Burning Man, the counterculture festival that began with roughly 70 artists in the late 1980s and now draws 70,000 to 80,000 people annually to Nevada's Black Rock Desert, has been dealt a further blow to its reputation after new data revealed its attendees are increasingly middle-aged. This undermines the event's image as a youthful, bohemian gathering and feeds criticism that it has become dominated by wealthy elites and celebrities rather than the counterculture crowd it was founded for.

Figures from the Black Rock City Census show the proportion of attendees in their 40s and 50s has been rising while the share in their 20s continues to fall, with over-50s outnumbering those in their 20s for the first time last year, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. The ageing profile largely reflects Millennials, who fuelled the festival's boom in the 2010s, growing older but remaining its most committed participants. It adds to a string of setbacks for the event, including a fatal stabbing last year, severe flooding in 2023 that stranded thousands including Chris Rock, and criticism from co-founder John Law, who said Burning Man has lost its "anarchist soul" and become a spectacle catering to Western elites.