Welcome to the Participate Video Channel. Watch, Enjoy and Know: this channel is a work in progress. To see other video channels that have been created, visit our YouTube channel.
Videos about the vast variety of ways to volunteer at Burning Man
Fill out a volunteer questionnaire and check your desired team(s) on the form.
If you don’t hear back from the team in a couple weeks, send them an email (you can find the team’s contact info in the Volunteer Teams section).
The following teams recruit new volunteers every year. However, please note, many of these teams are done with recruitment as early as May:
These teams do not recruit first year burners:
Access to the playa during setup and cleanup time is strictly limited to the setup and cleanup crew. Every team, theme camp or art project has its own setup and cleanup team. To find out more, contact the team, theme camp, or art project directly.
Fill out a volunteer questionnaire.
Browse the projects (art installations, theme camps, mutant vehicles, or whatever) seeking help on Spark and/or create a listing advertising your skills.
You can also do the same on the ePlaya.
To volunteer in your own region, fill out a volunteer questionnaire and contact your local regional group.
During the event, you can always stop by the V-Spot in the Portals of Center Camp and the 3:00 and 9:00 Civic plazas to find out about volunteer opportunities whenever you’re in the mood! No need to sign up before the event, but, if you do volunteer, remember to fill out a volunteer questionnaire after the event.
Volunteering at Burning Man doesn’t stop with the volunteering for the Man. Volunteering can take on many forms. From helping your neighbor to tie down his testy shade structure, to lending a hand (and a hammer) to that artist gal down the street putting the finishing touches on her masterpiece, it’s all volunteering at Burning Man!
We want to take this time to bring to your attention to the many wonderful people working hard to build theme camps, art cars, and art installations for the Burning Man event. These folks need volunteers (volunteers like you!), and the best way to learn about the needs of different Theme Camps is to go to the Theme Camp ePlaya.
Questions? Email volunteers@burningman.org. A volunteer would love to help direct you.
Photo credit: Gary Draluck
The Temple rises apart from Black Rock City, an oasis of calm out in the deep playa that stands resolute, able to bear what participants bring and to be what we need at the moment we call on it.
Behind the Temple stands a group that has quietly watched over those structures each year since 2002. The main duty of the Temple Guardians is to protect the Temple and those who visit it. We abide with love for the Temple and everything that it represents.
Temple Guardian shifts run 4 hours each, 24 hours a day.
During your shift, there are a number of duties you may be asked to perform. Guardians keep watch for injuries and unsafe conditions, including fire, climbing, vehicle traffic, and problems with the structure. We do not make rules, nor are we enforcers; we watch quietly and act skillfully when necessary to protect the safety and sacred space of the Temple.
Most of all we provide the Temple with grounding and love. From our humble beginnings, we have always followed a philosophy that calls for using small pushes from a great distance. Sometimes your look, your soft words, or even just your presence is all that is required to hold the sacred space of the Temple. When we do interact with participants, we do so with love and respect. We carry in our hearts the sacred space of the Temple with us into every interaction, using our connection with the grounded, serene space to guide and shape our interactions with participants.
On Sunday, we help maintain the safety perimeter with the Black Rock Rangers and Temple crew for the Temple burn.
If the Temple has a special place in your heart, join us and help hold the space so that others might experience the wonder that brings us back.
To join our team, please fill out the Burning Man Volunteer Questionnaire and mark down “Temple Guardians” as your department of interest.
For more information about the Temple Guardians team, contact us at templeguardians@burningman.org.
Do you really want to give something back to this community?
VOLUNTEER!!!
Recycle Camp is a hard working group of folks who are as committed to reducing waste as they are to having a good time. Founded in 1998, Recycle Camp is the place to take your aluminum cans on the Playa. Each year, the proceeds are donated to the Gerlach school! With volunteer opportunities pre-event to post-event, you can get your Recycle Camp-fu on all year long!
Pre-Event: Get involved by connecting with the key players at Recycle Camp. Things actually begin in December with budgets and camp plans. Any new ideas for the coming year need to be discussed early. We encourage everyone who is curious about Recycle Camp to contact us and find out what’s going on.
