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Category: Festival News
Tags: ArtBurningManFestivalSafetyWeather
Entities: Black Rock CityBurning ManJulia ReinsteinKayla ThompsonOrgydomePersing County Sheriff's OfficeThe Cut
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Dust storms and high winds. An orgy dome collapse.
Flooding threats. A homicide investigation.
An unexpected birth.
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Traffic delays. Entrance closures.
Art installation damage. Wow.
What a wonderful week at Bernie. Man, [Music]
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[Music]
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what in the wrath of God is happening at Burning Man. So, this was an article from The Cut written by Julia Reinstein.
Are you guys ready for this? Okay, so check this out.
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Things have been getting downright biblical at Burning Man this year. In case you haven't been keeping up with the tech bro Coachella, a bunch of freaky, well freakier than usual, stuff keeps happening at the festival in
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Black Rock City, Nevada. And frankly, it's all getting a little too tin plagues for my taste.
First, there was the fall of the great Origy Dome. Yuck.
which got destroyed after high winds
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took down the structure, banishing those looking for a sandy threesome to do so in their own tents. Then unto the burners a child was born on Wednesday.
Now listen to how crazy
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this is folks. A woman who didn't know she was pregnant spontaneously gave birth.
A Burning Man spokesperson told today.com, "The unsuspecting mother, Kayla Thompson, told the New York Times her
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fellow festival goers helped her deliver her first baby in her RV camper after she woke up with what she initially thought were just bad cramps." Even the nurses at the hospital were like, "You don't look like you were
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pregnant at all. I didn't have any symptoms." Thompson, who is believed to have been about 36 weeks pregnant, told the Times, "The newborn, a girl, was delivered safely and is now recovering in the NICU."
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Wow, what a way to come into the world, huh? And then this weekend, things got quite a bit darker.
On Saturday night, a man was found dead in a suspected homicide.
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According to the Persing County Sheriff's Office, the body was apparently found lying in a pool of blood just as the man, the giant wooden effigy from which the festival gets its name, was beginning to burn. Police have
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not yet identified the victim who was described as a white man. Burning Man wraps up today.
And honestly, based on all these omens, it's about time. That's enough wandering around the desert for this year.
Let my people go
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home and take a shower. [Music] Now, I believe this article was published today because today is the last day of Burning Man 2025, where the theme this year is tomorrow
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today, which is a theme that encourages participants to imagine the future and manifest it through their collective actions and creations in the present. So, this was a short article and it was only part of what went down at Burning
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Man this year. Now, imagine with everything that's been going on all around us, folks, imagine paying 550 to $3,000 with a $150
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vehicle pass for a week-long freakoff ritual with about 70 to 80,000 participants. Now also imagine that one of the biggest headaches that you would face was just
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getting in. Normally traffic going into Burning Man is long, but this year it was crazy because of the weather and the way the infrastructure got slammed.
Some attendees reported sitting in their
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cars for as long as 8 to 15 hours before even reaching the gates. Imagine that.
The cost of being there and then being stuck bumper to bumper in the desert with nothing but dust and frustration.
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And it wasn't just delays. There were multiple closures.
Several storms rolled in bringing heavy wind, thunder, lightning, and yes, a lot of rain just at the right time. You can call it
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coincidence if you want. And all that forced the organizers to temporarily shut down the entrances for hours.
Nobody was getting in and nobody was getting out.
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So thousands of people were ready for this big freespirited event only to be stopped cold by nature itself. It set the tone for the rest of the festival and really highlighted how fragile an event like this can be when
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weather decides to step in and that made me smile on the inside. It really did.
Yeah. A number of different things.
One is and you saw in the photos there a moment ago all of the the wind and the dust storms and the rain. There was flooding that went on.
There was a
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participant in all of these storms who was electrocuted during the the rainstorm, stood in a puddle and actually then got electrocuted and was airlifted out. We don't know that participant's uh condition right now.
Then there was a baby that was born to a
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woman, 36-year-old woman who she and her husband claimed they didn't even know she was pregnant. 3 and 12 lb baby born about a month early, but that she claimed that that she hadn't even been pregnant, had no symptoms of it.
