The spirit of Burning Man lives on as the desert gathering changes. How festivalgoers weighed returning to the playa in 2024.

For nearly four decades, Burning Man has thrived on its mystique — a nine-day desert gathering in Nevada where radical creativity meets communal connection. But this year, from Aug. 25 to Sept. 2, the scene on the playa might look different.

For the first time since 2011, the festival didn’t sell out before its opening on Sunday. In the preceeding days, tickets were being sold for as low as $300 on secondary markets, half their face value, prompting some to question whether its spark is starting to fade.

The opening weekend has already faced unexpected challenges, including rain delays and the death of an attendee, which is now under investigation. This comes on the heels of last year’s harsh weather that turned the playa into a mud pit, trapping tens of thousands and damaging infrastructure. Now some Burners told Yahoo Entertainment they’re opting to attend in shorter spurts this year or skipping the event altogether.

Gio Smith, 29, a six-time Burner, suspects that last year’s challenges discouraged some of those first-timers from returning. According to last year’s Burning Man Census data, the proportion of first-timers surged to over 40%, the highest since 2016.

“I think people got a little spooked by the rain,” said Smith, who’s attending this year from Thursday to Sunday only. “Obviously it was tragic and can take away from the experience, but at the end of the day, it’s like, you can’t plan rain, guys.”

This year, organizers said they expect the total population at Black Rock City, the festival’s temporary community 120 miles northeast of Reno, Nev., to be in the low 70,000s, down from last year’s 74,126 and well below the peaks of 80,000 in previous years.

Greg Holden, 62, has attended Burning Man every year since 2008 except for 2020, when it was canceled due to COVID-19. He and his son Gatlin, 29, plan on catching the last six days of the festival this year.

“It’s a difficult event to get to, so you have to be somewhat committed,” he told Yahoo Entertainment. “Last year was an anomaly. If you weren’t prepared for the rain, it was a tough ride, even for experienced Burners. It left a little shell-shocked.”

Gatlin, a nine-time Burner, admits it took him some time to fully embrace the magic of the event, so it’s no surprise that first-timers might be hesitant to return.

“I didn't love it on my first trip,” he shared. “But on my second trip, I had the most fun because I got to go off on my own. Everyone is on the same wavelength. You find your people.”

“It may not be as awe-inspiring or intriguing as it used to be,” his dad noted. “But the spirit of Burning Man is still there; the principles are still there. I think people have overreacted to it as a failing event. It’s certainly not. It's as vibrant as ever.”

For some, fewer presales aren’t necessarily a bad thing.

Eli Haddad, 44, an eight-time Burner, believes a more selective crowd could weed out the “sparkle ponies” — partygoers more focused on selfies than on community — and bring the festival back to its gritty roots, where art, raw creativity and genuine connection mattered more than mainstream DJs and techno music.

“Hard-core Burners don’t give a shit about techno music,” Haddad, who is skipping the festival this year, told Yahoo Entertainment. “The best parts of Burning Man are the small experiences where you stumble into camps and do something crazy, random and fun. I think veterans want to recapture that feeling.”

‘I had an extra ticket and couldn’t get rid of it’

Burning Man began as a small, spontaneous act of catharsis in 1986, when Larry Harvey, a carpenter from San Francisco, gathered friends on the city’s Baker Beach to burn a wooden effigy, a symbolic gesture born from heartbreak and a midlife crisis.

By 1990, authorities shut down the beach burn, prompting Harvey to move the event to Nevada’s remote Black Rock Desert. It was there that it evolved into a massive gathering guided by 10 principles, written by Harvey in 2004.

As Burning Man's popularity grew, Silicon Valley giants like Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg and Google founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page reportedly began flocking to the desert to immerse themselves in its culture. Some sent employees to attend on the company’s dime.

Over the years, rising demand drove costs up from just $25 in 1992 to $575 for a first-tier ticket this year.

“When sales started declining, I think that’s when they booked big DJs to start posting stuff on social media, to get people to buy tickets,” said Gatlin. “It attracts the Coachella crowd, 20-somethings that will probably only go once.”

“My first year, in 2008, you could buy a ticket at will call,” his dad added. “It became so popular they had to start a lottery system.”

Haddad suspects that last year’s Writer’s Guild and SAG-AFTRA strikes, which prevented union actors and writers from finding work, may have kept some from attending this year.

“It’s a very creative event. You get writers, artists, musicians coming together, but now they’re struggling,” he said. “They’re not showing up because it’s expensive, especially if you’re from the East Coast.”

A similar trend happened last year when numerous Burners started reselling their tickets days before the event. Haddad attributes that to either waning interest or the high cost of travel making the trip unaffordable for some.

“Last year, I had an extra ticket and couldn’t get rid of it,” he said. “Nobody wanted it; tickets were really accessible at the time.”

‘Old Burners against new Burners’

DJ Cyd, a four-time Burner who’s currently at the playa, and attended last year, said being at Burning Man is like living in the “greatest, most fun video game ever created.”

“I’ll dance in the rain for a day at Burning Man every year,” he told Yahoo Entertainment. That sentiment is echoed by other Burners who view the event as an almost spiritual experience — one they believe can be disrupted by younger, less committed crowds.

“Burning Man is kind of like a religion, and in every religion you have hard-core devotees that don’t want anything to change” said Haddad, noting that the clashing of generations may be inevitable.

As a result, some younger Burners may have opted out this year in favor of local events, like Love Burn, a Burning Man event created by Burners in Miami, which Smith is heavily involved in.

“You have a very different vibe from old Burners and like the ‘sparkle ponies’ who are going to [festivals] Ultra and Coachella,” Smith explained. “The first Burners are like, ‘No, f*** your world’ and this and that. It feels so aggressive. So it feels like it’s old Burners against new Burners, which is never what Burning Man was supposed to be.”