Burning Man… once again, the best damn city in the world for one week out of the year. This year was a crowning achievement in camp design, structure, placement and teamwork. Much went in to this year’s event from our little camp. And our little camp wasn’t so little once we got to the playa and found even more people to join us. Here’s how it happened…
In planning for this event, I spent a fair amount of time, money and energy. Most notable was my purchase of a 20′ travel trailer. This proved to be a wise investment, as it became my home on the playa. We packed up the Friday before the event and as we were finishing, a party began that was to be quite a mixture of people. Among those in attendance were most of the people from this area that were camping with us. We had folks from the main group and many of those traveling in the fine motor home dubbed, The Brave II. As well as burners, there were quite a few others that have been to BRC before and some that keep promising that they will come someday.
The party let out and we all headed to bed. We were to wake up in just a few short hours to start the trek to Reno. In the wee hours of the morning, we gathered back at Mom’s and packed the final items in to the trailer and my truck. We said our goodbyes and we were off.
The trip was a slow one, as we could only really get up to about 60 MPH before the trailer started to fishtail. This was my first time taking a trailer on a long trip, while it was full of stuff. It wasn’t just full, it was loaded down. We may have over-packed her, but in the end we made it there and back safely, so it was worth it. The trip to Reno took about 12 hours, which was about what I had expected. Driving at a constant speed and not worrying about how long it takes was quite refreshing, actually. The trip was not stressful or tiring at all. I felt great when we finally arrived.
We fought for some parking, due to a desert race that had just ended in Reno, which meant a lot of other trailers with dusty 4WD cars and trucks. Eventually, we parked checked in to the hotel, added a room and we all got showered and rested. We stayed the night and checked out of one of the rooms the next day. All in one room now, we toiled the day away by shopping for water, ice and supplies. The day was taking forever to pass and we were all growing antsy.
Then The Brave II arrived at our hotel. We packed all the final stuff in to the trailer and at about 8pm we left for Black Rock City with The Brave II, the now dubbed “Brave, The Third”, Danae and our trusty rented SUV.
The trip down the 447 was slow and we picked up a few hundred cars, who were none too happy that I was stuck driving 55. They had plenty of opportunities to pass, and some did, but the majority of folks understood that we were a little early to make it to the gate at 12:01am. So, the line grew and everyone slowly drove through the desert, in search of our temporary city.
We arrived in Empire to find that people were allowed through the gate starting at 10:00! We raced to fill our gas tanks and get on the road. At this point, only The Brave II and The Brave III were still together. The SUV and Danae had raced off to get in the entrance line. This actually worked out nicely, as it turned out that The Brave III (that’s my vehicle) had 2 that needed to go to Will Call.
I understand that it was opening night and things aren’t expected to go as smoothly as possible. However, this year’s Will Call situation was abhorrent. Whoever set it up should talk to those who waited in the line of cars. Basically, you were separated in to a lane on the right, which led in to the Will Call lot. This lot was massive. The line to get in, however, did not allow you to just drive in to the lot and park. Oh, no. They had it set up so that the line to get in took you almost all the way in to the lot. At which point, people just started parking and walking over to the booth to get their tickets. Unfortunately, what people didn’t realize was that you could drive all the way up to the booth and park. So, of course, a traffic jam of massive proportions was created.
They also had the bright idea to have 2 exit lanes from this lot. Each filtered back in to the line to pass through the gate, but one was significantly closer. The other, looped you all the way back to where you entered the Will Call lot in the first place.
Worst design ever. When I got to the point where people were not parking as close as possible to the booth, I felt like I was passing a traffic collision in Los Angeles. People were so confused by this system (probably because there weren’t any gate people directing traffic in the lot itself), that it took almost an hour to even get in to the lot and park.
This meant that our group was already in and searching for placement when we were still waiting outside the gate. This proved to be useful, as they were able to find a spot exactly where we wanted to camp, on a corner and near potties. When we got within walkie-talkie range, it was awesome to hear that all I needed to do was find them and we could start building camp.
