Burning Man Live

ANDIE: Hi Vav!

VAV: Intrepid sounds like some old sedan that is no longer made. But I’ll take it!

Yeah. The Camp Symposium just happened. Hundreds of people gathered online for many hours, and we have pulled the parts we think that you want to hear.

So, if you look at the blueprint of any city, you’ll see commercial zones, shopping malls, big venues and arenas, entertainment bits. If you look at the map of Black Rock City, you see something different. The beating heart of our temporary city isn’t built on commerce, consumerism; it’s built on, uniquely, it’s built on Theme Camps.

ANDIE: Yep. Theme Camps. These are our neighborhood pubs, our interactive living rooms, the places with the weird, wild workshops… and my camp’s karaoke box, I’ll have you know. Situated right at that beautiful intersection of Communal Effort, Gifting, and Immediacy, theme camps are the ultimate “third place,” not just a public space where we are simply welcome to interact, but a place where we are welcome to come and build community.

VAV: Right. Unlike the default world, these spaces and services are offered as a gift. We invite strangers into our homes, we mingle with very interesting people, and we blow each other’s minds through the sheer power of Radical Self-expression.

ANDIE: Now, as anyone who has ever wrangled a camp probably knows—and I have wrangled a few camps in varying degrees for my 29 years on the playa—running a camp is not for the faint of heart. It’s relentless, it’s complex, it’s spreadsheets, it’s behind-the-scenes work. It’s a labor of love that will test patience and force some really hard-won leadership lessons. In short, it’s a gorgeous, beautiful, red-hot pain in the ass, and like building the art, it stands at the heart of meaning and interaction at Burning Man.

VAV: Yeah. So the deep respect we have for the people who do it year after year, that’s exactly why Burning Man Project has been hosting this Camp Symposium every year. The Camp Symposium is a completely free conference open to anyone bringing, or helping with, or even just dreaming about, a camp to the playa. Whether you’re navigating the Placement process for a big piece of real estate, or you’re planning to scout the free-range suburbs with a few tents and a dream, this symposium is a treasure trove of inspiration and anticipation. It’s always packed with peer-to-peer learning, and nuts and bolts, and lag bolts, but also, the sometimes surprising dynamics – personality dynamics – of running a theme camp in Black Rock City.

ANDIE: It’s so real. Vav here has put together a highlight reel from the many hours of video from this year’s symposium. This one’s got insights, ideas, and really actionable advice to help you make your camp stronger, safer, and funner!

VAV: Or at least funnier.

And don’t worry about taking notes when you’re listening. For you, we made a pristine transcript, and we link to the presentations and resources right down there in the show notes.

ANDIE: So, grab your favorite dusty camp mug of tepid liquid. Our 2026 Camp Symposium highlight reel starts right now.

LEVEL: Welcome to the 2026 Camp Symposium. My name is Level. I am the Head of Placement in Black Rock City. It’s great to see everyone here today. So, we have a really jammed packed agenda for you today.

It’s a new year. We’re coming off of a year where there was some toils and troubles with the weather, and we’re really hoping that it’s a better weather year. I love to see, kind of, what cities are represented, what countries are represented, what camps are represented. So a big part of why we hold this every year is to see each other, remember each other, learn from each other, help each other. So thank you all for engaging where you can.

Today is brought to you by the Camp Support Team. This is a really volunteer run event. We spend several months to think about the most important things to talk about with the community and pull it all together. So thank you to my Camp Support Team for really pulling it through, especially Vesper and Griffin and Peta.

I also want to acknowledge a couple other things that you can turn to the Camp Support Team for. One of those things is Campfire Talks. That’s semi monthly to help have conversations like we’ll have today at the Camp Symposium, but on a more regular basis. So, look out for promotions of that. You can always register. They’re free.

We also have a Camp Advisory and Mentorship Program that pairs you up with a one on one mentor – I think there’s some mentors and advisors on the call today, so thanks for showing up. – and it’s a really good experience, you know, if you just are just looking for, sort of shoulder to cry on, an extra ear to hear out, the things that you’re going through, that program is there for you.

And we’re also looking to plan more events this year, both online and in person. So if you like to help out, or get access to any of that, you can always email us at campsupport@burningman.org.

I also am going to use this chance to do a quick plug. On April 4th we are having a Burning Man Participation Fair! So, we know everyone here is contributing, bringing camps and bringing things to Black Rock City, bringing wonderful gifts. If you’re still looking for ways, or maybe you have a friend that’s wondering, hey, how do I get involved? There are many ways to contribute in Black Rock City. So on April 4th, we’re going to have a volunteer fair, Participation Fair, to help you learn about how to volunteer, not just for Burning Man departments, that is part of the game, but also like how to join camps, how to join art, and how to just really contribute in other ways. So feel free to email us and we will help you get connected.

I did want to start with some just initial words about this year, and how we’re thinking about this year. You know, it is 2026. Like I said, we’re still… Some folks are licking their wounds from last year. You know, we went through three storms. Some of them predictable, some of them not. We saw infrastructure sort of torn down. But we also saw a lot of people rebuild and really come in the true Burner spirit of making it all happen.

But I know that, you know, just based on what we’ve seen, we’ve had people also feel a little bit like maybe this is a time a year to take off, or maybe I can’t commit as soon as I normally like to. You may be feeling that as a camp organizer yourself. So, just know we see that. We pay attention. We’re listening. We’re actually trying to adapt everything we can to make things easier for you all to go to Black Rock City.

Some of the ways we’ve structured how we construct the planning process really developed over time of predictability, and trying to get more time for everyone to plan ahead. And so we’re also saying maybe some of that’s too early now, and we really want to offer as much grace as possible.

We are looking at offering extensions, ways to really allow for rolling submissions. I think the most important thing is just to keep in touch with the Placement Team. Let us know what you’re thinking. If you want to do something very small and minimal, that is A-OK. If you need a little bit more time to iron out your plans, that’s A-OK, too. So, we are going to offer as much grace as possible. And, you know, in the hopes that it just is easier for you to get out there, you know, and that, that it’ll feel like a fun, easy, smooth experience.

So with that, I’m going to pass it on to our CEO, Marian Goodell, to also welcome you all.

