Festivals, heat and psychedelics in Nevada: EDC and Burning Man

Is psilocybin allowed at Nevada festivals?

No. Psilocybin and psilocin are on Nevada's Schedule I list,¹ EDC Las Vegas runs a zero-tolerance drug policy with police inside and outside the gates,² and at Burning Man the Pershing County Sheriff and the federal Bureau of Land Management enforce the law on site.³ Heat is the risk the death records keep showing: the Southern Nevada Health District counted 284 heat-associated deaths in Clark County in 2025.⁴

Penalties are on our Nevada psilocybin law page; rules for out-of-towners are on visiting Las Vegas.

EDC Las Vegas: the rules and the free help on site

Insomniac, which runs EDC, says it "enforces a zero-tolerance drug policy at all of its events."⁶ Its guidelines say police work inside and outside the event, "all narcotics laws will be strictly enforced," and every ticket holder agrees to a TSA-style search with a pat-down. Drugs, paraphernalia and over-the-counter medicine are prohibited; prescription medicine needs the prescription and a safety officer's check; sealed intranasal naloxone is allowed.²

The organizer also runs help that isn't police work:

• Medical stations. EDC says its medical teams treat people "free of charge, no questions asked," and tells attendees, "you will not get in trouble for seeking medical help."⁶
• Ground Control. Attendee-care staff in purple shirts roam the grounds; EDC invites anyone who needs help, or just a friend, to approach them.⁶
• Free water. Refill stations throughout the venue, marked with water-drop symbols on the map.⁶

EDC tells attendees to alert medical staff or security if a friend is vomiting, has a seizure, has pale or bluish skin, has a heart rate or breathing that's too fast or too slow, is too hot or too cold, has delusions or paranoia, or is confused or can't be roused.⁶

How many people are arrested at EDC?

Las Vegas police figures, as reported by local TV stations, add up to between 34 and 59 arrests a year at EDC from 2022 to 2026.⁸⁹ None of the summaries breaks arrests down by drug, so there's no public count of psilocybin arrests at the festival.

Rows for 2022 to 2025 come from KTNV's compilation of LVMPD numbers,⁸ with 2023's traffic citations from KTNV's 2023 report.¹⁶ Police released felony and misdemeanor counts separately; the totals for 2023 to 2026 are our sums. KTNV's compilation lists all 39 arrests in 2022 as felonies, while its 2023 report gives 39 arrests with no breakdown.⁸¹⁶ Citation counts for 2022 to 2024 are misdemeanor citations; 2025 and 2026 combine traffic and misdemeanor citations, so the citation column doesn't compare cleanly across years. The 2026 row adds up LVMPD's day-by-day figures for May 15 to 17 as reported by FOX5; that festival was expected to draw more than half a million people.⁹

Deaths in 2025. Clark County confirmed two men died in connection with EDC weekend. Police said one had a medical episode at the event and was pronounced dead at University Medical Center; the other was found dead in a hotel room and was believed to be in town for the festival. Causes were pending when KTNV reported the deaths,¹⁰ and we haven't found a published cause since.

Burning Man: who enforces the law, and the 2026 deaths

Black Rock City is in Pershing County in northern Nevada. Burning Man's survival guide says the Pershing County Sheriff and the BLM enforce laws on site, while the Nevada State Police, the Washoe and Pershing County sheriff's offices and the Pyramid Lake Police Department patrol the roads in and out.³ We found no yearly arrest figures from the sheriff or the BLM for 2024 to 2026.

Three men died at Burning Man 2026 or after being taken from it. In October the Washoe County Regional Medical Examiner's Office released the causes:⁷

• One collapsed and was pronounced dead at Rampart Medical Center, inside the festival. Cause: hypertensive and atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease. Manner: natural.
• One was taken from the festival with chest pain and died in an ambulance. Cause: toxic effects of methamphetamine and MDMA. Manner: accident.
• One was found unresponsive in his RV. Cause: combined cocaine and methamphetamine toxicity, with heart disease contributing. Manner: accident.

None of the released causes names psilocybin. The Pershing County Sheriff's Office is handling the law enforcement investigation.⁷

No Zendo sanctuary on the playa in 2026

The Zendo Project, a psychedelic peer-support group, had no care space at Burning Man in 2026. Its September 2026 newsletter says "Zendo services were not on playa this year"; a few team members gave trainings, and it hopes to return next year "with a full sanctuary."¹¹

Heat: what Clark County's death counts show

The Southern Nevada Health District counted 284 heat-associated deaths in Clark County in 2025, down 45% from 513 in 2024; about 21% of the 2025 deaths were people who didn't live in the county.⁴ SNHD counts registered death records, which can differ from the coroner's preliminary numbers:¹² the coroner said heat was a factor in 526 deaths in 2024.¹³ We use SNHD's counts.

Drugs and heat show up together. In SNHD's September 2025 report, 49% of the 165 heat-associated deaths registered for 2025 as of September 16 involved substance use.¹² That report was preliminary and covers fewer deaths than the 284 SNHD later reported for the full year.⁴

Hallucinogens aren't a separate category in the report.¹² SNHD names people who use substances among the groups heat-related illness hits hardest. Its advice: drink water even when you're not thirsty, limit alcohol, carry water and a phone, avoid the hottest hours, and wear light-colored clothing, a hat and sunscreen.⁴

Free naloxone and test strips around festival weekends

EDC allows sealed intranasal naloxone through the gates.² Ahead of EDC weekend in May 2026, the Victoria's Voice Foundation gave away free naloxone and fentanyl test strips at the Westgate Las Vegas.¹⁵ For places that hand them out year-round, see the naloxone section of our help page.

A fentanyl test strip checks for fentanyl only. It can't tell you whether a pill, powder or "mushroom" candy contains psilocybin, MDMA or methamphetamine, and two of the three Burning Man 2026 deaths involved methamphetamine.⁷ Our guide to mushroom gummies covers what federal testing has found in products sold as mushrooms.

What to do if a friend is in trouble at a festival

1. Check for red flags. Heat stroke signs, a seizure, chest pain, trouble breathing or a friend who can't be roused mean medical help now.¹⁴⁶ At EDC, go to a medical station or flag down staff or Ground Control;⁶ at Burning Man, Rampart Medical Center is inside the event;⁷ anywhere else, call 911.
2. Stay together. EDC tells attendees to use the buddy system.⁶ Don't send a struggling friend off alone.
3. Cool and calm. Shade or air conditioning, loose clothing, cool wet cloths, away from speakers and crowds. The Weather Service says sips of water for heat exhaustion, with medical help right away if the person vomits or gets worse, and no fluids for heat stroke.¹⁴
4. Tell the medics what was taken. See what Nevada's Good Samaritan law does and doesn't cover.
5. Nobody drives, including on the long road home from the playa. Wait it out or get a ride.
6. Call for backup. The Fireside Project line at the top of this page, 62-FIRESIDE (623-473-7433), offers psychedelic peer support by call or text every day from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Pacific; it isn't medical care.