Burning Man has closed its gate due to rain, at least through tonight and maybe until tomorrow morning, and no one is getting into the festival.
In a series of tweets starting this morning, event organizers told drivers to stop their journey due to unsafe conditions and now they're saying that cars will be turned back at Wadsworth, Nevada (about 30 minutes past Reno).
BRC is closed thru tonight & possibly into tomorrow a.m. Cars being turned back @ Wadsworth. Cars also being turned around @ event entrance.
— Burning Man (@burningman) August 25, 2014
And earlier this morning:
Rain continuing. Please do not come to Burning Man until you hear otherwise from official channels.
— Burning Man Traffic (@bmantraffic) August 25, 2014
Nevada Highway Patrol Trooper Dan Lopez tells the Reno Gazette-Journal that it's truly a safety issue: "Playa out there is mucky, muddy stuff. With rain attached to it, people get stuck everywhere."
While the festival officially started at 6 p.m. Sunday, organizers opened the gate at 10 a.m. in an effort to minimize traffic, as SFist previously reported. Still, by midday yesterday, Burning Man Traffic tweeted that the line to get in was anywhere from 6 to 8 hours.
The event is expecting 70,000 people this week.
And, if it's working, which it's not right now, you can watch what's sure to be a festival of mud people at the Burning Man 2014 Webcast:
Update: When the live stream was working, someone captured this screenshot of a drenched and empty playa.
Update 2: Organizers now say it will be midday Tuesday before the gates reopen due to rain and standing water.
Update 3: The gates officially reopened at 6 a.m. Tuesday but "gingerly" reopened at 8 p.m. on Monday, for some, as Mashable reported.
BRC is closed until midday Tuesday due to rain and standing water. At the request of organizers, law enforcement is turning cars back.
— Burning Man (@burningman) August 25, 2014
