Luxury camp raided at Burning Man festival in a ‘revolution’ against the rich

This year marked the 30th Burning Man festival and the beginning of a “revolution” against some of the millionaires and billionaires who’ve become regular attendees.

White Ocean, a luxury camp at this year’s Burning Man, was reportedly ransacked by fellow burners upset about the segregation that’s beginning to take place at the festival, according to the Reno Gazette-Journal.

At the festival in the broiling Black Rock Desert of northern Nevada, tens of thousands of people “leave behind cellphones, capitalism and judgments” for a celebration of “radical self-expression.”

Celebrities at this year’s event included Katy Perry, Diplo, Karlie Kloss, Paris Hilton, Nina Agdal, Cara Delevingne and Scott Eastwood.

A statement on the camp’s Facebook page said: “A band of hooligans raided our camp, stole from us, pulled and sliced all of our electrical lines leaving us with no refrigeration and wasting our food and, glued our trailer doors shut, vandalized most of our camping infrastructure, dumped 200 gallons of potable water flooding our camp.”

The post goes on to say that someone from the organization said, “It makes sense that you have been sabotaged as you are a closed camp and not welcoming.”

The luxury camp, often called a plug-n-play camp, is something relatively new to Burning Man. These types of venues hire help to put on exclusive parties, complete with entertainment and food. White Ocean was founded in 2013.

For some burners, the idea of exclusivity at Burning Man goes against what the festival is supposed to stand for. One commenter posted on White Ocean’s statement: “I have no pitty (sic) for you guys. As someone who has camped next to you in the past, you have been the most unwelcoming group on the playa. You wall yourselves off. No one knows you — other than the people who put on a big party then return to their cave of luxury.”

But not all burners are happy about White Ocean being attacked. Another commenter posted: “That should never happen at Burning Man, it goes against every principle of the event, regardless if some people like White Ocean and some don’t. Not cool.”

Much like the rest of the country, Burning Man is becoming divided.

This story was originally published September 6, 2016 at 2:04 PM with the headline "Luxury camp raided at Burning Man festival in a ‘revolution’ against the rich."