See the mass exodus of vehicles inching through the Nevada desert as people clamor to escape Burning Man's soggy Black Rock City playa
Matthew Loh
- Burning Man 2023's Exodus — when all its attendees depart — officially began on Monday.
- Festivalgoers had been trapped as desert roads became waterlogged from torrential rains.
Festivalgoers could finally depart Burning Man on Monday after being trapped for days by heavy rains that swamped event's makeshift desert town in thick mud.
The nine-day party event turned into a soggy disaster when a downpour turned the desert into a massive mud pit. Attendees were told to hunker down and ration food and water, and organizers rebooted their guidelines page, called a "survival guide," into a "Wet Playa Survival Guide."
A driving ban was lifted at 2 p.m. Pacific Time on Monday as roads out of the festival site began to dry, allowing a remaining 64,000 attendees to leave.
Hundreds of trucks, buses, and other vehicles poured out of Black Rock City on Monday, with attendees being asked to consider postponing their exit to avoid a traffic build-up.
Here's a look at the exodus from Burning Man 2023 as the beleaguered event draws to a close.
Columns of vehicles tried to leave Burning Man on Monday via County Route 34.
The day before, standing water and mud made Burning Man's exit road "impassable," organizers said.
Some attendees with four-wheel drives and all-terrain vehicles were able to successfully high-tail it out of the festival on Sunday.
But organizers cautioned that they were "seeing most other types of vehicles that try to depart getting stuck in the wet mud which hampers everyone's Exodus."
"Please do NOT drive at this time," the Burning Man website said on Sunday.
Burning Man traditionally holds an "exodus," where almost everyone tries to leave at the same time.
At Burning Man, all road-based exits eventually lead to County Route 34, a two-lane road that leads into State Route 447.
That means that no matter how many exits Burning Man offers, all traffic still ends up merging at some point along the way out, according to organizers.
They typically try to get people to spread out their departure times in intervals to free up traffic, which they call "pulsing." People are encouraged to maintain enough supplies to last them past the festival's actual conclusion.
Some passengers boarded scheduled buses out of Burning Man to Reno and San Francisco.
Festival organizers initially expected conditions to improve on Monday morning, with a "Burner Express Bus" service scheduled to roll out of Black Rock City at 6 a.m., per the Burning Man website.
But the departures were delayed by a few hours, as organizers assessed that the festival's exit was "a bit too muddy" that morning for "large numbers of vehicles to safely navigate out of the event."
As vehicles started to leave, traffic was painfully slow. Attendees took around five hours and 30 minutes to leave the festival site.
"Currently the Exodus time is approximately 5 hrs and 30 minutes," Burning Man organizers posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, on Monday evening.
Exit times later extended to seven hours, according to organizers.
Organizers tried to reason with attendees, saying it would be better to chill out with friends in the evening than wait in the jam.
As vehicles continued to clog up the roads, organizers once again implored attendees to consider staying until Tuesday and "wake up refreshed" to hit the road.
"You might be much happier hanging out in camp with your friends than sitting in a static line of cars for many hours," they wrote.
A pop-up airport was set up at the festival, but was closed until Monday due to the torrid weather. Operations resumed at noon on Monday for ticketed passengers.
Before the mass exodus, some people tried to hike across the desert.
Around 7,000 to 8,000 of the festival's initial 72,000 attendees left Burning Man before Monday, with some choosing to hike miles across the desert.
Others, like comedian Chris Rock and DJ Diplo, were fortunate enough to escape in trucks.
But organizers have asked people to stop trying to walk out on Monday as streams of vehicles fled Black Rock City, encouraging them to hitch a ride instead.
Attendees are expected to clean up after themselves.
"There is no garbage collection service" at Black Rock City, and everyone is expected to "Leave No Trace," organizers said.
"It is up to each of us to remove all Matter Out of Place (MOOP) from our camps and our city," they wrote.
Despite the mud and threat of trench foot, some Burning Man attendees said they had fun.
The slow exodus, dreadful weather, and risk of disease may have dampened spirits, but some attendees say the setbacks at the festival have been overblown.
"I don't think people understand burning man people like to mess with people, and some of these 'reports' are jokes lol," one attendee, photographer TeeJay Hughes, wrote on TikTok.
His video showed people dancing and partying on Saturday evening.
A first-time attendee told Insider's Lloyd Lee that she was still enjoying Burning Man.
"This is my first time," said Angie Peacock. "But you can still find joy in it, even though it's not going the way we planned it."
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