Foreigners Should Skip Burning Man (and all US Tourism)

I know this will not be a popular post with some folks who would prefer to pretend that Burning Man exists in a vacuum, unaffected by the rest of the world.

But it doesn't.

Are you sure you want to spend your tourism money and time in the United States?

“Families search for loved ones after hundreds taken on U.S. immigration flights disappear.”

“French scientist denied US entry after phone messages critical of Trump found.“

“Trump touts prison in El Salvador for Tesla attackers.”

"Loyalty Tests Now Part of Ohio Traffic Stops."

“Canada only works as a [US] state.” 

These are all real, recent headlines, or in the case of the last one, a quote from the President of the United States.

If you’re a foreigner coming here to go to Burning Man, you have few rights and you could literally end up being rounded up by the government and sent to a maximum-security prison in El Salvador, regardless of having no criminal record, no criminal charges, and no court hearing. 

This is not an exaggeration. The admin is unilaterally doing this to non-citizens, and threatening citizens with it as well.

And it’s going to get a lot worse. We’re only two months into this.

Don't think you're safe because you're not coming here to protest, you're not trying to immigrate, or you're "just going to Burning Man." These people do not care. If there's any hint about you of anything they don't like, from your racial or ethnic identity to your tattoos to what's on your phone, they can seize you and you'll be lucky if all they do is send you back to your home country.

Will they send you to a prison in El Salvador like they're doing to others? Chances are not, but is it worth risking to go to a festival? And is it worth giving tourism dollars to America when this country is doing it to other people? 

The rural areas of Nevada you go through to get to Burning Man heavily support Trump. Pershing County, where Burning Man is held, went 76% for Trump to 21% for Harris, for example. How much more strongly do you think their sheriffs there supported Trump than even the general Pershing County citizens did? 

And as anyone who went to Burning Man in 2018 during the first Trump admin knows, the federal government, not just local law enforcement, can also make going to the playa dangerous. The federal Bureau of Indian Affairs presence on the route between the Reno area and Burning Man that year was turned into a gauntlet of pulling people over and searching their vehicles. (Thank god for the peoples’ hero, Dildo Ackbar!)

Will that be repeated? Who knows, but it’s a risk. 

Trump’s first admin was carnival clownish. Now he’s more like Pennywise, from Stephen King’s “It” - still a clown but now a scary one that's eating metaphorical (or actual...let's not put it past him) children. 

As a visitor here, you would be:

1. Helping to prop up America via your spending. Please don’t come here. Don’t buy our goods and services. The only thing that’s going to make Trump’s voters care is when it personally affects them (and in some cases, not even then - the groupthink is very strong). We as a country need to learn what it means to fuck around and find out. Help us learn, please!
   
   
2. Subject to the whims of the Trump admin, who can do almost literally whatever they want with you no matter what anyone thinks the law says. 
   
   You are not immune just because you're here from Europe instead of Central America. You’re also not immune just because you come from a country that is a traditional ally of the US. You can be arrested and sent in chains to prison in another country to rot if they feel like it.

I’m not telling you that going to Burning Man is bad. I love Burning Man. It’s been a huge part of my life for the past 15 years. 

I also know this call for foreigners to skip Burning Man will be resented by some, including people in Org management whose opinions I personally care about and who are working to resolve Burning Man's current financial difficulties. And for that I'm sorry.

But if there's ever a time to spend personal credibility or social mojo or whatever you want to call it, it's now as far as I'm concerned. I only have two platforms that anyone might pay attention to, and this is one of them, so I’m using it, for whatever small good it may do.

(If you’re interested in my other platform, I started a podcast the week after the 2024 elections called No Tacos For Tyrants. You won’t like it if your idea of a good time is fellating Trump or Elon. )

Why not go to a regional outside of the US instead of supporting America with tourism? There are so many, all over the world you can pick from, and you can still maintain your connection to Burning Man that way. https://regionals.burningman.org/

Locations of Burning Man regionals around the world.

Me? I won’t be at Burning Man this year for the first time since I started going in 2010, though it’s because I had made conflicting plans almost a year ago. I’m sure that no matter what some people say, it’s still going to be a great time for those who go.

​I just hope that people who don't live in the US help send a message to this country by staying away from all US tourism, of any kind. 

I’m focusing my energy on fighting back in whatever ways I can. I don’t have any illusions about my voice being remotely important in the grand scheme, but we all have to do what we can and going to Burning Man, especially while leading a camp or having a project, is just a big (usually enjoyable) time and money vacuum.

I’m reminded of this quote from burner, Grateful Dead lyricist, and co-founder of the Electronic Frontier Foundation John Perry Barlow (R.I.P.). It’s a bit dated with its Karl Rove reference, but the point remains the same:

“If someone like Karl Rove had wanted to neutralize the most creative, intelligent, and passionate members of his opposition, he'd have a hard time coming up with a better tool than Burning Man. Exile them to the wilderness, give them a culture in which alpha status requires months of focus and resource-consumptive preparation, provide them with metric tons of psychotropic confusicants, and then... ignore them. It's a pretty safe bet that they won't be out registering voters, or doing anything that might actually threaten electoral change, when they have an art car to build.”

Stay safe, friends, and resist fascism. And do something about it if you can, however small.