Burning Man memes are swamping social media

As heavy rain turns Burning Man 2023 into a muddy mess, trapping 70,000 attendees, many online expressed their disdain for those wealthy enough to shell out as much as thousands of dollars to spend a week at a dry lake bed in the middle of a desert.

As heavy rain turns Burning Man 2023 into a muddy mess, a deluge of unsympathetic jokes has swamped the internet outside Black Rock City, the temporary location built annually for the nine-day festival in the remote desert of Nevada.

The more than 70,000 attendees at this year’s event are stranded in the dry lake bed of the Black Rock Desert after officials closed almost all entrances to and exits from the festival, though some have managed to leave the festival site on foot.

Organizers have asked attendees to shelter in place and conserve resources such as food, water and fuel. Storms hit the festival Friday and continued all through the weekend, pouring months’ worth of rain in a span of days. At least one death has been reported, the Pershing County, Nevada, Sheriff’s Office said in a news release.

The festival became a top trending topic on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, this weekend as observers online expressed their disdain for those wealthy enough to shell out as much as thousands of dollars to spend a week at a dry lake bed in the middle of a desert. Attendees have historically included celebrities, influencers and well-known billionaires.

“Burning Man is the perfect example of how many rich white people recreationally manufacture hardship because they are immune from it systematically,” an X poster wrote.