Burning Man: A Complete Guide

There are many guides on how to prepare for Burning Man in terms of what food to buy, or what kind of contraption to use for accommodations and showers. They are useful but I still find them overly too complex and frightening without a good reason.

Yes, burning man can be harsh but do you really need one hundred costumes, a fancy fur coat for a thousand bucks, an RV, nasal sprays, and a lavender-scented breathing respirator to go there?

Not really. And it can’t be because the people who invented Burning Man were hippies and managed with the bare minimum of things just fine. So can you — in fact, you don’t need that much and if you have too much stuff — it will weigh you down and will take away from enjoying the event. I say that 90% of enjoying the experience comes from attitude and the group you are with, not from tons of stuff some people would like you to believe to be essential. I’ll describe the minimal setup you need and an optimal one at the end — and you will see — you don’t need that much, well, unless you are a glitter pony. If you are one — that’s a different story and you will need a different guide.

Before diving into how to let’s look at the history a bit so you understand the philosophy of the event better

How Burning Man came about

Did you know that a novel written by the famous Russian brothers Strugatsky was an inspiration for Burning Man? The novel was a basis for an art film Stalker by Andrei Tarkovsky that was released in 1979. The film inspired a group of interesting individuals, known as the Cacophony Society, to organize a series of urban adventures known as Zone Trips.

The Cacophony Society was a group of city pranksters in San Francisco who were doing flash mobs even before the term was invented! In 1986, the organization was created by the surviving members of the defunct Suicide Club of San Francisco. Cacophony events often involved wearing costumes, performing pranks in public places, and urban exploring.

Zone Trips were a combination of all that — multi-day journeys of exploration that functioned as catalysts for experiencing familiar spaces as if they were fresh and unfamiliar, and usually lasted a whole night. One of the notable events was Atomic Café, where on one occasion 120 members of the Society would sneak into this seven-story abandoned government building in San Francisco, that had been abandoned for 14 years. They got two rental trucks and drove down into the basement of this huge building and bizarre apocalyptic place. They had candles in bags, lighting the way up to this huge blast door. And they had brought everybody underground. Inside there was a live band playing music, a fog machine, lasers, and lights. We had brought in a generator and we plugged the exhaust into the plumbing system; the exhaust went up on the roof. They had an incredible party.

According to Michael Mikel:

“This was a time when we were immersed in consumer culture bombarded by advertising. And there was this lack of real experiences for people. We had television, and it was blasting away at us all the time. And there weren’t a lot of real deep experiences that we could do. And you know, you go to a movie, everything is passive. You watch sports. So we were kind of a rebellion against the culture at the time, the popular culture. And so we would do these things, primarily urban explorations.”

Sound familiar right? Yes, not much has changed since then, in fact, I think things got worse.

Larry Harvey, an active member of the Society organized the first Burn in 1986 at Baker Beach in San Francisco. People were doing solstice bonfires at the beach for several years before that. The legend is that Larry broke up with his girlfriend at the time and was pretty depressed about it. His friend and also a fellow member of the Society suggested that they throw a party at the beach and build a statue that symbolizes his attachment to his girlfriend and burn it. So that was a symbolic letting go in a sense, a function that now is served by the Temple.

After a while, the solstice burns at Baker Beach were banned by the park police for not having a permit. At the same time in 1991, Kevin Evans convinced John Law, one of the founding members of the Society, to help him organize a Zone Trip №4 called ‘A Bad Day at Black Rock’. This was when they decided to take Larry Harvey’s wooden statue to the Black Rock and this was the first Burn in the Black Rock desert. They rented a truck to haul the Man out to the desert, along with all of the luggage. The truck was also towing a single port-a-potty, which was all they (100 people) had for the entire weekend.

In its early years, the community grew by word of mouth alone, all were considered (and generally not invited until they could be expected to be) participants under their contribution to the cacophonous situationist vibe. There were no paid or scheduled performers or artists, no separation between art and life nor art space and living space, no rules other than “Don’t interfere with anyone else’s immediate experience” and “no guns in central camp”.

