Chicago residents at Burning Man: A ‘magical, beautiful time’

Raven Smith wouldn’t have known that she was in the middle of the apocalypse. Long before news spread of an alleged disaster at Burning Man, she had lost phone service.

As the powerful rainstorm that soaked the desert gathering became an emergency captivating the nation, the Rogers Park resident looked outside her camp shelter. There, she saw kids playing in the mud.

“They were sliding in it, like a Slip ‘N Slide. They were throwing it at each other. There were some trying to build sand castles,” she said. “There was just glee.”

The quirky weeklong gathering in Nevada’s Black Rock Desert — notorious for an imaginative array of revelry — sparked viral fears amid circulating images showing knee-deep mud and stuck cars. Dire reports warned of unserviceable and overflowing toilets and looming trench foot.

It was dirty, the Chicago attendees the Tribune spoke with admitted. And in spite of the mess, or possibly because of it, they loved their time.

The doom-tinged reports…