BLACK ROCK DESERT, Nev. (AP) — Tens of thousands of partygoers stranded at the Burning Man counterculture festival by a late summer storm hoped muddy roads would reopen Monday and allow them to begin their exodus from the northern Nevada desert.
Event organizers said in the morning that it was still too wet for a safe mass departure of RVs and other vehicles but hoped traffic could begin flowing later in the day with the help of sunny and mostly clear skies — even as they asked revelers to delay their exit to ease traffic on the main road.
Organizers also asked attendees not to walk out of the Black Rock Desert about 110 miles (177 kilometers) north of Reno as others had done throughout the weekend, including celebrity DJ Diplo and comedian Chris Rock. They didn’t specify why.
The festival was closed to vehicles after more than a half-inch (1.3 centimeters) of rain fell on Friday. The road closures came just before “the Man” was to be set ablaze Saturday night. The event traditionally culminates in the torching of the large wooden effigy shaped like a man and a wooden temple structure during the final two nights, but the fires were postponed to Monday night as authorities worked to reopen exit routes by the end of the Labor Day weekend.