Ok, enough with history, let’s talk about what you need to know and have to have a blast.

General information

Some people call Burning Man a festival — but if you say that to old-school burners you are risking being ostracized at best. Burners do not like it to be called a festival, for it brings connotations with commercial for-profit festivals. It is not that, so fair enough.

Unlike regular festivals where everything is done by the organizers — at Burning Man, everything is done by the burners themselves, with their money and their labor. Only a very tiny part is done by the Org, and that includes Central Camp, the Man itself, and some security/fencing around the Burn. All the art cars, camps, bars, dancing venues, workshops, art installations, and so on are done by burners that organize into camps to do that. More on that later, just understand the principle — burning man is done by people like you who chose to come and make it happen.

Another important difference — it takes place in a desert, so it’s not going to be comfortable. And it shouldn’t. That was the idea of the founders that it should be uncomfortable, so it might be hot, and there would be dust everywhere. It might rain, like in 2023, and it can turn and a cold wet swamp. I don’t get people bitching how uncomfortable they are at the Burn. What, have you come here to seek comfort? Then you come to the wrong place.

So it will be hard but hard doesn’t mean difficult! It can be hard and fun, that’s the whole point. Once you get it — things become much easier.

Principles

The Burning Man 10 Principles were written by Larry Harvey only in 2004 as guidelines for regional organizing, then later became universal criteria of the general culture of Burning Man.

The 10 Principles are:

Radical Inclusion

Everyone is welcome, no exclusions. Burn welcomes and respects the stranger.

Gifting

Burning Man is devoted to acts of gift-giving. The gift is unconditional and does not contemplate a return or an exchange for something of equal value.

Decommodification

No commercial sponsorships, transactions, advertising, or any sort of money transactions at the Burn. It is not a place to sell or buy anything. Burn is not a place to substitute participatory experience with consumption.

Radical Self-reliance

Relay only on yourself. Nobody owns you anything and anything you get is a gift, but you have to take care of yourself and don’t expect others to pull your weight.

Radical Self-expression

Radical self-expression arises from the unique gifts of the individual. No one other than the individual or a collaborating group can determine its content. It is offered as a gift to others. In this spirit, the giver should respect the rights and liberties of the recipient.

Communal Effort

Burn is about cooperation and collaboration and participants strive to produce, promote, and protect social networks, public spaces, and works of art at the Burn.

Civic Responsibility

Community members who organize events should assume responsibility for public good and safety and assume responsibility for conducting events by all applicable laws and common sense.

Leaving No Trace

Burn community respects the environment and is committed to leaving no physical trace (read trash). Burners clean up after themselves, whenever possible, leaving such places in a better state than when they found them.

Participation

Everyone is invited to work. Everyone is invited to play. Burn is bout radical participation and the belief that transformative change can occur only through the medium of deeply personal participation. Community achieves being through doing.

Immediacy

It’s happening now and now is not going to happen any other time. Immediate experience is the most important in Burning Man culture and burners seek to overcome barriers that stand between us and a recognition of our inner selves, the reality of those around us, participation in society, and contact with a natural world exceeding human powers.

Each principle is meant to be equally important, although not for all people that is true, and, for example, adherence to local laws around the usage of substances is pretty low across the Black Rock city population. Just saying. Also a good principle for life as well, if you think about it.

As you can see, nowhere here is said tons of glittery clothes or an RV are necessary to experience Burning Man.

Substances

Not going to tell you where to get them or if you should use them. If you live in California — they are pretty much legal and you can buy them at a store (you will have to join a Church for that, as technically they are legal only as part of a religious ceremony but that is a technicality).

Do you need substances to experience Burn? You can technically have a sober Burn and you should someday but to really understand Burning Man you have to be under the influence and most people you meet will be under the influence of either LSD, shrooms, cannabis, MDMA, or at least booze. Burning Man is, in many aspects, designed to be experienced in an alternate state of consciousness.

