The quality of regular life has dropped down to Burning Man and it is no longer a novelty.
It’s too hot
Not to mention too expensive. The base ticket prices have skyrocketed over 1600% since 1996. In just the seven years between 2015 and 2022, attendees with household incomes of less than $100k dropped from around 56% to 40% and attendees with household incomes of $100k-$300k+ have risen from 43% to 59%. Over the years, it’s seemed like the crowd has been increasingly yuppie and increasingly white collar; these numbers appear to back that notion up. I remember seeing a video from a few years ago where Andrew Callaghan was talking about how he paid $10k for an RV spot and 2 tickets. He also complained that a lot of the people there seemed like “weekend-warrior-types”. I can only hope that price is with an insane scalper markup or a super deluxe VIP package or something. $10k is an unthinkable price for a weeklong camping trip in the desert, even a really cool one.
That, the heat as you mentioned (I found a chart that demonstrates rising averages and most in the comments are saying the reported highs are far too low), and the floods last year I think have combined to scare a lot of the core demographic away. I dreamed of going to Burning Man for years, but I haven’t even thought of it in quite some time since I learned how prohibitively expensive it would be to go.
Are you over it now? all that energy to make a costume and walk around in the scorching sun pretending you’re a hip edgelord in a pretend dystopian world? All that time and money to see a few wrinkly sun-baked tits? Were you hoping you’d get laid by a harem of desert nymphs? Don’t want to sit in traffic for 8 hours?
This year’s KFC Chevron Burning Man event is brought to you by Dasani. Taste the Rainbow!™
Probably afraid to get stuck again. Also, it’s just too hot now.