During the Event: Recycle Camp is one of the best and most rewarding places to volunteer in Black Rock City. This year we are pushing for more drop-in volunteers. Our core team needs you to help us to keep up with the growing population of Black Rock City. We need a ton of help to deal with the more than six tons of aluminum we collect and crush. We typically run two daily 4-hour shifts, Monday through Sunday, 9am to 1pm and 1pm to 5pm. Shift leads will be on hand to coordinate drop-in volunteers. If you’re thinking about volunteering at Recycle Camp please be prepared to get your hands a little dirty, yes, it’s juicy! Join us and put in some fun time making Black Rock City sustainable.
Post-Event: After the Temple burns, it’s time to break down camp and leave no trace. This is a rewarding process that sets an example to the rest of the community. It takes several days to reduce Recycle Camp to nothing, and pack it up so that we can reuse it next year. Care to lend a hand? We’d love to have you! Stop by!
If you’re up to the challenge, or if you have any questions about any of this, email recyclecamp@burningman.org or fill out a Volunteer Questionnaire and sign up today.
Do you like helping people? Do you like being in the center of the action? Do you like knowing what’s really happening in the City? Come join us under our cool shade structure at 6:00 and Center Camp.
We’ve combined many of the information services into one, easy-to-find, location in Center Camp.
You’ll find:
No matter what your level of experience is with Burning Man, we have a job for you. Check out details below on each of our playa information areas or email playainfo@burningman.org if you would like more information.
The Directory is a database listing theme camps and individual camps and their placement on the playa. No prior Burning Man experience is necessary to volunteer for the Directory.
Volunteering with the Directory includes:
Responsibilities can be varied. Shifts are 4 hours, although shift times can be varied. The Directory is staffed from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. throughout the event.
If you’d like to volunteer with the Digital Directory, please indicate this by checking Playa Info under “Volunteer Interests” of our Volunteer Questionnaire, or contact playainfo@burningman.org for more information.
Know all the latest news. Amaze and dazzle your friends. Do you like helping people? Does answering questions while relaxing in the shade appeal to you? If you’ve been to Burning Man at least once and have a sense of humor, then the Oracles need you!
Oracles are located in our cool shade structure at Center Camp. Oracles answer questions, help with directions, and locate found items. We have the latest information on where to find bike repair stations, theme camps, rangers, medical services, and more. We also pride ourselves in answering esoteric questions with equally esoteric answers. It’s a great way to meet participants from around the world.
If you’ve got a bit of Oracle in your blood (and we’re not talking software here), then consider volunteering with Playa Info. Please indicate this on question #14 of our Volunteer Questionnaire or contact playainfo@burningman.org for more information.
Playa Info is where we help reunite owners with their prized possessions. If someone has found a camera, wallet, backpack, sunglasses, set of keys, or something else that doesn’t belong to them, Playa Info is where those Found Items are turned in. As an Oracle, you’ll help receive and catalog Found Items and reunite them with their happy owners.
We need people willing to commit to 4 hour shifts, although shift times can be varied. Hours of operation are 9 am to 6 p.m. throughout the event.
The Media Team is composed of a daring, dedicated, professional, fun-loving and largely well-behaved set of volunteers. Since 1997, our motley group of journalists, marketers, flacks, sociologists, technical writers, filmmakers, artists, anthropologists, IT professionals, art experts, budding rock stars, freaks, geeks, and ne’erdowells have helped members of the media plug in to the event, participate, and hopefully come away with a good story.
Media Mecca is Black Rock City’s press room. Open from 10 a.m. (ish) to 5 p.m. (ish), Media Mecca is the landing zone for all press covering Burning Man. At the Mecca, members of the media can find out what’s going on, recharge batteries and file stories. Media Team members point press in the direction of participants from their region, connect them with artists and take them on a tour of the major art installations. We do not baby the press, coddle them, suggest story ideas or drive folks around on a golf cart.
The Media Team is always on the lookout for new talent. Currently, we’re especially interested in meeting new folks with a background in press and journalism, or experience in film, communications, the arts, PR, politics, or IP law. You’re not a media expert? No problem! We can also use your two hands if you’d just like to help support people who are.
If you’re interested in being part of the team, check “Media Mecca” on the Volunteer Questionnaire. If you have any questions, email mediavolunteers@burningman.org.
A community is defined, largely, by its traditions. Black Rock City is a place rich in tradition, and participants looking to take an active role in the community have many choices before them. The Lamplighters have been an important part of Burning Man almost as long as Burning Man has been held in the desert. More than a public utility, the Lamplighters are a symbol of community, of participation, and clear sign that the day has passed, and that evening magic will soon be upon us.
