It's unclear if the elite will attend Burning Man after heavy rains and flooding in 2023.
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Burning Man is a desert-based arts festival that's become the playground of business elites.
The days-long event requires attendees to arrive with their own living accommodations and food.
It's become a tradition among models, influencers, and billionaire businessmen.
Every year around this time, tens of thousands of people descend upon Black Rock City, Nevada to attend Burning Man, but the soaked campgrounds and long traffic lines experienced 2023 might deter the famous billionaires and CEOs who are known to go.
Burning Man kicks off on Sunday, but tickets still haven't sold out. It's the first time this has happened since 2011, CBS reported. The dip in sales could have something to do with the heavy rains that left some Burners stranded and muddy last year.
Burning Man is the dusty desert party that's attracted billionaires, Hollywood A-listers, and residents of Silicon Valley alike. Every year, big-name tech bros and well-heeled execs join the festival — trading their hoodies for light-up bodysuits and Allbirds for sky-high boots.
The unwritten rules of the art festival encourage anonymity and privacy, and nicknames and creative costumes often make it difficult to know for festivalgoers to know if they've run into someone famous or just a fellow hippie.
Still, the attendance of high-profile individuals at Burning Man has come to light over the years, with some members of the tech elite finding their time on the playa — Burner-speak for the dry lake bed where the festival takes place — so life-changing that they can't help but speak about it publicly.
While their experience may differ — they often fly in on private jets and spend their time in "fancy camps" with meals made by personal chefs who charge up to $275,000 for their services — it's still possible you may spot one of these famous names in the desert.
Here are some of the most famous execs who moonlight as Burners:
Tesla CEO Elon Musk has been very public about loving Burning Man.Elon Musk has attended Burning Man multiple times.
Alain Jocard/AFP via Getty Images
Not only has Musk taken more than one pilgrimage to Black Rock City, he's also gone on the record touting the annual festival as an integral part of Silicon Valley culture.
"If you haven't been, you just don't get it," Musk told Recode in 2014.
As recently as 2022, Musk was posting about Burning Man on Twitter.
Mark Zuckerberg, Meta's CEO, served sandwiches at the festival.Mark Zuckerberg once flew to the festival for a day.
Getty
In 2012, at the urging of his friend and Facebook cofounder Dustin Moskowitz, Zuckerberg took a break from his busy schedule to fly to Burning Man for a day and make some grilled cheese sandwiches.
"Along with its other inhabitants, he helped pitch his own tent," Moskowitz, a regular Burning Man attendee, wrote in a 2013 Medium post.
"I wanted him to experience the city and to experience gifting because I thought it would make him grow as a person and the world better off as a result; I believe that's exactly what happened, however marginally (he was already a pretty great person)," he added about Zuckerberg.
Disgraced Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes had a seemingly spiritual experience at the festival in 2018.Elizabeth Holmes made waves when she attended Burning Man.
In 2018, after it was discovered that Holmes was defrauding investors and she was indicted by a grand jury, the former Theranos CEO and her partner, Billy Evans, decided to take a trip to Burning Man.
While there, they reportedly torched an effigy for the failed — and fraudulent — blood-testing business before embarking on a six-month RV trip traveling the country.
Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon, was attending Burning Man while other members of the Silicon Valley royalty were still teenagers.Jeff Bezos attended Burning Man in the 1990s.
AP Photo/Patrick Semansky, File
As early as 1999, Bezos was attending Burning Man, Forbes reported at the time. That's long before the event became the go-to party for younger CEOs.
Google founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page, are two other longtime Burners.Sergey Brin (left) and Larry Page (right) have attended Burning Man for years.
Former executive chairman of Google's Alphabet, Eric Schmidt, bonded with the Google founders at the festival.Eric Schmidt became the CEO of Google after its cofounders found out he was a burner.
"Eric was . . . the only one who went to Burning Man," Brin reportedly said in a 2002 interview. "We thought [that] was an important criterion."
Dustin Moskovitz included his Asana cofounder Justin Rosenstein in a list of prominent attendees in 2013.Dustin Moskovitz (left) and Justin Rosenstein (right) both attended the festival.
Asana
One of the biggest sources of information about which tech executives go to Burning Man is Moskovitz, who cofounded Facebook.
His piece — no doubt controversial within the Burning Man community — argued that billionaires have a right to attend the festival, which he said was eye-opening to many of his friends. Those who denied their right to attend were promoting a culture of exclusivity, he argued.
Among the tech execs Moskovitz listed as festival attendees were Rosenstein, Zuckerberg, and the Winklevoss twins, who famously sued Zuckerberg over the origins of the social network.
Garrett Camp, cofounder of Uber, was on his 11th trip to Burning Man in 2013.Garrett Camp lives up to his name: He's attend Burning Man a number of times.
Joi Ito
Camp is a regular Burner, according to anthropologist Francis Jervis. When the two met at the festival in 2013, Jervis said it was Camp's 11th time attending.
"His first experience of the radical otherness of the Playa was in the time of the Hillbilly Freak Show, not the luxurious turnkey camps with which Silicon Valley is associated today," Jervis wrote.
Reddit cofounder Alexis Ohanian was a Burner before he was Serena Williams' husband.Serena Williams and Alexis Ohanian, who went to Burning Man before the pair married.
Neilson Barnard/Getty Images
Ohanian is now probably best known as the partner of tennis star Williams. But not too long ago, he was just another tech mogul wandering the desert in hopes of finding himself.
Dropbox has conducted layoffs this year in response to slowing business growth and the expansion of AI products — maybe a trip to the desert is just what the company's founder needs.
Ray Dalio, billionaire investor, attended the festival in 2019.Ray Dalio compared Burning Man to Woodstock.
Kimberly White/Getty Images
The 74-year-old billionaire hedge fund manager made an appearance at Burning Man in 2019, wearing a tie-dye coat and psychedelic bell-bottoms.
It seems like he had mixed feelings about his experience. He said the festival was like Woodstock with "better art" and "less good music."
Josh Kushner, founder of venture capital firm Thrive Capital, has gone to Burning Man with his model wife Karlie Kloss.VC founder Josh Kushner and model Karlie Kloss Instagrammed from Burning Man.
Dia Dipasupil/FilmMagic
The billionaire founder of venture capital firm Thrive Capital and younger brother of Jared Kushner was seen at Burning Man last year with his wife Karlie Kloss.
Airbnb cofounder Brian Chesky attended his first Burning Man in 2013.Brian Chesky was invited to Burning Man by a board member.
Kimberly White
Billionaire Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky first went to Burning Man in 2013 on an invitation by board member Chip Conley.
"Burning Man is what life would be like if artists ruled the world," he reportedly said after attending.
Honorable mention: the actors, musicians, and other celebrities who love to burn.The muddy scene at Burning Man, left. Chris Rock, center. Diplo, right.
Burning Man: PAUL REDER via REUTERS; Rock: MEGA/GC Images; Diplo: Gilbert Carrasquillo/GC Images
Billionaires and CEOs aren't the only recognizable faces that have popped up at Burning Man in the past. It's hosted a number of fashion models, influencers, and heirs to business empires.
DJ Diplo and comedian Chris Rock were among the Burners who were stranded in the mud in 2023. Diplo documented their trek on social media before the pair used their star power to hitch a ride with a fan out of flooded conditions.
In previous years, the festival has been seen in a more glamorous light through the Instagram outfit pictures from Katy Perry, Paris Hilton, and Heidi Klum.
