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The harshest Twitter burns against the SF tech bros at Burning Man

Joshua Bote

For every passionate Burning Man attendee, there are three equally passionate haters waiting in the wings to fire off a tweet about the people who choose to spend a week on the playa.

And this year, after COVID-19 rendered Burning Man a digital-only festival, the festival is back in full force — and so are the dunks against its attendees. 

In recent years, a new level of ire has been unlocked — not against the hippies and trust-fund kids who have made Burning Man into the libertarian-leaning cultural phenomenon that it is. Instead, it’s the VCs and tech bros who fell in love with the fest in recent years that bear the brunt of criticism. After all, entry fees that climb as high as $2,500 are probably nothing to a startup founder who raised millions in seed-stage funding — or the VC throwing money at said startup founder.

Even as the tech industry deals with economic woes apace, it appears that it’s not stopping the 1% of Silicon Valley from going. San Francisco residents and tech industry watchers alike have noted how empty city streets are or how quiet Twitter is this week.

Below, see some of the best Burning Man tweets from locals, pundits and even Conan O’Brien.

"showing up to burning man w nothing but two usbs and a backpack. this is like a raver’s version of naked & afraid"

"the VCs are all at burning man so that they can all disconnect from their computers and remember what they really care about: very annoying and expensive parties"