When Valerie Bertele went to The Battery for a creative writing event on Tuesday, not many people showed up. The member’s club is a hot spot for tech leaders — the same crowd that often travels over 300 miles northeast to Black Rock City for the annual Burning Man.
“There were less than 10 people,” said Bertele, a VC at Yellow Rocks Capital. “The organizers were saying that we didn’t get any signups because everyone looks to be at Burning Man.”
Among Silicon Valley’s upper class, many consider Burning Man an industry ritual. Elon Musk and the Google cofounders are frequent attendees. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said the festival showed him what post-AGI life could look like.
This year, even with dust storms and shaky finances, Burning Man appears to have drawn out many of Silicon Valley’s leaders. Those left on the ground in the Bay Area said they’ve found quieter highways, easier dinner reservations, and a bounty of out-of-office emails.
For many, life in the fast-paced Silicon Valley slows down a bit.
Vijay Chattha has fewer calls this week. He runs communications firm VSC and its investment arm, VSC Ventures. He said he can always tell when someone is at Burning Man. Anytime a “decision-maker” is gone around the festival dates — so, a founder or CEO — they’re probably at the Playa, he said.
“A lot of the people that go, at least in tech, are in their regular weeks probably quite intense people,” Chattha said. “The cortisol levels are low this week.”
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There are some added perks to having fewer techies in the city. Chattha said it’s easier to get a restaurant reservation. Driving into San Francisco from Marin, he noticed less traffic.
Alison Berman also noticed fewer cars on the road. She’s spent the last 10 years hopping around Silicon Valley, mostly working in climate tech. She’s not a fan of Burning Man and its carbon footprint, despite its “leave no trace” mantra. Still, most of Berman’s friends are there now.
“It’s kind of a ghost town over Burning Man, where founders clear out, investors clear out,” Berman said. “You notice it immediately in the decrease in traffic, which is great for the commute, but also you get a lot of out-of-office replies.”
She said it’s one of two major events that push many in Silicon Valley offline: Burning Man and Christmas.
For founders looking to raise capital, Burning Man is often considered an off period. Ron Wiener runs startup accelerator Venture Mechanics. His advice to the accelerator’s founders: Be ready for Labor Day, when everyone comes back.
“I’m ordinarily emailing VCs continuously and trying to get speakers for events or judges,” he said. “I’ve been fundraising for 41 years. I know this time of year is dead.”
Burning Man also coincides with a common time to take a summer vacation, and with college move-ins for parents. Wiener said it creates the perfect storm for a “super dead” week.
This year, though, may be less dead than others. While ticket sales are up, the festival has not sold out, as it did each year from 2011 to 2023. At its peak, Burning Man hosted 78,850 attendees; this year, a spokesperson told Business Insider it expected 70,000.
OLarry founder and CEO Eric Rachmel said that there’s always a “certain amount of slowdown” — but that the period would be much quieter some five years back.
“Maybe it’s because I’m in my late 30s, and my crew of venture folks I know have young children,” Rachmel said. “You often find folks that are in their mid- to late-twenties and early thirties go,” before circling back to the festival “once their children are a little more grown.”
Bertele also saw the changing popularity in past years, when layoffs and economic turbulence rocked the city. But San Francisco has grown recently, she said. She keeps hearing people complain that it’s “impossible to rent anything” in the city.
Indeed, San Francisco real estate has sprung back to life after a multi-year haze, thanks in part to Big Tech RTO mandates. Average rent was up 6.4% year-over-year in the first quarter of 2025.
“Lots of people came to San Francisco for the AI boom, and they’re ready to spend money to go networking at Burning Man this year, too,” Bertele said.
Bertele has attended Burning Man before. She wanted to go this year, but her brother couldn’t get a visa. Now, as the city partially empties out, she’s getting FOMO.
Chattha has also seen the FOMO. In his group chat with VCs and founders, one friend was drinking wine in Greece, while another was dealing with the “disaster zone” of a Burning Man setup walloped by dust storms.
It was the wine-sipper — not the Burner — who was jealous.