The Lamplighters began in 1993, with a small group of participants placing a dozen or so kerosene lanterns on the ground each evening, illuminating a pathway towards The Man. In the intervening years, Black Rock City has grown, and while many things have changed, the Lamplighters remain, though few at the time could have imagined how the Lamplighters would develop, and rise to the challenge of an expanding city.
The Lamplighters are more than a handful of volunteers; they are a team of well over 100 participants every evening of the festival. And the dozen or so lanterns from 1993 have grown to nearly 1000. To accomplish this considerable task, we ask for your help, and we invite you to be a part of this community, this event, and our tradition. Before the event closes, after The Man burns, more than 1000 people will have helped the Lamplighters accomplish their important work.
The Lamplighters begin EVERY EVENING of the event in their center camp workspace at around 5pm. The ceremony begins around 6, and soon the work is done. No experience is required. We welcome virgin and seasoned burners alike. One thing is certain though. We can’t do it without YOU.
If you’d like to be a Lamplighter, please take the time to fill out the Volunteer Questionnaire, and be sure to mark ‘Lamplighters’ as the group with which you want to volunteer.
Email us at lamplighters@burningman.org
BMIR – 94.5 FM (aka Burning Man Information Radio) is the official radio station of Burning Man. Broadcasting on the playa and can be listened to during the event utilizing the I Heart Radio app. BMIR broadcasts an eclectic mix of music, playa news, burn information, playa weather reports, interviews with participants and artists, theme camp and event promos and much more.
BMIR starts broadcasting from the playa 24/7 the Wednesday before the gates open to the public. Many people tune in to the internet stream from home while they are doing their last minute packing as well as stream BMIR on their smartphones while they travel to Black Rock City for info on how the city is coming together, updates on playa and traffic conditions and late breaking important information about the event.
It takes a whole lot of people to make a radio station run and there are many roles to be filled both on and off air. We are a highly interactive department with lots of public contact. Previous radio experience is not necessary. What’s important is desire and commitment to our mission of being the guardians of the airwaves for the citizens of Black Rock City.
If you’re interested in joining our team please send an email to BMIRVolunteers@gmail.com. Tell us a little bit about yourself and how you see yourself contributing to the team. We look forward to hearing from you!
The Black Rock Rangers are veteran burners who help participants and staff work through problems and make everyone’s Burn awesomer.
Rangers only assist the community when needed. Our ideal outcome is to have people solve their own problems with a gentle nudge in the right direction, and then fade into the background when we’re not needed.
Rangers are Burning Man’s “first response” team. We are out in the city, connecting with participants and keeping an eye out for situations that need attention. Things we do include:
Rangers only intervene in a situation in two instances:
We are emphatically not law enforcement or a paramilitary organization. We do not:
In order to apply to volunteer with the Black Rock Rangers, you must be at least eighteen years old, and:
Want more info? Visit our website or email rangers@burningman.org.
The ARTery is the on-playa home of the Burning Man Art Department, and the check-in and service center in Black Rock City for artists, as well as a hub of information about Burning Man art.
The ARTery is located at Esplanade & 6:30 and is open one week before the event begins through event closure every day from 9am-6pm.
This team of volunteers facilitates artist check-in and placement of art on the playa during the Burning Man event. As part of the check-in process, the ARTerians help ensure that artists understand the importance of several essential steps, such as adequately lighting their artwork at night, protecting their art against theft, and confirming a Leave No Trace (LNT) cleanup plan. Once an artist has checked in, ARTerians reveal their art placement location and escort them to that location on the open playa or plazas.
The ARTerians also offer an Art Discovery Program, a wide range of experiences, from bicycle tours to self-guided art tours for participants to interact with and explore the art. ARTerians also support the hosting efforts for artist appreciation events on playa.
The Art Support Services (ASS) team works with artists to support them during the construction of their art projects on the playa. Serving as a liaison with other Burning Man departments such as Heavy Equipment (HEaT), WaterWorks, DPW and Petrol, ASS helps artists streamline the process of installing art, with the aim of making it as safe as possible.
