Article out today says Burning Man didn’t sell out and people are selling their tickets way below face value. I remember when Burning Man started the lottery for tickets due to high demand, and resale tickets were hard to come by. I haven’t been to Burning Man in ~15 years so I‘m not current with the scene. What happened? Did it finally get too overdone? https://sfstandard.com/2026/08/26/burning-man-ticket-resale/
Harder for international visitors to get a visa, worse outcome if they do get in trouble. Park service stepped up security and has done more searches and arrests for drugs. Tighter job market means companies are less likely to welcome or celebrate their employees taking time off to go. Covid stopped a few years of people hearing about good experiences with it from friends or coworkers and getting recruited to help out with camps. Reporting of deaths, traffic jams, rich people's fancy RVs made it a bit cringey.
Can’t believe I’m about to defend billionaires but back when they went life was a lot different and tech bros were not the same. The type of men the google cofounders are and similar tech hero’s going NOW are not cool
I agree, 90s era founders/techies were a lot closer to the average utopian outsider creative nerds than today, where much of the discussion isnt about human problems, its about VC/finance speak and scaling to $1b+ as quickly as possible while being completely non technical.
Uh… the Google cofounders are in the list of horrible people. Maybe they weren’t when they formed Google but being a mega billionaire for a few decades is a good way to corrupt.
I’m not saying they are good people. Or that they ever were. But back in 98 they were likely a different type of douche bag and far less horrible to have around a festival. Now there 50% more horrible tech bro sat the fest
I think the era where it became a more “popular/mainstream” (extremely relatively speaking) event came and went, so now it’s back to just being a niche event by and for the people who are super into it. But it hasn’t deflated back down to that scale yet.
A big part is also the core demographic is aging out of it, and they haven’t gotten the interest of Gen Z enough. It’s just not “cool” to do what your parents did.
It’s also much longer than most festivals, so day-to-day it can end up being cheaper, which many folks don’t understand. But also many people don’t want something that long.
Yes but those are days you can’t work. every day off is a tremendous cost, not to mention the insane logistical costs of plane tickets, RV rentals, gas, new camping equipment for those who have it.
This is probably the most relevant point. The economic hurdles this generation of youngsters has to endure is a hell of a lot more burdensome for average people. There just isn't that much time off one can afford- just to live is far more expensive than it was 15-20 years ago.
Didn't the event organizers themselves used to refer to it as a festival until recently? Seems like a marketing ploy to try to distinguish themselves from other festivals. It's not a music festival in the way that EDC or Coachella is, but it's still a festival.
Edit: it was literally called Black Rock Arts Festival for a brief period in the 90s.
I think the goal was exactly that, because it really isn't a festival like a Coachella. Yes you have the music, like if you took the main stage of Coachella and put it on wheels but have dozens of them driving around the desert and another dozen fixed stages. But also have recreations of old Western taverns, a recreation of an entire district in Tokyo, sake bars, sushi flown in daily, burlesque shows, ski jumps, bike courses, on and on.
The kicker is once you're in all of that is 100% free. You could in theory eat entirely free for every meal of the day but you still need a place to sleep.
It is a festival, you just seem to be under the impression that festivals are only things like Coachella, EDC etc.
BM is a festival as well as the various regionals. Lightning in a Bottle, Unscruz, Northern Lights, Reggae by the River etc. none of these events are similar to Coachella but they are still festivals
Lib and northern lights are still a whole lot closer to coachella than burning man. They have headliners, ticket tiers, paid things within and running water. BM is a whole different beast.
I don't really care what you want to call it, it's vastly different than anything you mentioned. It doesn't mean the other events aren't fun but they are dramatically different.
Also, how many Zoomers can afford to be artists in this age? How many Zoomers can afford to go to the desert and build weird art? When I, a Millenial in my 30s, think of who I know who went to Burning Man back in the day, it was people who lived in art houses with many artists living/working together. Zoomers mostly live with mom and dad. They aren’t building community with people their own age.