The good thing is that — for the most part, people take psychedelics and stimulants. They make people happy, peaceful, and loving — very much unlike booze which turns people into assholes. Not that you won’t meet assholes at Burning Man — obviously all cohorts of the Earth population are represented at the event. But, for the most part — people will be very positive and open, and much of that comes from them being under the influence.

A couple of things to know about them. The Black Rock Desert is located in Nevada, but (and it is a big hairy but) — it is federal land and pretty much everything is illegal there except for booze. So if you do substances — be careful and discrete about it, cause cops are present at the event and regularly arrest people for possession of drugs.

If you get into trouble with cops — don’t bring them to your camp! Don’t tell them anything (as you don’t have to and anything you say will be used against you), and don’t consent to anything, like your tent search and so on. There is a separate guide on how to talk to police in these situations — find it and read it. And use your common sense so you don’t need it.

And second thing. When it comes to substances — radical self-reliance is a MUST. As they are potentially hazardous — you must rely in this area completely on yourself. Do not, under any circumstances, take any substances from anyone, especially strangers! You don’t know what can be in that, and the person giving it to you might not know either. It could be something lethal, like fentanyl. And do not give anything to anyone either — even if they ask! It is illegal and the solicitor could be an undercover cop.

Also, remember about being responsible. Substances come with their own size effects — so if you are doing it the first time — take it slow and do it with someone you trust who has been there. It is no fun at all to be in a bad trip alone in an unfamiliar environment.

Open Mind

Much more important than anything else, even substances. An open mind is a must and an integral part of Burning Man’s code. If you like to judge people on their sexual preferences, clothes, or anything else — that won’t fly here. Burning Man is about expanding and opening your mind to things that are not usual — so you must be open to people being and expressing themselves very differently from you.

Very little at Burning Man is usual, and not everything you may like or easily accept. If you are not open — things can get very uncomfortable for you very fast, and it is unlikely you will find understanding with other burners.

On the other hand, if you are open — Burning Man is a vast, endless sea of non-stop adventures, and you don’t have to go far to find them — in fact, they will find you. On every corner, there is a weird thing going on, weird people engaged in weird activities and they will be happy if you join them.

How about a tantra lesson a healing bowl session, or a spanking competition? Maybe you would like to come to a naked see-through sauna that also moves around the desert with you in it? Not everything is extreme of course — there are a lot of pretty normal activities, but be prepared for some very unusual stuff.

There are a lot of workshops on things you secretly were thinking about but were thinking it is too weird. Now it is time to step out of your comfort zone and explore. There is no better place on Earth to do that because nobody will judge you and the only thing you will find around is support.

Public sex and nudity

There is a lot of nudity around, people of all ages and genders walk around naked or half naked. This is so common you will quickly stop noticing that. Public sex, common in the older days of Burning Man, is quite rare this day. Local government clamped down on that and the proliferation of cell phones and cameras don’t help either. So if you expected an orgy on every corner — you are out of luck, it is very uncommon nowadays.

Overall the whole atmosphere is very sexualized. Given this is one of the most suppressed aspects of our normal lives — and Burn is about radical expression, sexuality is everywhere. It doesn’t feel odd or unnatural there. It is not aggressive, and a lot of people experiment because it is a (semi) safe environment.

There are specialized places for that, like Orgy Dome or Orgy Bus, or Orgy Boat — I think you’ve got the idea. A note about Orgy Dome — the naming is somewhat confusing. It is not a free for all orgy place you can drop in any time. Used to be, now they have rules. Specifically — you have to come with a partner and start with that partner. And with a partner — it is not allowed to separate (like if one goes to the bathroom — the other should follow). It’s not very orgy’ish per se, there are more liberal places. Orgy Dome is just better known than other camps.

