<div style="text-align: justify; "><span style="font-size: 1rem;">Thousands of people were ordered to shelter in place at the Burning Man festival in the western state of Nevada on Saturday after heavy rains turned the desert site into a mud pit and forced organizers to close the gates.</span><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Do not travel to Black Rock City!" Burning Man organizers tweeted, referring to the desert area where the alternative festival takes place.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Access to the city is closed for the remainder of the event, and you will be turned away."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Organizers urged festivalgoers already on site to "conserve food, water and fuel, and shelter in a warm, safe space."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">They said rain was unlikely to stop until Sunday night. The festival was scheduled to conclude on Monday.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Due to downpours, the "playa," the huge open-air esplanade where the event unfolds, was rendered impassable.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Last year, the festival contended with an intense heat wave and strong winds, which made the experience difficult for the "burners," as festivalgoers are known.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Launched in 1986 in San Francisco, Burning Man aims to be an undefinable event, somewhere between a celebration of counterculture and a spiritual retreat.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Initially organized on a San Francisco beach, Burning Man has become a structured festival, with a budget of nearly $45 million (2018 figures) and over 75,000 participants at the last edition, down from the previous one in 2019.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The festival culminates each year with the ceremonial burning of a 40-foot (12-meter) effigy.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">It has been held since the 1990s in the Black Rock Desert, a protected area in northwest Nevada, which the organizers are committed to preserving. AFP</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify; ">bnbd24/kh</div>