Burning Man is a Disaster 

honestly i’m convinced all the rich people participating in burning man want to go through hardships because they never have.

'Burning Man is radically inclusive, and its meaning is potentially accessible to anyone' "...It's literally like a sea of white people with box braids and Native American headdresses" LOL

seeing dev go through an entire process of emotions while progressively finding out what burning man is actually about made this video so fun to watch lmao

i literally could never pay to go to the middle of the desert to burn something for so much money

The lawyer who defended Nestlé's use of child slavery was there, which really goes to show how far Burning Man strayed from its initial form

I don't usually comment on videos, but I'll tell you what I know about Burning Man, Dev. I've never been myself, but I grew up hearing my mom talk about it (I'm 25, she's 58). Burning man has been around since '86 (pre-internet) back when hippy dippy flower power shit was real big. It used to be a real serious spiritual gathering + art festival. Any live music played was by the people for the people. It used to be completely free - no tickets. It being based on a barter/trade typa deal was huge back then. Every year, people would build sculptures and bring different types of art and parade floats. And you're right, on the last day, they burn the big man sculpture to signify the whole "down with the man/patriarchy/status quo" ideal that was super popular with the counter culture back when Burning Man was first started. It being supported and ran for free isn't some crazy thing if it's done right, but what's nuts is that they've turned this beautiful people powered event into a camping trip for rich people. People who go to Cochella think Burning man is gonna be the same thing, and that crowd (and old age) has slowly pushed out the older people who really made Burning Man what it used to be. Now, it's a bunch of rich white people who do the "van life" shit and wanna have a rave in the desert. Pro tip: you can buy a decent yurt for $95 at walmart 👌 No air conditioning obviously, but still. Over the years, I've watched online as the event quickly devolves further and further away from its original meaning and cultural significance. I also second your opinion on just preferring to go to a concert if you wanna see live music. If you wanna see music, see music. If you wanna go camping, go camping. If you wanna hear music when you're camping, make music. If you wanna go camping when you see music, road trip to hit multiple shows of a touring band. That's just my opinion though.

my audio professor literally missed the first two weeks of class to go and was like “sorry you wont be able to reach me, you can figure out the assignments” and then came back and only talked about burning man in class for the next three weeks

my first tattoo artist became a burner halfway through working on my sleeve. he’s sick as hell but he got so obsessed with burning man that he themed his whole tattoo studio around it and eventually just moved across the country to be closer to burning man. my sleeve is still not done.

I've known a few "Burners" and while I appreciate the creativity and art that happens there, I've found that people who call themselves Burners tend to be really obsessed with it and they kinda can't stop talking about it and they come across as kinda annoying and boring while thinking they are so much cooler than everybody in the room. I think it gets to be a bit cultish, for sure. Also, from my experience, it kinda feels like they are mainly into the drugs and galavanting around in sexy costumes and hooking up with random other people. I'm sure they'll come home with some really big stories about this year's event, for sure. War stories galore... So annoying. It sounded really interesting back in the 90s when I first heard about it, but since then it's gotten really co-opted by rich people outdoing each other.

As a local, I have observed the devolution of Burning Man for years by looking at the traffic it generates. The caravan of hippie busses became a caravan of $300,000 motor homes.

"building a big guy" is exactly how i've been describing burning man for years.

They looked at ocean gate and thought to themselves “how do we do the exact opposite of this?” and ended up stranded in the desert

As a rural Nevadan that lives very close to black rock and dreads burning man each year to watch this unfold is surreal. It won’t change anything I’m sure.