Living in the desert

It’s a desert, folks. It is not a great place to live in, harsh and inhospitable. It gets very hot during the day and cold at night. But it is not nearly as bad as some people portray it to be, and definitely, unless you have some health issues, — there is no problem staying there for a week even in a tent. Many people do, don’t listen to anyone saying it’s impossible to go without an RV or a Shiftpof.

The temperature goes above one hundred but I’d say after living in Austin and Miami — it’s actually getting hotter there. So it’s not Mars.

A big tent is adequate and comfortable provided two things — you have a separate shade above it (like a carport) and you have an air conditioner or a swamp cooler. With these two any sort of tent will do. You can go with a Shiftpod (a type of tent), which is just more comfortable in terms of setting it up (takes 5 minutes) and height *you can stand up in it, but that’s about it. If you plan to sleep at night and not during the day — you may not need even an AC, as at night the temperature drops to 40 something. One important thing — it is better to have a tent with an airtight floor, in case of rain. Rain is rare but it happens, and a lot of people in 2023 learned it the hard way.

I didn’t want to spend 1.5k on a Shiftpod and bought an Ice fishing tent like this one (for $300, and it was just as good. Alternatively, there is a NoBake tent which is also very good.

RV is a good but expensive option. It is the most comfortable solution, totally not a necessity. If you decide to go with an RV — make sure to book it way before the event. Like in April, because there would be nothing decent left after that, and whatever remains available will have astronomical prices. When booking an RV make sure the owner knows about you going to Burning Man or if the owner finds out later — your booking can be canceled last minute leaving you with nothing. The thing is — many RV firms and owners know how harsh conditions could be at the Burn and how taxing it is on the vehicle, so they don’t allow to bring their RVs to the Burning Man.

Here are several places to rent an RV (but beware of scammers!):

• RVShare
• Outdoorsy
• Cruise America

Some people manage to use moving trucks (Penske and so on) for accommodations. That’s an option if you can’t find an RV but a tent doesn’t suit you for some reason.

If you go with a tent-like structure — having shade is crucial, without it a Shiftpod or any other fancy tent is going to turn into an oven really fast. Get a shade. If you are a part of a camp — it is very likely the camp will install a shade structure for everyone so you won’t have to do it yourself.

As I mentioned above — it is better to have an AC, like this one. It cost 140 bucks and it’s worth it, but you need electricity to run it. So you either need a generator and fuel, which is totally another story, or you with a camp that provides electricity (more on that later).

Inside the tent, you actually need one and only one thing — a bed. It can be an inflatable mattress like this one or a real matters (but it’s a kinda pain in the ass to transport). Having a good sleep without a good mattress is rather difficult. So get a good one plus warm blankets — it gets very cold at night.

While we are talking about cold — the other crucial thing to have in a desert is a set of warm clothes. Preferably a faux fur coat — as almost everybody will have them. Again, you don’t need something expensive — a faux fur coat from Amazon or Temu will do. If you want something fancy — you can buy a white coat and a bottle of paint, and soak the coat in it for a couple of hours. Takes 30 minutes and you will have a unique colored coat for 100 bucks.

In terms of other clothes you need a hat and sunglasses, to protect you from the sun (as well as sunscreen) and comfortable hiking shoes — as you will walk around a lot.

Also, the Black Rock City is a real city — it’s huge. So you will need some sort of transport to move around. Most people use bicycles, either electric or ordinary. Electric bikes are much more convenient, but they tend to have a lot of failures and you might end with an e-bike that no longer functions and turns into a normal, but very heavy bike. So sticking with a normal pedal bike is a bulletproof solution. I had several bikes stolen (twice from the camp it was parked at) so now I usually bring a spare just in case. So bringing an electric and a used pedal bike is an ideal combination.

In terms of other equipment — you will need a lot of LED strips to decorate your bike and some to put on yourself — for safety and a headlight. It is dark in the desert so you would want other people and artcars to see you so they won’t run you over.

