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70.000 people on a dry lake bed and NO ONE thought to check the weather before attending?
"Its not my fault. My Siri, Alexa, iPad, smart phone, smart watch, smart refrigerator, my Tesla... None of them told me it was going to rain!"
Wayne
Part 1
MSN
Why the Burning Man mass exodus is a sign of things to come
Story by Eleanor Steafel
Vehicles seen departing the Burning Man festival - REUTERS
© Provided by The Telegraph
Twelve years ago, in a spot buried somewhere in the middle of Nevada’s Black Rock desert, a new airport appeared on official aviation charts. There was no building, no air traffic control tower or tarmacked runway, just a windsock flapping in the breeze.
Most of the time, anyone traveling across the dried-up lake bed would drive straight through airport 88NV without even knowing it was there. But for 13 days every August, the Black Rock City Municipal Airport “rises from the dust”, ushering thousands of wealthy festival-goers into the desert for an extended dose of pure hedonism.
Last year, over 2,000 private flights landed, carrying revelers bound for nine days of partying in a pop-up metropolis; this year, anyone who can cobble together the funds is desperately trying to charter a plane out of there. For two days, they were stuck in the mud with no route in or out.
Burning Man — known as a kind of dusty Davos, so thick is the festival with tech executives and billionaires these days — is currently under water. 70,000 people were stranded and thousands of cars stuck after flash floods turned the normally rock hard mud into sludge.
Police are investigating the death of one attendee, with organizers asking so-called “Burners” to shelter in place, only allowing emergency vehicles to enter the site.
For two days, revelers at Burning Man have been stuck in the mud, with no route in or out - Reuters
© Provided by The Telegraph
When you get a particularly muddy year at Glastonbury, people simply pack up their tent and hotfoot it out of Somerset on the nearest coach. But when you’re in the middle of the desert and the ground has turned to quicksand, options are limited. A $60,000 private plane might suddenly sound appealing.
“We got so many calls last night,” says Fikrat Rafikov, founder of Jet Finder, a private jet company based in Dubai. They had been booked to land four flights at the festival this year, with clients ranging from Israeli businessmen to what Rafikov describes as “techie people”. By Saturday, they were inundated with calls from festival-goers willing to pay any price to hitch a lift out of the mud bath.
“We had around 50 requests last night to take people out,” says Rafikov. “They were willing to pay. Of course we would never say no to money, but there is no way we could land there at the moment.”
‘Burners’ are struggling across the site, some using trash bags as makeshift boots, while many vehicles were stuck in the sludge - Reuters
© Provided by The Telegraph
Money can buy an awful lot of things, it seems, apart from a functioning runway when that runway suddenly resembles wet cement. “We have to wait until it dries. This airport isn’t a regular airport. It’s created for the festival and then it’s demolished, there’s nothing left after. […] I think we need to wait for at least two days until everything dries out,” adds Rafikov.
It doesn’t matter how famous you are, then, or how many companies you have floated on the stock exchange. If you want to get out of Burning Man, you’re going to have to walk.
It worked for the American comedian Chris Rock and DJ Diplo. The pair trekked through six miles of mud looking for a passing motorist to take pity on them, which a fan eventually did, spotting them on a road on the outskirts of the festival site. “A fan offered Chris Rock and I a ride out of Burning Man in the back of a pickup,” the DJ told his Instagram followers. “I legit walked the side of the road for hours with my thumb out cuz I have a show in DC tonight and didn’t want to let y’all down.
“Also shout out to this guy for making the smart purchase of a truck not knowing it was for this exact moment.”
The Man structure, normally burned on Saturday night, looms over the Burning Man encampment after a severe rainstorm left thousands stranded in mud in Black Rock City - Trevor Hughes/USA Today Network/Reuters
© Provided by The Telegraph
Others are staying put at the beleaguered festival, waiting for the sun to bake the wet mud of the ‘Playa’ and allow them to drive out. Mark Fromson, a photographer who is on his “fifth Burn”, got stuck a mile from his camp when the rains came down. “You just sink in, it’s kind of like quicksand,” he says, speaking on the phone from his RV.
“We were stranded in a camp for about three hours. They were very welcoming. They fed us and kept us comfortable and gave us warm clothes, which was great. But then we decided that we had to make a move before it got dark to try to get back to our camp so that we could sleep comfortably in our RV.
