Skip to main content

Burning Man wasn't a national disaster, and this picture isn't from there | Fact check

Hannah Hudnall   Paste BN

The claim: Video shows car stuck in mud at Burning Man, which was declared a national disaster

A Sept. 3 Instagram post (direct link, archive link) shows a TikTok video of a car stuck in deep mud.

"Someone who tried to escape Burning Man," reads on-screen text in the video.

The post's caption claims the music festival was declared a national disaster.

The post garnered more than 16,000 likes in a week. Similar versions of the claim have been shared on Facebook, Instagram and X, formerly Twitter.

Follow us on Facebook! Like our page to get updates throughout the day on our latest debunks

Our rating: False

The video was shared online nearly two weeks before the music festival began. Burning Man wasn't declared a national emergency, according to officials.

Video shared online days before Burning Man

The Burning Man music festival closed its entrances and exits in Nevada's Black Rock Desert on Sept. 1 after continued rain made driving nearly impossible. Thousands of festivalgoers were stuck in an hours-long line of traffic as they tried to leave the event grounds several days later.

But the video of the car stuck in the mud wasn't filmed at the festival.

It was previously shared on Instagram and TikTok on Aug. 15, 12 days before the music festival began. The Instagram user didn't specify the details of the video, but the TikTok user tagged the location as South Padre Island, Texas.

Fact check: No reports of Ebola outbreak in connection to Burning Man, contrary to posts

Dominique Debucquoy-Dodley, a spokesperson for Burning Man, told Paste BN in an email that the music festival wasn't declared a national disaster.

Jeremy M. Edwards, a spokesperson for the Federal Emergency Management Agency, told Paste BN the agency hadn't been deployed to the festival for assistance.

"No FEMA personnel or assets have been deployed to the Burning Man festival and there are no requests from local or state authorities for our assistance," said Edwards in an email.

The festival isn't listed as a current disaster on the FEMA website either.

Paste BN reached out to both Instagram users who shared the post for comment but did not immediately receive a response. The TikTok users couldn't be contacted.

The claim has also been debunked by Lead Stories, PolitiFact and Check Your Fact.

Our fact-check sources:

Thank you for supporting our journalism. You can subscribe to our print edition, ad-free app or e-newspaper here.

Our fact-check work is supported in part by a grant from Facebook.

Facebook Twitter Email