Burning Man is more than just an event or place—it’s a way of being. Bring that feeling into your community and share the spirit of Black Rock City beyond the dust by creating projects, gatherings, and civic experiences rooted in the 10 Principles.
We hope these ideas inspire you to bring more Burning Man energy to your life through art, community collaboration, and participatory culture. It’s all about combining your passion with your community’s unique desires and needs.
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Featured Project Guides
Explore the many kinds of community-building gatherings and projects that members of our community have created to welcome newcomers and build year-round connections. Some are simple to organize; others evolve naturally as your community’s capacity and numbers grow. It isn’t a complete list—make it your own! And if you’d like more support or connection, reach out to your nearest local Regional Contacts.
We’d love to hear what you do to bring more Burning Man to the world—share your stories and 1-2 pictures of your event through the Bringing Burning Man Culture to Life form.
Getting Started
Not sure where to start? Think about what your community needs and how practicing any of the 10 Principles can meet that need.
Best practices for successful, fun events
- Be you! Do things you’re excited about and that foster connection, creativity, and better versions of society!
- Be inclusive! It is best to plan a mix of all ages and non-alcoholic options. Welcome and include underrepresented voices. Try different days and times of the week to include different audiences.
- Be accessible! Free and local is always the most accessible. Make it easy for everyone to participate.
- Start small! Start with what’s doable and fun. If you decide to grow, grow larger organically and create an annual cycle of diverse events.
- Be culturally sensitive to the location in which you are planning your activity.
- Be simple! You don’t have to do anything complicated. Meeting regularly—weekly or monthly—is very effective at building community over time.
Naming your event
Choose a unique name for your event or project that helps people understand what it is.
It should be clear that Burning Man is not directly producing your event. It is fine to say you are inspired by Burning Man in the text description of the event. You can call it a “Burner meet-up” if it is being organized by and for local Burners.
Avoid using the words, “Burning Man,” “Burning Man Project,” “Black Rock City,” “Decompression,” “Precompression,” “Burnal Equinox,” or “Flambé Lounge”; as these are protected trademarks. Use of these terms requires written permission from Burning Man via agreement and are reserved for official Regional Event use. Learn about the Burning Man global regional network and explore the list of Official Regional Events. If you think your event should be considered for official regional event recognition, contact officialevents@burningman.org
Creating event graphics, promotions, and designs
Celebrate the spirit of your community and unique culture with images that represent your region. Invite members of your community to co-create graphics and signs to use at your event.
Use what you have! Perfect is the enemy of done.
Burning Man Project trademarks, copyrights, and images from Burning Man cannot be used to promote outside events, no matter how small. This is both for liability reasons and to protect Burning Man’s IP from commodification. We suggest using “desert” or “playa” instead to demonstrate your affiliation to the community.
If you’re throwing a fundraiser for your Burning Man theme camp or art project, you may use the term “Burning Man” or “Black Rock City” as part of the descriptive text for the event, but not as the central phrase. This ensures that people aren’t confused about who is producing or sponsoring your event.
Please, don’t use the Man symbol in your promotional materials, or event name, or without specific written approval.
Learn about Burning Man trademark protections.
Being 10-Principled before, during, and after your event
Elevate the culture by making it about art, community-building, and doing good.
Burning Man events are unique, and so is your local culture and community. Use your imagination to create social alchemy inspired by The 10 Principles of Burning Man.
Help your event participants find their creative voice by dressing in store-bought costumes and buying drinks in bars. It’s about more than dressing up and partying together… anybody can do that!
Your event should not lead to commodification, legal/liability issues, harmful impacts on others, or negative press.
You should leave your event space cleaner than you found it (or at least as clean as you found it).
Telling people about your event
Word of mouth and art discussion forums are great ways to spread word. You can also put up flyers (respectfully and with consent) around your community to let folks know about your event, especially near the event location. Talk to local businesses and community centers about putting up your flyer. Post on social media sites that members of your community use. Look for local community groups and forums that are on the same subject as your event.
Check your Regional Network location for links to the social channels where you can share your event and invite other Burners.
Sample Events and Projects
Rally folks around an idea or an activity that brings people together and makes them feel a sense of satisfaction and delight. We’ve collected examples and ideas of events and programs that you can create where you live.
Arts, Culture & Crafting
- Artist Lecture Series, where artists talk about their art and needs and find collaborators, volunteers, and supporters.
- When you are going to a cultural event that may be of interest to Burners, post it on the Region’s social media page and list a time and place to meet at the event. You create a social opportunity without needing to organize your own event!
- Art Lounges, potlucks, and social mixers at free spaces
- Invite Burners to meet at a museum or gallery for an art show; plan an “Art Crawl” at an open studio or free museum night. Invite people to wear art they made for added self-expression!
- Create a treasure map of local Burner artist studios
- Artist Salon Workshop: Ongoing forum for artists and performers to workshop new/experimental work and get feedback
- Community art murals
- Photo sharing night after the Burning Man event or local Regional Event
- Host a Parade: Art Car Parade followed by a Tailgate Party; “Art-Up-Your-Bike Day” to decorate bikes and ride together; Light Art Parade, featuring illuminated wearable art and glowing night rides; “pARTiciPARADE!”, a participatory mobile art parade
- A whimsical Mad Hatter hat-decorating tea party, or a serene sunrise tea salon to start the day in style
- A Craft & Chat Event: e.g., sewing/mending/knitting/crafting + conversation
- Sewing and decorating reusable MOOP bags (to gather Matter Out of Place)
- “Snowmen Gone Horribly Wrong” contest in the winter
Animal Welfare
- Combine a pet food or adoption drive with a local Burner event.
