TikTokers Share Their Experiences During Burning Man Nightmare

More than 70,000 Burning Man festival goers are now living a nightmare.

What started out as a fun adventure in the middle of the Black Rock Desert has now turned into a scary situation where people are stranded. Extreme rain, severely muddy conditions and a closed road is keeping attendees of the popular annual festival sheltering in place until conditions improve, which could be days.

Many attendees are sharing their experiences on social media. TikTok is filled with videos from the festival that show the current dire conditions.

The current scene at Burning Man is not what most people would expect. What was supposed to be a fun weekend has turned into a weather and traveling nightmare for many. The desert sand has turned into thick, nearly unwalkable mud after heavy rainfall. Ankle-deep mud is impossible to bike, walk or even drive through. RVs at the site are stuck in place and some could be facing a shortage of food and water depending on how long this continues. And with more rain expected Sunday afternoon, it's not looking like stranded festival goers will be leaving the area anytime soon.

TikToker Grace Barr shared her experience with a video that shows how she was able to escape the muddy desert.

"Barely made it out of Black Rock City to avoid the 2 day lockdown. Exodus is real. Stay safe everyone," she captioned her video.

In her video, viewers see the amount of mud, how her 5-mile walk was, and how she was able to hitch rides to get into the nearest restaurant and then town.

Many people in the comments wanted to know where all her stuff was and if she left it behind and some wanted to know why no one checked the weather report. Barr dropped into the comments to address all the questions about her stuff.

"For those concerned, we cleaned up our entire camp for 8 hours the night before. We drove everything in to set up, so our friends are driving it out,😊" she assured everyone.

"You guys are so strong. 5 miles is a LOT on foot," one person wrote in the comment section of the video. "❤️everyone sticking together and helping each other through difficulties and taking care of the environment. The true spirit of burning man," wrote another.

Another TikTok creator, Raven, shared some important information about all that's going on at the festival grounds currently.

"First, you need to understand where Burning Man is located. Burning Man is located about three hours north of Reno, just outside of Gerlach, and to get there, most of the way is one road, one lane, going both ways," she explained. "And then when you get to Gerlach, a little bit after that, there's a four-mile stretch of like playa that you have to go through in order to get to the actual venue. So, getting there is not quick."

She continued to explain that while they have their own airport there, there is currently no access to the runway because of the extreme mud.

"The reason why the mud is so bad is because Burning Man, where it's located, is actually a dried-up lake so the dirt is extremely, extremely alkaline. You cannot walk around barefoot, otherwise you get something called playa foot," she continued. "It literally sucks out all of the moisture from your skin and you can end up with these like really deep cracks that are almost impossible to get rid of."

She said that the only way to get the playa dust off of you and anything else is with vinegar.

Raven continued explaining that when water mixes with playa dust, it gets slippery and then sticky, builds up and cakes and gets into everything.

"That mud just cakes and cakes and cakes on itself and it becomes very heavy, so it's impossible to actually get moving with also not getting stuck in the mud," she continued. "That's why everyone is being told to shelter in place, because you physically cannot get out of the mud, but also there's that four-mile stretch of road that you would think is just quick, but you cannot drive fast on that four miles."

She said that last year, it took her 11 hours to drive those four miles.

"Burning Man has always sounded like a nightmare to me. This compounds my reasons never to go, 😅" one viewer wrote. "Omg and in every video I see there’s people barefoot in the mud😂," added another.

Law professor Neal Katyal shared his experience and some important information on X.

"It was an incredibly harrowing 6 mile hike at midnight through heavy and slippery mud, but I got safely out of Burning Man. Never been before and it was fantastic (with brilliant art and fabulous music)…except the ending," he shared.

In a second tweet, he shared some information for people who are stranded in the desert.

"For those of you with friends who are there:

1) More rain is projected. It’s very wet right now and cars and other vehicles can’t drive and likely can’t for several days.

2) There is a lot of food and water and people are really generous and sharing,

3) we decided to make the hike, but it is very slippery and the mud is like cement and sticks to your boots. It also has some quicksand properties — it grabs your boots and sometimes you are stuck. No one should try this unless in good shape and part of a group. It was quite hard, and will get harder if/when it rains more. Talk your friends out of the hike unless you really think they can do it safely. There are treacherous places where it is worse than walking on ice.

4) If they do hike, tell them to use GPS, download a map if they can, walk out at 6 o,clock and try to go in as straight a line as possible to the closest road meeting point it. There is no cell reception for the first 60% (att) and 70% (Verizon). They should try to arrange someone to pick them up at the meeting point before they leave if at all possible.

5) if they are hiking they should time it so that there will not be rain for 2-3 hours from the time they start

6) Most impt thing is to encourage them to be safe. If it takes several days to leave, so be it. These are dangerous conditions to hike and will likely get worse. I hope this helps. Please know I’m no weather, traffic, or hiking expert —these are just my observations after doing the hike. Thinking of you all. I’m now off to a very needed sleep."