Unsplash

According to the organisation’s website, Burning Man “is a global ecosystem of artists, makers, and community organizers who co-create art, events, and local initiatives around the world.”

The description also highlights the famous gathering in the desert.

“Most recognizably, tens of thousands of Burners gather annually to build Black Rock City, a participative temporary metropolis in the Nevada desert.”

The organisation also points to 10 principles that seek to reflect the “community’s ethos and culture”.

Among those principles are radical inclusion, gifting, decommodification, radical self-expression and leaving no trace.

However, throughout the years Burning Man has faced criticism, particularly for its environmental impacts (think long traffic queues, emissions from fire displays and impacts of setting up camp in the desert) and exclusivity.

The countdown to this year’s launch has not run without trouble. Earlier this week, Nevada Black Rock Desert was forced to shut its gates after tropical storm Hilary swept through the region. Images shared across social media showed the event site in a muddy state of disarray.

The weather and road closures led the Burning Man Project (the non-profit that manages the event) to request that attendees delay their journey into the desert. In a statement to Insider, the organisation said,

“We have 1,500 staff onsite waiting for the surface to dry, and we are asking all early arrival workers and campers to delay their travel.”

The gates will reportedly be reopened for some attendees. The event is expected to go ahead as planned.