Burning Man Festival

This year I intend to experience the Burning Man Festival for the first time. It is located in the Black Rock Desert region. The closes largest city would be Reno, Nevada. I would like to find other people who have been there and can tell me more about the festival. Would like to find others who are going this year as well. The website is

www.burningman.com

I'll be watching this thread for I also have the idea to go to burningman this year.

marco

there's quite a few burners on HOP, and we have had lots of very informative discussions. I highly suggest looking back at the burning man threads from the past and reading them. they are full of good advice. plus there's even a mass HOP meeting every year.

On next weeks Malcolm in the Middle (in the UK) they all run off to Burning Man! Lucky gits......

I plan on going back to Burningman this year for the first time since 2002.

have you got an idea what camp you are going to stay with? if not, i am putting one together this year and have about a dozen people saying they are going to pitch in with it, with a few notable fire performers in that mix - you'd be welcome to throw in with us.

Me, 2bags & garthy were planning on going,

But we're all being lame about the organisation.

We should be going if we can get our arses in gear to sort things out.

im heading to burningman this year. i was a virgin burner last year but i made some friends at the hookah dome. ill spend most of my days there... meet me there any time the name is Leon

Tickets go on sale Wednesday January 18, 12 noon PST. The first 7000 will be sold at $185 U.S. and will probably be gone in 24 hours. If you wait to get tickets, you will pay more. Even if you don't end up going, the tickets are easy to sell.

I'm definitely going again this year but haven't found a camp yet.

vanize, are you registering a theme camp? Will it be fire related? If so, I'd be interested in joining. I'm a decent camp setup\teardown handyman and can chip in on funds, water, food, tools, etc.

We only had a small turnout at the BM'05 HoP gathering. Hopefully it will be bigger this year. If you can't make it to the gathering, swing by center camp during the day, there's a good chance at least one of us will be spinning there. The Hookahdome fire jam is another good meetup, just look for Orbit.

There's a good chance I'll be going, and a good chance I'll be spinning ALL the time.

It is one of my life goals to make it to this festival, at least once

Alas, being a 16 year old studednt makes it a tad difficult at the moment... damn ocean!

Well, this is my first reply on HoP. I've been an avid firetaddict/performer/pyromancer for about 6 years now. Started out with Fire Breathing, later I learned staff and baton (or is it club?). Currently I'm training to get some cool moves out of my Wushu sword, after I find some metal that'll work for me I'm gonna create my first firesword. I've always created my own firetoys btw, what with the lacking amount of shops that sell the stuff.
Anyways, I'm planning on coming to Burning Man this year and I'm still looking for a camp. So yeah, vanize, if you have some more info on that camp you're setting up it would be great. I'm a handyman too and I also intend to chip in for the full 100%.
Anyone planning on some stationary Art? I am, gonna create some small parts and put it together on-site.

well, i am unclear yet as to whether i'll be putting together an independant and fully registered theme camp of my own, or rather pitching in as a subcamp of a larger one (which has its benifits - larger size generally means better placement).

currently it looks like I have about a dozen people for sure. if it doesn't get much larger than that, then associating with one or two other camps will be highly benificial. I also have to admit that my job situation is a bit of an unknown right now, and depending on what i land in that regards once i get back to the states (moving to Colordao from Germany in 10 days!) will dictate a lot of how involved I get with the theme camp.

but for now, the starting seed of the camp is a structure i call the ambient cathedral. While it has been out to other burn events, it hasn't made it to the national burn at black rock city yet. But i think she has been field tested enough at this point to be ready. One of my fire peformer friends from LA/New York has promised to head up an art installation that is complimentary to the ambient cathedral.

the camp itself would be fire heavy, but not really a fire arts based camp. That is to say I don't want to really compete with other more traditionally fire performer based camps for attention, but the population of the camp will be likely be fire performer heavy.

i will be negotiation with friends who have portable field kitchens and other such niceties to join us as well so there can be communal cooking and such (I hope), but i do not intend to be the lead on a kitchen or a meal plan.

I also like the idea of making the camp a place HoPpers can pitch a tent if they don't already have other plans. In fact, i am all for making HoP part of the theme of the camp, which might very well help with this cronic HoP meet up problem everyone always has at burningman. a continuous HoP camp, instead of a single meet up, is a lot more likely to see people actually managing to meet each other!