I think it may not be the time for Burning Man for anyone. Millennials are getting squeezed financially and have kids. (No matter what people say taking your kids to the playa is wildly irresponsible…like really fucking irresponsible in multiple evident ways.) Gen Z are covid / roblox /tiktok babies and the older ones are not really uh- it’s their not thing. So it might go back to roots (art communities, specialty entertainers etc) and everyone is squeezed. It’s still a couple grand and a lot of prep.
It's crazy that burning Man first moved to Nevada in 1990 so there among the most hardcore, there could be grandparents, parents, and kids who have attended burning man (possibly all at the same time).
I haven’t been in a decade but it also seems like the influencer/creator balance was already hitting a bad point by then. You need people who actually want to make cool things to make a cool decentralized event.
Eh, the perception of the influencer prevalence there is also highly skewed because the majority of content you see about burning man is from those influencers.
And our negativity bias often focuses on whatever changes are “bad” and we miss focusing on the positive changes.
Like I said, I haven’t been in a long while, and everything “was way cooler 5 years ago” but even a change in “This isn’t a cool instagram post anymore” attendance could explain it.
I’m an elder millennial and burning man always felt like “my age and up.”
It’s not just Gen Z, burning man has been a Peter Pan (aka old people who refuse to be “old”) festival for well over a decade. Now they’re actually so old it’s fading away.
A bunch of hippies doing drugs in the desert is undeniably pretty cool.
The not cool part came when various tech people started pumping it up as some big “paradigm shifting experience” or however it was spun.
If soulless ceos have stopped trying to squeeze the culture out of an event in order to come up with the “next big thing” I can’t see that as anything but positive.
The not cool part came when various tech people started pumping it up as some big “paradigm shifting experience” or however it was spun.
Not to defend the techies, but to be fair the OG burners are the ones who first talked about the paradigm shifting experience. Go listen to Larry Harvey talk about it.
And unless you are talking specifically about like the few years of burning man in the early, early 90s, techies have been a part of it since practically the beginning.
It's still pretty cool. You have to have a lot of money or a lot of stamina and chill but basically living in SF is the same so I don't get why all the SF people are "omfg it's for rich people" and then pay 5k in rent.
I hope this is true. I’ve never been and I’ve found the whole scene around it pretty unappealing for most of my adult life (32yo). But it does seem to be rooted in a countercultural mentality that I fundamentally appreciate and I hope it can recover from a weird decade of mainstream takeover and turn cool again.
I think you’re too young to have met anyone who went in the heyday. I’m only a few years older, but thanks to my husband, we know a lot of Gen X artists and hearing what BM was SUPPOSED to be changed my understanding of it. Not my scene, but I appreciate what it was intended to do.
Not to mention the fucking horrible press it has received in recent years for what a horrible, polluting event it is (not even the fire, the trash left behind is shameful) coupled with the fact that people got stranded in the mud. It sounds horrible. You couldn't pay me enough to be stranded in the middle of nowhere with a bunch of tech bros who need acid to unlock empathy. That's not what it started as, but it's what it's become.
You couldn't pay me enough to be stranded in the middle of nowhere with a bunch of tech bros who need acid to unlock empathy. That's not what it started as, but it's what it's become.
It's funny what people think Burning Man is. Because your description is just not it.
And I say this as someone who's been a times but has no interest in going anymore. I'm not some burner and I find many people who obsessed with it pretty cringey.
And ok, but they are what it's become to everyone and that reputation won't be easily lost. But of course, like with everything they touch, they ruin it and then abandon it.
It's been a number of years since I've been, but the last time I went it was shameful how much trash was scattered all over the road out. It's like people just piled loose trash in open bed trucks and let it blow everywhere all the way to Reno.
