Burning Man festival: Exodus begins as travel ban lifted

BLACK ROCK CITY, Nev. — Hundreds of vehicles streamed out of the Burning Man festival grounds on Monday after event organizers officially lifted a travel ban that stranded more than 70,000 people because of heavy rains and thick mud.

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According to a statement posted on the event’s website at 2 p.m. PDT, “Exodus operations have officially begun in Black Rock City.” More than 64,000 people were still at the festival site in the northwest Nevada desert as of midday on Monday.

“Please know that while conditions are improving and roads are drying, the playa is still muddy and may be difficult to navigate in some neighborhoods and down certain streets,” officials said in the statement. “Avoid the 5:30 radial street, stay on hard-packed roads and out of standing water.”

Organizers also asked attendees not to walk out of the desert, located about 110 miles north of Reno, The Associated Press reported. Some of the hikers who ignored that plea were comedian Chris Rock and disc jockey Diplo, who eventually hitched a ride on a passing pickup truck.

There remains a slight chance of rain on Tuesday, but event organizers advised festival attendees to wait, USA Today reported.

That was borne out by motorists who still encountered foot-deep puddles and stretches of sticky mud along the 5-mile route from the site to paved roads, The New York Times reported. Several vehicles were marooned in the sloppy conditions.

“You had to haul,” Kristine Rae, 50, a physical therapist from Idaho who managed to reach the paved road in her truck, told the newspaper. “There were cars stuck halfway up their wheels.”

The culmination of the nine-day event, the burning of a towering sculpture called The Man, was planned for Monday night, USA Today reported. That will be followed by the burning of Chapel of Babel, a large piece of art, at midnight, according to the newspaper.

Festival attendees were told to shelter in place and save food, water and other supplies on Saturday after a slow-moving rainstorm turned the area into a muddy mess. Roads leading in and out of Black Rock City, a temporary city set up for the annual event, were closed beginning Friday night, CNN reported.

The event, which touts local art, self-reliance and self-expression, has been held on the desert since 1991. The practice began in 1986 on Baker Beach in San Francisco and eventually shifted to the Nevada desert, NBC News reported.

“Anywhere you want to go, you are completely caked in mud and that sucks,” Matthew Fassberg, 65, of Fairfax, California, told The Wall Street Journal. “But if you’re somewhat organized, and you don’t need to move around, it is just not that bad. And it is an opportunity to hang with people.”

Authorities were also investigating the death of a 40-year-old man at the event, but it did not appear to be weather-related, according to the Times.

“The family has been notified and the death is under investigation,” the Pershing County Sheriff’s Office said in a news release late Saturday night obtained by CNN. The sheriff’s office also said that the death “occurred during this rain event.”

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