‘Reckless and selfish’: San Francisco mayor rebukes Burning Man celebration on beach that drew 1K

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. — San Francisco Mayor London Breed splashed a bit of cold water on more than 1,000 beachgoers, who had gathered Saturday at Ocean Beach to celebrate Burning Man culture.

“This was absolutely reckless and selfish,” Mayor London Breed tweeted Sunday morning. “You are not celebrating. You are putting people’s lives at risk. You are putting our progress at risk. No one is immune from spreading the virus.”

In early April, Burning Man organizers canceled the annual music and art festival in northern Nevada’s Black Rock Desert and announced it would be replaced with a “non-traditional celebration of human connection” amid the novel coronavirus pandemic. The nine-day event typically attracts about 80,000 people.

The festival’s organizers told CNN they were neither aware of nor involved in the planning of the San Francisco event, though they did provide a livestream of the California event’s homage Saturday to the annual tradition of burning a wooden effigy.

In response to Saturday’s crowd, Breed closed the Ocean Beach parking lots and announced that law enforcement would be patrolling the area Sunday night, Fox News reported.

“We know people love Burning Man [and] people want to get together this weekend,” she tweeted. “But we all need to do our part. Stay home, stay safe.”

Cox Media Group