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- Burning Man attendees have made gruelling escape attempts after bad weather hampered the event.
- Tech and business figures have been spotted at the site despite the swampy conditions.
- One tech entrepreneur told WSJ she hiked through ankle-deep mud after her camp flooded.
Some Burning Man attendees have been staging dramatic escapes after heavy rainfall turned the festival site into a chaotic mud pit.
More than 70,000 attendees were advised to shelter in place and conserve resources after bad weather closed surrounding roads, as well as a pop-up private airport used for the Nevada event.
Laurie Wofford, a festivalgoer and tech entrepreneur, told The Wall Street Journal that she and fellow attendees decided to walk through the mud and try to catch a ride to a nearby town after her camp flooded.
Wofford told the news outlet she had to leave her luggage behind and trek through ankle-deep mud to reach the road. She said walking through the mud while carrying what she could "felt like walking in wet scuba gear."
As with previous years, major players from the world of tech of business attended the event. This reportedly included Google cofounder Sergey Brin.
Other attendees have been defying organizers' guidance to stay put and conserve food. DJ and producer Diplo, a Burning Man regular, documented his escape with Chris Rock on social media. Diplo told fans in an Instagram Reel he walked for hours and hitchhiked to make it to Washington, DC, where he was due to perform.
Other attendees, including Neil Katyal, a law professor and a former Justice Department official, posted that he'd made an "incredibly harrowing 6-mile hike" at midnight Sunday to escape the festival. Katyal warned others against following his example unless they were in good shape or hiking as a group as the thick mud was "like cement."