MARIAN: Good morning, Level.

LEVEL: Good morning.

MARIAN: Thanks everybody. I am Marian Goodell. I am the CEO of Burning Man, sometimes called the Chief Engagement Officer.

Thank you, everybody, for being here. I love the Camp Symposium, because for me, it’s like a launch of us getting together and starting to see each other, and I love the format that we get to see each other’s faces. You’re right, Level, it’s so good to start this one and feel like, “Look who’s here,” kind of thing. And then we get to share it out to everybody, and we get to hear back from people who are excited to be going.

You guys already know it, camp life is the core of Burning Man and Burning Man experience. And theme camps for me are the engaging magic. I, for sure, remember my first year when it’s what we did. We went and looked to engage and play with everybody. And so Black Rock City would not be the same without Theme Camps. And all of you that are doing just camps, pop-up camps.

I know that part of what we really want to emphasize is to help people realize that, you know, you can be with all different kinds of camps. And I love… Today’s content gives you a chance and anybody a chance. You guys are the storytellers. You’ll tell your friends. We’ll share the video out. We get to tell the story of how to be successful campers at Burning Man, theme and not theme. But of course, I love the theme camps.

So, honestly, Level, you touched on it, and I wanted to emphasize it again. I am out in the world, of course; I do appearances, I visit festivals, I talk to other organizers. And everybody is seeing since about 2024, that participants, whether it’s Coachella, which is not like Burning Man, but either smaller Burning Man events out in the world: people are buying their tickets later. They’re committing later. For whatever reason, that sort of that’s a global culture. And I’m really stoked, Level, that you guys have recognized that and are actually adapting to that.

Of course, we’ve got the Steward’s Sale that’s been, got a little life breathed into it. And as level, you just said, I love hearing about the rolling admissions. That’s certainly the way it was when we had more capacity. And I think that what that lesson also shows is that, Level, you and your team are able to be flexible and help bring in, and then as the others sort of come in, help land everybody. And that’s also part of the organic nature of the city. So I’m super stoked that we’re able to play that way.

Also, of course, you know, we love the big camps. Over the years, camps have gotten super huge. And then, honestly, super huge has more infrastructure challenge. The bigger it is, maybe it feels fun, and maybe it’s a great challenge for people that want to show their muscle in producing a micro culture.

But always, the small is super cool. My first camp actually was like five of us, and then the next year I think we were like 12. And we could have gotten bigger. I went on to do other things. But we were a little itty bitty theme camp. We had a theme we just had, we just did a pop up. We didn’t tell Harley we were coming or anything.

So… “Keep it simple” is also cool. You don’t have to do big things. Little camps, big camps, little experiences, all of them: Huge impact.

Yeah, Level, you mentioned the weather last year. The weather extents and Gate waits, those are the things I’m getting a lot of feedback from people. But, you know, we do… what we do in difficult times is we’re resilient and we’re creative. And I think you’re going to hear a presentation from the Gate later in today’s event that will help you or your campmates figure out how can you help? What are the ways we can do as we’re coming into Burning Man, to make it easier? And then what are the ways in that they’re setting it up so it’s easier for people to volunteer and support at the Gate?

And then April 4th. I am stoked about the Participation Fair. I was talking to Steven Raspa about it, and he’s like, “Yeah, remember we used to have ‘BBQ a Newbie’ in San Francisco, which were for the newbies, and we used to have like tabling our town fairs in San Francisco were actually tables from all the departments. And with zoom and just the way we’ve changed our lives, and the event’s gotten bigger, and trying to pull everybody together is so hard, we do in Black Rock City, we’ve got this Participation Fair as an opportunity for people to pop in.

So if you’ve got people in your camp that are new, and yes, you’ve got, I’m sure camp duties, if you’re doing a theme camp, but you know, the way to feel connected to the bigger picture often is just to do a shift at the Gate, or do a couple shifts at the Greeters, or just know that these options are available in case you know your camp size changes, and you can’t put everybody to work. Right? So I’m stoked about that.

And then I am going to go on the road. I will be out in Reno, and LA, and I think for a pop up in Boston, those are almost all for sure. We’re looking at Reno in early April. We’ve talked to Rod, who is Regional contact there. And then we’re trying to get LA done before the end of May. And, um, then I’m coming through Boston for my niece’s graduation. So I saw someone say they’re from Boston on the ‘hello’ a little while ago. So I hope to meet you out at a Town Hall.

And the format for town halls usually is bringing local art and storytellers in, like you guys, to tell about your camp or wherever you want some engagement. But then the bulk of it is a chance to do a Q&A with me and with other organizers, like Level. I hope he’s going to come on the road with me, or Charlie, or Katie, and some others that will do some storytelling and make it possible for you guys to, you know, do a Q&A and get involved real time.

So, I’m super happy to be here. I love what you guys do. Honest to God, favorite learning stuff for me is the camp that I help facilitate and run. And that has about 150 people. And we’re always learning, and we’re always learning about working well with each other, and loving each other and getting shit done. So I’m stoked to be here with you guys.

Thank you Level for giving me a chance to say hi. And yeah, happy 2026.

LEVEL: Thanks, Marian. Thank you for taking your time to be here and joining us.
I’m going to tell you a little secret. Every year Marian asks me on playa, “Hey, where are the cat camps,” or “I have people that really looking for cats.” And I’m like, paging through, looking for meowing and catting. So if you want to bait her, that’s one way to do it.

All right, next up we have Charlie Dolman, who is the Event Director for Black Rock City, who also is here to say hello and to welcome you all.

CHARLIE: Hi, everybody. I get to bait my boss? Is that a thing that I get to do? That sounds great. I got given permission in public. It’s real.

LEVEL: Catnip, yeah.

CHARLIE: Well, Marian, what an awesome list of things that you just kinda presented: The Participation Fair, the Town Halls, you know, work that we’re doing at the Gate, opportunities for people to volunteer. Like, there’s a lot of stuff in all of that. And so I think I’m just going to pull out a few, a couple of little stories that I’ve got that for me kind of like, really drive that, drive that kind of narrative home.

