Camp Fly — Burgin Initiation

We have found that the people who tend to have the most fun are also the most prepared. Part of the magic of the event is the location—it is unlike any other place on earth, and can be challenging at times. Despite your best efforts, there will almost always be parts of your experience that will be difficult and disheartening, but, also, very rewarding. As you will soon see, it is definitely a rabbit hole. Every time you make a decision that you think will make things easier, it just opens up more decision/responsibility trees! This guide is meant to aid you in your journey, in rough order of how critical the preparation is to you actually attending the event.

Are you obtaining them through our camp or elsewhere? Historically they have been difficult to come by, but beginning in 2023 this has changed and they have been a bit easier since, often with a large surplus near the event with people selling them below face value. As a camp, we discourage people from trying to get cheaper tickets in this way, as you are basically just having another burner subsidize your ticket, and it is as much against the spirit of the event as scalping tickets (highly discouraged/forbidden) when they were difficult to come by. Ask whomever is sponsoring you at Camp Fly if there are camp tickets available or if you will need to obtain them some other way. Information on tickets, and when they will go on sale, can be found at https://burningman.org/black-rock-city/ticketing-information/

Fairly self-explanatory—you will need a vehicle pass to get in and out. You are allowed as many people in each vehicle as can fit; they each need their own event ticket but one vehicle pass covers them all. The vehicle pass only grants you the ability to drive to and from camp once, not to drive around the event. Bear in mind there can often be a line that may take upwards of four hours. Talk to a camp lead about strategies to minimize the wait.

Coordinate with a camp lead (Grant, Chris or Doug), or if you are adventurous, an online burner forum.

Three main options once you're in Reno:

The cheapest option will be a tent—it is also the dustiest and hottest method. Would generally recommend something as large as possible.

There is a very popular option made by a burner called a ShiftPod. These are large enough for a queen-size bed, a wardrobe, and chair. They are insulated, light-reflecting, and have vents for you to add a swamp cooler or air conditioner. They are very easy to set up, but are heavy and fairly bulky. There are three options for cooling your ShiftPod:

Simply outfitting a car, truck or van so that you can sleep in it comfortably. This is a very popular option and can work well if you have a vehicle already this will work for, or can be a cheaper option if you are renting rather than renting an RV. Some work involved in making it livable but it works and is a pretty common option.

Clearly the most baller route, but once this decision is made it's a good example of a Burning Man rabbit hole—it really is just the beginning of what you need to figure out. There is a lot here, so I will break this down into categories.

One of the more common mistakes we see people make is not properly hydrating. It can take a day or two to recover fully from allowing yourself to get dehydrated. Bring Nalgene or HydroFlask wide mouth water bottles, and bring them with you everywhere. Important to drink a shit load of water—remember it's a desert—1–2 gallons per day. Bring self adhesive labels and you can write your name and camp address on them for affixing to your bottles. Highly doubt someone will return them but you never know. You will need a bunch, think four. Each night you will go out with at least two, one filled with water and one more for your alcohol of choice.

There is a lot of food being given away on playa. If you aren't choosy and don't mind lines, this is a good way to go and meet people and take advantage of what the playa will provide.

On a volunteer only basis, people often like to step up and cook meals for the camp. As we approach the event, we will send out a schedule of who is cooking what and on what nights. It is common that more than half of our meals are communal like this.

Backpacker meals are the easiest, cleanest, lightest, least overhead way of feeding yourself, say if you are camping in a small tent, flying in, etc. It works.

If you are bringing a cooler and or fridge in an RV, some easy options are:

• Take out—saucy works best like Indian or Thai curries
• Prepared meals like Kevin's Paleo
• Consider freezing leftovers from meals you like over the course of the summer
• Sous vide cooked meats are very food safe and mess free, just warm them up

• Consider vegetables and sides that don't need refrigeration—mac and cheese, potatoes, instant mashed potatoes, etc.
• Camp Fly provides a large grill and burner for communal use so that you can cook outside, not smell/heat up your RV or tent.
• Consider bringing a cooler. They are more bomb proof than RV fridges, as they will always work if you just add ice. Ice is the only item that can be purchased at Burning Man. All other sales of everything are prohibited.
• Dry ice (available from most grocery stores at the customer service desk) can drop the temp of your cooler and food down by another 10–20 degrees and will sublimate (evaporate) rather than turn to water so less mess. This can give you an extra 2–4 days of cooling power to start the week off, where you don't need to add ice. This can give you the ability to fill your cooler completely, and then make room for some ice as you eat.
• Don't bring meals that will require a lot of prep and create dishes or trash. We use paper plates to cut down on water use in the RV and live with the extra trash, but all vegetables arrive to the playa prepped, all meals cooked and just require grilling or reheating. Saves time, hassle, mess, and trash.
• Biased because it is one of my favorite foods, but breakfast burritos make a nice, filling breakfast and are easy to clean up and reheat, and can be pretty easily purchased if you don't feel like cooking your own.

