Revellers finally able to leave the Burning Man festival in the United States face a six hour delay.
Tens of thousands of partygoers were stranded at the counter culture festival as heavy rain battered Nevada over the weekend. But the northern Nevada desert has now started to dry up.
Event organisers were finally able to let people off the site at around 2pm local time on Monday. But they later revealed there were massive queues, urging motorists to be kind to volunteers trying to manage the flow of traffic.
A Burning Man Traffic announcement on X said: “Please be courteous to the flaggers and pulsers who are volunteering their time to make sure everyone leaves the city in a safe and orderly manner. Tune into GARS at 95.1 for traffic information, and BMIR at 94.5 for information and more. The wait time is 6 hrs to exit BRC.
“If you are able to depart BRC tomorrow 9/5, please do so! Watch the Man Burn tonight (9pm) and the Chapel of Babel burn (12a). Do an extra MOOP sweep (or two) with your campmates. Cook that last tasty, communal meal. There’s a lot of traffic on Gate Road right now.
“You might be much happier hanging out in camp with your friends than sitting in a static line of cars for many hours. Wake up refreshed on Tuesday and hit the road then.”
Organizers had previously pleaded with festivalgoers not to attempt to walk out of the Black Rock Desert, which is located around 110 miles away from Reno. Over the weekend high profile names including Chris Rock and DJ Diplo had reportedly left on foot.
The festival initially closed to vehicles after half an inch (1.3cm) of rain fell on Friday. It caused flooding and around a foot of mud on the site.
The annual event, which launched in San Francisco beach in 1986, welcomes around 80,000 people each year. It consists of music, performance arts, avante-garde performances, and wilderness camping.
The festival is however no stranger to being disrupted. Dust clouds meant the entrance had to be closed in 2018 and it was twice canceled altogether during the coronavirus pandemic.
The remote event promotes self-sufficiency. During the flooding revelers were encouraged to conserve their food and water.
