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Neal Katyal, a corporate lawyer, professor, and former President Barack Obama-era Acting Solicitor General of the US, was in attendance at the Burning Man Festival. The festival was scheduled to take place between August 27, 2023, and September 4, 2023, and was expected to see thousands of attendees. However, Black Rock City in Nevada, where the festival was being held, saw heavy rain and a storm on Friday, September 1, 2023. This led to flash floods which only turned the place muddy.
After the storm and subsequent flash floods, organizers of the Burning Man Festival advised the visitors to take shelter in camps. They also asked the guests to not leave the place until the situation became better. The organizers even went on to shut down the entrance and the exit and canceled the rest of the festival.
However, many of the festival-goers refused to stay stranded with others and began hiking out of the venue on foot or in their cars. It is worth noting that only the former was possible and with a lot of effort. People had to leave behind everything, including their personal belongings and vehicles to make it to safety.
The corporate lawyer Neal Katyal was one of the people who hiked out of the Burning Man Festival. He shared his experience of the same on X (formerly Twitter) two days after the festival, on September 3, 2023. Katyal wrote that he and his group of fellow attendees managed to "accomplish the impossible" and make the "incredibly harrowing six-mile hike" at midnight. He also tweeted about the hiking conditions that were muddy and slippery. He went on to state that his experience at the festival was amazing except for the ending.
However, Neal Katyal's attendance at the Burning Man Festival didn't sit too well with Jeff Clark. He was the Assistant Attorney General for the Environment and Natural Resources Division during the Donald Trump presidency. It is worth noting that Clark is currently facing indictment for attempting to overturn the 2020 presidential election alongside Trump.
When he saw Katyal's tweet, Clark took to X to call him out and even accused Katyal of being a part of a "neopagan ritual." Needless to say, this sparked controversy among netizens and those who support Neal Katyal.
Netizens react to Jeff Clark’s criticism of Neal Katyal’s presence at the Burning Man Festival
As mentioned earlier, Neal Katyal was present at the Burning Man Festival before rainstorms and flash floods ruined the grounds and canceled the end of the event.
The Burning Man Festival is centered around community building, art, self-expression, and self-reliance and is held every year in Nevada’s Black Rock City. The festival culminates with the symbolic burning of a 40-foot giant wooden effigy called “the Man” and occurs over the weekend right before Labor Day.
However, conservatives like Jeff Clark have stated that it was an unnecessary "neopagan ritual." Clark even went on to ask his followers to pray for the people who attended the festival to "come to light and realize that the only path is through and to our Lord."
Instead of siding with Clark, several netizens slammed him for criticizing Neal Katyal when he was awaiting trial and potential imprisonment. He is facing imprisonment for co-conspiring with Donald Trump and attempting to overturn the 2020 presidential election. While some netizens said that they thought Neal Katyal was a "good guy," others simply told Clark to "go to jail."
As mentioned earlier, Neal Katyal didn't just attend the festival but also left it by hiking on foot when the event was canceled due to rainstorms and flash floods. After he managed to successfully leave Black Rock City, he put up a statement on X about the do's and don'ts before exiting the Burning Man festival venue.
In his tweet, he wrote that no one should try to make the hike unless they are in good shape and should also be a part of the group. He added that the hike was quite hard and that it would "get harder if/when it rains more."
“Talk your friends out of the hike unless you really think they can do it safely. There are treacherous places where it is worse than walking on ice,” Katyal wrote.
Neal went on to mention the challenging hiking conditions including slippery ground and cement-like mud that sticks to the boots and can get people stuck. Neal also warned his followers about the quicksand nature of the ground.
Some of his other helpful pointers included downloading maps, following the GPS, trying to hike out in daylight, and staying in a straight line to reach the closest road. He also clarified how there was no cell reception for the majority of the hike and how one should try to look for a pickup at the meeting point.
However, he also asked people to prioritize their safety over leaving. He stated how there was sufficient food, water, and other resources on the ground for the festival-goers to stay back and wait till the conditions improved.
Besides Neal Katyal, celebrities like Chris Rock and Diplo also hiked out of the Black Rock City and shared their experiences via social media.
It is important to note that Burning Man Festival organizers have urged people to stay warm in shelters and camps and not try to evacuate until they were given the green signal. They have also asked people to stay united and share and conserve food, water, and fuel as much as possible.
As per Insider, the officials were hopeful that the conditions would improve Monday morning onwards depending on the weather forecast. This is why the mobile cell service trailers and buses were ready to be deployed to the zone to help people who are stranded.
