Burning Man festival: Revelers begin exodus from campsite after roads reopened

FRANCE 24 English

Visit our website: http://www.france24.com  Like us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FRANCE24.English  Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/France24_en

Transcript

00:00 Up in smoke in a ceremonial fire,

00:03 a giant effigy called the Man is torched

00:06 in a pyrotechnic display in the Nevada desert

00:09 to end the week-long annual counterculture

00:12 Burning Man Arts Festival.

00:14 Thousands of people were not there to see it.

00:17 They drove out en masse after being stranded in mud for days.

00:21 With the rain and everything,

00:23 I'm really glad I didn't bring my vehicle now

00:24 because with the mud it would have been,

00:26 yeah, but the roads dried up quite well,

00:29 so I'm really impressed with how fast everything is moving.

00:32 Festival goers were caught off guard

00:34 when torrential rainfall turned the normally dry desert

00:37 into rivers of mud, making the roads impassable.

00:41 There was two or three months' worth of rain in a matter of hours.

00:45 Officials on Monday said the weather had cleared up enough

00:47 so people could head home.

00:49 For some, heading out was an ordeal.

00:54 I got trapped in the mud and everything was shut down

00:56 and getting out was a nightmare.

00:58 But this morning we were digging,

00:59 we were on our hands and knees

01:00 digging mud out of our tires.

01:03 Burning Man is the world's largest counterculture festival.

01:07 Every year, tens of thousands of people

01:08 gather in the middle of the Nevada desert

01:10 to see installation art and participate in dance parties

01:14 in what's billed as an undefinable event.

01:17 Tickets cost hundreds of dollars.

01:19 The event is remote on the best of days.

01:22 There is an emphasis on self-sufficiency.

01:25 (water splashing)

Category

Transcript

Recommended