Burning Man is still amazing!
For the second year in a row, I camped, biked, danced, partied, explored, and played floor hockey in a fairly inhospitable environment with 80,000 of my closest friends (see reflections from 2022 here).
This year had three particularly notable events:
The (Abnormally Pleasant) Burn
The (Expectedly Pleasant) Wedding
The (Not Entirely Unpleasant) Mudpocalypse
The (Abnormally Pleasant) Burn
We left Reno at 6:00am Friday morning and were at our camp by 10:00am, after stopping for gas, restrooms, breakfast burritos, and the longest and slowest moving freight train I’ve ever seen (literally miles long). In addition to making record time, playa was incredibly… pleasant. It wasn’t dusty, it wasn’t too hot, the ground was hardened and easy to drive and bike on.
We built camp without having to fight gusts of wind thwarting our every attempt to pull tarps over structures, without having to pause because of dust storms obscuring our vision, and generally without any problems. We continued to enjoy these amazing conditions for the majority of the week, while also thinking in the back of our minds that the other shoe must drop at some point (spoiler alert: it does).
From Monday to Friday, I explored the city and the art with campmates and friends.
A few highlights:
Not being a complete n00b! Being useful during build and strike (breaking down camp at the end of the week) feels much better, as does being able to help newer members of the camp. It’s also great having some idea of what to expect and how to pace my week.
Seeing so many old friends on playa! This year I was able to see the friends I went with, two of my old roommates, members of my camp I met last year, and members of my friends’ camps I met last year. There were many more camps where I could just pop-in and see if someone was around, which made it feel more like home.
Gaslighting Diner—This diner had waiters and waitresses serving drinks and taking food orders from their menu. The drinks would come out promptly: you hand them your cup, they fill the cup, they hand it back. The food took forever. The staff would constantly forget your order, and if you reminded them enough times they’d bring you something very different from what you ordered, such as a single goldfish or tiny pretzel in lieu of your ordered Pink Lady Taco. To make it even better, occasionally a member of their camp in on the joke would order something and have it delivered immediately, frustrating anyone who had arrived and ordered ahead of them.
Shooting pistols at a friend’s camp’s entrance towers, which caused fire to shoot out via… bluetooth?
Playing Spikeball on playa—No story here, just love Spikeball.
Becoming 1v1 tug-of-war champion.
Riding the human gyroscope.
Nearly winning the daddy saddle derby—A neighboring camp set up a race track where you’d wear a saddle and race around the very tiny track. The race itself was silly, but even more silly was hearing someone on a mega-phone announce “it’s the daddy saddle derby” for at least a few hours each day.
Let’s Be Frank—Our camp gave out hot dogs, under the condition that hungry would-be hot dog recipients spin a wheel and answer whatever “frank” question it pointed to. Making this infinitely better was the hot dog playlist: an ungodly number of songs predominantly mentioning hot dogs (cleverly discovered through some programming).
The Hungry, Hungry Hippo flash mob—We were hanging out inside this giant dome, alternating between using the bouncy castle and enjoying tequila drinks in the relaxation area when dozens of lifeguards storm in the front door blowing their whistles. I initially thought it was a flash mob, as they took over the dance floor and cleared a large hole in the center. They then put down battle ropes around the perimeter in a giant circle, and poured ball pit balls into the center. When four people in different colored hippo onesies came in carrying dollies, we finally figured it out.
Watching sunrise from the crow’s nest overlooking camp.
Getting a tarot reading from a friend with far too much context to give an objective tarot reading (yet still did a fantastic job).
Coconut oil wrestling—A competitive athletic event on playa.
Black Rock Symphony Orchestra—A full orchestra set up and played for a few hours multiple times throughout the week. Catching them for twenty minutes was a highlight.
DJ RE’s set & fire show at Kostume Kult—Ari, I apologize I don’t know your real DJ name.
BlocHaus Steamroom—The absolute best thing on playa. You store your clothes in a bin outside, then have access to a shower and steamroom. Post-steamroom there’s a patio to dry off before getting dressed again. Being freshly showered feels amazing, especially on playa, so seeing this car unexpectedly makes for a great mid-week surprise.
The Meth Trailer—A close runner-up for best thing on playa. This trailer park style art car lures you in with a porta potty facade, which upon closer inspection are just fake replicas. Thankfully, they were located near the real portos, and also had a grill for any spare hot dogs you may have in your backpack. They also had a bar and DJ, who introduced me to my new favorite song.
Taking a nap in a four poster bed someone set up in deep playa.
