Bitcoin billionaire and “Mighty Ducks” star Brock Pierce thought this year’s Burning Man was “beautiful” even though he was stranded by the heavy rain and resulting mud bath. And he dismissed those who bailed as “Coachella types.”
“I had my greatest Burn ever,” Pierce told Page Six. “Because a bunch of people left or didn’t come, it was beautiful. You had only the strongest and most devoted.”
The festival — which draws techies and celebs to the Black Rock Desert in Nevada to build communities and do art projects (and drugs) — left 70,000 people stranded when it was hit with floods earlier this week.
On Monday, thousands of people ditched the event as soon as it was possible to use the roads. Some even fled over the weekend on foot. On Saturday, Diplo and Chris Rock escaped by trudging six miles in the mud to the perimeter of the festival, then catching a ride in the back of a stranger’s truck.
Brock explained to us that the annual event attracts hardcore followers, but also those “who don’t build [the festival’s structures] but come to experience the magic of the weekend, which are more Coachella types.”
He added, “Not that there is anything wrong with that — they are in their process of learning and growing.”
Coachella, of course, is the annual music festival in Indio, California, known for its luxury accommodations and VIP hospitality.
On Saturday, Burning Man attendees were told to “conserve food, water, and fuel, and shelter in a warm, safe space.” On Monday, the order was lifted allowing people to exit, causing a reported hours-long traffic jam.
Brock stayed longer to see the titular “Man” burn on Monday night and the “Chapel of Babel” go up in flames on Tuesday. He was still there Wednesday helping clean up.
According to the entrepreneur, anyone who left before then “left early.” And he called those who stuck it out, “the creme of the crop” and “Burning Man’s finest.”
Brock, who helped lead a camp of people dubbed the Pathogen Trackers and stayed in a 1991 Airstream trailer he calls “Rainbow Warrior,” says being stuck “wasn’t scary.”
“We came to Burning Man to experience obstacles,” Pierce, who made a White House bid as an independent candidate in the 2020 election, tells us. “To encounter challenges and overcome it. All of sudden you are confronted with a difficult thing and you find a solution and it feels wonderful and you do it over and over again. It is so much learning. The world is us taking things back to basics.”
