I have never ever....... been to the burning man festival ....it's on my bucket list ......after this shit is over........ and done with .........i will definetely one day......... make a pilgrimage to a pyromaniacs festival ........however ........what else would one expect from a festival of  fire starting...... drugged out ......mental fun loving ......pyros ......of course ....covid is not on their mind .....only P.A.R.T.Y.......and you can burn...... and burn .....i heard its mayhem....... on a positive scale .......all i can say....... i certainly would not be thinking about covid....... whilst dancing around a fire .....no sir!!!!!!! ....nope!!!!!!! ....let them have fun!!!!!!! .....as there is definetely not much of that around these days ......

Held every year since 1986, the annual Burning Man festival has become a cultural juggernaut.

distancing laws to hold their own festivals in the Nevada desert and on California beaches

Business Insider

pleskin@businessinsider.com (Paige Leskin)

,Business Insider•September 7, 2020

Held every year since 1986, the annual Burning Man festival has become a cultural juggernaut. <p class="copyright">REUTERS/Jim Urquhart</p>

Held every year since 1986, the annual Burning Man festival has become a cultural juggernaut.

REUTERS/Jim Urquhart

Burning Man — the annual music and arts festival drawing nearly 100,000 attendees in the Nevada desert — was held virtually last week because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Nonetheless, people still gathered over Labor Day weekend to celebrate Burning Man in-person at its usual location in the desert and on beaches in San Francisco.

A 1,000-person gathering in San Francisco which violated social-distancing guidelines led Mayor London Breed to call attendees "reckless" and "selfish" on Twitter.

Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

The coronavirus pandemic led 2020's Burning Man, planned for the week leading up to Labor Day, to go virtual for the first time in 30 years. But this didn't stop thousands of fans from holding their own makeshift festivals.

Despite social distancing guidelines and restrictions on in-person gatherings, crowds of Burning Man's most avid fans were spotted celebrating the festival on beaches in San Francisco and in the Nevada desert, where the event's Black Rock City fairground customarily sets up each year.

Videos on social media capturing the illegal gatherings — including one Saturday on San Francisco's Ocean Beach with over 1,000 people reported — led to fierce criticism of attendees' disregard of the pandemic. Other photos showed similar gatherings with music and campfires on San Francisco's Baker Beach, as well as cars and RVs camped out in the Nevada desert.

Joining in on the condemnation was San Francisco Mayor London Breed, who took to Twitter to call attendees "reckless" and "selfish" for crowding the city's beaches.