New Member Info

Goggles/Glasses + Handkerchief/Dust Mask You absolutely need a pair of goggles for the sand storms that come-up. Try riding your bike in a white-out and you will see why. Bring a handkerchief as well to cover you mouth and nose so you don’t swallow tons of sand during a sand-storm. Playa dust is harsh on your body. This is not just sand, its minerals and other elements as well. Swallowing playa dust leads to sore throat, speechlessness (not fun) and illness (ear, nose, throat infections when you return home).

Sunblock and Lip Balm These are also essentials. Again, its dry and hot out there. You’ll probably be running around topless throughout the day and will burn if you don’t have sunblock. Bring SPF 45 if possible. Lip Balm is necessary for the same reason. The sun can char the shit out of your lips if you don’t keep them covered with lip balm. In fact bring SPF 45 lip balm as well. Regular chapstick tends not to be strong enough.

Flashlight / Headlamp A headamp is preferable. You will need lighting for the evenings. Chances are that you will be running around the playa for 7-12 hours after sunset. A lighting implement is therefore an essential item for the evening. Headlamps work best because they keep your hands free for holding on to all the other crap that you will be holding onto. Headlamps are also more difficult to lose. Please remember to bring batteries.

Hat / Shade This can be part of a costume or just your basic hat. You will need something to cover your head for the above-mentioned reasons. Hats with brows are best e.g. cowboy hats, sunhats, etc. Ideally, the hat will shade your face and neck from the sun.

Cold-Weather Gear It can get painfully, painfully cold at night. Long underwear (tops and bottoms), a fleece hat, warm-weather socks (wool, merino), and gloves are essential. Bring some warm high-tech fleece as well as any night-time costume attire. You’ll be thankful you did. Layering is key and you can put unnecessary garments in your Camel- Bak.

We also highly, highly recommend a nice fur coat, regardless of gender. They’re stylish and warm and can pretty much constitute the entirety of your evening costume. You can by one at any thrift shop for $20-40. Buy early as these tend to get bought-up over the summer by other burners.

Moist Wipes Moist wipes allow you to wash yourself, remove playa dust from your hands, feet and face quickly. Bring a bulk amount as you will probably use a dozen a day.

Surviving the Conditions

Conditions in Block Rock Desert are rough and they took their toll on the human body. The Black Rock Desert is essentially a prehistoric dry lake bed. That means that the “sand,” referred to as playa dust, is not sand at all, but the residue of an evaporated body of water. Playa dust is incredibly alkalai and can actually irritate your skin with prolonged exposure. The conditions are hot (up to 100 degrees in the day) and dry. Hydration (including electrolytes) and protection from the sun via hats, glasses, sunblock, chapstick, etc. are essential.

For hydration, the general rule of thumb is that you should be “pissing clear” regularly. This is a sign that you are hydrating well. The darker, yellow your pee, the less hydrated you are. Hydration should be your number one concern at Burning Man. Bring water with you every time you leave the camp. This is why a Camel-Bak is an essential item. There will be times when you are out for the whole night, 7-8 hours at a time and will not want to bike all the way back to camp to get more water. Bring enough with you to last the night.

Another reason to have a Camel-Bak is for your Playa Survival Kit. There are a few items that you will always need with you, whenever you leave camp. Put them in your Camel-Bak which will quickly become an indispensable item. You should have this ready before you arrive so that when you get in to camp at 2 AM you can go out and party right away.

