Burning Man has become a wrinkled sausage fest of aging millennial men, data shows

The man will burn…and he’s also getting on in years.Burning Man — the nine-day celebration of art, music, and anarchist hijinks in the Nevada desert — has been steadily shrinking since its 2019 peak, but the share of people in their 40s and 50s is on the rise, data shows. The number of free-loving revelers flocking to “the playa” — where each year a city is built on bare sand and razed after a week of drug-fueled, clothing-optional partying — dipped to about 70,000 last year after peaking close to 80,000, according to last year’s census of Black Rock City, the ad hoc municipality that hosts the burn. Burners feel the vibes at Burning Man 2023. AFP via Getty Images An overhead view of Black Rock City — a.k.a. “the playa” — which hosts Burning Man. DigitalGlobe/Getty Images But the oldies ar