Mom 'shamed' for bringing her 7-year-old son to Burning Man says he's having 'a lot of fun' as rain and mud prevent anyone from leaving
- Bianca Snyder has been bringing her 7-year-old son to Burning Man since he was an infant.
- But this year it's a little different. Rain has turned to mud, forcing everyone to 'shelter in place.'
Bianca Snyder, an influencer and cannabis entrepreneur, sparked a heated social media debate at the end of July after posting that she has been bringing her 7-year-old son to Burning Man since he was an infant, Insider previously reported.
Snyder, her husband, and her son are all now at the festival, where 70,000 attendees are under a shelter-in-place order after heavy rain turned roads to mud, making it nearly impossible to leave.
But Snyder said the rain is no big deal. Her family is prepared to stay until at least Wednesday, she told Insider, and her son is having a blast.
"He is doing awesome," Snyder said. "He's been having a lot of fun. He said that seeing the rain on the lake bed was like a being on another planet."
Snyder said she and her family have been distributing supplies to camps across the festival. But in their off-time, they're going on walks and looking at art installations.
Snyder even answered the question on everyone's mind: No, the man probably won't be burned this year.
"I believe all burns are currently canceled because it takes a lot of people to make a burn happen safely," Snyder said. "We have to have emergency response vehicles and we also have to have enough people working the perimeter to make sure that everyone stays safe. And if people are stuck at their camps, then they are not able to make it to the Man to do their shift."
Snyder previously told Insider that she's come under fire for bringing her son to a festival rife with sex and drugs. But, for her, that's not what the festival is about.
"You can cultivate the experience that you want to have, and you're not subject to those extremes if you don't want to be," she told Insider earlier this week. "There's people doing yoga, there's people having important conversations that are relevant to improving the future of mankind. There's people experiencing art."
Snyder also said many people are sensationalizing the state of Burning Man this year, given that attendees willingly sign up and many prepare for severe conditions.
"This is really not that out of the ordinary or beyond Burner capabilities of what we are prepared for," Snyder said. "People make a choice to come out to this alkaline lake bed and they're aware of the risks and also the challenges of the weather."
Yet the situation is still dangerous, with people being asked to conserve supplies and at least one attendee is confirmed to have died during the severe rain.