AARP Hearing Center
I’m in my 50s, and this year a friend hit me with a question I never expected:
“You coming to Burning Man?”
Burning Man, for the blissfully uninitiated, is an annual gathering held in Nevada’s Black Rock Desert, where some 80,000 people build a temporary city from scratch and spend a week of radical self-reliance. Aside from ice, nothing is sold. Everything — meals, massages, art, rides on a flame-shooting dragon — is bartered, gifted or shared. There’s no plumbing, no Wi-Fi and no exit strategy. It’s just you, your tent and the constant sound of EDM.
I’ve never been, despite having plenty of friends who swear by it. They come back raving about life-changing sunrises and spontaneous dance parties. Me? I won’t even use the restroom at an airport. I get lower back pain from loading the dishwasher wrong. How am I supposed to survive a week in the desert with no toilets and strangers offering hugs as currency?
But maybe I’m wrong. According to the Black Rock City Census, while mid-30s is the median age of festival attendees, 20 percent of Burners in 2024 were 50 and older, up from 16.7 percent in 2014. That’s a lot of people with readers and blood pressure meds signing up to wear mesh and barter for grilled cheese. And it’s not like older adults aren’t curious. On the contrary, many of us are intrigued by the festival’s radical self-expression, mind-blowing art installations and the promise of riding a giant neon praying mantis across the desert.
Even so, Burning Man, which returns this year from Aug. 24 to Sept. 1, was never optimized for anyone with a lumbar pillow and a Lipitor prescription. That doesn’t mean we don’t belong, it just means a few tweaks wouldn’t hurt. After all, we’ve earned our wisdom and our right to clean bathrooms.
So if Burning Man really wants to welcome the over-50 crowd into the dusty fold, here are a few friendly suggestions for making the playa a little more older-adult-friendly without losing the weird.

1. Replace the location with something easier on the knees
Burning Man takes place on a playa, also known as a dry lake bed — a flat floor of a sandy, salty or mud-caked desert basin. This giant sheet of sun-baked dust can’t be good on the knees. Uneven terrain can aggravate arthritis and joint inflammation, according to the Arthritis Foundation. So let’s add a level bocce court, a shaded walking loop or even a “plush path” lined with recycled yoga mats. Provide orthopedic sandals at check-in and suddenly radical self-reliance feels a lot like a wellness retreat.
2. Daytime raves that end by dinner
Who says you can’t party hard before sunset? A 2022 study published in the Journal of Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychology shows that older adults demonstrate peak alertness earlier in the day, which means a 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. silent disco is basically our sweet spot. That way you can still get the serotonin rush, grab an early buffet and make it back to camp for Jeopardy! via Starlink.

3. A fully stocked cooldown tent
It’s not whining, it’s thermoregulation. The risks of extreme heat increase significantly for those over age 50, so having a shaded tent with misting fans and cucumber water isn’t an indulgence, it’s first aid. Plus, the collective sighs of “It’s not the heat, it’s the lack of shade” build instant community.