Vancouver

Welcome to the Burning Man Vancouver information page!

The Burning Man Vancouver community has grown up since 1999! Since then, we’ve built community, made art, run camps, formed our non-profit society, and thrown events together year-round.

For a full list of links and resources, see: https://linktr.ee/vancburners or read on below.

Upcoming events

Monthly Burners & Beers
First Friday of the month. Please check the shared Google Calendar & FB community page for details on location for each month, & any other meetups happening, such as Onesie skating, park meetups, etc.
What If (formerly Burn in the Forest)
Burning Man Vancouver Regional event: date TBD for 2027
Dustcovery
Burning Man Vancouver Regional event: date TBD for 2026

About the Regional Community

You don’t have to be a Burner or have attended Burning Man to be part of this community. A love of the arts and respect for others is all it takes to participate.

The Burning Man Regional Network is the year-round embodiment of the Burning Man experience. Regional Contacts around the world help local Burners connect with each other and bring Burning Man’s principles into their communities.

The community strives to follow the core values that define the Burning Man culture, described in the Ten Principles of Burning Man: Radical Inclusion, Gifting, Decommodification, Radical Self-reliance, Radical Self-expression, Communal Effort, Civic Responsibility, Leaving No Trace, Participation, and Immediacy.

About the Greater Vancouver Interactive Arts Society (GVIAS)

In 2007, the Vancouver community formed the Greater Vancouver Interactive Arts Society, a non-profit that supports local events, art, and interactive projects in the spirit of the 10 Principles of Burning Man. GVIAS provides resources and advocacy for events, art, and projects that bring the community together. Visit and become a member at GVIAS.org.

Local and regional events

The community is active year-round, hosting several events. Scroll to bottom of this page for a Photo Gallery.

Happening year-round

Monthly Burners & Beers, club nights, fire spinning jams, newbie picnics, playa bike prep workshops, skate nights, sauna nights, potlucks, town halls, and craft nights. Join the announce list or check the community calendar to stay in the loop.

What If (formerly Burn in the Forest)

Our flagship regional event, known internationally for years as Burn in the Forest and continuing today under the name What If. Began in 2002 as a small, unsanctioned gathering near Squamish; officially sanctioned as a Burning Man Regional event since 2006. Now over 2,000 participants and 300+ volunteers, 100% volunteer-run, hosting hundreds of art projects, theme camps, and sound stages. Currently held in Merritt, BC, in the traditional mid-to-late-July timeframe. Website: whatif.now | What If Facebook Group

Dustcovery

Our decompression event. Each year, hundreds of dusty participants return from a week in the desert and begin the process of re-entry into the default world. Dustcovery is the chance to share that experience, celebrate the transformation, and party with hundreds of our closest friends, along with some great local art, music, and theme camps. Typically held in November. Website: dustcovery.gvias.org

Recompression (2000-2010. concluded)

This community experience held annually, featured a Burn celebration, music, art, performance, workshops, theme camps, fire-spinning, ritual, gift-giving, experiential communication and friendship.

ReCharge (2013-2019, concluded)

A burner-inspired crowd fundraiser where artists pitched projects using miniatures and visual aids, competing for tokens offered to guests at entry. Aimed to be fully transparent and revenue-neutral, with the lion’s share of funds going directly to artists. In its later years, it raised $11-15K per event for art headed to Burning Man, What If, and other Regionals. Website: recharge.gvias.org.

Our Community Journey

From a small email list to a 2,000-person gathering, here are some of our milestones along the way.

Milestones

1999 – The first “BurningVan” email list is created, marking the start of the organized Vancouver community.
2024 – Following that year’s event, the community undertakes a collective process to rename its flagship gathering from Burn in the Forest to What If.
2015 – Burn in the Forest relocates to Cheam Fishing Village after losing access to its Squamish site six weeks before the event.
2009 – A new site is secured at Squamish Valley Campground after the original site’s closure.
2007 – GVIAS founded as the community’s non-profit society.
2006 – Burn in the Forest becomes an officially sanctioned Burning Man Regional event.
2002 – First Burn in the Forest at a site called Mile 36 near Squamish.
2000 – Recompression begins as the community’s first annual decompression-style event.

Playa Time (2011), a wooden tiered art installation by Vancouver Regional (Vancouver CORE) at Burning Man, featuring a surreal melting clock face with scrambled numbers and symbols, two painted spiral gears, and a large red spiral wheel at the base. The piece stands on the dusty playa with flags flying beside it and distant art hazy in the background dust. — Playa Time, Vancouver CORE 2011. Photo credit Phillippe Glade

CORE: Circle of Regional Effigies

The Circle of Regional Effigies Project (CORE) was a celebration of Burning Man’s Regional Network and of the work that regional groups throughout the world were doing to nurture and support the Burning Man ethos as a global cultural movement. The Vancouver Region had the joy of being represented on playa as part of the Circle of Regional Effigies, since its inception in 2011.

Guided by the Ten Principles, CORE teams worked together throughout the spring and summer to create art that celebrated their Regional identities and showcased the collaborative artistic efforts of their community members.

2011: Playa Time | 2012: Life Tree | 2013: Artifactuary

Connect

Get involved and find out about local happenings subscribe to our announcement list or follow us via your social media of choice – you are invited to come out and get involved!

Full list of links and resources: linktr.ee/vancburners.
GVIAS Newsletter: sign up to receive the latest information on upcoming events.
Announcement list: Send a blank email to vancouver-announce+subscribe@burningman.org, or join here, for moderated event updates and Burning Man news.
Regional Contact email: vancouver@burningman.org.