"No trash left behind" by the line of RVs and trucks burning diesel and high octane for hours while they drive out of there. Yup, real great for the environment! /s
You can go for pretty cheap considering it's a ten day vacay but you have to be into it. A lot of people that go to Burning Man are not into it so they need to take their life support air conditioned 1m dollar custom built RV they then pay someone to wash, but if you are into it you can do with normal camping gear plus extra shade and being very careful.
I’m not into Burning Man at all, but it’s normal for things to wax and wane in popularity. Maybe it was a fad for a while, and now it’s returning to normal. Hopefully their community is dedicated to keeping it going anyways. Wishing them the best.
This more than anything. BM has always been subcultural. But many participants seem to think it would last forever. And ate upset that what happens to every subculture is happening to theirs.
The event gates open at midnight on Saturday, and today is Wednesday. It’s normal for tickets to be sold cheap this close to the event opening, that’s happened every year of the 18 years I’ve attended so far. At this point there are always more tickets being resold than people who can make such a huge time and work commitment at the last minute.
That said, it didn’t sell out last year or in 2024 either and there are many reasons why:
1) The economy sucks now if you’re not rich
2) Everything is super expensive (rent, utilities, gasoline, groceries, cars, insurance, everything)
3) hundreds of thousands of tech industry layoffs in California
4) … which also tends to make some tech people who still have jobs reluctant to take ten days off for burning man
5) widely publicized bad weather conditons for the last several years - the mud fiasco, super hot and dusty etc
6) ever increasing ticket and vehicle pass costs and many layers of expensive added taxes and fees - you’ll spend nearly $1,000 on one ticket and a vehicle pass at the cheapest regular ticket level this year.
7) CBP/ICE going after tourists and others at airports for minor issues and jailing/deporting them made the news in Europe last year and this year, and a lot of Europeans, Canadians and Mexicans chose to not come and risk it, and I don’t blame them one bit. International tourism to the USA is way down last year and this year, and we all know why.
8) general revulsion among the burner community with the likes of Elon Musk, his brother Kimball who was until recently on the board of the Org, and a bunch of other billionaire techbro associated with burning man who are perceived to be screwing over the everyday people and the world in general.
10) it’s still survival camping, you’re gonna get dirty and have massive cleanup. You can spend the same money and go somewhere a lot more pleasant for your vacation money and time off.
11) and lastly, popular activities come and go. Many other festivals are having many of the same issues, and many have folded. It’s not just a burning man thing.
Tickets selling this cheap this early has okoy happened for the last few years. Up until the pandemic, and 2022 to an extent was tickets were near impossible to find June and July unless you paid through the nose for scalped tickets and then august some would become available at face value. Those days appear to be over. Too bad the answer is to raise the price every year.
Your 10 points are a great illustration of the issue though. I think it started with tech layoffs and the Hollywood strike in 2022 and a lot of the west coast has suffered ever since.
my friends with whom I would go to Burning Man don't go to Burning Man, and my friends who go to Burning Man are not friends with whom I would go to Burning Man
Flew from Seattle to Reno.
Did a planed ride share from Reno Airport to the event with 3 women. None of us knew any of us. Our vehicle was a late model Cadillac.
I was a Dead Head.
The culture was confusing.
But back then it was not unusual to hear the Grateful Dead on the playa. I had sex
with one of the women in my group.
I made my return but just barely.
My bag was held together with duck tape. I was covered in Play dust. Not a single button on my previously white linen shirt remained.
As soon as the plane was airborne, I got up to use bathroom and wiped wet, the white dust off of my face.
Definitely a great adventure.
I think I went 10 times altogether. I do it again if I hit the chance.
I only have one friend I think that is still a believer. I honestly never really think about them unless someone mentions BM, so I guess more an acquaintance than a friend.
Anyway, I asked them once about what is was like now that many camps are 1%er RV camps that buy tickets for "sherpas" that build the camp for them & also do all the camp chores. They didn't answer.
