With Burning Man being cancelled for the second year in a row over COVID-19 concerns, some Burners who do not have COVID-19 concerns organized their own “renegade” Burning Man on the Black Rock Desert Playa, near Gerlach, Nevada, over the last week.
Pershing County Sheriff Jerry Allen described this year’s event — held outside the official auspices of the Burning Man organization — as “people packed in a small space in the heat, no shade or cooling other than nighttime, little respect for your fellow man, and this year add the thick amounts of smoke and no (organized group) to attempt to diffuse situations.”
In addition to an increase in car crashes and open acts of speeding, there was a general “lack of care for fellow participants” over gathering that culminated Monday, Allen said.
He estimated more than 15,000 people flocked to what was dubbed “Renegade” Burning Man after organizers canceled the event for the second year in a row amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
And there were a few more serious accidents, but overall, accounts from on the ground indicate the event was not disastrous, and did produce some Burner joy.
Typically, the annual event attracts more than 80,000 people to the playa about two hours north of Reno.
Last year it was estimated that about 5,000 people gathered in the Black Rock Desert even though the arts festival was cancelled.
“We have been pretty busy out there,” Allen said of this year’s gathering, which attracted at least some celebrity regulars including Paris Hilton, who posted on Instagram from Burning Man.
Source: SFIST