Whenever dev posts I run around my city climbing on buildings and trees like an orangutan (which I am)

it’s so insane to me that people spend so much money to set up an event themselves, have to get a shelter for themselves, possibly get stranded for longer than they were supposed to be at the event, and go missing or even die because no one is actually running the event

I never judge high schoolers because my life goal back then was to go to burning man. Help

The more I watched the more I just realised that this is basically a cult

I never went to burning Man in my life obviously. But as someone who had friendships and relationships with the original people that started burning man and the early days of it and what it started out as and what it was supposed to be to looking at it now is extremely tragic. Literally a living textbook example of what appropriation means.

i think it used to be a much better atmosphere. from what i’ve seen and heard, rich assholes have co-opted it and made it into a pissing competition essentially. it used to just be about community and going crazy, expressing art, the insanity of building something just to burn it all to the ground at the end. i didn’t know about what the sand was like tho holy shit, fuck that lmao

this "burning the man" reminds me of of multiple pagan traditions in europe, where you burn a figure (or just a huge bonfire), usually to banish winter/ welcome spring. So it's really weird to me, that they're doing this in the middle of summer. they too probably don't know why they're doing this.

It's not a bartering economy, it's all a gift economy. People aren't supposed to exchange anything for a service, it's all provided for free. Usually with the exception of ice. Also, yes most of the people who work Burning Man are volunteers, but they get free entry, which tickets are typically around $800, and they don't work the whole time they're there. The event is not weeks long, they just show up weeks in advance in order to build the giant effigy that gets burnt. The actual event is only one week long.

Yeah, volunteering just gets you entry into the festival. And IIRC, you still have to pay your way in, they just reimburse you afterward to insure that folks make it to all their shifts.

hi dev, would definitely like to hear you talk about ezoo. i went this weekend and it was a disaster. day 1 canceled, day 2 postponed, day 3 shutting out people who had already purchased tickets hours before the event was scheduled to end. entering and leaving the event was also insanely difficult, attendees were assaulted by security guards, and tons of people had their phones stolen. PLUS, none of the refunds they’ve promised have been given out yet! thousands of people rushed the gates and formed an angry mob, it was literally insane

I live near Burning Man. Haven't been out there in almost a decade, but just wanted to clarify a few things. It's not a barter economy so much as a bring everything you need and then a bunch extra economy. Bartering is lowkey frowned upon. If you have extras just share, if you run out of something just ask. The idea is building a community out there. I'm a hardcore introvert but made loads of great friends out there because of it. There are tons of volunteers out there but there is also paid staff. A huge chunk of those volunteers are not working the whole time. Maybe a six hour shift at the greeting station or something. Also, most burners aren't rich. I was working in a video store when I used to go. The festival itself is 10 days, but if you're on set up or tear down crew for a camp you can go early and/or stay late. Happy to answer any questions anyone has about the details. Even though I haven't gone in ages I live close enough that everyone comes through my town on the way and I'm pretty well versed in it.

So lucky im broke so i dont go to things like this

Fun fact: over 10,000 bikes were left at last year's "burn"

The thing is.. if you really pay attention there are smaller more intimate music festivals that will give you lots of good music and people for a fraction of the cost of Burning Man and you won't have to camp either. You just have to go with the mind that you're discovering new music and you will in fact discover a new world of music.

I was hoping someone would cover this. I had no idea what this was until i saw a poll asking if you felt bad for them and 70% of people said NO. i was really confused even after reading some comments, like all i could figure out was people didnt feel bad because they just had different BELIEFS

They dont trade. At least in my experiance. They just give stuff to eachother with no expectation of getting anything in return. Its actually fun usually. This is the first large rain storm since ive been going. So glad i missed out this year. Lol. Love your vids so happy to see you cover this.

There are regional burns that have the ethos of Burning Man without a lot of the issues with the original Burning Man. I think it's a pretty cool and interesting community, but the main burn definitely has issues.