Visiting the airport—Rather than wait in the usually-terrible traffic, you can fly directly into Burning Man. They also give flight tours to volunteers and people who show up incredibly early in the morning.
Analog Wordle—One puzzle game camp had laminated sheets of paper they would mark up as you made your Wordle guesses. Having no cell phone service doesn’t mean you have to lose your streak! (And honestly, heavy Starlink adoption meant there was plenty of service, for better or worse.)
No Regretsky’s Annual Black Rock City Floor Hockey Tournament—This year we were able to field a full team of four, myself in net and three actual hockey players on the “ice.” I somehow stopped two of three shots in a shoot-out against what I’m told were very good hockey players (collegiate level). Despite this, we, regrettably, came in third place. Training starts tomorrow, boys!
Watching the robot burn.
Taking the BAIT (Burn Area Imprecise Transit), which is a reference to BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit)—An art car calls out to pedestrians asking if they want a ride, and then will drop you off whenever you ask, but you have no influence on or knowledge of where the car is heading, aside from it’s current direction and speed.
Popping a tire in deep playa and carrying the bike to camp on the back of a tandem, to semi-immediately grab a new bike and head right back out to meet friends that were waiting for us. That was in the top two most tiring bike rides on playa this year.
Dancing at El Pulpo, Titanic’s End, the No Dancing sign, and many more art cars, art pieces, and bars.
Despite everything written above, this year felt less absurd—fewer things shocked me. This wasn’t a negative; I still had a great time and can’t wait for next year. It was just interesting to me how quickly the experience felt more normal and less novel—I’ll take it to mean I’m now more of a Burner.
The (Expectedly Pleasant) Wedding
Another great thing that happened is two of my friends got (playa) married! This one won’t get reported to any government agency, so I guess it doesn’t “count,” but we still enjoyed it.
The bride and groom found an excellent piece of art at which to get hitched. As luck would have it, they met the artist who offered to swing by and turn the fire on a bit earlier than usual, which made for the great effect you can see above.
The wedding itself was beautiful. The officiant (ordained by the Church of Nicolas Cage) facilitated the event with gusto to challenge The Nic himself, the maid of honor read a romantic poem, the bride and groom exchanged romantic and slightly silly vows that their parents wouldn’t want to hear, and I chose to somehow turn this “I Think You Should Leave” skit into a best man speech. Important context is both the bride and groom are obsessed with this show. Thankfully, it got the appropriate amount of laughs, even from people unfamiliar with the show—which were most of them.
As additional touches, we laid out some velvet ropes to create the aisle and tied tin cans to the back of their “just married” tandem bike. Champagne and cake were enjoyed by all.
The (Not Entirely Unpleasant) Mudpocalypse
If you heard anything about Burning Man this year, you heard about the mud. On Friday, it started to rain. A lot. We originally planned to party hardy on Friday, tear down camp and pack up on Saturday, watch The Man burn on Saturday night, and then hit the road. If it rained enough to make the ground muddy, it wouldn’t be practical to attempt to break down or drive out.
Friday night we made the best of it. We went to a nearby camp where a friend was DJing, and stayed until the camp called a state of emergency and asked everyone able to safely get back to their camps to leave. Our camp convened and discussed how we might need to ration food and water if we weren’t able to leave as expected. Once we had a plan (and enjoyed a nice rainbow), people either went partying within walking distance or retired early.
Saturday morning we found out it had rained, and quite a lot for the desert. We wouldn’t be able to leave that day, and rangers had told us to plan to possibly stay until Thursday. Leaving five days later, including three work days, was certainly a downer to prepare for. As there was nothing productive we could do with the rain, people continued to enjoy themselves as much as possible on foot (covered in garbage bags, Ziplocs, or other creative ideas to attempt to keep out the wet)—it was far too muddy to bike.
On Sunday, it was a bit more dry and some camp members were able to get out on the Burner Express bus. The Starlink connection came in handy for the rest of us to move our flights, take care of rental car logistics, adjust work schedules, and let loved ones know we were alive and well.
On Monday, it was dry enough to break down camp and leave. Everyone leaving at once led to record lines. We spent 9 hours in “exodus” (the line to leave Black Rock City) and then another 5 hours driving to a friend’s parents’ place in Sacramento. The silver lining of that long line was we were able to see The Man burn from the Exodus line.
On Tuesday, we finally flew home!
Conclusion
The Man burns in 318 days.
Bonus Content
As a reward for reading to the end, here are more photos! (Mostly taken by a campmate of mine.)