Exodus begins from Burning Man after desert mud trapped tens of thousands
The organizers of Burning Man, the annual countercultural festival in Nevada's Black Rock Desert, opened the gates Monday afternoon to allow attendees to leave after an inch of rain over the weekend caused a muddy mess that had made travel out fraught with risk. There was a line of RVs and cars over a mile long as the exodus began, though many of the more than 70,000 festival goers opted to stay for the delayed ceremonial burning of "the Man" Monday night.
Some partygoers described a harrowing few days of muddy chaos while others said the mud added a memorable festive layer that epitomized Burning Man's ethos of radical communal self-sufficiency. One attendee in his 40s died, but Burning Man organizers said the death wasn't related to the weather. The festival will continue until a wooden temple structure is torched on Tuesday night.
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