The woman who mysteriously died on the first day of the Burning Man festival just hours after thousands crowded into the faltering desert camp has been identified.
Authorities say 39-year-old Kendra Frazer was found unresponsive at 11.29am on Sunday and organizers said ‘life saving measures were immediately attempted but were unsuccessful’.
Frazer’s next of kin have been notified but police did not say where the woman was from.
The Pershing County Sheriff’s Office arrived and confirmed the woman’s death, and began investigating ‘until a cause and manner can be determined’.
‘Our thoughts and condolences go out to the family and friends affected by this loss,’ festival organizers said in a statement. ‘We are cooperating fully with local authorities as they investigate this incident.’
‘The name of the participant is being withheld at this time, until the decedent’s next of kin can be notified,’ Jerry Allen with the Pershing County Sheriff said.
‘Our thoughts and prayers go out to the family and friends of the decedent.
‘This is the first reported death on the playa this year and unfortunately it has happened on day one.’
Burning Man organizers said there were counselling services available at the festival for anyone who needed them.
‘The safety and well-being of our staff and community are paramount. We are cooperating fully with local authorities as they investigate this incident,’ it said.
‘The Pershing County Sheriff’s office investigates all deaths that occur in its jurisdiction.
About a half-dozen other deaths have been reported at the festival since it moved from Baker Beach in San Francisco to the Black Rock desert in 1990.
Last year, Leon Reece, a 32-year-old California man died from suspected drug intoxication after being found unresponsive on the festival grounds.
The festival, which combines wilderness camping with a weeklong celebration of art for art’s sake, kicked off early Sunday after the gates had been closed for 12 hours following rain and muddy conditions.
An estimated 20,000 people were already on the playa before the gates officially opened to all ticket-holders.
Burning Man runs through Sept. 2 . Organizers expect more than 70,000 people to attend this year’s event.
Known for its colorful theme camps, towering sculptures, drum circles, art cars and avant-garde theatrics, it grew from a gathering of about 4,000 in 1995 to 50,000 in 2010 and now temporarily becomes Nevada’s third-largest city after metropolitan Las Vegas and Reno.
The iconic festival is feared to be on its last legs, with demand for tickets at an all-time low just a week before the event begins.
Fed-up revelers fled Nevada’s Black Rock Desert last year after torrential rain turned the event into a muddy mess – and now it seems the magic has been lost.
Burning Man tickets are usually in hot demand but in an unprecedented move, the festival has released last-minute tickets.
While organizers behind the week-long festival, which has been known for drug usage and huge orgies, are making desperate attempts to sell tickets, a Facebook group is consumed with people trying to flick theirs off.
Prices start at $575 before taxes and fees, with vehicle passes costing around an additional $150. This time around, people are willing to sell them for below face value or the ‘best offer’ for the festival on August 25.
Burning Man is famed for being an anti-capitalist festival – but many of its longtime revelers are now complaining of being bilked out of cash for tickets they bought at full price.
One person even offered him $200 for the ticket as he frustratingly responded to them with: ‘Decommodification goes both ways.’
According to the ’10 Principle of Burning Man,’ or the festival’s principles, decommodification ‘protects Burning Man culture from being leveraged to promote, support or market a person, product, company or any kind of commercial endeavor.’
During last year’s festival, partygoers lashed out at each other after organizers begged those trying to leave the filthy encampment to have patience amid panic over water and food shortages.
Attendees were initially ordered not to leave after the exit roads were impassable following a half-inch of rain.
Those who opted to leave before the ‘the burn,’ in which the festival namesake effigy is set alight, waited in five-hour queues until they reached the open road.
People were urged to not attempt to walk from the festival, with celebrity attendees including Chris Rock, actor Austin Butler and DJ Diplo making their escape.
Due to the heavy rain and muddy conditions, personnel were delayed in responding to a distress call for Reece, who was pronounced dead at the scene.
The festival contended with an intense heat wave and strong winds in 2022, which made the experience difficult for the ‘burners,’ as festival goers are known.
The gathering, which originated as a small function in 1986 on a San Francisco beach, has a budget of $45million and is attended by celebrities and social media influencers.
No financial transactions take place, with guests encouraged to barter to get what they need. Longtime Burning Man attendees complained the festival had been gentrified and ruined in recent years, before the 2024 slump in demand.