So super geeky moment I went to a thing called Choir, Choir, Choir a couple of days ago. A bunch of you go to a music hall and you all sing together, and two guys at the front teach you different parts of the song. Right? And so there was a thousand of us singing Fleetwood Mac. It was great.

But the reason that it caught my attention was the guys told the story; they’re from Canada, and for five months of the year they sit frozen in their small, tiny rooms, in their houses, not talking to their friends. And so they started this thing to help people connect with each other, to create moments of real life connection where humans could come together and do a thing together. And now, 15 years later, they’re doing it all over the world because connection is super valuable! Proof. Pudding. Right there. First story.

Second story. At Burning Man last year, I found myself with my colleague Marnee Benson, who runs government affairs in a camp, we had been hijacked a little bit. It was a whole… It was a moment. It was great. But I was talking to the guy who organized it was a lovely fellow, and he told me, “We bring a car. We bring a camp. Sometimes we do art…” And he said, “And it’s a lot!” And he said, “And this year we didn’t bring the car and we’re not doing any art, we’re just doing the camp.”

And he just had this huge smile on his way, on his face, as he told me about how much load had been lifted off his shoulders because he had simplified things for himself. He had given himself a break, had given himself a chance to kind of not burn all seven ends of the candle, and just really kind of try to create a lighter experience for himself.

And so to me, these two stories embody where we’re at, right? We need connection right now. The world’s hard. And the best, the best way we can support each other is just to love each other and be there for each other and be with each other.

Um, and then the second piece is that we should just, you know, in the same vein, make stuff easier for ourselves in our home lives, in our professional lives, and in our life that we share with our chosen family, which is all of us around here.

So we, in the organization, are doing what we can to make stuff simpler, and to create opportunities for more connection. Marian talked about, you know, Town Halls. Levels, got the Campfire Talks where folks can come. He talked about, you know, you’re going to hear from Gate, things we’re trying to do to improve the experience. You probably all notice some forms pre-populated with data, like what can we do to make it easier and make it simpler? It got complicated over the years to come to Burning Man. So now we got to try to figure out how to undo some of that stuff. So that’s what we’re doing.

So our job is to be agile, and do our best to support us, all of us, coming together to be awesome and creative. We all want to go to Burning Man and go home with stories, Black Rock City, and go home with stories that kind of warm our hearts in the middle of winter, and provide us with sustenance and energy to inspire us to do all these other kinds of creative things that we all do in the world. Because a lot of us do really awesome stuff in the world, and that awesome stuff is the stuff that makes the world a good place.

So we are trying our hardest. Thank you all for the effort that you bring. Black Rock City is what it is because of the love and the effort and the time and the joy that you bring and you share.

I was a theme camp organizer with you guys many years ago, and I know how hard it is. So we love what you guys do. Thank you for being fantastic. And um, I hope you enjoy the day and some of the fantastic content. And, Level, that’s it. Back to you. Be awesome.

LEVEL: Thank you Charlie, and thank you Marian.

There’s another secret that was revealed in chat by Magpie, which is: Marian and Charlie work the Gates. They actually volunteer themselves. If you’re the lucky person to have them scan your own ticket, hopefully that’s you.

CHARLIE: Can I tell you something, Level? That was some of the most fun, so, you know, Desk Monkey here, self-professed Desk Monkey. I got to, like, go out and be in the lanes at four in the morning and wake people up and tell them, “Hey, you’re going to Burning Man,” and then beep the ticket. And you know what? It was the best. So much fun. They were so happy to be woken up, or being a little bit dazed and tired, but it was a real joyful moment. And thank you to the Gate, guys. It was hard last year, but I really appreciate it being there. It was great. So I encourage all of you to go do it. They are a weirdly friendly bunch, despite the black.

LEVEL: Thanks, Charlie.

MARIAN: Yes. Very rewarding place to work.

LEVEL: Awesome. All right. We’ve got a lot of jam-packed stuff to share with you all,so I hope you’re excited.

Thank you for being here. You know, I know that the world is a really chaotic place right now. And to decide that you want to do Burning Man still, despite the complexities of it all, to decide that that’s where you want to invest your time, your energy, your savings, that’s all super, super recognized. And I think it pays off, right? There’s so much joy that comes out of it. And it’s really an antidote to kind of all the things that are going on in the world right now, so thank you for being here. Thank you for showing up in the dust and building the city together.

Next up I’m going to introduce Vesper Bell, who is one of our amazing volunteers that helped organize today. And as part of our camp network team, she’s going to help, introduce our next speakers and our next spotlight.

VESPER: Thanks Level.

Consent is one of our unofficial principles, but a primary community standard. It’s important. It comes in many forms. And I’d like to bring up to the spotlight T-Fire from B.E.D., the Bureau of Erotic Discourse, to share more with us about all the ways we can show respect for each other and make our community stronger.

T-FIRE: Hi, everybody. Let me begin with a little story. I was having a conversation a few years back with my parents and my little kids. And my parents were asking me all about Burning Man. And so, you know, we’re going over all these things, and my said, “So it sounds like everybody can just do anything they want.” And my eight year old jumped in and said, like, really quickly without a pause, and said, “With consent!” And this got to a whole thing, right? Like my parents in their late 70s weren’t really familiar with consent the way that we are.

And it really got me thinking. In my own camp, we have a thing about it’s, you know, it’s principle number 11. But my kids actually got me thinking about it more as the way that some Burn camps and Regionals think about as principle zero. And so I really want to kind of highlight that today, thinking about the way that consent informs so many aspects of our culture at the Burn, and allows us to have, you know, the best experience we can have with each other in building community.

So in that spirit, consent touches almost every interaction we’re going to have at the Burn. It’s something that we should just have in the front of our minds. Right. It’s critical to everything. So what I want to do today is kind of build from the ground up with this idea of like, what even is this, and how does it affect things?

So here’s a really easy drop in point. We have a nice little acronym called F.R.I.E.S. So F.R.I.E.S. is the framework for how consent ideally will work.

So the F is for ‘freely given’. There should be no coercion, right? If you want to sign up for whatever it is, if it’s the hug with the friend you just met, or if it’s,”Let’s run off to the Orgy Dome”, It should be a ‘hell yes’. Freely given. There should be no like. Oh, well, I seem weird if I don’t want to give a hug. Will I seem weird if I say no? Say no if you want to say no.