I arrived in our new home, we got out of the car and a beer was thrust in to my hand. I drank greedily and quickly, as I needed to celebrate another successful trip to this desert wasteland. We cheered and then immediately began building camp. This involved deciding on placement of the trailer. This was handled perfectly, as Beard had printed off diagrams of the layout. We placed the trailer and began unloading it. Once emptied of its load, we assembled canopies. Once the canopies were in place, rebar was hammered in to the ground and ropes were pulled out.
At this point in time, everything changed. I asked Danae if she was good with knots. She replied that of course she was, she’s a tough-ass survival chick from the forest. Okay, not her words, but that’s the damn truth. She whipped out her knife and began roping down the canopies. I showed her some rope to rebar locking tricks and we were in business. We got all the canopies up and in place (only changing the design slightly, but certainly an improvement) and everyone’s tents followed soon after.
This is when I decided to sleep in the trailer for the night, rather than set up my own tent. This was the best decision I made all week. I hadn’t planned on staying in there, but it worked out so nicely that I couldn’t resist. I had the best sleep of my life, after watching the sunrise with whoever was awake.
Danae proved to be the coolest rigger on the planet, as she blew our minds with her tarp, p-cord and steel techniques. We set up a 15′ PVC pole creation, which we sunk 2′ in the ground. This held up my large green parachute, which we tied down to the canopy structure in many spots to keep it all up and straight.
I set up a shower and sink plumbing system in my trailer that worked using gravity to supply the water pressure. The water was located in a large tub on top of the trailer. I ran PVC piping out of the tub, in to the trailer and down to a make-shift shower and the actual sink in the trailer. All of this was run out of the trailer through waste PVC piping and out to our evaporation tray.
Our camp setup and the plumbing lasted for about 2 days, before the dust storms started. These dust storms tested the strength of our camp. We found flaws and we worked together to repair them. After the first dust storm, the tub on top of the trailer was threatening to come off and dump water everywhere. We were forced to drain it in to the evap tray, which made for a nice layer of playa mud for a few days. The rest of the camp got secured down to the point that the second, much larger, dust storm did almost nothing except loosen some ties.
All in all, this was the most secure and comfortable camp I have been a part of. The design was highly adaptable, as well. We added a kitchen to the back of the trailer and even used my spare tent to have a place to store coolers and food back there. We were able to add on 5 or 6 people with no trouble and the camp was peaceful and happy. Not to mention the fact that we had 6 amazing people building their own camp, within our camp, that were there helping and celebrating all the way.
The Brave II group were amazing with the design and setup of their camp. Their camp was so nice that there were many occasions when most of the 25 or so people there were all under TBII’s shade!
There were plenty of notable things that happened, that are worth mentioning. The Man burned early, as most people know. I don’t claim to have all the details, but it happened and no one seemed to mind or even notice. Except, of course, at night. With no Man to light the way, it was like any other year on a Sunday night. So, there were likely a lot of disoriented first-timers.
Piss Clear had it’s final edition. After 13 years as the Editor of Piss Clear, Adrian called it quits on the paper. She had a fine run and I have appreciated her bitchy slant on the event every year that I have been on the playa. She represents Burning Man to me, so it was tough to even look at the final edition which was entitled, “So Long and Thanks For All the Drugs!”
Adrian is not done with Burning Man, though. She returned to Fandango and held Bootie BRC, which was the best damn dance party I have ever experienced. She is a mash-up DJ and she also performs live mash-ups. We got a nice taste of both that night. I started dancing on my way there and I didn’t stop until we left. We must have been dancing for a few hours, at least. There was even a point where Adrian came over and danced with our little group. It was the best damn time ever.
