The man will burn…and he’s also getting on in years. Burning Man — the 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.
But the oldies are proving they have more stamina than the kids. In 2014, burners under 30 made up 30% of the playa. That number plunged by more than half to 14% by 2025. Adrielle Knight, 41, attended in 2023, when a rainstorm flooded camps and turned the exit route into an impassable muddy mess. She recalled one young influencer saying, “This is not like Coachella at all!” “It’s really out of one’s comfort zone, even if you have a comfy camp. And maybe Millennials and Gen X-ers have a higher tolerance for discomfort?” Knight told The Post. Men have also historically outnumbered women, and that trend still holds strong, with males making up 56% of burners last year.
“It was an oasis of men! I didn’t mind,” Knight said of her experience, although she said the gender gap wasn’t significantly noticeable to her. But as those men arrived with camera phones, the number of women partying topless has dropped — reported veteran burners on social media. “When did the nudity disappear? … Yes, there were some swingin’ hogs, I saw you, but I would say the amount of female toplessness decreased like 95% from the last time I was there,” lamented one burner on the r/BurningMan subreddit who attended a recent festival after a 10-year hiatus. The burn’s famous Orgy Dome has strict regulations to ward away horny pickup artists, including a “couples and moresomes” entry policy. Burners are also getting wealthier, with half of festival-goers making more than $100,000, compared to just a quarter at that income level in 2015. However, the trend flattens some when adjusted for inflation.
Meanwhile, the festival itself has gotten more expensive to attend. “It also can be very cost prohibitive,” said Knight, who spent around $1,000 on supplies and preparation in 2023 — on top of the ticket price, which went up to $775 this year.
In addition, burners are charged extra fees to drive a vehicle into Black Rock City. “My first burn in 2005, I was 21. I bought a ticket for $215 … I think I spent $1000 or so all in for that year,” Michael McQuaid lamented on X.
“It sucks that the s–t economy is pricing out so many of the younger, less financially-established burners,” he added.
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