The R is for ‘reversible’. You can take that back absolutely any time you want. Okay. You’re not locked in. If it’s a ‘yes’ right now, it doesn’t mean that it’s a ‘yes’ later.

I is for Informed. You have to know what you’re signing up for. ‘If it’s a like, hey, just come out with this. It’s going to be fun.’ It’s really hard to say yes enthusiastically when you don’t know what it is, right? Ask the questions. Make sure you know what you’re signing up for.

E. This is the “hell yes,” piece. E is Enthusiastic, right? If there’s something kind of gnawing at you that’s like, even if it… I’m going to bring up hugs a lot, I think it’s a fairly good model. Like, “Everybody else is hugging that person. But I’m getting weird vibes,” like, I’m not going to give them an enthusiastic hug. Fist bumps are good, right? There’s alternatives.

The last one is Specific. Okay, so F.R.I.E.S., S, Specific. What I’m saying yes to right now is different than the thing you might be asking me later. What I said yes to yesterday might be different than the thing I’m being asked about right now. Specific. Again, if it’s not a hell yes, it’s a no. Stick with that. Right?

So if you’re the one that’s trying to engage, if you’re getting any feedback that’s like, kind of ambiguous, kind of vague, kind of silent… Silence isn’t a yes. A shrug isn’t a yes. We want it to be enthusiastic and unambiguous.

And then also think about all of the times that you have been asked specifically, like,”Hey, is it okay if I hold your hand? “How sweet is that? How sexy is that? Right? How inviting is that? So it’s also just a really attractive thing.

Okay, we know this, but we’re going to cover it. There are folks who can’t consent, never, ever, ever.
· Minors. Of course, we’ve got a lot of kids at the Burn. They can’t consent.
· Folks who are intoxicated. Don’t try to get any kind of yes out of an intoxicated person. It comes from both sides, right? They can’t say yes to you if you know they’re intoxicated. Don’t ask. Don’t push it. Right?
· Folks who are sleeping, same deal, right? They’re not saying yes.

Okay. Moving on. We have all kinds of opportunities for every day building up the practice of consent at the Burn. So some of these everyday things, they fit in even with our principles.

So, one is Gifting. We love gifting. Gifting is wonderful. But more and more over the years, I’m encountering people who, you know, say like, “Hey, I really love the idea of that, but it’s also becoming a little MOOPy. I have too much stuff already. Thank you. You know, we’re good.” Let people say no to the gift. Let yourself say no to the gift. Just because it’s a given, does it mean it has to be accepted? This is the same model that’s true across the board for consent, Just because a hug is offered, you don’t have to take it.

If somebody doesn’t want you entering a space, that’s a no. That’s consent. That makes sense. We’ve got a ton of amazing art on playa. Lots of it is interactive. Some of it’s not. Check in before you start messing with this stuff, right? Some performances look really interactive. Not all of them are.

Some of this also plays into the principle of Communal Effort. We have a responsibility toward each other. We are building the city together. And if we’re thinking about it as principle zero, let’s build this community from the ground up, from point zero, communally as a space of consent. I want to show up at the Burn, and I want you to show up at the Burn knowing that I’m safe and so I can wear what I want, dance how I want, have a wild night out how I want. Because I trust my community. Right? And I trust them to keep me safe, too.

Consent extends to all aspects of bodily autonomy. This is so important. We often think about consent as, like, people putting their hands on you, right? But it’s also what goes into your body, so please be mindful of all substances. Even things like dietary restrictions. Medical decisions. Those kinds of interactions get surprisingly testy, because there’s always those folks who think they know better, right? That’s part of their autonomy.

You love someone’s outfit. Someone has amazing hair. You want to touch it. Don’t do that in the default world. Don’t do it at the Burn, right? Get consent. If it involves somebody’s body, just ask. And again, asking is sweet, and it’s sexy, and it’s engaged, and you’ll make friends doing it.

Yep. I see a really good topic coming up: Photography. So for those who read the fine print, your ticket says it is part of your contract with the Burn. You are agreeing not to photograph and video people without their consent. Please go make a friend. You see something, someone that you want to photograph, walk up to them and see if you can do that. Also do not post it on social media without consent. It’s a really important thing to be able to practice Immediacy at the Burn without stressing out about ‘is this gonna have a life of its own in a way that I never intended.’

Shout out to Media Mecca, who, if you have any additional questions about how to do media properly, how to photograph at the Burn, those folks are amazing. They’re on Esplanade along with a lot of the other resources, Rangers, Medical, all kinds of services ringing the Esplanade.

But I’d be remiss if I didn’t bring up the Temple. The Temple. If anything, it is our probably most sacredly charged space of consent. A lot of times they’re having, you know, one of the deepest moments of their life in there. And it’s not for a performance, right? It’s not a spectacle. So please refrain from taking pictures in there. Really be thoughtful about that.

Thank you so much, everybody. And on to the next.

LEVEL: Thank you, T-Fire, and thank you, Vesper.

These sessions are recorded, so we’re going to try to package them. Again, if you missed part of it, we’ll post them on YouTube so that people can see. If you want to continue the conversation, we have a Campfire Talk on March 31st to continue the conversation. So please, sign up for that. It’s another great way to come out and kind of flesh out these ideas more.

We’re going to start with HUBS. We’re going to move on to weather resilience, highlighting some wonderful camps we got to talk to last year on playa. Every year we also share wonderful statistics and trends that are interesting to you all in case that helps you think about planning for the year and what you might change for your camp. If you’ve never heard of the Innovate Community, that is, a group of Burners who really try to come up with new technology and tools to help your burns. There’s some apps out there that many of you are familiar with that are participating in that. We also have updates from Gate, DMV, Green Camp Community, and PEERS, so…

First up is my trusty right and left hand, in Placement, the placement Operations Manager, Papa Bear.

PAPA BEAR: Hello. I am Papa Bear. I’m the Placement Operations Manager, and I’m here to talk to you about HUBS, which are in their fifth year with the HUBS model. We want to share some successes, learning, and some common challenges we gathered over that time.