It use to be magical, I would watch the Netflix documentary Spark: A Burning Man Story, over and over yearning for that genuine, unique, special experience

The Black Rock area is a cool place to have a festival when conditions are good, but one of the worst when conditions are bad. I'm a geologist who specialises in mud and it's been fascinating to watch this unfold. Soz for the info dump below, this is my jam. The mud at the site is literally kitty litter. It's also the same stuff that gets repackaged and sold as facial scrub etc. The dehydration probably comes from all the salt in the mud too. The clay in the mud is mostly kaolinite (aka china clay), which is water resistant, and montmorillonite (kitty litter/facial scrub), which is water absorbent. The combination means that the ground holds a lot of water and takes a lot of time to dry out because the montmorillonite expels the stored water as it dries, and the kaolinite stops it from draining away. This creates a slurry we call a "soup ground", over a layer of denser really sticky mud. Montmorillonite is also really good at sticking to and absorbing organic matter, such as poop. This is why it's used as facial scrub, it absorbs all your dead skin and grease. It can store the organic matter for a *really* long time then release it, so that's gonna be a problem for future years festivals, especially if they get this much rain again. Montmorillonite also expands when wet then shrinks when dry, creating space under surface. Dissolving salts create more space which is why we see people and vehicles sinking so far into the ground. When it dries, the kaolinite and carbonate minerals turn into a relatively hard cement, so I'm guessing there will be some vehicles and other gear that will never be getting retrieved.

I saw someone say that this situation is really emblematic of how "rich people will pay to manufacture suffering because they are shielded from it systemically" and I feel like that is soo extremely true......and also incredibly sad considering what burning man started as. it's just the saddest joke ever

As someone who lives in nevada its like a season lol you go out to the store for groceries and see a bunch of RVs and hippies, and just go "must be that time again".

i really don’t wanna overstep, but Dev absolutely glowing right after the relationship announcement just makes me smile so big(:

Honestly until this video, knowing about burning man solely through general and/or pop culture references, I had no idea there were even people in charge of organizing it. My understanding of it was that at some point each year, a bunch of people just gather in the desert to do drugs and become ungovernable. If you had asked me who was in charge of running burning man I’d have said “idk maybe they all choose a lizard or smth at the start and designate it their king for the duration?”

Dev is so hinged and normal appearing in her own videos I like the unhingedness of her in nicks videos

I absolutely love how she’s doing the research while filming so we’re actually learning together

dev makes me wiggle my howling lil puppies and skip around with glee every time they upload

The history of Burning Man is actually fascinating, especially the way it's kinda devolved and lost sight of it's original purpose. Cult Podcast does a fascinating 3-episode arc on the Burning Man

Girl, just wait 'till you realize the HUGE damage they do to the land. Especially this year! That lake bed wont be back to normal for decades if ever based on all the micro plastics, metals and other materials they leave behind. 😒 Those protesters we 100% right to be protesting.

It's less about barter and more about self sufficiency, I've heard. Like knowing what you're going to need to be happy and survive and bringing it with you.

I haven't kept up w Burning Man for years but I used to like look at the pics every year just to see what's up. Honestly this video makes me want more info like you're the first person I've ever heard describe it as a cult and I really think you might be onto something

Dude thank god you made a video on this, I've been so confused 😭

I'm pretty sure there's a documentary at Netflix about burning man, basically it grew too much over time and now it's a literal city build just for like 9 days and they leave that place like they never been there, also the volunteers usually are the artist that exhibit their work at the festival (the art at burning man is insane) and no they don't get any money, the festival is like 30 years old or more, it started with a couple of hippie dudes and now it's a whole city

I had roommates in the mid2010s who went as performers the tickets were free for them but they had to provide everything for themselves. We lived together for a couple of years and that playa dirt is insane we would have it in our house for months after just from their storage tubs and bags!

I'm in the UK but even here we cannot escape the people obsessed with Burning Man. A few years ago I got drinks with a friend along with her boyfriend and his sister. The boyfriend and the sister were world traveller types and had been to Burning Man. The boyfriend explained the general concept to us, but then he just went on and on explaining every little thing about it and how incredible it was. He seemed obsessed with it, and he was from New Zealand so in order to get there and back it would be a transcontinental flight on top of the regular travel time! The descriptions of people exactly like him in the video and the comments are great. No one who has been seems capable of talking about Burning Man just a little. Thank god my friend noticed I was about to die of boredom but didn't want to be rude and rescued me from the conversation.