• You'll need different outfits throughout the day.
• In the morning, you'll probably want something comfortable for coffee and breakfast around camp.
• During the day, it gets really hot. You'll want light clothes and sometimes as little as possible.
• At night, it can get cold, sometimes really cold. Layers are key.
• Some years it is so cold that you will need a full fur jacket, hat and gloves, and other years the nights are so warm you will wear the same outfit day and night and never look at your coats. You never know what you're going to get, so bring options and layers.
• The most common activity at night is to bike around, so you can always throw extra layers in your bike basket.
• Definitely pack a hat and gloves. You might not use them, but if it turns into a cold year, you'll be very happy you brought them.

• Make sure you try all your outfits on before you go. See what looks good together and what doesn't. Out there, you probably won't have a proper mirror or the space to try a bunch of things on, so it really helps if everything is organized ahead of time.
• Some people pack each outfit in a Ziploc bag and organize them by day. It might sound extra, but it makes life easier and it keeps your clothes clean and dust-free until you wear them.

Bring a few different types maybe a short one, a longer one, something with a hood. Fake fur coats are very common.

• Comfortable boots are important. You need something you can wear for hours without getting blisters, especially at night. You might be gone for 8+ hours, and you don't want to head back just because your feet hurt. You can also have a few fun ones that you can wear for shorter period of time.
• Wear your boots before you go. Don't break them in on the playa.
• It's also nice to have a slip-on pair of shoes just for camp. You'll probably be going from one RV to another, and it's easier to slide something on and off instead of lacing up every time.

Bring more socks than you think you need. Two pairs per day recommended. Your feet will get hot and sweaty, and changing into fresh socks makes a big difference. Just make sure they're comfortable and work with all your boots.

Unless you're outside your RV or tent, you pretty much need your belt or backpack on you at all times. It sounds dramatic, but a dust storm can roll in between the time you walk to the bathroom and back. Here are the items you will want to carry with you pretty much any time you walk out of camp:

• Goggles
• A mask (some people wear it around their neck all the time, but I find that way too hot)—I prefer a neck gaiter or a scarf
• Tissues (the porta-potties don't always have toilet paper, and by nighttime they can be pretty gross; it's best to walk in ready so you can be quick)
• Sunscreen
• ChapStick
• Water jug
• Utility belt or small backpack, hydration backpack. If your backpack has a water bladder and is well lit, that's three birds with one stone—storage, hydration, lighting.
• ID in case you want to stop at a bar. Some people get away with photocopies of their ID, but it is recommended to bring your actual, maybe in your phone case.
• Some type of mug with which you can receive free beverages.

• At night, if you don't have lights or something glowing on you, people won't see you and you run the very real risk of getting run over by an art car or an ebike. Make sure you are lit up. People who don't light themselves are called "darkwads". Don't be a darkwad, and bring lights to throw at (gift) them when you see them.
• You can get fairy lights on Amazon and weave them into your hair or outfit. There are tons of options just grab a few different things. We used glow-in-the-dark wristbands.
• Flashlight or a headlamp works great, you can keep it around your neck or in your pocket for easy access. Especially for the bathroom—first, it helps you see if a porta-potty is occupied. Then once you're inside, it helps you get situated. The bathrooms get pretty rough as the week goes on, so you want to be in and out.

• Cool, different sunglasses are great to have. It's nice to bring a few pairs so you can switch them up depending on your hats, scarves, or wigs. Same goes for jewelry, bring lots of fun, playful pieces. Fun boots and shoes too.
• Just don't bring anything that's actually valuable to you. The playa dust is no joke and it will destroy things. If you'd be sad about losing it or ruining it, leave it at home.
• Can be a fun activity during other travels to buy large, inexpensive pieces of jewelry to wear on playa. For guys, a necklace can be your shirt during the day.

If you're flying or taking a bus home, pack a clean set of clothes in a separate Ziploc bag including clean shoes and a towel. That way you can shower before leaving and not put dusty clothes back on. Even if you're driving, it's really nice to have clean clothes for the ride home. You'll be very ready to wear regular clothes and you might appreciate being able to fade into the woodwork a little during gas stops!

• Don't bring clothes or accessories with feathers, sequins, glitter, or anything that can fall off and become MOOP (Matter Out Of Place).
• If pieces start shedding, you're basically creating trash that becomes someone else's problem and you don't want to be that person.
• When in doubt, leave it at home.

