Burning Man

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Death at Flooded Burning Man Is Under Investigation
Washed-Out
Burning Man
Turns Fatal
UPDATED
Sep 5, 2023 12:00 AM CDT

Washed-Out Burning Man Turns Fatal

Police say death was not weather-related as exodus finally begins

(Newser) - Event organizers started to allow revelers to leave Burning Man around 2pm local time Monday, though they urged people to hold off on leaving if they could to avoid traffic. Shortly after the exodus began, the wait time was estimated to be five hours long, the AP reports. Organizers also...

Burning Man Is the Opposite of Burning This Year

About an inch of rain makes a muddy mess out of site in Nevada desert

(Newser) - One might be tempted to rebrand Burning Man attendees from "burners" into "mudders" this year. As CNN reports, unusual storms dumped enough rain—a little less than an inch—on the annual bacchanal in the Nevada desert to turn Black Rock City into a soggy mess that has...

Burning Man Canceled, Again
Burning Man Canceled, Again
Apr 28, 2021 2:41 AM CDT

Burning Man Canceled, Again

COVID once again messes with annual desert festival

(Newser) - Burning Man organizers announced Tuesday they are canceling this summer’s annual counter-culture festival in the Nevada desert for the second year in a row because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the AP reports. The San Francisco-based group posted a video on its website that said there are too many uncertainties...

For First Time in 30-Plus Years, There Will Be No Burning Man

Partygoers won't converge on Nevada's Black Rock Desert

(Newser) - Another major cultural event bites the dust due to the coronavirus, this time in Nevada's Black Rock Desert. USA Today reports that, for the first time ever in its nearly 35-year history, the nine-day Burning Man arts festival —where, since 1986, stars and other adventurers converge in over-the-top...

Burning Man Says It Is Being Gouged by Feds

Organizers say excessive fees are endangering festival

(Newser) - There are no ATMs at the freewheeling Burning Man festival in the Nevada desert—but organizers say the federal government is treating them like one. In a lawsuit filed earlier this month, festival organizers accuse the Bureau of Land Management of overcharging them in annual fees over the last seven...

Man's Death at Burning Man Considered Suspicious

Sheriff's officials investigate

(Newser) - Officials are investigating a death at the Burning Man festival in the Nevada desert. Shane Billingham, 33, was pronounced dead Thursday in a medical tent, SFGate reports, and the Pershing County Sheriff's Office said the death is considered suspicious. Few details were available, but Billingham was found unresponsive in...

He Brought Us Burning Man; Rest in Peace, Larry Harvey

He created the festival on a San Francisco Beach then moved it to Nevada's Black Rock Desert

(Newser) - The co-founder of the "Burning Man" festival has died, reports the AP . He was 70. Burning Man Project CEO Marian Goodell says Larry Harvey died Saturday morning at a hospital in San Francisco. The cause of death was not immediately known, but Harvey had suffered a stroke on April...

Man Who Died From Flames Was at His First Burning Man

More on the death of Aaron Joel Mitchell, 41

(Newser) - The Reno Gazette-Journal has more on the man who died after he ran into the Burning Man festival’s eponymous effigy Saturday night. Aaron Joel Mitchell, 41, was attending his first Burning Man, says his mother, who tells the paper her son was originally from McAlester, Okla., but had been...

Man Dies After Running Into Burning Man Blaze

Aaron Joel Mitchell ran past security barriers at festival

(Newser) - Burning Man got more tragically literal this year after a festival-goer fatally charged into the Saturday night bonfire, in which the festival’s eponymous effigy is set aflame. The man has been identified as 41-year-old Aaron Joel Mitchell, reports USA Today ; onsite responders pulled Mitchell from the fire after he...

Katy Perry Totally Fails at Segway Riding

But her dad makes up for it

(Newser) - Katy Perry: good at singing, not so good at riding a Segway. Perry posted an Instagram video from Burning Man this weekend showing her (while clad in a puffy coat, tiny backpack, and vaguely creepy mask) attempting to spin on a Segway, only to watch it escape from her grasp...

Burning Man Is Crawling With Big, Biting Bugs

In the days leading up to the desert event, early arriving Burners find an infestation

(Newser) - There's a burning question in the days leading up to this year's Burning Man: Who let the bugs out? And while that may seem like an ordinary question at the start of any Burning Man, this year it's particularly literal as early-arriving Burners photograph an apparent infestation...

Israel's Burning Man Torched Ancient Relics

Site of festival fire housed ancient flint tools

(Newser) - The Israeli Antiquities Authority says revelers at a Burning Man festival famous for its pyrotechnic spectacles have accidentally torched some remnants of prehistoric man. Archaeologist Yoram Haimi says organizers of Midburn, an Israeli affiliate of the Nevada carnival, burned a wooden temple Saturday on a hilltop scattered with flint tools...

Freak Rain Douses Burning Man

Attendees forced to camp in parking lots of Walmart, casino til today

(Newser) - It might be tough to become one with nature in a Walmart parking lot, but Burning Man participants don't have a lot of choice after a rare rainstorm saturated the Black Rock Desert and left it filled with standing water, reports the Reno Gazette-Journal . Would-be attendees were turned away...

Man Dies in Fire at Burning Man Knockoff

Police say it was suicide

(Newser) - Onlookers at a Utah Burning Man festival watched in horror Saturday as a man ran head-long into a ceremonial bonfire and never came back out, KUTV reports. It was about 11pm when Christopher Wallace, 30, broke through a barrier surrounding a burning three-story structure inspired by the book Where the ...

Why Do Thousands Love Burning Man?
 Why Do Thousands 
 Love Burning Man? 
essay
Sep 19, 2011 11:40 AM CDT

Why Do Thousands Love Burning Man?

'This is the real world, out there is fake,' explains one participant

(Newser) - In 1986, about 20 people gathered to watch an 8-foot-tall wooden man burn on a San Francisco beach, and Burning Man was born. This year, 53,000 people paid from $220 to more than $500 to attend the festival, now held in a remote corner of the Nevada desert and...

Burning Man Torcher Calls It an 'Act of Love'

Festival has become 'too suburban,' says gonzo former lawyer

(Newser) - The San Francisco prankster who put an early torch to the 40-foot-tall Burning Man last week—earning himself a felony arson charge—tells the San Francisco Chronicle his stunt was a plea to put spontaneity back into the Nevada festival that culminates tonight. "This was not an act of...

Burning Man Torched Early
Burning Man Torched Early
Aug 29, 2007 6:35 AM CDT

Burning Man Torched Early

Vandal charged with arson after icon of hedonistic arts festival bursts into flames

(Newser) - A San Francisco vandal torched a giant effigy four days before it was slated to burn as part of the annual hedonistic Burning Man arts festival, according to police. The vandal was arrested for arson and possession of fireworks. Most of the 40-foot Man is still standing, and organizers are...

17 Stories