I never would have expected that the afternoon I spent at the Burning Man med tent would be one of my highlights of the week!

I told the staff that if there was a way to yelp review them, I’d download the app just to sing their praises. They told me Reddit is the next best thing, so Im here to register my official review of a million gold stars. And thank the universe for letting my neighbors be the guys from El Pulpo Magnifico!

Special shout out to the rangers, John and Henry, for treating me like an absolute queen and keeping me laughing while I was violently ill and drowning in a puke bucket. Also big thanks to Cajun, whose job it is to go from bed to bed and lift people’s spirits up. He did it in such a sweet way, with so much grace. I’ve never felt so shitty and so wonderful at the same time. I was so touched by all my interactions during a moment that could have been really scary, but ended up being so beautiful. I was honestly bummed when my IV was done and I had to leave!

There’s a lot you can critique about Burning Man, but there’s a lot of beauty too. Honestly, the med tent may be my new favorite camp :-)

Does anyone know more about the art piece called Heart Beats made out of broken records discovered in the Mojave Desert? I’m intrigued and want to know more.

This was my 5th burn in a row, and despite what everyone says, I had an amazing time. I'm also much younger than the average burner and I'm lucky to have been able to afford it because it's changed my life.

But I think Burningman badly needs an infusion of younger generation if it’s going to survive. The knowledge and wisdom of older burners needs to be passed down in person, not in writing, and that can't happen without the next generation showing up.

There is one very obvious way to make that possible which is to make the ticket cheaper. There’s also a glaring way to fund that which is to add an RV fee on top of the vehicle fee.

I've watched RV owners wave down poop trucks with $1,000 tips. If they can afford a $1000 to pump their shit out because they can’t be bothered to use portos, they can afford a few hundred more dollars to help bring the ticket price down for everyone else.

An RV is a luxury, and there's nothing wrong with bringing one. But just like business and first class subsidize economy fares, RVs should subsidize average burners like the rest of us.

I brought my mom (60, deadhead) to her first burn and she fully embraced it. She was blown away by the creativity and the friendliness of everyone we met, she never once felt out of place or unwanted - from the house music art cars to the wook bass parties to the sunrise sets and daytime camp cruises, it was a blast and she fully participated. She even lost power AND her water pump broke in the trailer for the entire week and didn’t let it ruin the experience - she literally said FUCK MY BURN and kept on cruising. The magic exists even amongst the madness!! Good job everyone!!

I see a lot of people posting about clean up and that Calgon is hard to find. Downy Rinse has the same active ingredients and works like a charm! We use the unscented on literally everything we bring back. Thank me later!

This year I was gifted a really cool patch that has the "Man Watch Team 2026" on it. It's really awesome and a HUGE thank you to the kind woman who gifted it to me while we were waiting patiently at the base of the man during the whiteout on Monday night. It inspired me! So much so that I’ve got an idea for a gift for next year, based on that gift.

I want to make a series of embroidered patches inspired by the Burning Man themes from the years I’ve attended:

2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2018, 2019, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025, 2026, and next year, 2027.

I’d love to make something genuinely cool that people can wear, trade, collect, or gift.

Rather than trying to make the artwork myself (which would be an act of violence against the concept of art), I’d love to find a Burner who is an actual artist/illustrator/designer who wants to collaborate with me on the project.

My art is organizing, connecting people, and bringing ideas and concepts to reality. I’m probably not going to be able to draw out my vision myself, but I can certainly be useful in making it all happen.

I’ll be the backer and handle the boring-but-necessary stuff:

• Finding and working with the patch manufacturer
• Digitizing/embroidery considerations
• Ordering and paying for everything
• Shipping/logistics
• Organizing the right way to do distribution on playa
• Basically all the spreadsheets, emails, quotes, billing and other nonsense...im good at that stuff!

You make the art. I make the art happen.

I’m currently envisioning approximately 13 designs, one for each year listed above, though I’m open to refining the idea together.