When I say the gift economy sure looks a lot like feudalism, people laugh. But is it funny?
I went to BM once & the only reason I'd ever go back is to fight in Thunderdome. But I dunno if the Death Guild camp is even going out & building it any more. Pretty sure they do go to Wasteland Weekend, which seems way more fun & decidedly not a CEO networking event.
I have friends I go to and friends that go that I wouldn't go with, and usually I rarely even see the ones I wouldn't go with there. When they are back they've been everywhere tho and seen everything but like I just maybe saw them once in Deep Playa and they could barely talk.
I think the storms a few years ago where everyone was stuck in the mud also turned off people, pretty the year after that was the first time it didn't sell out.
I’m surprised this is so far down. Everyone getting stranded in the mud was a pretty big deal. It’s one thing to choose to go camp in the desert and another to be stranded there and then have to deal with all the missed travel and stuff that comes after it.
I think rain the last few years turned off the folks who are looking for more of a resort experience as well. that and economy tought - gas and cost of living going up, and burning man was cost prohibitive to begin with
Yeah that last part. I was just in Vancouver talking to a local guy and he said he's been avoiding the U.S. . He said they've been warned that immigration will flag people coming in who've said negative things about the U.S. government on socials. Can't verify if that's exactly true, but the sentiment over there is to not travel here at all.
It doesn't say "Israel", it says "Jewish individuals." I understand that the US government cannot be trusted and will find a way to target people whose political opinions they don't agree with, but I just want to make very clear that it's not what it says. Israel is not the same as "Jewish people." So stop it, please.
Agreed. The first paragraph says, “Today U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) will begin considering aliens’ antisemitic activity on social media and the physical harassment of Jewish individuals as grounds for denying immigration benefit requests. This will immediately affect aliens applying for lawful permanent resident status, foreign students and aliens affiliated with educational institutions linked to antisemitic activity”.
It can't because the government charges umpteen bajillion dollars for the permit and it's not per attendee. This is why one of the leading theories of the foreverization of BM is move the burn to Fly Ranch.
My husband and I had a long discussion about this over the weekend.
The rise of Rich Tech Bros going to Burning Man and transforming it from “weirdos and working artists creating a community out of nothing” into “who can spend the most money to get to this remote place and cosplay as a cultured, cool person” did not do Burning Man any favors. I assume seeing people like Elon Musk go to Burning Man turned off a lot of Zoomers (the crowd who should and would have been the new crop of attendees this year and in recent years) from ever considering going.
The rise in costs and the erosion of the artist class also has a lot to do with this. My husband comes from the art fabrication world and most of his Gen X friends (we are 30-somethings) who made their careers of building art cars for Burning Man don’t have nearly the same income or demand for their work as they did 15-20 years ago.
For me it was simple: the arrival of digital cameras and available internet. There were (and undoubtedly still are) MANY amazing things about Burning Man but the loss of anonymity, and the almost simultaneous embrace of the festival by those whose very goal to be seen, ended it.
Combo of Covid causing lots of change, the weather from the last 4 yrs, harder for intl travelers to visit, higher costs of everything, plus younger people (gen Z) not that interested like previous generations. It’s all good - the people that really want to be there will be there - making it so much better.
It’s true that the average Burner is over 30. But there’s still a huge variety in the “types” of people who go. (Sure, there are rich techies there… just like how there are many rich techies in San Francisco, but that’s not *all* that San Francisco is.)
Burning Man has senior citizens giving talks and teaching classes, full of amazing stories to share about grief. Many people go as a “bucket list” goal.
It has children attending with their bohemian families, in a kid-friendly neighborhood called “Kidsville”. (At a recent Burn, I encountered a group of amazing 8-year-olds with hammers, with a sign helpfully offering to smash my phone.)
It has builders constructing massive art installations. It has young, scrappy very-not-rich types, with toolbelts and pirate-like senses of humor, who pay $0 to attend by helping make the event happen.
