A man believed to be in his 50s has died while attending the Burning Man festival in Nevada, with the event now under a precautionary lockdown due to severe rainfall that has turned the desert site into mud. The death, reported late on Friday, occurred amid gates closing at Black Rock City and organisers asking those yet to arrive to delay their journeys, adding fresh disruption to a festival already grappling with reputational challenges in recent years.

The man was found dead at around 6.30pm on Thursday, and first responders were unable to revive him; his cause of death awaits an autopsy by the Washoe County Regional Medical Examiner's Office, with Pershing County Sheriff Jerry Allen saying foul play is not currently suspected. It follows last year's first-ever homicide at the festival, when Russian attendee Vadim Kruglov was fatally stabbed, a case that remains unsolved. Separately, new census data shows Burning Man's demographic is ageing, with attendees in their 40s and 50s now outnumbering those in their 20s, following a similarly disruptive mud-related lockdown in 2023 that trapped over 70,000 attendees.