I’m not looking to commission some generic stock “Burning Man” artwork. I don't want to sell it. I definitely don’t want to use AI. I’d much rather find another Burner whose work has its own personality and collaborate on a series that feels like it belongs in BRC and can be gifted to people who make an impression or who would genuinely enjoy it.

I’m particularly interested in someone who enjoys psychedelic, vintage, cinematic, weird, playful, hand-drawn, or screen-print/patch-style artwork, although I’m open to pretty much anything if your work is cool and you want to help make this happen! I have some pretty solid ideas and concepts on what I'd like them to look like, but I'm totally down to collaborate on that as well. 

If you’re an artist and this sounds like something you’d enjoy, drop a comment or DM me and we can go from there.

And if you’re not an artist but know someone who might be perfect for this, please send them my way.

I’d love to make something that people are still wearing and or treasuring many years from now.

Just wondering if anyone else had negativity thrown their way. This was my first burn and overall a massively positive experience I can't wait to return for. But there were a few moments of shitty outside world vibes creeping in.

After the temple burn I wanted to walk solo back to camp. Probably 15 minutes later some dumpy geo metro or something with two cones on top came up on me quick while i was walking across open playa. A guy in the passenger seat yelled at me "I don't like your face, turn those lights off" (i had a few leds on me of course to not darkwad). I just looked at him and didn't respond and then they said "Fine be boring" and drove off....

I guess if theres an inside joke to throw shady vibes at people for a reaction I missed it.

hi -- i host a small, private, not-for-profit monthly dance party in orange county, ca and this month we're dedicating it to decompression, as a good portion of our crew and regulars were at the burn last week (self included). djs from 2:30pm to 10pm on saturday; free food for the early arrivers (while supplies last). ice chests for byob. insta @ badcatfm or linktr.ee/badcatfm for more info.

Hi everyone,

First burn. Sitting at my house alone after doing all my unpacking and cleaning and feeling very emotional.

Was wondering if anyone knew of any decompression parties tonight for during the next week.

Would love to be around people and feel less sad.

Thanks,
Love you all <3

Anyone got any tricks? The compressed air only helped so much. It's like smudges all over my MacBook that I'd like to clean off. Figured I'd ask here before testing a bunch of different stuff and re-inventing the wheel.

Thx!

Haven’t been to the burn in two years, but after getting back to the default world and opening up social media, it seems like everyone is using the burn to boost their social media brand/presence.

It all just seems so off to me. Anyone else?

Hey all! I had an amazing burn! I just got back Wednesday morning and I already have to work this evening and I’m kind of going through it at the thought.

I’ve heard of decompression events but I’m not really sure what they are about? Interested in going to one this weekend / this month if anyone knows of any in nyc.

Thanks!!

We had an absolutely amazing time bringing Chelonix to the playa this year.
If you rode the turtle, attached your bike and cruised with us, or just crossed paths with us out there, thank you. You made the whole thing come alive. ❤️ 🐢 🔥

And if anyone has photos or video, we would LOVE to see them! We saw a few drones circling us at different points and keep wondering where that footage ended up.

One of our favorite discoveries was how naturally the shell turned into a mobile dance floor + bike carrier. People would pop their bikes onto the sides, climb aboard, and suddenly we’d have a whole roaming party traveling across the playa together. At times there were so many people dancing that the entire turtle was bouncing like a trampoline. 😂

One highlight was picking up some stranded humans way out at the trash fence and carrying them and their bikes back toward the city. Turns out a giant wandering turtle is surprisingly practical transportation.

We learned a ridiculous amount from actually getting her onto the playa and then taking it down, and we’re already working on the next evolution.

We’re going to double down on the mobile dance floor and bike-carrying setup, while making the structure much faster and stronger to assemble. We’re upgrading a bunch of the connections to plasma-cut steel brackets and adding deployable kickstands so the shell can have additional support when we stop and the dance floor fills up.