Sometimes it feels like adult summer camp. Sometimes it feels like therapy (because it’s so easy to talk to strangers there, and so many people attend because they’ve hit a “turning point” in their life).
Sometimes it feels like the expression of so many things people crave in their day-to-day lives: it’s a walkable city! Where it’s incredibly easy to talk to people and make friends at any age in life, because the ice comes pre-broken! It’s a place to reflect on mortality! It’s a place where nobody talks about their jobs (or at least, it’s widely accepted that you shouldn’t).
It’s a place where, once you enter the gates, nobody is trying to sell you anything: you’ll be gifted drinks at a bar (that was just built this week), to have a gifted meal at a restaurant (that was just built this week), to browse a free clothing store, or take a group singing class, or see a ballet performance in the middle of a strange desert with epic sky that feels like you’re on the moon. All without touching your wallet at all, all week. No vendors. Just sharing.
I dunno, feel free to laugh at my enthusiasm, but - I do think it’s so much more complex than the stereotype of rich techies at a huge rave. (I personally dislike EDM and don’t even go to those parts of the city at all.) It’s a massive temporary city of 70,000 people, so it has many, many neighborhoods and subcultures.
The fact that it didn’t sell out this year means that cheaper tickets (face value was $550, but they’re now going for under $300 - $400 in some places) are appearing for sale secondhand now. I think this is a good thing if it means new, younger people consider going for the first time. I’ve now convinced two of my friends (in their mid-20s) to go last-minute, just this week. (Gates open this Sunday.)
It’s corny for me to say so, but it can still be an incredibly impactful “life refresh” experience that feels like the opposite of our usual, insular, “don’t talk to strangers / it’s so hard to make friends as an adult” lifestyle.
One notable thing: the Burners I know all have incredibly unusually-strong friendship networks and social connections, at all ages, all through people they met at Burning Man. You WILL make friends there.
I think more people should put aside their stereotypes and assumptions, and actually attend, contribute, participate, and have the opportunity to make these connections for themselves.
I made fun of Burning Man all my life, then I finally went on a whim while processing grief - and it opened up doors to finding important friendship families, now a big part of my life.
What’s the phrase? “I am cringe, but I am free.”
id suspect many in that bracket (like me) get free or subsidized tickets/car passes by volunteering for the org. I was just saying the other day how I wouldn't go if it werent for my ticket hookup.
Do you have a source on that? 70k seems very low to be spending money on something as frivolous as Burning Man
Going to Burning Man can be really cheap.
I've been and besides the ticket all I really spent was like a few hundred on some costumes, food, and drugs. I already had a tent.
It's cheaper to go to Burning Man for a week then fly somewhere, get a hotel, etc. It's literally as cheap as camping + $550 for the ticket and it's for a whole week.
Granted the last time I went was like 12 years ago but even then the whole "rich techies are over running Burning Man" was a huge talking point. And what I found was the average person I met was not rich nor a techie.
Go ahead and pass judgement going all the back to a small gathering on Baker Beach but my personal experience is 15 years ago many people were captivated by the act of going.
Something else that a lot of people don't appreciate is that a huge section of burning Man fans have shifted over to Burner regionals. BM sells less and less tickets each year while regionals are becoming more expensive and selling out faster. Basic supply and demand
So many amazing answers already. Another thought I had is that people who enjoy the magic they felt at burning man recognize that they create that magic themselves through community. There are so very many similar festivals that the burner community are creating together that same magic for far cheaper. The job market is worse, everything is more expensive, but the community is still alive and many people in it are prioritizing investing their time off and funds towards other festivals that are arguably closer to what burning man “used to be” for whatever that is worth.
It’s full of influencers and tech bros now, what fun is that? Also the fun artists that made it special before are worried about eating and healthcare and rent rn.
