Thousands of festival goers who are attending Nevada’s annual clusterfuck of an event, Burning Man, are currently roughing it out at the festival as destructive winds and dust storms continue to wreak havoc on the Black Rock Desert.
And yes… the winds have reportedly destroyed the orgy dome.
Ahead of the event’s official start date — which was slated for Sunday, August 24 — the National Weather Service issued a warning about an incoming storm that was set to bring a “wall of blowing” dust onto Burning Man‘s 2025 site.
However, by Saturday, when campsites and art installations were being put up ahead of the festivities, winds of up to 50mph (80km/h) blew through the Black Rock Desert, causing major destruction and clouding visibility.
In one viral video of the winds, captured by Henry Wu (@humminglion) to the iconic “nothing beats a Jet2 Holiday” audio, campers can be seen holding onto their campsites as winds run rampant through the site.
“Crazy winds at Burning Man pretty much destroyed a lot of camps, including ours,” Henry wrote.
“Two to three days of eight to ten-hour days in the hot sun just gone like that. Will have to rebuild everything — hope everyone’s ok! We had a couple of injuries in the camp from poles flying around!”
Per The San Francisco Chronicle, one major art installation, an inflatable thundercloud titled Black Cloud, created by a team of Ukrainian artists, was confirmed to be destroyed by the mammoth dust storm.
According to the publication, the Black Cloud, which symbolised the “spectre of war”, held together for 15 minutes before it was ripped apart.
“Perhaps this storm has taken the threat with it — a quiet hope on Ukraine’s Independence Day, drifting away on the desert winds,” a spokesperson for the team shared.
On Burning Man’s opening night, officials closed the gates to Black Rock City, preventing revellers from entering or leaving while the storm blew over, news.com.au reports. Flights to and from the site were also cancelled, with officials urging folks to stay off the road.
On Monday, the gates opened, and flights resumed as normal. However, with so many delays, revellers were stuck waiting six to eight hours in traffic.
On top of that, Burners who were keen on taking a step into the Orgy Dome are out of luck. According to a TikTok shared by WhIsBe (@Whisbeart), the infamous installation was destroyed by the wild weather.
While it appears that Saturday’s storm has passed, Burning Man revellers are not out of the storm just yet.
The National Weather Service has warned of monsoon thunderstorms from Sunday to Wednesday, elevating the threat of potential flash flooding in the area.
“It’s becoming increasingly likely that we could see an even greater flash flood threat,” the National Weather Service said.
“If you’re on the playa at the Black Rock Desert, you may very well be in for a muddy mess Monday through Wednesday.”
With potential monsoon-like storms running through, Burning Man 2025 could turn into Burning Man 2023, where an estimated 70,000 Burners were trapped in the desert due to the extremely muddy conditions.
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