Overview
Nevada's epic desert-based arts festival, Burning Man, is currently postponed due to nasty, nasty desert rain. The festival organisers, who have been keeping festivalgoers updated on Twitter, have officially shut down the main entrance after severe rain. With 70,000 'burners' expected to attend this year, holding up traffic much longer could prove a problem for the BM team.
Rain continuing. Please do not come to Burning Man until you hear otherwise from official channels.
— Burning Man Traffic (@bmantraffic) August 25, 2014
If you're not across it, Black Rock Desert's awaited annual festival hinges around the establishment of a temporary, trade-based community in the desert, sees the building of countless, epic art installations and outdoor live sets over the course of a week — not the ideal itinerary for bucketing rain.
A long way from its humble San Francisco beginnings in 1986, founder Larry Harvey's desert bacchanal now has over 50 permanent staff, an army of volunteers and a seriously million-dollar budget, so the team won't be taking any willy nilly chances on this unexpected storm. The standing water has created a muddy mess, Bureau of Land Management dispatcher Mike Wilke told the Reno Gazette-Journal, so countless vehicles are being turned around on State Highway 447. Burning Man's tweets suggest the doors won't open until Tuesday midday at this point:
BRC is closed until midday Tuesday due to rain and standing water. At the request of organizers, law enforcement is turning cars back.
— Burning Man Traffic (@bmantraffic) August 25, 2014
With a fair bit of backlash this year surrounding the attendance of too many cashed-up techies (read: Sillicon valley billionaires), Burning Man punters are hoping the posers get disheartened by wet feet and Actually Camping.
Image: Reuters/Jim Urquhart.