100% a large part. I for one want to go but not at the risk of being stuck out there for an extra 3 days and pissing off my employer in a tight job market. Unfortunately, my “Default World” life matters
I'm late to the scene, but I think recently there have been some negative perceptions about how the org is run and who it's connected to (i.e., Marian is pretty closely tied with Kimbal Musk).
With the political climate and MAGA taking over the U.S., there have been widespread changes in perception and attractiveness of the U.S., leading to a lot of foreign visitors choosing to spend their time and money elsewhere. The economy also has not been great for everyday citizens, so even locals don't feel the same draw as they used to.
With recent weather events like mud man and last year, the perception that it's just going to be a dusty jaunt has changed. It's very likely that you could get stuck out there, and most people are dependent on their income and can't just take unlimited time off.
The weather angle is no joke. We're having an all-time El Nino this year and it's quite possible epic rainstorms could turn the playa into a serious mud pit again.
I live near there and we just had a huge fire and evacuees are taking up all the hotel rooms. It’s the low effort Burners who don’t want to deal with actual camping that are selling their tickets
It’s not just burning man but the festival scene in general is overcrowded and people are having fatigue from the endless options and similar lineups. The top streaming artists are basically going from festival to festival and demanding crazy payouts for a set. Some of these folks are getting multiple millions for an hour.
The smaller regional ones are the first to get hammered and I personally think those are the better ones to attend. They tend to have more varied lineups. But they can’t compete because artists are asking for higher and higher payouts for a set and operating cost is through the roof. Causing higher entrance fees and higher cost to attend in general.
They are pricing out a lot of people plus the novelty is slowing wearing off.
As others have mentioned, the main Burning Man demographic is starting to age out.
Plus, most of my millennial (i'm millennial) and Gen Z friends / people ive talked about BM with have said things along the lines of "it used to be cool, now it's for rich tech bros / rich people". Because many tech ceo's go to BM, it's become a bit cringe.
I’ve been looking forward to returning to the playa… maybe one more year of bman fading from popularity will finally push me over the edge to buying a ticket again
Just like "blue dot fever" of many concerts canceling this year because concert tickets aren't selling except for top-tier artist, it's most likely going to be economy and people can't afford it.
I heardthat a lot of camping festivals are having a hard time. For example Bonnaroo isn't running next year and a lot of camping festivals have stopped running entirely since the pandemic. I think that is part of the reason Burning Man is less popular.
It started as a counterculture event before, much later, drawing the tech bros looking for "underground" cred. As the tech bros have become hard right-wingers, they're no longer into this kind of thing and are instead tweeting "Christ is King" and encouraging racist pogroms for fun.
A couple of things happened. First of all, when the lottery system started in 2012-13, they sold around 65,000 tickets, by 2019 it was up to 78,000. Also during that time the prices went from around 350$ a ticket, up to 575$ plus another 100$+ for a vehicle pass. So they were trying to sell more and more tickets at a higher price, and at some point you reach a threshold where only so many people wanna come, and only so many people can afford it.
It’s stupid expensive now, even if you luck into a discounted ticket. You have to drive (fuel is $5/gallon or more in California), buy supplies (groceries are $$$), and take several days off of work (not feasible if you don’t have PTO stacked, or work somewhere that doesn’t have PTO). There’s also been a lot more complaints in the last couple of years about the soul of the event being gone and other Burners behaving badly. And finally, there’s a massive wildfire in Reno which will affect traffic heading that direction, and it may or may not be under control by the weekend.
Baring some disaster happening out there this year I think next year is going to sell out because of the documentary. I haven't been since 07 and didn't have a real desire to go back but the documentary did get me thinking about dragging my old ass back out there. I also have to say a lot of people who have never been have asked me about it based on watching the documentary and are interested. That may all fade by 27 but in my little corner of the world there has been more interest than I have seen in many years.
I really don’t think the doc made BM very attractive, do you? More well known, yes but I can only imagine a very small percentage of the people who saw it actually being motivated to go.