Burning Man is not a music festival?? What the hell

SOOOOOOO EXCITED TO SEE U ON TOUR ❤❤❤❤❤ the delusional EP has been on repeat for me all summer!!!

i can have this exact same thing by going into a dessert, burning a popsicle stick figure, and having music play in the background while i poor moisture sucking mud on my feet.

ive heard burning man mentioned a lot like since i was a kid but i always assumed it was some big musical festival 😭 i don’t know how to deal with this information, how has this event been going on for so long

One of my professors volunteers every year for burning man to build it all (engineering professor). She's described it as a temporary city and as "radical self reliance" and enjoying the art. She was definitely a character. My parents friends used to go to burning man as well but they stopped going because the original idea has been overrun by people who just want to get wasted and burn shit. So idk I do think a lot of people who go to burning man are obnoxious but I don't think it's all bad, but I definitely think it's gotten worse in recent years.

Pretty sure the skin issues are because the sludge is making lye, or something similar

I've volunteered to work some festivals before. Idk if my experience translates to what volunteers do at burning man, but I got paid $50 for working a 3 day festival but I also got a vip wristband for doing it. I only worked like 16 hours of the whole 3 days. I just saw it as a way to get the ticket that was out of my price range :)

I think the malcolm in the middle episode where the family goes to burning man holds up really well

Lets just not forget the original messages of burning man. Yes alot of rich assholes have ruined it, but there are still so many people who go there annually with art projects that they work on with a whole team all year. People put their heart and souls into this and it fulfills them creatively just like music does. DJs and musicians have an outlet here. There are also so many people who come on a low income ticket which is offered. Many people who work on art projects do not pay to get in since they are providing an art experience.

I actually love festivals. Smaller scale, more indie ones, but still. It’s not just about the music, it’s about the community being built in a matter of one day, getting to know new artists, being able to be close to the stage if you really like the music or get away from the crowd and sit with friends on the ground with the music in the background. Late night acoustic jams, camping with a ton of people you don’t know and getting to know them, getting stoned and making your own food, all of that. But paying so much for it is so absurd, it literally beats the whole point. The whole volunteer thing is beautiful in my eyes but not if it’s such a huge event that costs so much

Hey Dev:) great video. Everything you say holds valure but the largely unspoken aspect of burning man in the idea of free public expression of ART. In terms of festivals, it’s extremely and beyond respectful. Look up the art made at burning man. It’s phenomenal. Yes, it’s an experiment of sorts, and there is many rich individuals capitalizing and Exploiting off participants, but when you think of It fromA different angle, there is no other place where artists or people that want to live any bit off of the ideals of society are able to express themselves. Suddenly everyone cares about the people attending burning man now that it’s “unsafe”. No one cared before! These people know what there were signing up for, and the risks that come with it. The large burned man is only a minuscule fraction of what the event is. Yeah, there are people that undoubtedly nfairly profit off of this event; but it’s also worth questioning if those signing up and paying to participate in a communal experience they can’t get anywhere else, a scam? They know the risks in what’s they’re paying for. it’s critical to state that it is also of the only places artists and creators can create without endless restriction, destruction, and rule. There are always those that take advantage, but most don’t. Again, I beg each of you to look up the art and design this event has witnessed. Peace and love:)

Really glad I found your chanel through Nicks videos, putting a clip of your music in an already vibey well edited video was a really good way of getting me hooked on your creative vibe, total genius.

Got tickets when you first announced, and saw you in Austin on your first tour 2 it’s an honor to watch your career grow, I’ve loved ur music so much for a while now 🥹

I’ve known that burning man isn’t actually a music festival for years but I had no idea that they literally burn a giant man statue until this moment lmaoooo

Dev I love your music and your videos :) SUPER EXCITED to see u on tour :)

I live in a small town that a lot of burners go through on the way, and I worked at a grocery store here last summer. Burners are not well liked here, they have a bad reputation as hard drug users and thieves. We already have a lot of drugs and theft here anyways, because poverty, but I remember it being worse leading up to and directly following burning man. We also have the same dirt here as there, so I can imagine how bad it'd be to be stuck out there with the rain we had the past few days

Seeing an XLR cable buried in mud in one of those TikToks made my Spider Sense go haywire.

