The Burning Man's White Ocean luxury camp, used for hosting celebrities and exclusive group parties at the annual Nevada festival, was vandalized by "a band of hooligans," leading to an investigation by the local sheriff's office.
The festival, held in the Black Rock Desert, celebrates the principal of "radical self-reliance" and the White Ocean camp has been a source of controversy and tension for Burning Man regulars, said the Reno Gazette-Journal.
The White Ocean camp includes hired help, concerts, and a legion of recreational vehicles that surround a catered cafeteria and lounge space.
The White Ocean camp is relatively new to the Burning Man festival. Founded in 2013, the camp has been a temporary home for participants from London, New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco.
The Kansas City Star said the festival is being frequented by more celebrities, with stars like Katy Perry, Diplo, Karlie Kloss, Paris Hilton, Nina Agdal, Cara Delevingne and Scott Eastwood joining the 70,000 at this year's weekend event.
"A very unfortunate and saddening event happened last night at White Ocean, something we thought would never be possible in OUR Burning Man utopia," said a Sept. 1 post on the White Camp website.
"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."
Some Facebook posters weren't sympathetic.
The Gazette-Journal said other Burning Man participants didn't see a problem with the White Ocean camp.
"I didn't get any kind of holier-than-thou vibe," said Denise Johnson of Portland, Oregon. "The shows I went to were chill and accepting. I don't think vandalism is acceptable
no matter what they did."
"This is evil. This should not happen at Burning Man," said Elena Serdiouk of San Francisco. "This is supposed to be about love, happiness, sharing, giving and appreciating. It is unbelievable that there are angry people here."
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