Burning Man, the infamous arts festival in the Nevada desert, turned 40 this year, and it’s showing some distinct signs of middle age.

It’s not just the tech billionaires who show up to party, the chartered flights straight to the desert or the HBO documentary about behind-the-scenes power struggles. The tens of thousands of people who assemble each year to create a tent city in the wilderness appear to be growing older, and it doesn’t seem that they’re being replaced by as many younger “burners”, as festival participants are called.

People in their 20s used to make up nearly a third of the participants in this utopian experiment, in which volunteers build a new version of Black Rock City in the desert each year, party nonstop for a week and then burn much of the art they have created, including a massive effigy of the “Man.”

Since the festival paused for two years during the pandemic, the number of attenders in their 20s has dropped sharply, falling to only 10% in 2025, according to estimates from the Black Rock City census, an annual participant survey that has been conducted in different forms since 2002. Meanwhile, the share of attenders in their 40 and 50s grew to nearly 42% last year. While data for 2026 is not yet available, the “preliminary 2026 census data suggest a slightly younger age profile than in 2025”, the organization said.

This is a frustrating story, as the writer gets very close to correct terminology but arrives at conclusions via assumptions.

Among the local burners I know, vanishingly few bother with BRC. It’s expensive, Nevada is very far away, and we have several regionals a year in Texas that are more accessible in terms of size.

But ultimately, it’s the economy. It’s been a while since I was in my 20s, but back then, you could still afford a healthy “fun” budget on entry-level wages.

That said, demographics at regionals are roughly as portrayed here … pretty much 40 and up. I’ve often said that burners are largely just old ravers and hippies.

I have met some younger burners, but they tend to be the exception. I can offer my own speculation here: Consent is a really big fucking problem for that cohort. I don’t mean SA gone wild (it admittedly is an issue, but thankfully not widespread) but rather something far more simple: recording. The expectation is that you receive explicit consent from every last fucking person in the frame if you’re going to take a photo.

Which is to say, the playa is a private space for us to experience, not a feast of content for would-be influencers. I have exactly one photo from Flipside, and it’s of me, on the last day, in front of my friend’s van to ensure no one inadvertently ended up in the shot in the background.

This shit is taken very seriously. Which is anathema to the age range that now can’t afford to go anyway, so why bother?