On August 24th, 2014 at 10:00 am the gates to the Burning Man art festival in the Black Rock Desert opened and the situations began! Every year we leave the default world and become citizens of Black Rock City for a week. I have been attending the event for 10 years and have watched the city grow. I have also seen the popularity grow and the mainstream media begin to embrace the counter-culture experience. This year Burning Man hosted 66,000 participants on a dried lake bed in northern Nevada and a few of those attendees were actually well known celebrities.
Photo: Michelle Rodriquez at Burning Man 2014
Source: Instagram
Will Smith at Burning Man
Source: Facebook
Victoria Secret model Candice Swanepoel at Burning Man 2014
Source: Instagram
Burning Man is actually a great place for celebs since the media is kept under tight control and since the costuming is very conducive to someone who may want to hide their identity–although it doesn’t help that these celebs post their photos to social media!
The weeklong festival describes itself as “an annual art event and temporary community based on radical self expression and self-reliance.” Perhaps celebrities are drawn to the event because they are just another anonymous citizen enjoying the art and music for the week.
Last year the festival hosted Mark Zuckerberg, Sean “P. Diddy” Combs, Jennifer Aniston’s little brother, and Actress (and George Clooney ex) Stacy Keibler, Larry Page and Sergey Brin of Google, Elon Musk of Tesla Motors, MTV creator Bob Pittman, Stavros Niarchos and his sister Eugenie, Alexandra von Furstenberg, Margherita Missoni, Bettina Santo Domingo, Lady Victoria Hervey, Francesca Versace, PC Valmorbida, David de Rothschild.
This year we are still waiting on word of which celebrities attended, but thus far we know a few big A-listers were there including…Will Smith. Other celebrity attendees included: NBC Legal Analyst Lisa Bloom, Presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich, Derek Blasberg, Poppy Delevingne, American recording artist, dancer, actress and model Cassie, recording artist Chamillionaire, actress Michelle Rodriguez, Victoria Secret model Candice Swanepoel Award-winning actor and rapper Will Smith posted a photo to his Facebook account with the caption: “Headed to Burning Man!!”
And now video footage has surfaced of Smith leading a group of friends on Segways around the festival on Gawker.
Cassie Ventura
Burning Man 2014
Source: Instagram
Photo Source: Instagram
And an inside source (aka a guy from our camp) tells us that he ran into the Kardashians just outside of the desert looking like Burners at a fast food restaurant as he was leaving the playa.
2013 Burning Man Celebrity attendees
Luke Rudkowski from WeAreChange interviewed former Congressman and Presidential Candidate Dennis Kucinich on the Playa this year.
Kucinich talks about reforming the Affordable Care Act.
The pervasiveness of very elite and well-connected people has led many to wonder about a Burning Man conspiracy, particularly now that Burning Man has become so influential in the media and global politics.