Also, you will need a backpack to carry your stuff, ideally with a camelback — to carry lots of water. You will drink a lot due to heat, and a cup on a carabine to strap to your pants or backpack. Camps and bars at Burning Man do not provide plastic cups, as that goes against the Leave No Trace principle, so you will need to carry your own or risk staying sober!

One more common hazard in the desert is dust storms. They can come out of nowhere and catch you off guard. Dust storms are not dangerous by themselves, but breathing dust too much (you will breathe some all the time btw) is not recommended. So you will need a breathing mask and goggles. Ideally, you need a pack of masks like these because you going to lose and give away some.

In terms of hygiene, your camp might have a shower or not. There are some saunas/banyas and showers at Burning Man you can also use, but you can totally survive without any of that. Commonly people use big wet wipes and dry shampoo to wash themselves and that works great.

This is the equipment you truly need. Everything else is nice to have of different degrees. Here is a checklist I use to prepare, just remember — these things will make your life easier but they are not mandatory.

You also need to bring enough water and food to sustain yourself for a week. Obviously, it should be something that can survive outside of a fridge. Beef jerky, protein bars, trail and nuts mix, dried fruit, and instant noodles work great. Your camp will likely provide some meals, typically breakfast and dinner, but remember Radical Self Reliance! You should have something in case things go in an unexpected direction (or you need to munch on something late at night). In any case, you are not going to die of starvation, there are a lot of camps that serve food, so do not sweat about food too much.

Remember, there is no money at Burning Man and no commerce is allowed. Everything is free and gifting is actually one of the founding principles. It sounds a bit like communism, I know, but it works. But the day 3 you will forget what it means to pay for stuff, and you will have to re-learn it when you come back. It is a very nice feeling I must admit. And it removes all the underlying dynamics in human relations — nobody is trying to sell you anything. Whatever people offer you — they do so because they choose so (and probably because they like doing it). Sounds very nice, right?

Well, you can’t just come and live off what other people provide. Technically you can, but it is no fun and I think wrong. The Burn works because most burners want to contribute and another principle of the Burning Man is radical self-dependance. That means you have to come prepared and be able to sustain yourself completely, including water and food. Yes, Playa provides a lot, but it doesn’t mean you can count on that. Burning Man is for adults, and you must act like one. No one has obligations to help anyone, and people do that only because they choose to.

Summary of essential things:

• Tent (Shiftpod, NoBake tent, Ice Fishing Tent)
• AC
• Generator
• Mattress
• Bicycle
• Faux Fur coat (easy to find on Amazon/Temu for under $100)
• Masks
• Goggles
• Hat and Sun Glasses

Aside note about group camping. If you not joining a camp but want to go with a group of friends — same rules apply but also you may want to have some additional things, like:

A lounge to chill during the day. Something like a two-pole tent works well (better buy a version with side walls): https://a.aliexpress.com/_okbvXAj. Alternatively you can build a shade structure. All the parts you can buy here. You can also put Shiftpods under the shared shade.

A shower. You will need to build one or use a pump shower from Amazon. You will have to collect grey water from the shower to a container and take it off Playa!

Shared kitchen — a separate tent to cook with a gas stove, a fridge and supplies.

One or more portable generators to have electricity in shared areas.

Costumes

Having several costumes will add a lot more enjoyment to your experience. At least you can be whomever you wanted as a kid. Wanted to be a pirate — get yourself an eye patch, a hat, and a faux parrot, arr. Or you always wanted to be a princess (despite being a 7ft tall dude?) — no worries, get a costume and be one. You will see people get very creative with their costumes, so don’t think your idea is too crazy. There’s no such thing as too crazy at Burning Man.

You can make a costume yourself, like true burners did in the old times, or buy stuff from a marketplace. I suggest using Temu vs Amazon, so it doesn’t ruin your family budget and you won’t have to sell one of your kidneys.

There are markets on the way to Burning Man, where people sell handmade stuff which is pretty awesome, but also tends to be very expensive.

There are several special days when people dress in a certain way, but you are in no way obliged to do that. The days are black and white day (self-explanatory I think) and Tutu Tuesdays when people wear tutus.

