Burning Man attendees in good spirits despite cold, muddy festival

SAN JOSE, Calif. (KGO) -- Despite the cold and muddy conditions, some Burning Man festival goers are ending the event with good spirits.

After a two-night delay, the annual burning of the man was lit up on Monday night.

"As dramatic as people have made it, it actually hasn't been that terrible," said Kiana Beil, a festival-goer. "If there's ever a group of people to get stuck with, this is the one."

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This is the sixth Burning Man festival Kiana Beil has attended. She said the torrential rain brought people together.

"So it was a shelter-in-place and try to just find somewhere warm and dry and keep each other warm, and ideally find someone who has an RV - if you don't have one and it just became a beautiful, even more beautiful sense of community than before - absolutely," said Beil.

Drinks were served at their makeshift bar.

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"We were able to combine food and we made meals together and a lot more of than what we probably would've if the weather had been perfect," said Robert Hargreaves. "Radical self-reliance is part of Burning Man, and that's what we do we prepare for the worst that can possibly happen then this year it happened."

We spoke with a volunteer nurse "Jenn" who likes to highlight the positive side.

"Things like this camp back here - Dust Fish - they serve pho soup all day long so people are lining up there because it's actually pretty chilly out today and they're hungry so camps are feeding them," she said. "It is very much a bonding type situation and I have made friends here that I will hopefully have for decades for the rest of my life."

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