The Maltese man arrested by Nevada state rangers while attending a protest on the road to a major music festival has said he “gave up” on his home country when asked why he had taken his climate activism to the US.

“It’s too red and blue... I gave up on Malta,” said Tommy Diacono about the country’s political landscape, speaking from Nevada on Monday.

Diacono became known for his fast-food New York Best brand started with his brother, Nicholas in 2011, which, at its height, had outlets in Paceville, Msida and on the University of Malta campus. 

“I had a very successful business but, after a while, I started to question why I was selling burgers while the planet is on fire. I realised that trying to sell junk food is an empty way of existing,” he said.

Explaining that it had become “impossible” to compete with cheaper players in the market, Diacono said he couldn’t see a way for his business to be sustainable in the long term.

“At a certain point, I asked:  ‘what am I doing with my life,’” he said.

After closing New York Best in 2019, Diacono became increasingly involved in climate activism, a change he says was spurred on by attending Burning Man festival – the same festival he was arrested at on Monday for protesting – as an audience member.

“I was a ‘Burner’ [a term used for those attending the festival] and it opened me up,” he said, adding he believes capitalism and consumer culture to be the main causes of climate change. 

“It was classless, moneyless, there was no main stage being organised, just people sharing with each other... it showed me that there is a way of living without money,” he continued.

Tickets for this year’s Burning Man festival ranged from $575 to $2,750 each, with concessions available for $225, according to the festival website. Online estimates have put the total cost of attending the festival much higher.

It was the restrictions brought in to curb the spread of COVID-19, however, that drove Diacono further into the movement.

“COVID radicalised me,” he said, adding that when he saw governments providing financial assistance to businesses and asking people to stay home, he believed more could be done by the authorities to solve the climate crisis.

Tommy Diacono in 2018. Photo: Tommy Diacono/ Facebook

Why America?

When asked why he had chosen to travel to the US to engage in climate activism, Diacono said he believes the country to be at the root of climate change.

“It’s important to tackle the US first as they drive the culture globally... we live in ‘Pax Americana’ [a term coined to refer to American economic and military dominance], capitalism is a way of life,” he said.

“The only way to have a livable planet is to challenge the ‘American Dream’,” he said.

When asked whether any disagreements with people in Malta had led to him moving overseas, Diacono insisted that he was not fleeing any difficulties back home.

“I’ll be accused of running away but I’m not... I’ve been going back and forth for years,” he said.

Tommy Diacono at Burning Man festival in 2019. Photo: Tommy Diacono/ Facebook

Burning Man controversies

In recent years, Burning Man has attracted controversy for its environmental impact, most notably for the fuel used by attendees driving to the festival.

When challenged about the festival’s economic credentials, Diacono agreed it needs to improve.

“They work hard to make it green but it’s not enough. The protest was about addressing those problems,” he said, adding there have been other protests at the festival in the past. After footage on Monday showed festivalgoers reacting angrily to his group of climate activists, has his positive opinion of Burners changed?

“Absolutely not,” he said.

In a press release on Monday, climate activist group Seven Circles accused Burning Man of “greenwashing” and said its aims of carbon negativity were “insufficient to tackle the pressing crisis”.

The coalition of activists called on the festival to ban single-use plastics, unlimited generator usage, unnecessary propane burning and the use of private jets for those travelling to the nine-day festival.

Arrest in Nevada

Diacono was arrested on Monday alongside other climate protesters after the group blocked a route to Burning Man festival.

Footage captured by Freedom News TV showed activists being roughly handled by Nevada state rangers and arrested at gunpoint.

“The police came in hot... I was sure they were going to kill us,” Diacono said, adding that a 60-year-old protester was injured when rangers slammed her head into the asphalt.

After being roughly handcuffed, the group of protesters were held in the back of a truck for around two hours in the sweltering heat, Diacono said.

“They cuff you hard to keep you in pain... later, they loosened them; we were allowed to put our arms in front of our body,” he said. Stressing that the group had done “everything by the book”, Diacono said the rangers had approached the situation with “military training”, arresting the first person violently on purpose to discourage others from fighting back.

Rangers had also arrested the protest’s legal observer, he said. According to the American Civil Liberties Union of Wisconsin, legal observers act as witnesses to demonstrations and protests, including any incidents of police misconduct.