The Mutaytor had their triumphant return to the city of black rock. We missed them one night and saw them the next. Their show was a little more subdued that I remembered, but they have been through quite a bit this year, so I understood. Then, they played at the Crude Awakening burn on Burn night and blew my mind. This band also truly represents what Burning Man is all about for me. They were born on the playa, they left and then they came back under the fine leadership of John Avila and were better than ever. Turns out, Dirty Johnson is even friends with one of the members of the band. So, we got to hang out with him quite a bit.
The Man was rebuilt, of course. And he burned well, too. We went out to the Man Burn with one plan in mind. We were going to watch him burn from the Cubitron. Well, we couldn’t find Cubey right away, so we found ourselves directly in front of the Black Rock Solar panels. We were behind the circle of Art Cars, so we were a little ways back from the inner circle of people.
There were no Art Cars directly in front of us and we thought the view was amazing. Then the first large Art Car came by and tried to stop right in front of us and from behind us there was a deafening noise. We turned around to see that in the middle of all the solar panels was a large pyramid like structure with long wide steps leading up. These steps were covered with people! These guys had the best view ever and these art cars were trying to ruin it.
Pat (not me) leapt in to action! He started wrangling Art Cars by negotiating and reasoning with the drivers. He succeeded and the spot filled up with people and small vehicles. It was then that I noticed a guy who seemed to be connected to the people on the riser behind us. I approached him and introduced myself. He turned out to be MOTA, who seems to be the man behind the solar panels. I let him know that we were down here fighting to keep his view clear and he thanked me graciously. We chatted with him and he told us that he had room for about 10 more people back on the riser. We were elated! He took us back (we lost Danae in the process, sorry Danae!!) and we climbed up the back stairs of the platform.
When we got to the top, the view was incredible. I got out my video camera and knew that this was to be an awesome Burn. The Burn itself was long and beautiful and the Man fell, as he always does. The experience of helping these people behind us, just because they had a great view and we could actually do something to protect it, and then getting to come sit with them was wonderful. It gave me a great chance to get a clear video of the Burn for once and we didn’t have to be down in the throng of people.
We made our way back to the Crude Awakening oil derrick and found the Mutaytor stage. We danced our asses off to the best band on the playa and then were treated to the largest explosion of propane on the playa. This thing went up with a beautiful display of fireworks and music that was more amazing than any burn I’ve seen yet. Then, when the fireworks seemed to have run out, there was a quiet in the air as three massive jets of propane all went off at once. The fireball was immense and the mushroom cloud that lingered in the air was dark and ominous. As many have now said, it’s the largest explosion you’ll ever see and live to talk about. I’m not entirely sure what the message was, but the boom was fantastic, so who cares, right?
Then, of course, was the worst part of the week… the end. With much beer and liquor consumed, new friends made, old friends reconnected, a spirit of teamwork defined, a camp brought together by song, a collection of crap erected in to a vast playground and a renewed spirit to do it all over again next year… we left our home and headed back to the default world.
If success at Burning Man could be measured, we would be off the meter. This camp pulled out something amazing and then just kept making it more amazing as the days went on. This was my 9th year in a row at this event and I have never been more impressed with a camp that I have helped create. The countless hours of planning that we had before the event truly paid off in a multitude of ways. The group muscled together and when the elements tried to disassemble what we had created, we fought back and won.
This was a year unlike anything I have experienced before and anything I will ever experience again. I am so proud of everyone for making this year possible and special thanks goes to those who broke their asses to build and maintain the best camp we’ve ever built. We learned a lot about how to build a camp and improvements are unavoidable. We have a plan for next year already and I know that if we had even half the people who were there this year, we’ll make something quite amazing next time.
The Burning Man event is alive and well, people. When the Man burnt early, I wondered what it would do to the spirit of the city. I was happy to see that, if anything, it renewed the energy out there. The place felt so much more alive once that big green man wasn’t watching us all from his high vantage point. It became very clear to me that this year was special and it allowed me to look for meaning in so many other places in the city and in myself.
Next year is 10 years in a row for me. I will be there. Are you coming or not?