- Volunteer at a local animal shelter wearing your homemade animal ears
- Animal costume parade, anyone?
Children and Youth
- Burning Moms or Burning Dads playground gathering, so new parents can meet one another.
- Kiddie Art Carnival
- Kid-friendly crafting and art days
- Create an after-school art program working with your local school
Community Development
- Burner Town Halls to discuss what is going on in the community share information, and get people face-to-face
- Create a community calendar for events that would interest Burners. This also helps Burners to plan events on non-competing dates.
- Weekly or monthly “Meet & Greets” or “Burner Happy Hours” at a cafe/bar/park/community art space. Consistent meeting times build community over time and help out-of-town Burners and newcomers find you.
- Meet-and-greet social mixers for different segments of your community at your local Regional Event. This can help people with similar interests meet.
- Community Dinners/Potlucks: e.g., first Thursday pasta dinner, you provide the boiled pasta and invite others to bring different sauces, salads, etc. You might even theme it: best playa recipes or focus on a color. Consider adding a topic of conversation.
- Reserve a table at a park and encourage people to bring friends, family, and the burn-curious to meet there. Here is a way in to reserve spaces in public parks in the U.S.: www.recreation.gov *Consult local authorities about insurance requirements.
- Organize a street fair that gifts everything instead of selling things.
- Free Burning Man video screening at someone’s house. See https://www.youtube.com/burningman
- Book club – pick books likely to be of particular interest to Burners and discuss.
- Host a one-time clothing/coffee cup/stuffed animal/plants/seed/etc gifting exchange and social. For inspiration, learn about the Native American tradition of Potlatch.
- A simple campout at a campground to get to know one another
- Host meet-ups at innovation hubs, maker spaces, art spaces, and universities. e.g., Berlin Burners established a “Berlin Burner Embassy” with a non-profit run space and held free weekly meetups, potluck dinners, and workshops.
- Create a year-round art/maker space that connects the community with a place to create, share skills, and socialize.
- Volunteer or organize a monthly show at a nursing home.
New Burner Education and Skill Development
- Newbie Orientation: Talk about the 10 Principles, what the culture is about, and how to prepare to co-create Burning Man and/or your nearest Regional Event.
- Resources and videos that acculturate newcomers to Burning Man: Preparation Resources | Burning Man, Preparation Videos | Burning Man.
- All-ages “How To” workshops. Some examples: recycle unwanted wardrobe items into wearable art, make instruments out of trash and have a parade, how to solarize art projects, glass working, storytelling, poi, etc.
- Open mics and lectures on a park bench or bus stop!
- Discussion panel or series on different Burning Man Principles or on subjects related to them.
- Creative skill-sharing: Identify the skill sets in your community and build a night where everyone shares a skill or knowledge (yoga, quantum physics, photography, etc.).
Environment and Sustainability
- Thematic beach or park MOOP (Matter Out Of Place) clean-up. Add a costume element for fun! Cemetery clean-up dressed as the un-dead, anyone?
- Inner tube down a river as a group dressed as fish, combined with a cleanup of the shoreline.
- Host a kinetic and solar-powered art exhibition featuring interactive installations that move, glow, and come alive through renewable energy.
- Work with your local Department of Parks & Recreation on a tree planting and park servicing day (a great way to build relations and find out about available public spaces to do other community events in). Then have a superhero croquet match to celebrate!
- Host a costume swap or “TRASHion Show” where recycled materials and creative re-use become wearable art showcased on a playful runway. Include statistics about how much people waste to add an environmental awareness aspect and promote Reduce-Reuse-Recycle.
Food Access and Scarcity
- Turn any event into a food drive by adding a food donation request. Take a page from Chiditarod – Chicago’s urban shopping cart food drive costumed race with teams. See toolkit here: CHIditarod Toolbox! (Rod-in-a-box) – Burners Without Borders
- Create a community garden in a food desert location or at your local school to grow fresh produce, teach sustainability, and strengthen local connections.
- Burner food exchange program to share homegrown produce and avoid waste
- Set up a gift fruit or lemonade stand for a day. Add a “Tell a Story” wheel to make it fun and social.
Health and Wellness
- Start a Burner running, exercise, meditation, or other wellness inspired group
- Hula hoop making workshop
- Go bowling, play mini golf, or any other recreational activity together in thematic or expressive dress/costume
- Organize a social walk or hike to an unusual location and create a temporary piece of art out of found natural materials at your final stop
- Contact improv night with conversation about the 10 Principles during breaks
Housing and Homelessness
- Really, Really Free Markets where people get together for 4-5 hours in a park to gift their skills, services, etc. Music, haircuts, workshops, food, and a space where people embody the gift economy
- Knitting circle to make blankets for homeless charities
- Create and distribute homeless care packs
- Volunteer to serve food at a local shelter
- Winter coat collection drive: Everyone brings used coats and sets up a Free Coat Boutique at a local shelter
Mutual Aid, Disaster Response & Preparedness
- Vampire blood drive – dress as vampires to encourage blood donations!
- CPR or first aid party – invite a rep from an authorized medical or humanitarian organization to provide a trainer and certify your group in CPR.
- Organize a disaster preparedness backpack making day. See for example: https://burnerswithoutborders.org/disaster-packs/
- Create an emergency meet-up plan as a group or neighborhood block.
Get Inspired by Regional Event Organizers
Share your experiences
Let Us Know how YOU bring the culture to life!
We hope this simple toolkit inspires you with ways to bring the spirit of Burning Man to your local community and society. We’d love to hear stories of how your gatherings are sharing Burning Man culture with the world. Send your stories and 1-2 pictures to https://forms.gle/TKdoJiWQ2xAjzbgh8