Dude I was just in the car with my dad and he was trying to explain what burning man was to me and he couldn’t figure out how to describe it lmaoo

Having a $20k yurt at burning man is not the norm.

bro I've been so confused ty for uploading abt thiss

This is sooooo well done !!!! Thank you for doing this !!!!!

So from my understanding there are people who work for burning man and get paid and it’s characterized as a “non-profit.” I don’t know the details of who gets paid and who are volunteers but my friend actually knows a bunch of people who work there and they are there right now. I’m super nervous for them, haven’t heard anything from them so I assume they are stuck. But yeah it’s actually so wild people do this and I’m super worried about my friend who went.

i just started the vid dev, but i just wanna say i’m a recent subscriber, i love your content, and you’re so pretty :-D

Dev I have no idea what your music is like but you are a delight and fun to watch and listen to... I'm a grandmother but I now want to look up your music and check it out...

I’ve never been to burning man but I have been to several burns on the east coast. I totally understand some of the points Dev makes in this video about the capitalist views within bm. But one thing i do love about burns in general is the way that volunteering is seen as so essential to its production. Volunteering is one of the key principles of burning man and other burns, and it really is so amazing to see what you can accomplish within a large group of people all working towards the goal of building and taking down basically the equivalent of a small city. Everyone wants to volunteer because they see it how important it is, and it’s not about the money at that point- it’s about creating this experience. Also, not saying there aren’t any white people in native headdresses (i haven’t seen any personally), but I’ve made amazing friendships through burns and met some of the most incredible, loving, kind people. I will always remember some of the gifts I was given or things I witnessed that you will literally never see anywhere besides a burn :)

with electric zoo and burning man being a disaster this year im so so glad im not into festivals 💀

so i didn't know what burning man was exactly and now i understand all the jokes. but also rip to the man that died this year. he was 32. that's so young...

Its so incredibly cool going to your shows!! The next time you're in town for me, it's my sister's bday and there literally isn't a concert we would miss!!!!

On my knees sobbing throwing up begging for you to come to Florida !!

i didn’t even realize they actually burn a man at burning man 😭

Hi...you expressed yourself so well. I'm older but feel the same way. I just posted on my FB about how they need to consider being true to their " values?" By gifting $20 each...($ 70,000 x 20 is $1.4 million ) atleast as donation towards environment! And paying those volunteers!

Apparently my uncle went to burning man and my family was talking about it yesterday but I hand no idea what burning man was until now!

thank you for taking us on your journey

whenever dev posts, i fall to my knees, start sobbing violently, and start praying

When Dev posts I go around town burning, man (I am an arsonist)

Omggggg I didn't know you opened for half alive also I can't wait for your boston show in october!!

This was great I hope your tour is very successful.

I loved hearing you fundamentally misunderstand what Burning Man is and then have it break your brain.... but yes, it is insane from an outside perspective, and also if people go without realizing what they're getting themselves into that's scary to think about. But really the insanity and self-reliance is literally the point of it, it's not like a festival, it's just people who collectively decide to go wild go crazy

Hey dev! Burner here- just wanted to add some context for our community.We don’t barter! No trades allowed- it’s a form of commodity and our third principal is deca modification. We only accept acts of gift giving- and a gift does not mean an exchange of a gift in return :) the burning man community is a group of people based around 11 principles, we come together and build our little communities for a few days, and then leave back to the default world when we are done- ideally leaving the grounds we were at better than before :) we have burns all over the world all year long! Burning man is the biggest of all our events though, but many burners never even go to the big burn! Many stay to local burns or smaller ones 💚 I think there’s a big misconception that all burners are rich, it’s true, that many people that end up getting to go to the big burning man have a lot of money and are more privileged. But as said, we have burns all over the country, all over the world and many different people from many walks of life come and at the smaller burns very rarely are there well-off people financially. It’s just a bunch of normal people- of all ages, the elderly, family’s and their children, coming together to be a community as it should be for a few days. Most small burn tickets are under 100$ and kids are usually free or 5$ :) unfortunately the big burn has strayed so far away from its original meaning that it’s not accessible to most of us burners. We hold true the spirit in the small burns tho 🥺

ever since i watched that one malcolm in the middle episode when i was a child burning man has never let my mind

The way I get all my music drama thru dev limes-

I just found your music through autopilot and i’m obsessed !!