What is a HUB? Primarily, it’s for resource sharing and to reduce our impact both on playa and getting to playa. And of course, also to continue to foster that community you are building with your friend camps.

HUBS are popular. We’ve seen a steady growth, and there are now more HUBS in a single year than we ever had villages in a single year.

Accessibility of the program, and keeping internal camp resources like tickets instead of access passes with the individual camp has led to that growth. But with that, we’ve also seen square footage increases in the size of the individual camps within the HUBS themselves: they’ve been getting bigger, and with that growth has come some difficulty.

There’s still lots of successes. We’ve seen the strong sense of community, efficient resource sharing to reduce costs and environmental impact, and people supporting each other during external stressors like weather events.

So some of the best practices that we’ve gathered from you all, from your feedback are really what you would do probably in your internal camp, lots of communication, but you should really be doing that as a HUB as a whole, too.

Common challenges that we have seen, I’m going to pull out the ‘variety is the spice of life.’ If your HUB is offering the same kind of stuff, there’s not much variety, and we at Placement love to see blocks have different kinds of interactivity happening. So while you page, you’re looking for camps to be adjacent to that complement each other, we also want it to be different interactivity and create different draws and interests within each block. Some of those challenges – I just want to point out the excessive growth of HUBS. People have reported that themselves. They’re getting too big, overextended, can cause some issues.

And over back over to you Level.

LEVEL: All right. Thank you, Papa Bear. A lot of that information we gathered helps us sort of get, what’s the macro big picture. And, we are actually really looking at what we can learn and share back to the community. So this year we’ll learn more. So let’s see.

Leave it to Burning Man and Burners to make it through the apocalypse and apocalyptic goal conditions. of course, we’re all now back in our homes, and, we made it through, and we’re going to make it through the next one as well.

Now I’m going to call up Razzmatazz, who is one of our data analyst on the Placement Team. To share a little bit about things we have found overall in Black Rock City in 2025.

RAZZMATAZZ: Thank you. Level. Hey, everybody. My name is Razzmatazz. I’m from Placement Data Support, and I’m super honored to be able to support Burning Man by geeking out over the data that you all provide. In the PCU, in the post playa report, in the neighborhood feedback form, and I’m excited to walk you all through, 2025, the dust in data.

First off, just looking at, like the number of placed camps overall, that number has gone down slightly over the past few years. But still, you know, we’re at, very large and healthy number of total placed camps. How many campers per camp is slightly decreasing. Broadly, most of the camps are actually on the smaller side, call it like 30 ish campers. But there are a couple of camps that are, like, very, very large. We have like, some camps that are hundreds, you know, I’m part of a small theme camp that’s around 30. We are in very good company.

Next, looking at when the city is alive, when camps are offering and activities throughout the week and throughout each day. During the week, and during the afternoon is when, there’s definitely a sense of more things happening in small theme camps. So, you know, keep this in mind, as you think about when you want to schedule your camp’s events.

Looking at some trends, comparing 2024 to 2025, we see a couple of activities growing. Those include, like chill lounges and domes, camps that offer DJs and dance, and camps that offer drama and performance. So these things are up. We actually see a decrease in the number of camps offering bars. It’s still around 50%. Lots of camps have bars. But definitely that number has decreased relative to 2024. And, to my sadness, we also see food decreasing quite a significant amount. I love food camps. I hope that people keep this in mind for, for next year.

Looking at build and strike times. Two things that really jump out at me here:
impact of the weather. Build took a lot longer to complete for many of us.
And strike in 2023 took a lot longer for everything to finally be completed.

So this definitely matches the expectations. And I’m very excited to hear more about weather resiliency, to maybe make this less impactful in the future.

We also fed in the highlights and challenges into AI, to try to have AI kind of pontificate on some themes.

So some of the highlight themes:
Apocalyptic Hospitality
Infrastructure as Performance Art
The Accidental Festival

For challenge themes:
Accidental Civil Engineering Olympics
Neighborhood Diplomacy Simulator
Weather Induced Existential Crisis

And finally, looking at some feedback from the Neighborhood Feedback Form for next year, things that people were requesting more of or thought were too prevalent.

More towards food, bathing and steam baths, spas, massage and bodywork, arts and crafts, and general pranks and jackassery. So feel free to bring your inner jackass.

And things that were maybe too prevalent: bars, DJs and dance camps, and then chill lounges and domes.

And that’s everything I have to share.

Back to you, Level.

LEVEL: Thank you. Razzmatazz. I always geek out on data as well. I think a lot of us on this call probably do, because it’s just helpful to know. What do things look like on the whole? And where do you kind of fit in that big picture?

We hope that’s informative as you think about this coming year. You know, those are, you know, also things that many campers and camps have tried and know best practices around. So just know if you’re trying to venture into that stuff, there are supports out there to help you.

Alright. Speaking of supports out to help you, I want to bring up Andrew Lowe from Burning Man’s technology department, to share with you all, information about the Innovate community.

ANDREW: Hello, everyone. I am Andrew from the tech department, and I’m here to talk about the Innovate developer community. Innovate is a program that makes Black Rock City related data and APIs publicly available, and supports a growing number of community developers who build on this platform. Our main portal is at innovate.burningman.org where you can see all the data we have available in a showcase of applications. Some of the data that we provide includes geo coded visual maps of Black Rock City APIs with events, art installations and theme camps, and the Art Discovery Guide, which is a self-guided audio tour produced yearly by the Art Department.

And here are just some of the community’s creations you might recognize.
iBurn: Fully featured event guide and navigation app.
The Queer Burners Guide is a paper guide for queer Burners that uses our API as a data source.
Just is another event guide that is now being used at over 40 regional events, as well as Black Rock City,
Burn Planner uses randomness to expose you and your friends to events and art you might not otherwise have checked out. The principle apply a schedule takes out over 4000 events and puts them into a well-engineered, easy to filter spreadsheet.
Playa Time is a fully featured planning app to track camp events, DJ lineups, schedules, and artists. It was originally developed by Axolotl for their Mutant Vehicle, which books over 50 artists each year, and last year.
Burning Mesh, the community driven mesh network, used our data to geolocate nodes on playa this year.
There were also a couple unique post playa creations, an interactive visual timeline showing where events clustered throughout the week. an interactive map of last year’s camps that pulls data from multiple sources, including the Burning Man API, camp websites and the Internet Archive to get photos, events and historical information about each camp. Both of these apps are open source, and you can find them at innovate.burningman.org.

