Key Points
- Burning Man festival attendees are stranded in the remote Nevada desert after the site was flooded by heavy rain.
- Festival organisers have closed off access due to safety concerns and advised attendees to shelter in place.
- US media has reported up to 70,000 people are stranded in the temporary city.
Thousands of Burning Man attendees readied to make their "exodus" on Monday as the counter-culture arts festival in the Nevada desert ends in a sea of drying mud instead of a party around its flaming effigy namesake.
Rain over the weekend turned the once hard-packed ground to a mudslide.
One person died at the event in the Black Rock Desert, authorities said on Sunday, providing few details. An investigation is underway.
Organisers posted online that they expected to formally allow vehicles to leave at noon Monday local time, but some attendees told Reuters that a steady stream of vehicles have left since predawn, many struggling through the slop.
The exit is via an unpaved 8 kilometre dirt road out to the nearest highway. Photos shared on online sites showed hefty recreational vehicles sunk up to the tire rims in mud, with some using boards under the wheels to help get traction.
The festival site is located about 24 kilometres from the nearest town and 180 kilometres north of Reno.
Here's what we know.
What is Burning Man?
Burning Man originated as a small function in 1986 on a San Francisco beach, but more than 60,000 participants now travel to and from the remote area in northwest Nevada every year.
Attendees gather in Black Rock Desert to create Black Rock City, a temporary metropolis dedicated to "community, art, self-expression, and self-reliance", according to its website.
The festival gets its name from its culminating event, the burning of a large wooden structure called the Man on the penultimate night.
That has not taken place this year, although organizers said it may still happen on Monday evening.
Why were people stranded at Burning Man?
For days, some 70,000 people were ordered to stay put and conserve food and water as officials closed the roads and exits after a rainstorm turned the site into mud.
Photos and videos on social media showed attendees trudging through thick mud and dirty water, with some facilities out of use and many events cancelled.
Other videos showed some partying on in the rain, with costumed revellers - including a few children - sliding through the sticky mess, most of them covered from head to toe in wet earth.
"When you get pushed to extremes, that's when the most fun happens," said Brian Fraoli, 45, a veteran "burner" who works in finance in New York.
Fraoli said he had tried to drag his luggage through the mud and escape, but gave up and decided to relax and enjoy the experience.
"Overall it was an amazing week and next time we will be more prepared," he said.
Some decided to leave the site early, walking approximately 8 km through the mud to the nearest highway, where the organisers were offering shuttle buses to Reno.
People were advised not to walk at night.
DJ Diplo posted a video to Instagram on Saturday evening showing him and comedian Chris Rock riding in the back of a fan's ute.
He said they had walked nearly 10km through the mud before hitching a ride.
"I legit walked the side of the road for hours with my thumb out," wrote Diplo, whose real name is Thomas Wesley Pentz.
The National Weather Service forecasters said on Monday that the rain was over.
"Yep, the rain cleared out of there," said Marc Chenard, a forecaster with the weather service's Weather Prediction Center in College Park, Maryland. "It'll be sunny today with temperatures in the 70s (Fahrenheit)."
The weather service said the general area received between 1.9 and 3.8 cm of rain since late Friday.
At midday on Monday approximately 64,000 people remained on site.
Organisers asked people who could, to delay leaving until Tuesday morning to reduce the traffic.
