Everything you need to know about Burning Man 2025 American festival interrupted due to a sandstorm

What could go wrong at a festival attended by millionaires from Silicon Valley, organized at the end of August in the desert of Nevada? Many things, including a sandstorm. The new edition of Burning Man, which kicked off these days and will literally light up this Saturday with the burning of a symbolic wooden statue, was interrupted last weekend by gusts of wind that damaged the participants' camping area. In addition to leaving four people injured, the storm also caused the suspension of nearby flights, a problem that seemed to resolve within a couple of days. But the obstacles for the new edition of one of the most criticized festivals ever are not over.

Last Monday, due to the violent sandstorm, many Burning Man participants decided to leave the Black Rock Desert in Nevada to find nearby places to shelter, which led to traffic jams with waiting times of up to eight hours. But there’s more: because of the strong wind (up to 70 km/h, according to some American newspapers), some of the structures built for the Festival were destroyed, including the Orgy Dome. In this new edition, with more than 70,000 tickets sold, Burning Man risks failing to meet participants’ expectations, which, as mentioned, mostly consist of millionaires and billionaires like Musk, Bezos and Zuckerberg, along with celebrities like Katy Perry, Chris Rock, Diplo and Jared Leto.

This is not the first time that Burning Man has risked being canceled due to bad weather: two years ago, heavy rains turned the festival into a kind of Glastonbury 1997 2.0, with mud and humidity ruining the atmosphere – along with the cancellation of many events, of course. That year, 72,000 people chose to stay at the festival, stuck in the wet mud but happy to spend time doing nothing with their friends, while others, driven by boredom, walked several kilometers to reach the first road free of mud, then hitchhiked.

In short, this year Burning Man is at risk. After the flop of 2023, few tickets were sold in 2024, and this year’s weather disasters could be the final blow to the festival. With tickets costing from hundreds to thousands of dollars and a location difficult to reach without a plane, Burning Man had become the favorite festival of wealthy Americans. Born in 1986 as an alternative gathering, it established itself over the decades as a musical, artistic and esoteric festival, at times spiritual thanks to the metaphorical bonfire meant to purify the lives of those present. Installations and neon lights, concerts (historically, there is no official lineup, but stages and sound spaces are built for entertainment) and workshops aside, this year Burning Man will need a miracle to redeem itself.