So if you are inspired, come to innovate.burningman.org. Join the Burning Man innovators discussion lists, apply for an API key and feel free to reach out to innovate@burningman.org with any questions. Thank you for listening and I’m excited to see what you build.

Back to you, Level.

LEVEL: Thank you. Andrew. What’s beautiful while Burning Man is, you know, I think we just have so many creators that are looking for ways to fill gaps in what we know and how to do things and how to do things better. And so there’s a constant flow of that.

In my breakout, I got to meet someone named Alex, who’s from Hakuna Matata Camp. And they have developed something outside of the whole API that’s just helping Burners and camp organizers organize your camps.

Thank you, Andrew, and thank you to all the developers that make our lives a little bit easier out there.

Alright, now we’re going to nerd out on the actual operations. And when we’re out there in the dust, I’m going to start with bringing up The Magpie and Fowler from our Gate, Perimeter and Exodus teams, to tell you a little bit more about improvements that are happening in the Gate.

You know, we all understand that people want to get in as fast as possible. And, the Gate team is, you know, constantly trying to make that go quicker for you all. So Magpie and Fowler, the floor is yours.

MAGPIE: Greetings and salutations, all. I’m Magpie. I’m part of Event Operations. I’m also the department manager for Gate, Perimeter and Exodus. I’ve got a long, storied history and background that includes theme camps. I’m entering my 28th year in the desert. Most of that with Gate. And in that capacity, I’ve helped over 1.5 million people enter and leave Black Rock City. So it’s safe to say I might know a thing or two about entering and leaving that place.

Along with my colleague Fowler, we’re going to share some hints and tips and suggestions on how to make that process work best for you.

So we have a mission and we have some obligations. First of all, we have to ensure compliance with the Bureau of Land Management. They issue the permit on the land in which we occupy. We have to establish that everyone has appropriate credentials to ensure that you have an efficient participant experience, and that staff and service vehicles are able to access and leave the space safely and easily. We process vehicles into and out of Black Rock City, maintain an accurate population count as that happens, and we make the transitions from build week into event and finally into Exodus.

We start out, we’re working 24 hours a day and we’re there for eight weeks. We build the roads. We put up all the infrastructure that allows us to process vehicles.

There’s nearly 700 GPE staff, most of whom are volunteers.

Something to point out and which frequently gets overlooked is that in the egress and ingress into the city, we have ten lanes on Gate Road. As you enter, you can use all ten lanes. If you see that they’re obviously open, we’d encourage you to do so. Use them all.

If you need to get a Will Call Ticket we’ve got a parking spot for that. You’ll be reintegrated into the Gate lanes area, from where you’ll be scanned and processed. If there is a problem, you’ll wind up in D Lot. I want to emphasize that’s not a punishment. It is a place where we solve problems.

I’m going to turn you over to my collaborator, colleague and friend of 15 years. This is Fowler. She’s the brains behind the operation. I’m merely a figurehead.

FOWLER: Hi, everybody. I am Fowler, and I am the deputy department manager for Gate, working alongside The Magpie. And I am going to start by explaining what difference 30 seconds can make. So we did the map and Gate can see up to 9500 cars entering the city on opening night and in 2025, which was anything but a normal year, GPS processed up to 520 cars in an hour, but let’s be very conservative and just say we process about 300 vehicles per hour.

As an example, if each of those vehicles takes an extra 30 seconds to find their tickets, vehicle pass, or other paperwork, that’s 150 extra minutes or 2.5 hours of added delay to the people behind them. So we believe that one of the most important solutions is to help folks be prepared when they arrive, so they have everything they need for a speedy entry. This is part of the communal effort of Burning Man and it’s on all of us to make this go smoothly and quickly. So GPE has done a lot of work this season to refine and update our processes to get everyone into Black Rock City faster. And today I’m going to talk about the ways in which you can do your part, too.

Greeters versus Gate. This is not a dodgeball match, but that would be fun. It is important to understand the difference. So the Gate staff can get you in quickly. It’s a very common mistake to confuse the two. Gate is the place where we scan your tickets and vehicle passes. And Greeters is the place after that where you go to get hugs, do dust angels and receive guides and maps to the city. We definitely don’t want to be rude, but Gate just doesn’t have time for hugs.

Here are some things you can do when you arrive in Black Rock City to get in faster. And this helps everyone get in faster. Basically, you have all your items in hand when you approach the Gate lanes.

So let’s talk about leaving Black Rock City. Most of the delays on Gate Road during Exodus are because of stalled vehicles or items that fall off of vehicles. So here are some tips for leaving Black Rock City.
The most important thing, as we just learned, is making sure nothing falls off of your vehicle in the lanes, especially if the road is bumpy.
It is also important to make sure you are prepared with food, water, gas or EV charging in case of delay. And all open lanes are available to you.
Tune in to GARS for updated information.
Use the F Lots if you need them. They have their last stop for portos and troubleshooting before you leave playa in F Lot. We have towing services, Wi-Fi most of the time, and a place to rest or locate friends if needed.

The Perimeter and Exodus is 75% volunteers, so it’s very likely that everyone you encounter at Gate is a volunteer. And if you’d like to help even more, we have an opportunity for you to be part of our weather response team, or what we call the RESQ-CREW. Of course, we’d love to have you join GPE as a full member, but we also know that you probably have lots of the in-camp responsibilities that make that difficult.

So RESQ-CREWS is a chance to help us when we need it the most after a rain event, for instance, and the time commitment is much lower than a regular shift. I will share a link to the interest form. This was originally created for staff, but we know you all are fairly seasoned Burners, so we invite you to participate too.

Thank you very much for your time today. We will also be at the Participation Fair on April 4th so you can find us there too. Thank you everyone.

LEVEL: Thank you, Fowler. Thank you, Magpie. Thank you, Gate.

