Diplo escaped Burning Man by trekking through 6 miles of mud, hitchhiking twice, and walking barefoot to a jet that flew him to DC for a 3-hour set

• Diplo was among over 70,000 people at Burning Man 2023, which has turned into a muddy fiasco.
• Due to severe rain, organizers told attendees to shelter. Instead, Diplo decided to leave on-foot.

Over 70,000 Burning Man attendees were advised to shelter in place after heavy rainfall on Friday transformed the desert festival into a mud-filled hellscape.

Among the thousands stranded was none other than DJ and producer Diplo, a regular at the nine-day art and music festival held annually in Black Rock, Nevada.

But unlike those who decided to stick to the organizers' guidance to stay put and conserve food, water, and fuel, Diplo made it his mission to get out and document his great escape on social media.

He showed fans how he managed to exit Burning Man alongside comedian Chris Rock in an Instagram reel shared on Saturday. In the post's caption, Diplo told fans he walked "for hours" and hitchhiked to make it to a concert he was set to play in Washington, DC, that same evening.

"A fan offered Chris rock and I a ride out of burning man in the back of a pick up," Diplo's text over the video read, showing him, Rock, and a group of people packed together with luggage zooming past the desert landscape. "After walking 6 miles through the mud… all Chris could think about was a f&cking cold brew."

The DJ shared further details about how he got out of Burning Man to make it to the capital on his Instagram stories, revealing that after making it out, he went on to play a three-hour Labor Day concert set at Echostage, a concert venue in DC.

"For those who didn't think I wasn't at DC, I just got done deejaying for three hours after walking f----king for four hours of the desert and taking a flight, mud still on my face," Diplo said in one of his stories.

As proof of his escape from Burning Man, the DJ shared a screenshot showing he recorded the journey on the fitness and running app Strava.

Further details about the escape were shared by other members of Diplo's Burning Man escape crew, including David Hadden, director of marketing and artist relations for Wynn Las Vegas.

Hadden uploaded videos of Diplo and the group hiking through thick mud on his Instagram stories before showing them hitchhiking with strangers to the closest town.

He shared another story from the town showing how the group came across "hippies with a van." Hadden said the group paid to negotiate a ride to the airport, where they boarded a private jet to DC.

"Then we met these hippies with a van in the next town and negotiated a deal to give us a 2 hour ride to the airport! He was a big time @diplo fan so that helped," Hadden wrote.

"We did it, we walked six miles, we hitchhiked to Gerlach, then we hitchhiked to Reno, we got no shoes, we're going to D.C. right now," Diplo said in one of Hadden's final stories documenting their escape. The video shows the moment the group finally made it to their plane.

Diplo added that he ordered Taco Bell for the flight, but the food didn't arrive on time.