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More than 73,000 people were stuck at the Burning Man Festival in Black Rock City, Nevada, after the place experienced massive rainstorms and flash floods on Friday, September 1. In fact, the poor weather conditions turned the venue into a giant mud pit.
While the organizers called the Burning Man Project urged the attendees to stay warm inside shelters and campsites and share and conserve food, water, and fuel with one another, many festival-goers decided to leave the place on foot by hiking for miles. These include comedian Chris Rock, DJ Diplo, and former Acting Solicitor General of the USA Neal Katyal, among others.
Now, the name of singer Oliver Anthony of Rich Men North of Richmond fame has also emerged as one of the attendees of the Burning Man Festival. Whether he was able to evacuate or still remains trapped is unknown.
However, he reportedly missed an interview with the Midwestern Marx Institute, which was also the first to break the news on X (formerly Twitter), saying that the hit musician could not attend its scheduled interview as he was stuck in the flooding.
Oliver Anthony was reportedly stranded at the Burning Man Festival
The official X (formerly Twitter) page of the Midwestern Marx Institute posted a video on Monday, September 4, with the caption:
“Oliver Anthony Interview Postponed by Flooding.”
In the footage, three people are seen discussing the Burning Man Festival crisis. They included Director and Theorist Noah Khrachvik, Director and Geopolitical Analyst Eddie Liger, and Director and Philosopher Carlos L. Garrido, all of whom are closely associated with the Midwestern Marx Institute.
“We are a little disappointed here that our man Oliver Anthony has been trapped in the flooding at Burning Man,” Eddie Liger began the conversation.
He further continued by saying that Oliver Anthony informed them about his situation via email and was hoping to make it back for the interview, but unfortunately could not make it on time.
Liger added that they were not sure when they would be able to reschedule the interview with Oliver Anthony, as his representative told them that he would be “out there for at least a day."
“So, honest right now, we are mostly concerned with his safety. Umm, hopefully, he can make it out of this situation safe and then we can reschedule the interview for a different time,” he noted.
Liger also joked about how the CIA may have interfered with the interview as they didn’t want Oliver Anthony to sit and talk with a known socialist institute. He also apologized to the viewers and promised that the interview was still very much on and would happen as soon as possible.
So far, there has been no confirmation about the interview or his attendance at the Burning Man Festival from Oliver Anthony’s side. However, it can be presumed that Anthony's interview with the institute was directly linked to the populist message of the song Rich Men North of Richmond.
For those uninitiated, the blockbuster song was released on YouTube on August 8 and charted at the top of all music apps worldwide. It revolves around the struggles of working-class Americans and touches upon themes including trafficking, taxation, and welfare fraud, among others, that the labor class in the USA suffers from.
The Midwestern Marx Institute is an educational and research center focused on the study of Marxist theory and political analysis. The institute also runs the Midwestern Marx Publishing Press and is responsible for the publication of the Journal of American Socialist Studies.
The Burning Man Festival happens every year a week before Labor Day. For 2023, it was scheduled to happen between August 27 and September 4 but got canceled due to torrential rainstorms, which in turn led to flash flooding in the festival grounds.
The Burning Man Festival is a celebration of community, art, self-expression, and self-reliance, which culminates in the symbolic burning of a 40-foot giant wooden effigy referred to as the Man on the penultimate day of the event.