Placement, we’re kind of the last stop that people will get into Black Rock City. They’re like, and I’m like, How was it for you? And they’re like, oh my God. I waited like five hours at Gate. I told them, “You know how to make that faster? Go volunteer for Gate. You can make the next person get in faster. And we all help each other out.” So, thank you to Gate, and I hope that was helpful to help people realize that every second counts.

I’m going to shift gears now to talk a little bit more about the culture. You know, Burning Man is a lot of things. It’s a camping trip. We got to make sure things are safe, got to get people in and out of that city quickly. And we’re also thinking about, you know, what are the tweaks and things and guidelines and cultural kind of, beacons that we want to put out there for people to think about. You know, we obviously have the Ten Principles, and people show up and create in all sorts of ways, with that, and there’s more to be done. So, I want to bring up Rex on the Radio, who can share a little bit about the DMV and kind of the future of the DMV’s community, which is mutant vehicles. So, Rex, take it away.

REX: Thanks. Level.

Hi, everybody. I am Rex on the radio. I’m the Community Services Specialist, which means I support all the community services, volunteer teams, and today I’m here on behalf of the DMV. So I’m here to invite you all into a conversation about mutant vehicles in Black Rock City. We’re calling this conversation the Wheel Deal. We hear feedback every year about mutant vehicles.

Often that feedback expresses concerns. But, you know, concerns aren’t necessarily problems to be solved unless we discover they are.

The DMV really does not love making rules, and we also don’t want to ignore feedback. So it’s time for us to find out how Black Rock City as a whole feels about mutant vehicles and their place in the city. Think of this as a heart to heart conversation. We were going to hit topics that are kind of sensitive. We need to talk about
The loudness wars
What really counts as a mutant vehicle?
We need to figure out how to make sure that little guys aren’t chased out by big guys.
We need to talk about the difference between an art car and a mutant vehicle.

And ultimately, what we need to do is balance Radical Self-expression, which the DMV has always had its mission to support, with being a good neighbor, looking out for each other’s safety, paying attention to the soundscape of Black Rock City and the flow of travel. And, perennially, we need to address concern about whether mutant vehicles are a gift on the playa or, a velvet rope private party traveling around the city that is exclusive to those who can afford it.

We’re launching a community survey. It’s a few questions asking about how people feel about mutant vehicles and also an open space to share general feedback. It also gives you an opportunity to sign up for the Pathfinders program, which is our little program for people to help out on a deeper level.

We’ll be holding virtual town halls from April through June, and you can sign up for those in the survey as well. In those we’re going to discuss some of the topics that come up through the surveys, identify which are really crucial and, potentially problems to be solved, and then dive deep into them. Then during the event, we’re going to do an on playa vibe check. That’s the first opportunity for the Pathfinders to really get involved. So if you want to participate this is how we’re doing it, we’re going to go out and see how mutant vehicles are behaving on Playa. Have conversations with people about how they feel about them live and on the spot. And really get a reality check. After the event, we’ll have the survey open some more to get some more sentiment, Then we’ll compile it all, summarize it, and share it out to the public. After that, we’ll work on potentially drafting new policies if we feel policies are called for.

We’re doing this all together with the community because we don’t want to make rules that people don’t want.

Please share it out to your folks. We want all of the opinions. In that survey, as a reminder, you can sign up for the town halls. They’re going to run April to June. We’ll announce the dates as soon as we’ve got them settled. And out on playa, come find us at the DMV. We’re always interested in your feedback in person.

And I’ll see you in the dust.

LEVEL: Thank you. Rex, this is really exciting. I think, for the theme camp community you may all have remember Cultural Direction Setting that happened from 2017, 18, 19, 20. There’s been a lot of things that have changed through that process with Placement. You know, there’s a lot of calls for greater transparency. How do we really squash out the Plug & Plays? How do we support camps and make sure that people really understand the placement process, what Placers are looking for, how we make our decisions? So this DMV effort is really similarly in line with that. I’m just grateful that the DMV is opening up their doors to say, yeah, let’s try to make this work for everyone.

I want to bring up Christopher Breedlove and Wild West to share a little bit about their programs and how your camps can go green with their support.

BREEDLOVE: Great. Thanks so much. Level. So much good information today. And, hey, everybody, I’m Christopher Breedlove. I am the Director of Civic Activation for Burning Man. But, on playa, I’m also a theme camp lead for BUrners Without Borders. I’ve been doing that for about 16 or so years now, but one of the things I’m really excited to work on is called the Green Theme Camp Community. The Green theme camp community is a big collection of people who build theme camps. And we have a couple of programs under our umbrella. We have BLAST, which is a rating system. How green is your camp? We have the Green Corridor, which is a neighborhood of camps. We have the Green Resource Guide, which is a whole bunch of toolkits you’ve all sent to us about how to make more sustainable camps. And then we have the Black Rock Compost program, which is where you can drop off your compost in Black Rock City.

So this has all been a journey we’ve been figuring out. That starts with appointing a sustainability lead for your camp, just like an LNT lead. Also, you tell us. We’re still growing and we’d love to get you involved. And Mr. Wild West, I would love to have you come up and tell us what’s been happening with BLAST.

WILD WES: Thanks Breedlove. Howdy, y’all. I’m Wild Wes, also a TCO at Burners Without Borders. I’m a Co-Lead at BLAST, and I’ve been volunteering with the Green theme camp community since 2022. BLAST is a volunteer driven, peer reviewed sustainability rating system. Each year before the Burn, participating camps submit an assessment form covering six major resource areas: food, power, shelter, transport, waste and water. They later receive a BLAST radius graphic with a score breakdown. This helps camps measure and reflect on how they use energy, manage waste, conserve water, source food, build shelter and transport people and materials.

Now, the goal isn’t to be perfect, it’s to track progress, share what’s working and build a culture of transparency and improvement. BLAST collects data and stories that show how collective effort can lead to measurable change.

Every year, we’re blown away by the enthusiasm and technicality of camp projects whether it’s solar, microgrids, zero kitchens, or something else that’s super cool. In our 2025, our fourth year, 105 theme camps participated, which was a 25% increase. Thank you to all 105 camps that participated in BLAST last year. And a big shout out to the camps with the highest BLAST radius scores, many of you are here on this call.