So if people are up for that, speak up and let's do it! I can't do it alone.

if anyone wants to join in and has their own idea about what they want to do with a camp theme, i'm all for it. my vision about all of this is still malleable and i am not a control freak or a man with a singular vision of precisely what must be accomplished.

And I would be especially happy if Pink were inclined to join the camp! she is one of the lovely people i will be missing very much when i leave europe!

if I get enough hits on this, i will start a seperate thread specifically about a HoP theme camp at burningman.

Well, I for one am very interested in your camp. I have a couple ideas I'd be willing to put forth if there's gonna be a HoP camp. It would be nice if we were at least near one edge of either the esplande or the playa fields if we're gonna do a few burns near our camp.
Do you have any pics of that ambient cathedral?
Oh, and how hard is it to get your hands on some kero and lampoil once you arive in the US? Because I'm from Holland and kero is a no-go on planes.

Atar - any chance we met 3.5 weeks ago or so at the gathering just outside amsterdam in that freezing cold barn?

pics of the ambient cathedral happen to be inaccesable to me at this time, but the structure is essentially a large A-frame tent that is about 16 meters long, 7 meters wide, and 4 or 5 meters at the peak. she manages to be exceptionally cool during hot days and surpisingly weatherproof despite (or perhaps because of) her simple design. she is by no means extravagant, but i do think she has a certain elegance in her simplicity.

kero is cheap but very smokey in the states (but not always easy to find) - smokey unless you buy the high grade aviation stuff which is expensive.

Lamp oil is pretty expensive.

truth be told most american use coleman fuel - and just make damned sure they have a safety spotting them (americans are far more rigerous about this than europeans are because of the prominant use of this more volitile fuel). coleman is cheap ($2 for 4 liters) and can be easily found in quantity. it is also blissfully low on the smoke and soot factor.

as far getting a camp position near the esplinade - this is EXTREMELY difficult to pull off unless the camp is both large and very well known amongst the burningman theme camp placement committee in a previously established or insider kind of way. in other words, the chance of this is near zero for us since i haven't been out there in several years and have no intention of volunteering for the theme camp placement committee.

and while we can't directly ask for an area to do burns in within our camp area (due to various rules they have about burn areas in general that are designed to minimize the impact on the local enviroment), if we manage to get enough people promised to the camp, we can ask for enough space to make a "common area" that we could use for that.

and about burning on the playa. i know this is blastphemy to say on this sight, but once you get there, you are likely to find that you have very little interest in actually doing a whole lot of that. there is so much to do and see and experience, and fire spinning is so common there, that a person (or at least me and many people i know) really have a hard time actually getting around to doing something you are already so familiar with such as fire spinning. in all my black rock city time, i think i have done a total of 5 burns at most. I do that many in an hour at home.

but it is nice to have the option close at hand when you are there - and that certainly can be arranged.

anyway, regardless of whether or not we get a HoP camp going in any real way, i would be pleased as punch to have any HoPpers who want to be part of a larger camp (as opposed to camping alone) associated with the one i am working on - a HoP landing pad if you will.

well you for sure must have met me in that barn,.,. since i was the one that made sure the barn stayed sufficiently cold so that all people were spinning and juggling to keep warm :-)

(real reason was that we were extremely warned that the heater used much more fuel than that we could arange on too short notice becouse of uhmm,. lets put it on miscommunication between me (the organiser of the party) and the gaddamned people who were supposed to deliver the thing fueled and in early midday,.. still grumbling about that....)

I guess that during the day there won't be a heat problem at burningman. Guess it'll get pretty cold during the nights there in the desert though.

I stil have to read al the stuff you wrote uphere,.. but what i glanced at so far seems extremely nice for me to be there too. I'll btw will have accaintances there in 2 other camps aswell, hope things are not too spread out so I can easely fisit everybody,.. how long a walk is it from one side of the place to the other? uhmm and how will I ever find them,. guess cellphones noworky in the middle of the desert.

marco

To answer some questions:
-Nope, no cell phone coverage.
-There is an info camp where you can find the location of any other camp, sometimes even people.
-You can walk from one end to the other but it's easier on a bike or hitching a ride on an art car.
-The days are hot and the nights can be frigid, it all depends on the weather. (yes, there is weather in the desert other than dust storms)

I'm totally down for a HoP camp or at least a HoP sub-camp. I'm sure we can round up some others to join us. Maybe keep a registry board where other HoPers can come by and post their name\where they are camping.