“We made the [journey], which is about a mile or so in the mud. We had to remove our shoes and socks and walk barefoot because that was the only way you could really make any progress.”
People have been getting the majority of their information from the festival radio station, says Fromson, where warnings to conserve food and water and stay dry are being disseminated across the site. Some have been making “the six mile hike”, but anyone with a car or motorhome has to wait as the road out remains unusable. “Any vehicle will get stuck and bikes just pick up mud. Your shoes get very, very heavy, they get caked with three or four inches of mud. But if you’re going barefoot or have plastic bags around your feet then you really are OK.”
Fromson, 54, and his partner Adriana were able to make it back to their RV after the rain; others were “not so lucky”. “[They] were stranded in different camps, or potentially just had a tent out here and maybe not the most appropriate clothing.
“Apparently the biggest threat to the festival-goers was hypothermia. That was what everybody was worried about, [the risk of hypothermia] if you’re wet and the temperatures drop in the evening.”
A pair of Teva sandals is seen on a chest in the middle of tents in the muddy desert plain - Julie Jammot/AFP/Getty
© Provided by The Telegraph
There is a certain irony about a desert festival mired in rain. More so when you consider that, at an event which claims to be all about living outside of civilisation, embracing counter culture and sticking two fingers up to capitalism (you can’t pay for anything on site with money, but can only barter and trade), your best hope of seeing out a few days in the swamp is a gas guzzling RV complete with a fridge-freezer and a nice warm bed.
“Burning Man is always meant to be a protest against consumerism,” says Andy Murray-Watson, founder of Brixton Gin, who went to the festival in 2011, flying to San Francisco, hiring a car and driving to the desert with a tent in the boot. Even then, he says, there were growing numbers of people taking a notably luxe approach to counter culture. “You were aware that there were people there doing it very differently.”
For some, Burning Man has never quite been able to square being both an alternative festival and an event with an enormous annual carbon footprint. Each Burning Man generates about 100,000 tonnes of carbon from the transportation to and from the site to the generators that keep air conditioners going during the festival.
"Its not my fault. My Siri, Alexa, iPad, smart phone, smart watch, smart refrigerator, my Tesla... None of them told me it was going to rain!"
Wayne
Part 1
MSN
Why the Burning Man mass exodus is a sign of things to come
Story by Eleanor Steafel
Vehicles seen departing the Burning Man festival - REUTERS
© Provided by The Telegraph
Twelve years ago, in a spot buried somewhere in the middle of Nevada’s Black Rock desert, a new airport appeared on official aviation charts. There was no building, no air traffic control tower or tarmacked runway, just a windsock flapping in the breeze.
Most of the time, anyone traveling across the dried-up lake bed would drive straight through airport 88NV without even knowing it was there. But for 13 days every August, the Black Rock City Municipal Airport “rises from the dust”, ushering thousands of wealthy festival-goers into the desert for an extended dose of pure hedonism.
Last year, over 2,000 private flights landed, carrying revelers bound for nine days of partying in a pop-up metropolis; this year, anyone who can cobble together the funds is desperately trying to charter a plane out of there. For two days, they were stuck in the mud with no route in or out.
Burning Man — known as a kind of dusty Davos, so thick is the festival with tech executives and billionaires these days — is currently under water. 70,000 people were stranded and thousands of cars stuck after flash floods turned the normally rock hard mud into sludge.
Police are investigating the death of one attendee, with organizers asking so-called “Burners” to shelter in place, only allowing emergency vehicles to enter the site.
For two days, revelers at Burning Man have been stuck in the mud, with no route in or out - Reuters
© Provided by The Telegraph
When you get a particularly muddy year at Glastonbury, people simply pack up their tent and hotfoot it out of Somerset on the nearest coach. But when you’re in the middle of the desert and the ground has turned to quicksand, options are limited. A $60,000 private plane might suddenly sound appealing.
“We got so many calls last night,” says Fikrat Rafikov, founder of Jet Finder, a private jet company based in Dubai. They had been booked to land four flights at the festival this year, with clients ranging from Israeli businessmen to what Rafikov describes as “techie people”. By Saturday, they were inundated with calls from festival-goers willing to pay any price to hitch a lift out of the mud bath.
