Man found dead at Burning Man as festival locked down over weather hazard

A man was found dead at the Burning Man festival in the Nevada desert, organizers revealed.

He was taken to the camp’s emergency care center and pronounced dead.

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The person, identified only as a man in his mid-50s, suffered a medical emergency Thursday and received lifesaving measures, according to a notice from the Burning Project.

“Our thoughts and deepest condolences are with the participant’s family, friends, and those affected by this loss,” organizers said, adding that his identity would not be release until his family had been notified.

The death comes as rain forced the closure of the festival’s main entry and exit gate in the Black Rock Desert.

Organizers on Friday told anyone planning to attend the festival to delay their travel, and for those already at the event to avoid driving their vehicles.

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Last year, a 37-year-old man was found dead in “a pool of blood” at the festival, marking the first homicide in the event’s history.

Vadim Kruglov was discovered fatally stabbed in the neck inside a tent on Aug. 30, 2025.

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The festival — a nine-day celebration of art, music, and anarchist hijinks in the Nevada desert — has been steadily shrinking since its 2019 peak, but the share of people in their 40s and 50s is on the rise, data shows.

The number of free-loving revelers flocking to “the playa” — where each year a city is built on bare sand and razed after a week of drug-fueled, clothing-optional partying — dipped to about 70,000 last year after peaking close to 80,000, according to last year’s census of Black Rock City, the ad hoc municipality that hosts the burn.

The first Burning Man took place on June 22, 1986, on Baker Beach in San Francisco.

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