It is supposed to be a utopian vision of peace and love but this year's Burning Man Festival has been marred by "hooligans" carrying out a "revolution against rich parasites". The festival plays out each year in Nevada's Black Rock Desert where 70,000 people build a city in a week, burn a giant wooden effigy of a man, and then restore the arid playa to its original state.
In recent years it has become popular with Silicon Valley millionaires, and billionaires. Luxurious so-called "plug-n-play" camps have sprung up which use hired staff like cooks, builders and security, and allow international jetsetters to drop in for quick visits.
Many traditional "Burners" claim that is a betrayal of the spirit of "radical self-reliance" that is a cornerstone of the festival, which began in 1986.
As anger boiled over one camp called White Ocean, which hosts high profile DJs on a state-of-the-art stage, became the focus of anger.
The camp first made an appearance at Burning Man three years ago and its founders included the British DJ Paul Oakenfold and the son of a Russian billionaire.
While the camp was holding a party at which revelers listened to techno music it was attacked by vandals who flooded it with water and cut power lines.
In a dismayed post on Facebook camp leaders said: "A very unfortunate and saddening event happened last night at White Ocean, something we thought would never be possible in our Burning Man utopia.
"A band of hooligans raided our camp, stole from us, pulled and sliced all of our electrical lines leaving us with no refrigeration and wasting our food, and glued our trailer doors shut.
"They vandalised most of our camping infrastructure and dumped 200 gallons of potable water flooding our camp."
The camp leaders said they felt like there had been an effort to "sabotage us from every angle" because "some feel we are not deserving of Burning Man".
They said: "We actually had someone from the Burning Man organisation tell us 'It makes sense that you have been sabotaged as you are a closed camp and not welcoming'."..........
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Poster Comment:
Somebody call the organizers and suggest they make it a Burning Woman festival nextime. Puts a whole nother slant on things, doesn't it? How many Burners wouldn't burn that year in protest of this hateful "HATE"?