The Burning Man art festival in Nevada’s Black Rock Desert came to a tragic close this year with the deaths of two people in separate incidents.
Craigh Mann, age 60, reportedly died on Saturday when his campmates discovered his body. No cause of death has yet been released. His death came two days after another attendee, a man in his 50s, died from unspecified medical emergency.
Organizers and Mann’s loved ones mourned his passing.
“Our thoughts and deepest condolences are with the participant’s family, friends, campmates, and all those affected by this loss,” Burning Man Project said in a statement.
Pershing County Sheriff Coroner Jerry Allen said “there were no apparent signs of external foul play, with the man’s final cause of death still pending,” per Music Feeds.
Burning Man organisers have made around-the-clock peer and crisis-support resources available to attendees affected by the deaths.
The fatalities come amid a difficult edition of the annual desert gathering, with extreme weather and several other incidents impacting this year’s event.
As noted by SF Gate, the festival usually “sees one or two deaths each year” as Black Rock City welcomes over 60,000 people.
“The death of a 37-year-old Russian national last year at Burning Man continues to be investigated as a homicide, and this week we learned a few new details as the case remains unsolved,” it noted.
The festival also suffered another weather setback year when heavy rainfall turned the former lakebed into a temporary mudland. People on social media shared the extent of the damage.