'The World Is Freaking Out, But We Are Just Fine': An Interview With A Burning Man Organizer In Black Rock City

Two days after a prolonged rainstorm stranded tens of thousands of attendees in Black Rock City during this year's Burning Man Festival, the news coming out of the Nevada desert has been breathless at best, surreal to say the least.

What we do know is that authorities are investigating a death at the festival, and no detail has been released.

Beyond that, it's a lot of — shall we say — squishy news, so squishy it borders on the absurd. Case in point: the rumored Ebola outbreak that's apparently gone unchecked at the gathering.

To clear a few things up, we caught up with Michael Mikel, a Burning Man elder and the festival's official ambassador who's better known as Danger Ranger. He has been in Black Rock City all week — just as he would for almost every single festival before this.

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LAist: There seems to be so much disinformation out there about what's happening. Have you had a chance to look at Twitter?

It's hilarious. I heard President Biden just called in the National Guards. And they are sending FEMA, and Ebola is running rampant. It's crazy.

Mikel: What is the weather condition out there now?

We had light rain today. It didn't make things worse.

[At] Burning Man, [the] environment is harsh, hot and windy. It also can be rainy and cold. And we are having very extreme rain here. I have not seen rain like since 1998, [when] we were locked down for four days.

This is not as bad as '98. But there are a lot more people here now. It's difficult for them to walk around and for vehicles to move. But today a lot of people have left and are leaving. There are about 30 vehicles stuck in the mud.

There is no crisis here except people might need a shower or their TVs. By and large the community here is very well settled in.

The festival has been quite the story — everyone's at the edge of their seats waiting to see what's going to happen.

We are a unique community here. It's the most unique community on the planet. We can teach the world a lot about how we can live together.

We are hunkered down in our camps. We have plenty of food and water and resources. Many camps are playing music. The bars are open. We are having a great time.

The world outside is freaking out. We are just fine.

And you still planning to burn The Man tonight?

We're working on it now. We want to burn The Man.

The interview has been edited for length and clarity.