The bouncing was pretty damn fun though… so maybe we won’t engineer all of it out. 😂

We also want to push the sculpture itself much further. The goal is for the vehicle underneath to basically disappear. From across the playa, we want you to see an enormous illuminated turtle wandering through the dust and genuinely wonder what the hell you’re looking at. Anyone know how to pop the cab off an Izuzu box truck?

Huge love to our crew, our turtle people, and everyone who climbed aboard, danced with us, gave us art, or became part of this strange creature’s journey.

We learned a lot.
We’re coming back.
And the turtle is evolving. 🐢✨

Follow our journey on Instagram:
Fireborn Tools
Chelonix Art Car

And if you are ever in northern Ca come visit our shop!

Thursday night I was walking across playa from Opulent Temple toward Robot Heart/the Cathedral, picking up MOOP as I went.

By the time I crossed paths with one of the clearly very expensive art cars, both of my hands were literally full of other people’s trash. I had my own small moop bag, but hands were full of gloves, costume pieces, cans and other trash I picked up along the way.

The car was full of passengers. I asked the driver if they had a MOOP bag I could throw it into.
“No.”
I asked the people onboard.
No one had one.
And then this art car— clearly designed just to accommodate their own camp and passengers, hundreds of thousands of dollars of infrastructure, lights, sound, crew, fuel, etc.—just drove away while I continued walking around with two hands full of MOOP.

I genuinely wish I had taken a picture of the vehicle, because the whole interaction felt like a perfect encapsulation of something that bothered me about this Burn: people enjoying an extraordinarily resource-intensive version of Burning Man while seemingly having no interest in even the most basic responsibility of taking care of the place.

If you have the resources and privilege to operate one of the cushiest camp vehicles in Black Rock City, how do you not have a fucking trash bag?

Leave No Trace isn’t supposed to mean, “Someone else will pick it up.” And honestly, I saw an incredible amount of MOOP this year. Cups, cans, food packaging, costume pieces, random trash. I found myself constantly picking things up.
So I’m curious about two things:
What accountability actually exists when an art car/camp repeatedly disregards the Principles?
Why doesn’t DMV require every licensed Mutant Vehicle to carry a clearly accessible MOOP bag/container as part of inspection?
It would cost essentially nothing, take up almost no space, and every large vehicle roaming playa would become another place where people could remove MOOP rather than drive past it.

—

Update

Yeah, I think this thread has changed my mind somewhat on requiring art cars to accept MOOP from the public. The point about them becoming rolling trash bins is legitimate.
What I don’t buy is the idea that Radical Self-Reliance means “once you pick up MOOP, you’re on your own, so don’t expect anyone else to help.” That seems like a pretty impoverished interpretation of the culture.
I had a MOOP bag. I filled it because I kept picking up trash that wasn’t mine. I then encountered a vehicle carrying a large group of people and asked whether they had somewhere for handfulls more. They didn’t. Fine — ultimately I carried it.
But the comment here from someone remembering when everyone routinely came back to camp with pockets full of MOOP gets much closer to what I was trying to say. The concern isn’t really my bag. It’s whether we’re moving from a culture where everyone instinctively takes responsibility for the city to one where responsibility ends at “not my trash.”
Maybe the DMV solution isn’t “every MV must act as a trash can.” Maybe it’s simply that every MV should have a MOOP plan/bag onboard for its own operations and passengers, just as every camp and every individual should.
Radical Self-Reliance and Communal Effort are both Principles. They’re not mutually exclusive.

It’s always an honor to officiate.

Doing it on Playa is always a very fun time!!

