10,000 festival-goers planning to attend unofficial Burning Man

After the cancellation of this year’s Burning Man, some thought that this would be it for this year. However, this might not be an impediment for the usual fans of the iconic event, who are planning to attend this weekend to the Burning Man site for an unofficial celebration.

According to the Bureau of Land Management, the organisation that looks after the Black Rock Desert (located in Northern Nevada), where Burning Man normally takes place, have stated that around 10,000 people could be coming to the Desert for an unprecedented non-official and unauthorised edition of the festival. In social media, this edition has been called by names such as “Free Burn” and “Renegade Burn”.

Although this celebration could be classified as an illegal party, the fact is that it is legal and has chances to go as planned. The lands of the desert can be used by people all year long for activities such as camping and entertainment. Nonetheless, the organisation, which is aware of these plans has already adopted temporary measures (until late October) in order to avoid this “festival”. Some of the restrictions include ignition of fires, building and burning any structure in the desert as well as the use of lasers. Therefore, having considered these measures, if this non-official event goes ahead it will lose all the Burning Man essence and it will for sure be very different to the charismatic event.

Even with this, according to Heather O’Hanlon, Public affairs specialist at Winnemucca District Office Bureau of Land Management, thousands of festival-goers are already in the desert ready to celebrate the “Free Burn” event. Some of them even arrived as early as mid-August. 

It is highly uncertain what will happen this weekend and if the attendants will respect the measures put into place, what is clear is that people can’t wait for the iconic Burning Man to be back.

Image Credit: Nicola Bailey