BLACK ROCK CITY, Nev. — Rain and heavy wind over the past 24 hours have repeatedly shut Burning Man’s entrance and airport and largely paralyzed the event Friday morning, as organizers told attendees not to drive until the playa dries out. 

If you zoom down to the mud level, Black Rock City is not as dreary as you might imagine, though. A muddy walk up and down the event’s 4:30 Street on Friday morning turned up numerous Burners not only making the best of the inclement weather but seeming to deeply enjoy it.

At Stoop camp, several mud-splattered Burners were drinking Fireball and eating pancakes.

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“The mainstream media portrays it in such a wrong light,” said one Burner who identified himself only by his playa name, Bone, as he complained about previous news coverage of rain events in Black Rock City. “In 2023, they were like, ‘there are diseases, they’re eating people.’” 

“Flesh-eating bacteria!” chimed in another Burner whose playa name is Shadow.

“Meanwhile, I’m like, dancing with beautiful European women,” Bone continued, “and having the best time of my life.”

“The playa gives you what you need, not what you want,” he added. “Put that in your article.”

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For the third time in the past four years, Burning Man experienced rain and mud during the event. 

Burners cavort and drink Fireball in the mud at Black Rock City’s Stoop camp. 

Rampart, Burning Man’s mobile hospital, was quiet on Friday after the Black Rock Desert turned into a mud pit.

Burning Man’s location on a dry lake bed in the Black Rock Desert makes it nearly impossible to navigate when rain falls, as the wide-open expanse turns from dust to sticky mud. A weather station close to the event captured 0.22 inch of rain over the past 24 hours as of 10 a.m., according to Clair Ketchum, a........

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