The Playa Survival Kit should always have the following:

• Water
• Chapstick
• Goggles or sunglasses
• Dust Mask or handkerchief
• Sunblock
• Hat
• Extra layer of upper body clothing (long-sleeve shirt, etc.)
• Warm-weather hot and gloves
• Flashlight or headlamp

Illegal Substances

Burning Man can be both an ideal and nightmarish place to take heavy mind-altering drugs, such as ecstasy, acid and mushrooms. There are thousands of people together in an extremely uninhibited and open environment experimenting with many things, including drugs. You absolutely do not have to do drugs to have an amazing time at Burning Man. Many people think that Burning Man is all about drugs. This is not true. Some of the best times and most memorable experiences you will have at Burning Man will be dead sober. If you do plan on doing drugs, be mindful of your own emotional state, your experience with drugs in the past and the setting that you are doing in them. It is possible to have a very bad trip at Burning Man if you are not in the right frame of mind or have never done hallucinogens before.You *must* bring your own drugs if you plan on doing them at Burning Man. There are undercover narcotics officers in costumes trying to buy and sell drugs from burners. We had 4 people from our camp arrested in such about 5 years ago. DO NOT BUY, SELL OR TRADE DRUGS with anyone that you don’t already know from outside of Burning Man and ideally, don’t do it at all. Plan ahead and bring what you need. Its not that hard.

There are agents from the Bureau of Land Management with night vision goggles and binoculars looking for people smoking pot, doing cocaine, etc. Do not do these drugs in an open environment ever. Even doing them inside a tent or shelter carries a risk. Camps have been raided because BLM or Sheriffs’ officers saw folks smoking something in a tent (via the shimmering of the lighter), approached the area and smelled marijuana. Please, please be discreet, for your sake and for that of the camp. You are in drug-intolerant Nevada, on Federal property, not in San Francisco.

Sleep, Food and Self-Care

It is easy to totally forget about the realities of self-care when you are at Burning Man. Most people follow the “piss clear” mantra and are obsessively monitoring their hydration, rightly so, as dehydration can lead to serious problems. However, other important aspects of self-care tend to fall by the wayside. There is a time-warp quality to the event as there are millions of interesting and fun things to do 24-hours a day. You will be tempted to not miss any of them by not sleeping. Don’t do this. Sleep is very important. Try to sleep at least 3-4 hours a day. If you are coming for the whole week, make it a point to sleep-in (ie get a normal day’s worth of sleep) at least once during the week. This may mean not partying one night. Your body will thank you later, especially when you return home and do not have a 2-week long throat infection. A good sleep strategy is to sleep a few hours in the early morning (right after sunrise). There is less (not much less, but less none the less) going on at these hours and you will probably stay-up for the sunrise often anyways. Also, this is will quickly become a very warm part of the day. Lie down in one of the domes or outer shelter rather than your tent, which will turn into a Dutch oven by 12 PM. The mid to late afternoon is also ideal for resting. The climate is moderate and this will give you energy for the nighttime.

You will also probably forget or neglect to eat because you won’t be hungry. This is another big mistake. Eating becomes lost during much of Burning Man due to the use of drugs and alcohol as well as the intense activity and stimulation that renders boredom (a common reason people eat) obsolete and makes food an after-thought to the many activities and plans. Some people actually look forward to a “playa diet,” knowing that they will lose a few pounds over the event. There are a couple of problems with this. First, if you don’t eat enough, your immune system, already compromised by the new and harsh conditions, will fall apart and you will get sick…sometimes really sick. Second, you will be losing a lot of muscle as well as fat and will therefore your metabolism will slow down and when you return home you’ll gain all the weight back as fat (minus the muscle).

As mentioned earlier, playa dust is alkali and therefore very rough on the body. Inhaling vast quantities of it during a white-out may result in throat congestion and temporary loss of voice. Always have your goggles and handkerchief/dust mask with you. The less playa dust you inhale, the better. Try to shower daily. You will feel better and will clean-off the playa dust which cakes onto your skin or hair. We have a shower in the camp which you can use or just chase one of the water trucks as they come by to water the streets.

Self-care is extremely important and yet perhaps the most overlooked aspect of living at Burning Man. The result of this is that many people get sick when they get home. Every year in our camp, at least one person develops a serious-enough ear, nose or throat infection that they have to go see a doctor or go to the hospital when they return. This is not a fun way to transition back to your real life. Many others get slightly sick while at Burning Man and are forced to tone-