Does coleman burn brighter than kero? Because I've seen some amazing pics online with nearly white flames. And since you can only get a truely white flame with near-perfect combustion it must mean it burns hot...

Ow, and I've found a burner online that is willing to arange a cheaper flying ticket for me and probaly other burners aswell. She's a travel agent, and a darned nice one at that

i would be well pleased to have a strong dutch contingent where i am camping - you guys are great, and from what i saw at the freezing barn, you guys would fit right in at burningman.

the english HoPpers would be an excellent additions too (hint hint)

Hopefully I'll be setting up the Ambient Cathedral again at this year's Flipside (the Texas burningman event in late May) for a last chance to get any remaining kinks worked out. I'll be sure to take plenty of pictures then since i seem to be short on any that really show what it looks like.

and about visiting people in other camps - totally possible of course. just keep in mind they may be as far a 3 km away. and 3 km at burningman is a VERY long way due to the near continuous high quality distractions. it is extremely difficult to stay punctual and on task out there except in the loosest of ways (which is why previous HoP meet ups out there have always been doomed before they even happened).

anyway, we have a while to think about this and such.
Basically i will need to have a fairly good idea of who and what by June.

note that this year's theme is "hope and fear: the future".

and yes, coleman is brighter than lamp oil, but the candle that burns twice as bright burns half as long. burns with coleman fuel can seem annoyingly short if you are used to less volitile fuels.

helloooooooo,

I've seen you guys wanna go to Burning Man! Good for you!
I've been there a few times now, so maybe I could answer some questions you have...
Just let me know!
Seeeee ya on the Playa!

Spitfire and I finally made up our minds, and decided that we will be going to burningman this year.

It'd be awesome to meet up with some HoP people whilst we're there.

I'll be going again this year, and will sure to be spending some time in center camp poi-ing, cj-ing & hooping. It'd be great to meet some of you I haven't yet, and to see again those I met last year!

Yup Yup Yup. Playa here we come!!

hi
ive always wanted to go to the bmfestival, but never had the guts to go alone.
does anyone recommend it to be ok to go by yourself?
thanks
laura

I't should not be a problem going alone, but,...
it is heavy duty camping. I think the experience for a first timer that is not used to the troubles that extreme camping brings you would not be so pleasurable. Reading up on the subject and talking to folks that have done it will give you a tonne of information and tips on how to survive.

some tips that i've scrounged up so far:
- bring dust goggles or closed 'sun'glasses against the duststorms. Mind that during a dust storm there is not too much sunlight, so you want to have clear glasses in them.

- You will bring a lot of playa back home. The dust gets everywhere. It ruins your tent zippers and gets into your sleepingbag (even if you keep everything closed). Think twice about using your nice new down sleepingbag.

- The playa at night sucks the warmth out of your body. Make sure you insulate yourself with a good sleeping matrass.

- Most of the fun happens at night. try to get into the habbit of taking a siesta during the hottest hours and have more fun during the evening. Sleeping in your tent that has been turned into an oven by sunlight is probably not going to work. You'll need a shade structure over your tent.

But one thing to remember,.. You are not alone! It is a city of 30000 people. But it's not a citymentality. Generally people are concerned and more then willing to help and be friendly.
Having said that even 'on your own' it will be fun, going there and be able to use (and add to, only consuming is frowned upon!) the resources of a camp is, especially for a european person that can't bring much stuff with him/her on the plane, verry convenient.

marco

I'm going to!!!!Hope to see some of you there. I think we'll all be hanging out at the lush camp

Bumpity bump!
Tickets in hand, 177 days 1 hour 28 minutes.

Great tips marco, the more info you have going in, the better off you will be. Here are a couple links to help: 2005 Survival Guide, Relationship Survival Guide

I can't wait to meet more HoPers out there and hope to run into those I met in the last few years.

Let's get the ball rolling on the HoP meet and greet! How about noonish on Wednesday at center camp (the side facing the man). That was a pretty good time last year. Not too many conflicts.

i hate you all

looking to be there next summer though

Im going for the first time this year! im so excited!!!

Apperently i am compeltly and utterly forbidden to go into the Jiffy Lube. haha

**BUMP**

So the man burns in 59 days! I can't believe how quickly it's come... There were a lot of maybes earlier in the thread -- have people finalized their plans?

mtbeer proposed noon-ish on Wednesday at Center Camp for an HoP meet -- shall we go with that? It worked out well last year.

So... roll call? Who's all going?