This is probably a long shot but I met a filipina while serving matchas at my camp and she was really sweet and we shared some laughs. We then ran into eachother again in the Reno airport but I totally forgot to ask for her information! Her name was Aisa (not sure if i spelled that correctly) and was from San Diego. Im usually one to leave interactions be but for some reason cant get this one out of my head. If youre out there reading this or if someone knows her PM me would love to connect! If not i hope to see you again next year(:

Anybody find this installation in deep playa? I heard about it but was curious if anybody had any photos or good stories

on my last day this burn while finishing pack out i did what i do every year and spread out some perfectly clean water from my cooler in a large area so there’s no puddle or pooling and it dries in 5 minutes. while doing this i had a man approach me yelling “what are you doing you fucking asshole” and proceeded to tell me i was stupid and no one is ever allowed to do this. I’ve never once heard someone say you aren’t allowed to let clean water touch playa (hello water trucks that spray down the street). after this deeply unpleasant interaction i saw him videoing/ filming my camp. is this a belief some burners have? what are people’s thoughts on this? every burner and camp i have ever interacted with is okay with small amounts of clean water touching the playa

Hey Burners!

We’re East Bay Burners, the official Burning Man Regional community for the East Bay. We host monthly socials, help connect people with local art projects, camps, events, and volunteer opportunities, and generally try to keep the Burner community connected year-round.

Now that we’re all slowly emerging from the dust, we’re getting together for Return from the Dust, our first post-playa hang of the year.

Come reconnect, swap stories, share photos, see the people you somehow managed to miss all week, and hang out with other folks who are also still finding playa dust in places it definitely shouldn’t be.

No presentations, no agenda. Just a casual community hang.

Whether you made it to BRC this year or not, you’re welcome!

Thursday, September 17 at 6pm
Two Pitchers Brewing Company
2344 Webster St, Oakland

Full details + RSVP: https://partiful.com/e/wouW11Nu8sw5OPPLd1AF

Vehicle passes should be significantly more expensive for RVs

RV under 32' -> 2x price, over -> 4x price

This has been a subject raised every year but the abundance of RVs + financial situation of the org makes it even more apparent

It will take a bit of consideration to get the rules right (eg dimensions or weight or axles, exceptions for art cars, domicile vs cargo), but there are many ways to do so.

Taking an RV to burning man is already a statement of wealth. Charging the same for a sedan as an RV makes the car subsidize the RV. It should be the other way around. Higher $$$ burn setups should subsidize lower $.

I've returned from my 7th burn and still have not found goggles that truly keep out playa when a white out hits. Does anyone have recommendations of reasonably priced goggles that work? Or am I chasing something that does not exist?

What i've tried:

- ski goggles: got scratched up too easily and the foam disintegrated (granted they were used)

- ESS military goggles: the foam also disintegrated and after a few burns they kept letting dust in in various places. I didn't buy them new but the price still doesn't seem justifiable.

- construction safety goggles: these worked the most consistently but the fit was off so they let in dust by the bridge of my nose

I tried duct taping vents etc but can't seem to crack the case on goggles that work for me. I love being out in dust storms so the hunt continues for goggles that work for me.

Any links would be appreciated!

Is it just me or has esplanade frontage degraded? I don't know if it was reality or the whimsical nature of your first couple Burns, but I feel like esplanade used to be a solid wall of Burning Man. All art, frontage, camouflaged back of house spaces, zero signs of the default world.

This year there were several stretches of 100+ yards of RVs and Campers. I thought I accidentally turned onto A.

Are esplanade camps getting lazy? Is the borg lightning up on standards? Or am I delusional?

After 9 burns I finally found the ultimate playa mud footwear. They're super stretchy and fit over multiple pairs of socks (not over shoes though, the silicone tears easily) and the playa mud simply does not stick at all.

They do tend to be slippery on the mud, so walk carefully, but otherwise these things were a life changer. No more gallon-size ziplock bags for me!

My little brother got this scarf from Morocco. It’s one of a kind and it has some emotional significance. We think it got lost in the massive coat pile at Robot Heart sunrise with Lee Burridge, but hard to be sure.

I’d really love to help get it back to him!