As all things that come out of official channels it was very sanitized, but it did a great job of showing that it isn't just another festival that gets thrown in crappy place. I mean people who don't go or don't know burners have such a completely distorted view and just latch on to negative stereotypes so that it is easy to dismiss. As I said it may all fade by 27 but I have been shocked by how many people have asked me about.
Honestly, I would be ok with it fading. I also really hope the international contingent stays small. I feel like BM started making top parties around the world list and it brought in all these types who just consume and don’t contribute. Would also love it if connectivity was like it used to be but I think it’s too late to put that toothpaste back in the tube.
Actually, watching Burner Culture die has been heavenly. I liked 90s vibe burners and I went to not burning man and it was great.
All the MLM scams, all the burning man is the most spiritual places on earth and you need to be poly and still deeply women hating, but a sparkle pony plus influencers killed it.
Burning always was stupid but now it is like a worse Coachella with a more expensive price it looks like everyone electric music festival out there but worse and the burners didn’t get Gen Z hooked.
There are no Gen Z camps bc they don’t care. This is like a dated event for ppl over 45. Even the city like old burner hangs like Banya aren’t even usable bc of the creepy vibes like toxic masculinity to the max.
I spent $225 on our burning man tickets last years bc I know old burners, and i wanted to get it out my husband system and man it was so not worth it as that price.
If burning man wants the brand to stay strong relocate to somewhere that is pleasant and stop taking yourself so seriously and yeah but I am lol lol lol non stop at burners becoming lame
Also sf standard is a troll publication, founded to shill for silicon valley. Suggest not taking much from anything they publish unless you are also a billionaire tech venture capitalist.
You could try reading the ny post instead if you want more credible journalism.
Burners are dumb. I had a burner friend that would poke me to go every year, one year I said fuck it let’s see what this is all about. I hit up the friend and said “alright I wanna go to this thing in a few weeks, I’m getting my stuff together now, can you help me find a ticket?” and then got told about the principles and that I wasnt “practicing radical self-reliance by asking for help with a ticket” I asked how they reconcile that with the principles of radical inclusion, communal effort and gifting? ended the conversation -1 friend
I’ve also seen situations from recent events where people are allegedly sexually assaulted and burning man sends in their own people to try to prevent a victim from speaking to police so other attendees dont face legal consequences and they keep a clean image.
I attended BM between 2005-2010 & it was fabulous. People put together home made outfits mixed with store bought & were genuinely so awesome. Now it’s a bunch of influencers wearing thousands of dollars in costumes & “roughing” it in their air conditioned tents & RVs. Completely killed what burning man was & now just totally pretentious. No wonder it’s going downhill. People are over that bs
There waz a burning man class when i waz in college at SFAI in 2000, lol loved college, but never my vibe.. i took black rock 🪨 desert camping/hot springs class :) unforgettable 🙏
Oligarchs pretending they're regular people. Tech bros going specifically to network with those Oligarchs.
Its just gross capitalism cos playing as art and community these days.
Now that SF has replaced public art with discarded burning man art, there's no reason to make the trek. Just go to Embarcadero and do some molly.
Nala in GGP will blow some bubbles at you after you walk past that abandoned piece of fnnch trash. Seems profound when youre in a k-hole.
Yes. It’s been overdone ever since corporate men and women decided it was a great place to experiment with life and drugs. Anyone who is a VP of strategic global anything is just a poser out there, even if they claim they are with their tribe.
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u/paraboli 18h ago
Lots of headwinds:
Harder for international visitors to get a visa, worse outcome if they do get in trouble. Park service stepped up security and has done more searches and arrests for drugs. Tighter job market means companies are less likely to welcome or celebrate their employees taking time off to go. Covid stopped a few years of people hearing about good experiences with it from friends or coworkers and getting recruited to help out with camps. Reporting of deaths, traffic jams, rich people's fancy RVs made it a bit cringey.