Burning Man 2026: Three people die at famous week-long festival in Black Rock Desert, Nevada

Three Burning Man festivalgoers have died in Nevada, marking an unusually high death toll for the annual desert event.

The festival, which attracts tens of thousands of attendees every year over a week-long period, wrapped up on September 7.

It is held in Nevada’s Black Rock Desert in a temporary metropolis named “Black Rock City” that is established for the duration of the event.

The festival has no headliners or scheduled performers, instead, the festivalgoers create all the attractions themselves, with the burning of a large wooden effigy known as “The Man” symbolising creativity and self-expression.

The first of the fatalities occurred on Thursday, September 3, when Sampson Tshombe was rushed to a temporary hospital on the festival grounds after he was found on a nearby street.

A spokesperson from the Pershing County Sheriff’s Office said “emergency personnel had performed CPR on him for several minutes” but he could not be saved, Los Angeles Times reported.

A second festivalgoer, Armando Ramirez, 51, lost his life the following day when he was being transported to Reno hospital from the festival grounds.

On Saturday, the force said a third person, a man aged in his 60s, Craig Mann, was pronounced dead after he was discovered in a trailer.

According to the sheriff’s office, Mr Mann was sharing the trailer with his significant other.

Burning Man addressed two of the deaths in a statement posted to its website last week.

“It is with heavy hearts that Burning Man Project confirms a Black Rock City participant in his mid-50s experienced a medical emergency, immediately received lifesaving measures, and was transported to the on-site centre for emergency care where he was pronounced deceased,” it said, without making clear which man they were referring to.

“Burning Man Project is saddened to share that a second Black Rock City participant, Craig Mann, a 60 year-old man, was found deceased by campmates in his camp on Saturday, September 5, at approximately 3pm,” the festival said in a statement posted to its website.

“Our thoughts and deepest condolences are with the participant’s family, friends, campmates, and all those affected by this loss.”

Although people have died at Burning Man in recent years, Pershing County Sheriff Jerry Allen said three deaths was unusually high, with an average of one death reporter per year at the festival.

“Although we average one death a year at the festival, we have had two so far this year within the confines of the festival and I have received information regarding a third who died in transit to a hospital in Reno,” he told Reno Gazette-Journal.

In 2025, 37-year-old Russian man Vadim Kruglov died after he was found laying ”in a pool of blood” at a campsite on the final day of the festival.

A fellow festivalgoer made the tragic discovery before emergency services attended the scene and Mr Kruglov was pronounced dead.

A homicide investigation was launched and, while authorities said it appeared to be a “singular crime”, festivalgoers were warned to remain “vigilant of their surroundings and acquaintances”.

A year on from Mr Vadim’s stabbing death, detectives have still not made any arrests in relation to the suspected murder.