At first I was confused when she talked about this as if it was a music festival :) But, I was even more shocked to find out that this was a ticketed event. I just always kind of assumed it was something where people got in for free, and it was sort of naturally capped by the fact that getting there is such a pain and so difficult. Paying to go to an event like this just feels ridiculous, also sort of goes against the whole bartering economy thing, doesn't it....? :)

Tear me apart worked really well over the footage!

Im so fuckin glad nick posted woth you(or what ever the kindest/most appropriate way to say that is lol) but i love your videos! I love your vibe! I dont know if Ida found you otherwise and im *SO* happy i did

"Flashing lights, Diplo, and Trenchfoot" should be on a t shirt idc who you are.

I HOPE TO SEE YOU LIVE SOMEDAY DEV!❤

quaking. shaking. convincing all my friends to come with me and see you on tour.

Burning man started as such a small community. And as a *small* community Burning events are what I sincerely describe as incredible. The big burn has gotten too large and too fast. The infrastructures there were never meant for this many people. This began as a small group of people that wanted to create a community based on a gift economy. Burning "the man" is Burning an effigy that represents whatever it is that YOU personally want to destroy and watch burn from your life. People went to burns looking for that small knit community, and now it's gotten so big that the people who started going don't even like what it's become. I've been to many regional burns, I absolutely love them. Especially in the mid west there are some wonderful camping grounds with trails and golf carts to help you carry thing to your camp. They also have a cap on how many people can come to an event because they only have so much infrastructure to support so many people and at regional they don't like to push that. Otherwise they may not be allowed to use that property again the next year. On a smaller scale this works. When there's 300 people it's wonderful. When there's thousands its...it's.. awful. It's so awful. It grew too much too fast. These regional are all we have left that have the real roots of Burning man. For example we build wooden rocket ship structures with a slide and we play on it in the field with eachother and use sharpies to write notes on the wood planks to our loved ones to send into the heavens, and we do this until it's burn day. Then the metal slide is removed and there's a beautiful controlled fire (with local fireman present) that everyone circles around and a conclave of fire spinners that walk around the circle and spin/eat/breathe fire. There are only small geometric domes covered with canvas that the artists bring themselves to perform their sets in. Usually there's a larger amphitheater for more well known acts. Some domes are nude raves (it smelled weird so I left after. 5 seconds), sometimes sex shoes, a white Russian bar where post pregnant women used their milk to make the drinks. ...it was truly delicious. Just saying. There are so many experiences you can have there. There's a ton of security at small burns. There's enough volunteers that they take shifts and if you feel like you can't work they don't fault you for it. It's just really different at a small burn... it's so fucked up at the Big burn now. It's a damn shame.

Burning Man is a mind blowing experience. Been going since 2006. It’s a shame that so many people hate on it because it’s been associated as a party for “rich people” and influencers. It didn’t start as that, and it may be that for a small group of people, but there are many kinds of people there.

Please watch the WHOLE vid on those climate protesters. I like the earth too but that doesn't mean trapping people out in the middle of a desert on a hot highway is ok. They were being really obnoxious. People tried to reason with them for a while before police plowed through their set up and I DON'T blame them. People stuck on that highway were not all burning man people either.

My Dad went but before the flood, it must be like a month long or something because I feel like he went way before that flooding all happened. My Dad looks more out of place at burning man than you could possibly imagine, he looks like a hit man from a biker gang movie and he wouldn’t dance to save his own life so I have no idea why he wanted to go but he did.

Love it! Your reactions are so spontaneous and honest.