This is a breaking news story and will be updated.
A woman has died at the Burning Man festival after she was found unconscious on Sunday morning.
According to Burning Man, the woman was found unconscious at 11:29 a.m. Burning Man emergency personnel attempted life-saving measures but were unsuccessful, the organization said in a statement.
Pershing County Sheriff Jerry Allen said his officers responded and were notified of the death at 11:37 a.m.
The sheriff’s office said the death remains under investigation pending the determination of the cause and circumstances of death. An update will be provided once the autopsy is complete.
The woman’s age and name were not released until next of kin could be notified.
“Our thoughts and prayers are with the family and friends of the deceased,” the sheriff’s office said.
“This is the first reported death on the beach this year and unfortunately it happened on the first day,” Allen said.
Burning Man issued a similar statement, saying counseling services are available for those who need them.
“Our thoughts and condolences go out to the family and friends who have suffered this loss,” Burning Man’s statement said.
The annual festival began on Sunday
The annual festival began early Sunday morning after the gates were closed for 12 hours due to rain and mud. According to police officials, there were already about 20,000 people on the playa before the gates opened. Volunteers and people setting up large art installations begin arriving days and weeks before the festival officially begins.
Burning Man runs through September 2. This year, fewer visitors were expected, but organizers still expect more than 70,000 visitors. Reno Tahoe International Airport said Sunday would be its busiest day in 20 years. Much of the attendance was attributed to Burning Man.
Previous Burning Man Deaths
Since the event moved to the Black Rock Desert in 1990, numerous deaths have occurred at or near Burning Man, both by accident and by suicide. Among them:
Michael Fury, 1996: Michael Fury of San Francisco died hours before the event began in 1996, the seventh year it was held in the Black Rock Desert. Fury, who was riding a motorcycle, was struck and killed by a van just outside the gates. The van was driven by an acquaintance of Fury’s.
“They were kind of frenemies, with a lot of ego and a tremendous competitive spirit,” Burning Man co-founder John Law told RGJ in 2016.
“Michael was about half a mile ahead of him, driving in circles around the van and then straight at him, like he was acting like a coward,” Law said. “It was after sunset. But still a little light. He was going about 30 miles an hour and Fury kept passing him, and the last time he misjudged it and crashed into the side of the van.”
Katherine Lampman, 2003: Katherine Lampman of San Mateo, California, was killed at Burning Man 2003 when she attempted to exit an “art car” and was struck by a following vehicle. Pershing County Sheriff’s officials concluded the fatal crash was an accident.
“Her last words to me were, ‘I’m going to live my life like every day is my last,'” her sister Stacy Levi told RGJ in 2003.
When friends tried to cancel the trip days before departure, Levi suggested that Lampman should not come.
“I said, ‘Everything happens for a reason.’ But no, she didn’t want to hear about it, so I left it at that,” Levi said.
Barry Jacobs, 2003: Hours after Lampman’s death, four people were seriously injured when their small plane attempted to land on the festival runway in the Black Rock Desert.
Barry Jacobs of San Rafael, California, the pilot of the Beechcraft BE-35 aircraft, later succumbed to his injuries.
Jermaine Barley, 2007: Jermaine “Jerm” Barley committed suicide in a tent at the 2007 event.
Barley, who performed under the DJ name Optic Orange, was 22. Pershing County Sheriff Ron Skinner said Barley was distressed, according to relatives, but they did not believe he would harm himself.
“When he wasn’t spinning records or talking about girls, he was talking about Burning Man,” Barley’s former roommate Joe Harrington told the San Francisco Chronicle in 2007. “He loved everything about that place: the art, the freedom of expression, that it was a place where you could be yourself and not worry about anything.”
Alicia Cipicchio, 2014: Alicia Louise Cipicchio, the manager of an art gallery in Jackson, Wyoming, was killed at the 2014 event when she was hit by an art car.
Cipicchio, an art student at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, graduated in 2008 and was described as someone who loved nature and life, a colleague told RGJ.
An employee at Cipicchio’s gallery said Cipicchio was an “amazing girl, full of life, loved by everyone.”
Aaron Joel Mitchell, 2018: Aaron Joel Mitchell, 41, died when he ran into the burning Burning Man building Saturday night. He was pronounced dead at 6:28 a.m. Sunday after being flown to the University of California-Davis burn center.
Mitchell, 41, was attending Burning Man for the first time, according to his mother, Johnnye Mitchell. She said her son grew up in McAlester, Oklahoma, but lives in Switzerland with his wife.
He abstained from any drugs and drank only modest amounts of craft beer throughout the event week, his friend Justin Berry told RGJ. He often meditated and made smoothies for all of his campmates, exhausted from the hottest Burning Man year anyone could remember.
On the night of the Man fire, however, Mitchell split from his usual group to join some friends from Switzerland, Berry said.
“I wish we had all been together. I don’t know if that would have happened,” he said.
Leon Reece, 2023: Leon Reece of Truckee died at the Burning Man event last year. He was unconscious and had to be resuscitated.
According to the Pershing County Sheriff’s Office, rainy and muddy conditions at the 2023 event did not appear to have contributed to the deceased’s death, but rain and harsh conditions on the playa that night made it difficult for officers to get to the scene and begin their investigation. By the time officers arrived, a doctor at Burning Man had already pronounced Reece dead.
According to preliminary investigations by the Washoe County Coroner’s Office, drug poisoning is suspected as the cause of death.
