Google co-founder Sergey Brin and Elon Musk’s brother Kimbal were reportedly among the tech moguls who were caught up in the chaos of the mad scramble to escape deadly conditions at the Burning Man festival.
Musk, Brin and cryptocurrency investor Brock Pierce were each spotted at this year’s rain-soaked event in Black Rock Desert, Nev. — where torrential downpours put a damper on the usual revelry and left tens of thousands of attendees stranded in mud for days until Monday, the Wall Street Journal reported.
One person, a 32-year-old man identified as Leon Reece, was killed in the maelstrom.
“Anytime you stepped, your feet would absolutely sink down in the mud,” said tech executive Laurie Wofford, who told the outlet she had no choice but to abandon her luggage while walking out of the festival through ankle-deep muck on Saturday.
“You’re so drenched down and you’re carrying whatever you can on your back — it felt like walking in wet scuba gear,” Wofford added.
Representatives for Brin, Musk and Pierce could not immediately be reached.
The Journal said Brin and Musk did not respond to requests for comment.
Burning Man, an avant-garde arts festival known for its “Mad Max”-style costumes, has attracted a who’s who list of Silicon Valley elite in recent years.
Past attendees include some of the world’s richest individuals, including Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk and even the convicted Theranos fraudster Elizabeth Holmes.
Mirage Garage and Robot Heart, two of Burning Man’s biggest tech industry camps, reportedly experienced “extreme flooding” during the event, the report added.
Meanwhile, a private airspace generally used by CEOs and other celebrity bigwigs to easily access the Burning Man festival grounds was purportedly forced to shut down, according to attendees.
Weary festivalgoers were snarled in an hours-long traffic jam on Monday after Burning Man organizers finally deemed nearby roads safe enough to support a mass exodus.
Some 80,000 guests, ranging from tech executives to artists, musicians and celebrities, reportedly attended the event.
Guests were initially told to shelter in place, conserve their resources and nix consumption of drugs and alcohol due to the dangerous conditions.
Organizers were forced to delay the festival’s traditional conclusion — the burning of a wooden effigy shaped like a man.
The event eventually took place on Monday night.
Diplo, the music producer and DJ, had earlier shared a video of himself and comedian Chris Rock fleeing from Burning Man with other guests on the back of a truck.
“Just walked 5 miles in the mud out of burning man with chris rock and a fan picked us up,” Diplo wrote on X.
Reece was found unresponsive on Friday and later died as heavy downpours pummeled the area. Authorities said they have yet to determine a cause of death.
“Due to the unusual rain event happening on the Playa, access to the area and investigative efforts were delayed,” Pershing County Sheriff Jerry Allen said in a statement.
“Upon the arrival of Pershing County Sheriff’s Office deputies, the doctor at the festival had already pronounced the male subject, later identified as Leon Reece, a 32-year-old male, deceased.”
With Post wires
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