“We had around 50 requests last night to take people out,” says Rafikov. “They were willing to pay. Of course we would never say no to money, but there is no way we could land there at the moment.”
‘Burners’ are struggling across the site, some using trash bags as makeshift boots, while many vehicles were stuck in the sludge - Reuters
© Provided by The Telegraph
Money can buy an awful lot of things, it seems, apart from a functioning runway when that runway suddenly resembles wet cement. “We have to wait until it dries. This airport isn’t a regular airport. It’s created for the festival and then it’s demolished, there’s nothing left after. […] I think we need to wait for at least two days until everything dries out,” adds Rafikov.
It doesn’t matter how famous you are, then, or how many companies you have floated on the stock exchange. If you want to get out of Burning Man, you’re going to have to walk.
It worked for the American comedian Chris Rock and DJ Diplo. The pair trekked through six miles of mud looking for a passing motorist to take pity on them, which a fan eventually did, spotting them on a road on the outskirts of the festival site. “A fan offered Chris Rock and I a ride out of Burning Man in the back of a pickup,” the DJ told his Instagram followers. “I legit walked the side of the road for hours with my thumb out cuz I have a show in DC tonight and didn’t want to let y’all down.
“Also shout out to this guy for making the smart purchase of a truck not knowing it was for this exact moment.”
The Man structure, normally burned on Saturday night, looms over the Burning Man encampment after a severe rainstorm left thousands stranded in mud in Black Rock City - Trevor Hughes/USA Today Network/Reuters
© Provided by The Telegraph
Others are staying put at the beleaguered festival, waiting for the sun to bake the wet mud of the ‘Playa’ and allow them to drive out. Mark Fromson, a photographer who is on his “fifth Burn”, got stuck a mile from his camp when the rains came down. “You just sink in, it’s kind of like quicksand,” he says, speaking on the phone from his RV.
“We were stranded in a camp for about three hours. They were very welcoming. They fed us and kept us comfortable and gave us warm clothes, which was great. But then we decided that we had to make a move before it got dark to try to get back to our camp so that we could sleep comfortably in our RV.
“We made the [journey], which is about a mile or so in the mud. We had to remove our shoes and socks and walk barefoot because that was the only way you could really make any progress.”
People have been getting the majority of their information from the festival radio station, says Fromson, where warnings to conserve food and water and stay dry are being disseminated across the site. Some have been making “the six mile hike”, but anyone with a car or motorhome has to wait as the road out remains unusable. “Any vehicle will get stuck and bikes just pick up mud. Your shoes get very, very heavy, they get caked with three or four inches of mud. But if you’re going barefoot or have plastic bags around your feet then you really are OK.”
Fromson, 54, and his partner Adriana were able to make it back to their RV after the rain; others were “not so lucky”. “[They] were stranded in different camps, or potentially just had a tent out here and maybe not the most appropriate clothing.
“Apparently the biggest threat to the festival-goers was hypothermia. That was what everybody was worried about, [the risk of hypothermia] if you’re wet and the temperatures drop in the evening.”
A pair of Teva sandals is seen on a chest in the middle of tents in the muddy desert plain - Julie Jammot/AFP/Getty
© Provided by The Telegraph
There is a certain irony about a desert festival mired in rain. More so when you consider that, at an event which claims to be all about living outside of civilisation, embracing counter culture and sticking two fingers up to capitalism (you can’t pay for anything on site with money, but can only barter and trade), your best hope of seeing out a few days in the swamp is a gas guzzling RV complete with a fridge-freezer and a nice warm bed.
“Burning Man is always meant to be a protest against consumerism,” says Andy Murray-Watson, founder of Brixton Gin, who went to the festival in 2011, flying to San Francisco, hiring a car and driving to the desert with a tent in the boot. Even then, he says, there were growing numbers of people taking a notably luxe approach to counter culture. “You were aware that there were people there doing it very differently.”
For some, Burning Man has never quite been able to square being both an alternative festival and an event with an enormous annual carbon footprint. Each Burning Man generates about 100,000 tonnes of carbon from the transportation to and from the site to the generators that keep air conditioners going during the festival.