At the point of publication these links were all alive but if you find some dead ones, just googling or searching in amazon with "burning man + the name of the thing" should get you results as well.

• Example of women's boots
• Women's slip-on camp shoes
• Fairy light hair clips
• Fairy lights
• Light up wristbands
• Goggles
• Dust mask
• Neck gaiter
• Scarf
• Men's fur coat example
• Men's kilt
• Men's thai fisherman pants
• Popular burning man hat example
• Straw cowboy hat example
• Popular scarf example
• Men's boot example
• Carabiner mug
• Utility belt for women
• Utility belt for men
• Hydration backpack

Your vehicle pass only lets you drive in once (Gate Road to camp) and out once (camp to home). In other words you will not be able to drive your car or your motorcycle around on the playa- all the vehicle pass gets you is in through gate and to camp, and then you have to keep your vehicle at camp for the event until you leave. You need this for any vehicle driving in to camp, only one per vehicle and you do not need an additional one for trailers, like RV's. You can have as many people in the vehicle as you have event tickets. You do not need a vehicle pass if you are flying on to the playa or taking the burner express.

You'll want something to get around on the playa during the event, for most people this will be a cruiser bike. It's the fastest way to get around (faster than art cars with the 5 mph limit). If you have a cruiser and don't mind cleaning it well afterward, bring it; bring dry chain lube—with the dust your chain will need it. OneWheels and e-bikes are popular too. Think through how to get the bike to and from the playa. Camp Fly has a limited number of spares; talk to a camp lead (Grant, Chris, or Doug) to see if one may be available.

It is possible to rent bikes for the week from a place right before gate, and then simply return it after the week is over. Do not expect a bike in top working order, but many are pre-decorated a bit which can be nice. You will want to both light up and decorate whatever bike you have with you on the playa. A totem (something that sticks up high off the bike and lights up) can make you easier to find and help keep your group together, or find your bike after you leave it somewhere for a while, like if you go in to a bar or a sound camp.

Camp Fly is an intimate group, very small for a Burning Man camp, and invite-only. We do not collect camp dues (they often range from a couple hundred to a couple thousand at other camps—e.g. large sound camps that cost millions and charge $1500/person for tents, food, bar, showers, power, mandatory shifts). Camp Fly, for better and worse, offers campers a communal shade structure with seating and a grill—no mandatory work shifts. We exist and receive space and tickets from the org because we bring art cars, which represent a large investment of time, money, and energy. Camping with Camp Fly piggybacks you on that effort. So ask yourself: if you don't own an art car, how are you supporting the people who do—before, during, or after the event? Cooking a meal, more camp cleaning, whatever you want. We appreciate being recognized through reciprocal acts of service; we'd rather keep it loose and in a spirit of gratitude than charge dues. If you read this and think "cool, I'm saving on camp dues" without giving back, you might not get invited back—and from experience, those people often have less fun and don't connect with the vibe. If you're not sure how to help, reach out to a camp lead (Grant, Chris, or Doug) for suggestions.

Black Rock City, although temporary, has official addresses. The city is more or less circular as you can see in the below map. There are "time" dimensions as in what you would see on a clock, that are radial with the man at the center, and the temple at 12:00. Between 10:00 and 2:00, and in the center of the city near where the man is, is referred to as open playa. Between 2:00 and 10:00 is the actual city. The first circle street is called esplanade and has a lot of interactive theme camps. After esplanade, each concentric circle is alphabetical, starting with "A" and ending with "K". Every year, org comes up with new street names that match the theme, but basically when sharing addresses with someone, you'd start with the time dimension and end with the letter. So a camp address might be 4:15 and E.

In general, it is almost always less distance to traverse the city by following a radial down to open playa and then cutting across the circle to the right radial (time) and then going down it until you hit the right letter. In the inner circle of open playa, meaning between the man and esplanade, it can be helpful to know that at 3:00, 6:00, and 9:00, there are "promenades"- streets basically that go from the esplanade to the man. They are lit with fire/tall torches at night so they are usually easy-ish to spot. Following/finding those can be very helpful in terms of getting your bearings.

All the placed camps you will see on the Playa are awarded space, and allotted tickets (for purchase) because Org believes they are providing something that will provide value/delight and amuse others, at no cost to other participants. Our camp is awarded space and access to tickets because we bring a passel (currently six) of art cars with us to the event, and we beautify the event and give people rides on them. So the goal is to both use them ourselves to have fun, but also share them with others by giving rides and just generally stoking them out.