There were medical workers who were camping next to them and actually helped them
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deliver that baby. So, a lot of things that went on over the last couple of days.
When you think about Burning Man, you probably imagine a desert playground full of wild art installations, fire performances, and that raw, otherworldly sense of freedom. But this year, of
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course, nature reminded everyone just how unforgiving the Black Rock Desert can be. On August 24th, a massive dust storm rolled in with sustained winds topping 45 miles per hour.
So that's basically a wall of force that
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turned the playa into a white out nightmare. People couldn't see a thing.
Campsites were shredded, massive art pieces were ripped apart, and at least four people were injured in the chaos. For hours, Black Rock City was a
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survival zone. And it gets better.
I mean it. Much better.
And I'm not being sarcastic either. One of the most infamous structures at the festival, the so-called Origy Dome,
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or should I say the Diddy Dome, didn't make it through the storm. Organizers later admitted that the winds literally undid the entire structure, leaving it in ruins.
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For years, this spot has been one of the festival's most talked about attractions. Whether people went inside or not, everyone knew about it.
And let's face it, folks, let's just be honest. This is
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what attracts people to this thing. sex, music, and thousands of bottles of baby oil.
Even if they're not participating, they want to be around it. Otherwise, why would you go there
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knowing that's what they have there? I'm telling you, walk into Burning Man and the devil is sure to follow you in soon after.
And the weather wasn't done. Just as crews were trying to patch things up, the National Weather Service
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started issuing warnings about incoming monsunal moisture. Translation: potential flooding.
In the middle of the desert, where the ground can't absorb much water, even a
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little rainfall can turn the entire landscape into mud. Yes, it was one big mud party.
Add thunderstorms to the mix and you're suddenly looking at a real threat to safety and mobility.
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People were worried that Black Rock City could literally get trapped in by rising water. And with tens of thousands of attendees on site, that's not a small thing.
So this year, Burning Man became a fight
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against the elements. Dust storms, collapsing structures, and floods reminded everyone that Black Rock City isn't built on stable ground.
Nor was it built for mentally stable individuals.
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Now, when we talk about Burning Man, we of course can't ignore the massive role that art plays in shaping the culture of the event. I mean, people need something to cover up their ulterior motives.
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So every year, artists from around the world bring massive intricate installations to the desert, transforming Black Rock City into a temporary open air museum. So, you go through all this,
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then close to the end of it, you get the announcement of a suspected homicide on August 30th. According to the Persing County Sheriff's Office, a man was discovered dead in a pool of blood at a campsite
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just hours before the symbolic burning of the man effigy. This was not just another medical emergency or accident.
Officials quickly classified it as a homicide investigation.
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What makes this especially significant is that it's the first suspected homicide, not the first death, but homicide since the festival relocated to its current Black Rock Desert location back in 1990.
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And even after someone was murdered and you have a murderer running around, the organizer said, "Oh well, let's burn the wicker man." At the same time, the festival witnessed
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something at the complete opposite end of the human experience, new life. On August 27th, before the murder, in what no one could have predicted, a couple gave birth to a baby girl inside their camper.
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Medical professionals who were volunteering on site rushed to help and managed to safely deliver the baby. Both the mother and newborn were taken to a hospital and reported stable.
And that kid's first bedtime story,
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probably the police report. This year, more than ever, that life and death duality was impossible to ignore.
And here's the crazy part about all of this. There were several people there
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who very well understood the concept of the wrath of God, and they spoke about it on camera. the rain destroying demonic activity.
Because of the rain, the orgy tent was destroyed.
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For as in the days that were before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage until the day that Noah entered into the ark, and knew not until the flood came and
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took them all away. So shall also the coming of the son of man be.
Well, that's all for now and there is more to come everyone. Please click the thumbs up button and like this video.
Leave your thoughts in the
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comment section below and until next time friends everyone have a great day and as always stay awake, stay aware, stay safe and I'll talk to you all soon. Hey, hey, hey.
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