But if you don't feel like it - don't sweat it. You don't have to have costumes.

Contribution

As I mentioned, Burning Man is created by burners, so the system works because of people contribute to the experience. Of course, a bunch of people come every year and just consume. That is what they used to do in normal life and that’s what they continue to do at the Burn. These are the people that then bitch about the rain, heat or someone not giving them something. They deserve what they get, I suppose. These people get a very different experience from the people who come and build, and many don’t consider them true burners. For them, the Burn is just another festival indeed, but they miss the whole point. They come to get something and oftentimes leave disappointed because they miss the connection that the act of creation on Playa, in extremely hard conditions, creates.

Those who come to build — bond and, likely, stay connected for years, and they are also connected to the Playa and the spirit of the Burn much more.

I still think it is good that even consumers come because oftentimes they realize how limited their experience of the Burn is and join next year to contribute.

Camps

Absolutely go with a camp if you go for the first time. Burning Man is not the same if you are alone, and the experience will not be complete.

The Burn itself is predominantly a large number of camps that vary from 3 to 100+ people. The camps specialize in different things, which I can split into several categories:

Art camps: these are building art in the Playa (the desert).

Art Car camps: these build art cars that move around Playa and usually serve as mobile venues for DJs or just as art pieces.

Service camps: they provide some kind of service — food, massage, lounge, bicycle repairs, mental support, and so on

Workshop camps: these teach something, like yoga, tantra, dancing, crypto, programming, and so on

Experience camps: these provide some kind of special experiences, for example, sensory deprivation, cocoa ceremonies, banya, tea ceremonies, roller-skating, and so on

Dancing venues: these are for dancing and raves

Performance camps: they stage live performances of all sorts, sometimes extremely silly or weird, but sometimes very serious theatrical performances or orchestra concerts

Sex Camps: specialize in different kinks, like Orgy Dome (it is really more about sex in public, so I think they should rename it to Public Sex Dome as naming is confusing now, but more about it later)

Mysterious camps: there is a whole bunch of camps that are hard to put into a single category

How to find a camp? First, ask your friends who have been to Burning Man for recommendations. That’s the best way. If you don’t have any friends like that — here is the list of camps with their contact information — you can contact them and ask them to join. There is an admission process that is different in every camp and a camp fee. Camp fees can be anything from $300 to $30,000, depending on the camp size, project and fame.

And you better join a camp before the Burn, so you can’t spend some time with people and get to know them. It really sucks to be stuck with people you don’t like in a desert for a week :). So join early, like at least a month prior — but better three months prior. This way you will have the opportunity to participate in the camp project.

As I mentioned — the best way to participate is to contribute. The core builder group of the camp arrives in Playa a week prior to the build, so you will have more time with your teammates before the Burn starts. The build week is my favorite time. It is much more chill, only builders are there but still, some parties are going and this is when you bond the most.

The camp will provide some common infrastructure so you don’t have to do it yourself, like showers, a kitchen area, a dining area, and a lounge. Usually, the camp will provide electricity in the form of generators as well so you can plug in your AC and charge phones.

How to get there

The Burn takes place in Nevada, the closest big city is Reno. You can fly into Reno and drive from there. Also, there is a bus shuttle from Reno to Black Rock City.

Many people choose to drive from San Francisco or Los Angeles. If you want to book an RV, do it way in advance — because there’s not going to be anything available a month before the burn and many rental companies (and now moving companies) explicitly forbid taking vehicles to the Burning Man (a day there is like a year of normal use 😂 )

Costs

How much does it cost? Well, it depends. The ticket itself is $550 per person plus $250 for a vehicle. You can get it at a lower price of around $250 if you apply through a low-income program. You will need to provide proof of income (like bank statements).

So at minimum, I think you need $3000 per person to buy tickets and everything necessary. That excludes airplane tickets and other accommodations before and after the Burn.

Have fun!