Woman found dead during opening weekend of 2024 Burning Man

Police are investigating the death of a woman who was found unresponsive during the opening weekend of this year's Burning Man gathering in the Arizona desert. According to the festival/74945977007/” target=”_blank”>Reno Gazettethe unnamed woman — whose age has also not yet been released — was found unresponsive at 11:29 a.m. on Sunday (August 25) by festival emergency services staff, who reportedly tried to save her life but were unable to revive her.

“It is with a heavy heart that the Burning Man Project confirms the death of a participant at Black Rock City in Nevada's Black Rock Desert. Our thoughts and condolences go out to the family and friends affected by this loss. The participant has been identified by the Pershing County Sheriff's Office,” Burning Mad said in a statement.

Organizers called the police, with Pershing County Sheriff Jerry Allen telling the newspaper that his deputies responded and were alerted to the death at 11:37 a.m. The sheriff's office at Newspaper that the death will remain under investigation pending an autopsy to determine the cause and manner of death.

“Our thoughts and prayers go out to the family and friends of the deceased,” the sheriff's office said in a statement. “This is the first reported death on the playa this year and unfortunately it happened on the first day,” Allen added. Burning Man's statement said that out of respect for the privacy of the grieving family, no additional details about the deceased will be released at this time.

The annual gathering of vibes in the desert Black Rock City in northern Nevada finds tens of thousands of revelers carrying huge works of art, homemade fire-breathing mechanical animals and all sorts of other strange tributes and temporary shelters for the event that ends with the burning of a giant wooden effigy. This year's event is scheduled to run until September 2nd and draw around 70,000 people.

This is not the first Burning Man-related death, with the magazine counting at least seven previous ones, including the death of a man in 2023 who was found unresponsive in the middle of a massive downpour that turned the normally dry, cracked grounds into a muddy chaos.