So why does this all matter? Theme camps are foundational Black Rock City and they make up a large part of our city’s carbon footprint. Every generator we retire, every carpool we share, every compostable we recover adds up beyond metrics. We can encourage a culture shift of leaving a positive trace where sustainability becomes a creative challenge rather than some requirement. It’s about weaving environmental stewardship into the same that feels art, music, and community at Burning Man. Great. Thanks so much.

BREEDLOVE: So I’m going to BLAST through this other part. Pun intended. Green Corridor. Green Corridor is a neighborhood of interstitial sustainability resources through Black Rock City. What happened last year? 35 camps joined. We had two locations and we hosted three compost collection areas within it. Thank you so much to Placement for working along with us.

Black Rock Compost. It’s a program where you can drop off your compost in Black Rock City. Shout out to Ideate, Ocean Beach, and Get Your Shit Done for being the drop off camps for this. There were three this past year, 200 camps, 1,800 pounds. And this is huge in sustainability because not only do you not have to drag this stuff home, but it lowers your carbon impact. And we bring this soil back to Fly Ranch, where we’re growing food for Burning Man Project over there.

Now Wes, where are the goals for next year?

WILD WES: You know, I think we made it to our teenage years, and this year we want to make a bigger impact with these goals.

So everyone, we want to launch a BLAST self-assessment site with instant scoring to help reduce form overload and eliminate long wait times for results. We want to spread knowledge and learnings from previous years more effectively and help camps connect better on sharing resources.

And since we now emphasize documentation rather than verifying application data through our camp visits, we hope to promote camp visits to all of the IRC to support the growing interest in sustainable practices on Playa.

This is a lot for a small team to tackle, so if you’re passionate about sustainability of Burning Man and have ideas and want to volunteer, please reach out.

BREEDLOVE: Thanks. Great.

And just to land this, come to our website GreenThemeCampCommunity.org. It’s got all of the information. and if you want to do it in person, we have a camp out June 18th through 21st. I’ll If you’re a theme camp that wants to be at the ground level of this next level of sustainable theme camps, we’d love to have you.

Level, back to you. Thank you so much.

LEVEL: Thank you Breedlove. Thank you Wes. It’s always great to hear how we are helping to regenerate this Earth that we’re on and our impact on it.

I really want to also just double plug the Green Theme Camp community website. It is actually a wonderful resource. There’s tools there, instructions, videos, links to other places that’ll get you more. So if you’re just looking for a starting point, start there and you will go places.

PEERS, the Placement, Engagement and Exploration Research Squad. Some of you may have volunteered for that group. It is a lovely experience. And I’ll bring on Neon Glimmer to tell you more about it.

NEON: Hi, everyone. Like Level said, my name is Neon Glimmer, and I am a second year PEERS coordinator.

PEERS, stands for Placement, Engagement and Exploration Research Squad. So we are a group of 2 to 300 volunteers that during event week, we go out in pairs and we aim to visit all of the same camps. And during these visits, we have conversations with the camp leadership about what is working well. We’re there to listen to their feedback. We’re there to celebrate their win.

So like what awesome interactivity does your neighborhood have?
How do you want placement to recognize your successes?
What is your camp doing amazing that you could teach other camps about?

Your Placers aren’t necessarily able to get out into your camp during event week to see what’s going on. So that’s why, we have our, what we call — affectionately call — our Squaddies that get sent out to do these discussions.

So in 2025, we had 84% of camps visited by Squaddies. Our goal, like pie in the sky goal, would be to have 100% of the theme camps visited. I’m really hopeful that 2026 is going to be that year. And here’s how you can help us with that. So if every camp had one volunteer, do one shift, we would not only have 100% of the camp covered, we would have it covered in like two days. So, please pitch it to your camps, to come out and volunteer with us.

You can sign up ahead of time. You can sign up on playa. You can come with a buddy, or you can come solo and we will pair you up with someone. Especially if it’s your first time, we’ll pair you up with a veteran who knows the ropes and you will have a great time.

This is a great way to get out of your camp and, like, go do Burning Man for a little bit. I know that it can be difficult. And so, being able to say, oh, I have a scheduled Squaddie shift is a great way to get out there and help us out. A lot of volunteers say that they go to camps and areas of the city that they never would have come across, and they discover some real gems out there. So, please pitch that to your counselor or sign up yourself to have an excuse to escape camp for a little bit.

You can volunteer by logging into your Burner Profile, filling out the volunteer questionnaire. If you have questions, reach out to us at peers@burningman.org.

I’ll pass it back on to Level.

LEVEL: Thank you, Neon Glimmer.

I was following the chat while you were talking, and it seems like a bunch of people on this call have volunteered for that and loved it.

What I love about this, too is, you know, I think that, like you said, Neon Glimmer, people that sign up for it come back just, like, beaming with smiles or like, “I met the coolest people. I walked into camps I would never walk into otherwise. This is so good.”

Just a quick fact. We have about 23 placers on the team to place over 1500 camps. That’s not a lot of people with a lot of camps, but we have over 250 Squaddies that come out. And so that really helps to get the tentacles out there, so help us be a tentacle.

You know, there’s a lot of stories to be told in Black Rock City and outside Black Rock City. Folks are doing things sometimes not just for the ephemeral, but for a longer lasting effect. I think that’s important for us to see that.

VAV: Burning Man LIVE is a labor of love, part of the business and pleasure of the Philosophical Center, one of the program areas of Burning Man Project, a public benefit 501(c)3.

If you would like to keep exploring our space, keep our solar station stable, we accept Earth currency and space bucks at DONATE.BURNINGMAN.ORG. Have you seen our new website? It’s fun and functional. DONATE.BURNINGMAN.ORG.

Thank you to everyone between the magma and the cosmos, especially Andie “Actiongirl” Grace, DJ Toil, kbot, Mockingbird, and Vav Michael Vav. That’s me!

Thanks to the first time volunteer wondering what’s up with the eccentric leaders of their volunteer crew.

Thanks to the longtime Burner, there at the beginning, then again later, then maybe took some time off, and was pleasantly surprised that it’s all still happening, so they returned, and more after that, and are here now, and they’re bringing something new next year?

And, thanks, Larry.