BLACK ROCK CITY (KTNV) — Every year the Burning Man festival draws in thousands of people.
The annual art festival takes place in the Black Rock Desert, a remote area in Northwest Nevada located more than 9 hours north of Las Vegas. This year, extreme weather hit the event hard.
“By Friday mid-afternoon, it started raining,” said festivalgoer Marc Mer Lin. “Raining like I’ve never seen rain here.”
Mer Lin is a pilot from the Silicon Valley who attends Burning Man annually. He’s one of the more than 70,000 people stuck at the festival. He spoke to Channel 13 through a video call Sunday about the current situation at the festival.
“It’s hard to describe the ground,” Mer Lin said. “It sucks up everything. It’s extremely muddy and there’s pools of water. Right now, I see walking on the playa, but I don’t see any bikes. There’s not supposed to be any. Also, no cars except emergency vehicles.”
Mer Lin said there is still no word on when it is safe to leave. But festivalgoers were told to conserve food, water and fuel. So far, the only people who have been able to successfully exit the campsite are those with four-wheel drive vehicles equipped with off road tires. Nearly everyone else is dealing with practically impassable conditions.
“Your shoe will get inside [the mud] and get stuck,” said Mer Lin.
With rain hitting the area again Sunday, the annual tradition of burning the wooden man originally scheduled for Saturday was postponed once again.
The Pershing County Sheriff’s Office is also investigating a death at Burning Man which happened during the heavy rain event. It is unclear what caused the death.
