Scores of eager burners will be forced to stay in the default world a little longer.
A deluge of rain has postponed the launch of Burning Man, which was set to kick off Monday. Due to the continued downpour and standing water, the site of the festival will be cordoned off until mid-day Tuesday, with law enforcement turning back cars that approach, according to a post on the official Burning Man Twitter page.
For one week each year, thousands of people from around the world descend on Nevada’s Black Rock Desert to form an ephemeral city where self-expression reigns and commercialism is shunned. Burners are used to blinding dust storms, but rain is a rarer occurrence.
Still, some of the more elite festival-goers may be fit to weather the storm. The New York Times reported that the sea of tents on the Playa is now studded by glossy RV’s and ritzy structures housing some of the biggest names in tech.
The desert celebration is a magnet for the Valley, with tech celebrities such as Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg making the trek in recent years. Many in the industry apparently not realize that rain would hold up the party this year.
“You know it’s #BurningMan when SOMA is empty at lunchtime on a weekday,” one user posted on Twitter.
