Out author Andrew Sean Greer blasts media coverage of Burning Man “fiasco”

Pulitzer Prize-winning author Andrew Sean Greer is firing back at media coverage of this year’s mud-caked Burning Man festival, saying that outlets like the New York Times and the Washington Post “got it wrong.”

The annual week-long event held in a remote part of the Black Rock Desert outside of Pershing County, Nevada, made headlines this year after heavy rain turned the area into a muddy quagmire, stranding thousands of attendees. The New York Times described the aftermath as a “fiasco,” and quoted one local sheriff who said that attendees had abandoned vehicles and personal property in the desert, violating one of the festival’s core principles of “leaving no trace.” Pershing County Sheriff Jerry Allen also claimed that frustrated attendees were “lashing out” at each other on the playa.

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The Times also reported that stranded “Burners” had been advised to ration food and water. Allen said that rumors of an Ebola outbreak at the festival were untrue. But local authorities are investigating the death of one festival attendee.

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On Wednesday, Greer took to Instagram to share his experience at Burning Man this year, which he said differed significantly from the picture media outlets have been painting.

“Oh, hi there. Just got back from Burning Man and learned that I escaped a cannibal ketamine EDM mud cult,” the out author said with a laugh. “Thank god, cause I sure didn’t know that when I was there! I was drinking tequila with my camp and singing musicals, but it sounds like I got it wrong? Or maybe the New York Times and the Washington Post did?”

“Look, I know the only story right now is that San Francisco is in a doom spiral and Burning Man was a fiasco and we are somehow both dirty hippies and tech billionaires and deserve to die, and it is such a fun story, but it is not true,” he continued.

Greer, who said he has been going to Burning Man since 2006, accused both the Times and the Post of not sourcing their stories about the festival, though he did not specify which stories he was referring to. “You got it wrong and shame on you, reporters,” he said.

Greer said he has seen it rain at Burning Man twice before. “The only problem this year was that it happened at the end,” he said. “That meant big changes in plans.”

He also claimed that his camp was never told to conserve food as the Times reported. “Think about it: When there are camps serving 1,000 quesadillas a day, running out of food is not the problem,” he said. “My camp has served bacon to thousands every year since 2002. We were only worried that we would run out of dick-shaped waffles. And we did. Call the National Guard!”

Greer said that the media’s characterization of Burning Man as a “festival” was the main problem. “It’s not a festival,” Greer said. “It’s an event of radical self-reliance, meaning we were all always prepared for anything to happen. We bring all of our own food, our own booze, our own supplies and water, and we bring them out. That was actually the hard part: figuring out how to bring out all the ‘grey water’ on Monday when I left—the water from washing and showering, because we leave nothing out there, not even our dirty water. Know what? We got it out with help from our neighbors.”

But as the Times reported this week, with debris drying into the mud, the task of cleaning up this year—required under Burning Man’s federal permit—is expected to be exponentially harder for the festival’s restoration teams.

Greer said he did have one moment of actual fear this year, worrying that stranded festival goers might run out of the medications they rely on. “People with HIV or other conditions,” he said. “But everyone I knew and heard of had brought extra, the way we all brought extra food and booze that normally every year we never use.”

Ultimately, Greer said that the only “disaster” he encountered at Burning Man this year was neighboring camps having to hear him sing all of Phantom of the Opera while drunk on tequila.

“We had a blast, we helped each other out,” he said of the event. “It was a little touch-and-go there for a minute, but we prevailed, and I am so sorry that the rest of the world can’t bear to look at people who find joy even in hardship. But if you can, consider that you can too. And maybe you should come to Burning Man next year. If you do, I’ll be there serving bacon and Bloody Marys and I’ll see ya out there.”

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