Last Updated: September 03, 2023, 08:38 IST
In this satellite photo provided by Maxar Technologies, an overview of Burning Man festival in Black Rock, Nev on Monday, Aug. 28, 2023. (©2023 Maxar Technologies via AP)
Burning Man attendees shelter in place due to mudstorm. Eventgoers stranded as rain turns Nevada desert site muddy
Thousands of people attending the Burning Man festival in the US state of Nevada have been asked to shelter in place on Saturday after a rainstorm turned the site into mud. Revelers of the popular festival in the Nevada desert have been asked to shelter in place and conserve food and water after a rainstorm turned the site into mud.
The event’s site was closed “for the remainder of the event,” organizers said in a statement on social media. Paul Reder, who shared a video of the muddy surroundings on Instagram, said the area was cloudy as more rain is expected for the next two days.
The US Bureau of Land Management said rain had created “a situation that required a full stop of vehicle movement on the playa.”
What is Burning Man?
More than 60,000 participants travel to and from the remote area in northwest Nevada every year, according to the event’s website, gathering in the temporary city to make art, dance, and enjoy community.
The week-long event, held in the Black Rock Desert in Nevada, is known for its radical self-reliance, its lack of commercialism, and its commitment to leaving no trace.
This popular US festival of ‘self-expression’ began in 1986 as a small gathering of friends in San Francisco. The event has since grown to attract tens of thousands of people from all over the world. It takes place in Black Rock City, a temporary city that is built from scratch every year.
The festival is organised by the Burning Man Project, a non-profit organization, with the mission to “create a temporary metropolis dedicated to community, art, self-expression, and self-reliance.”
Flooding situation
Vehicular gates will be closed for the remainder of the event, which began on August 27 and was scheduled to end on Monday, according to the U.S. Bureau of Land Management.
More than one-half inch of rain is believed to have fallen on Friday at the festival site, located about 177 kilometers north of Reno. At least another quarter of an inch of rain is expected Sunday.
US media reports said that organizers started rationing ice sales and that all vehicle traffic at the sprawling festival grounds had been stopped, leaving portable toilets unable to be serviced. Officials haven’t yet said when the entrance is expected to be opened again, and it wasn’t immediately known when celebrants could leave the grounds.
According to the Associated Press (AP), many people played beer pong, danced and splashed in standing water. Mike Jed, a festivalgoer, and fellow campers made a bucket toilet so people didn’t have to trudge as often through the mud to reach the portable toilets.
“If it really turns into a disaster, well, no one is going to have sympathy for us,” Jed said. “I mean, it’s Burning Man.”
(With agency inputs)
www.news18.com
Source link