Pre-playa, ASS communicates with artists to assess their resource needs and the safety of their large, interactive artworks. On playa, the ASS team relays artists’ service requests and tracks all provided Burning Man services as they relate to art project implementation, installation and clean up — from initial point of contact through final check-out. ASS can be found at the “ASS Central” desk at the ARTery, or in roving squads visiting artists at their build sites on playa.
The Fire Art Safety Team (FAST) assists artists in creating and exhibiting fire art safely. Made up of fire safety personnel and industry professionals, FAST provides experienced support, assisting artists in the safe execution of open fire, flame effects, and/or pyrotechnics in art installations, theme camps and mutant vehicles. FAST inspects artworks incorporating fire and issues the appropriate burn license(s) once the artwork has been approved.
There are two kinds of FAST personnel: 1) FAST artist liaisons work with artists and their fire safety liaisons during the pre-event evaluation process; and 2) FAST Leads oversee any burns and/or pyrotechnic displays during the event.
The Eyes on Art (EoA) team surveys art projects across the open playa at night to identify potential art-related safety issues, such as unlit or damaged artworks, unsecured construction sites, and other hazards such as exposed rebar. EoA maintains a real-time, radio-dispatched response team that monitors playa art each night of build week and the event from 9PM to 4AM. With a particular emphasis on sharing best practices for lighting your art installation, they strive to keep art, and the people experiencing the art, safe.
EoA coordinates with many of Black Rock City’s teams including ASS, FAST, Black Rock Rangers, DPW, and HEaT.
ARTery Ops is our behind-the-scenes, get-things-done, build and problem solve, create-order-from-chaos team, focusing on the ARTery facility itself. Members of this team are responsible for coordinating and maintaining all aspects of the physical ARTery space.
Interested in joining us to support artists in Black Rock City? We receive volunteer questionnaire submissions year round, and actively recruit new volunteers in April and May from those submissions and then meet regularly in the months leading up to the event.
To apply to join the team, please fill out the Volunteer Questionnaire and select Art as your preferred area of interest. The best time to apply is from September through early April. We aim to reach out in the spring to potential volunteers who have submitted the Volunteer Questionnaire anytime from the previous April through early April of the current year. We will send an Expression of Interest form in mid-April so we can learn more about your interests, skills, experience, and availability. By late May we have finalized our volunteer team for the event.
Have a question about the Art Department? Send us a message via the Contact Form.
Does the idea of working in and around freezing ice trucks in 110-degree heat appeal to your inner penguin? If so, then you’ll be at home volunteering with Arctica and the ice caps – where nearly 400 people come together to create the three chill-(i)-est spots on the Black Rock Desert.
Located at 3 o’clock, 9 o’clock, and Center Camp, Arctica sells ice to the Burning Masses, with all proceeds going to benefit local Gerlach-area charities and community groups. The gift economy keeps on giving!
We are looking for Cube Masters to work three-hour shifts throughout the entire event. You’ll keep the life force flowing to hot and dusty Black Rock citizens while helping to support a local communities that exist outside BRC!
If interested, indicate Arctica (Ice Sales) in the Volunteer Questionnaire, or contact our volunteer coordinator via ice-volunteers@burningman.org.
Black Rock City has its very own Municipal Airport, 88NV, so come get high with us!
It takes nearly 400 incredibly cool people four weeks to build, operate, live in, and disappear a hundred-acre Airport in Black Rock City every year. Yep, we said Airport!
Working on the Black Rock City Municipal Airport Operations Team isn’t just a mouthful, it’s crazy-exciting, fast-paced fun. Airport Ops Team (for short) builds and runs the Airport before, during, and after Burning Man. We oversee everything that happens at 88NV, from welcoming passengers to BRC, to radio communications and data processing, to MOOP patrols. We do it all and we invite you to join us!
88NV IS A GLOBAL CROSSROADS
Airport gets by with a lot of help from our friends, who can also become your friends, including: the fabulous Box Office team, the Gate Perimeter & Exodus badasses, the ever-vigilant Census team, talented Airport artists and music makers, and Greeters so sweet you’ll get a toothache. You’ll run into plenty of Burners from all over the world here, too.
Even though 88NV is in its own corner of BRC, exciting things happen here all day from sunup to sundown. If you want to visit or volunteer with us, find the intersection of 5:00 & L and look for the Airport Road to Point 5. Be sure to bike, walk, or ride a Mutant Vehicle because cars are otherwise prohibited and we will stop you!
WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?
Log into your Burner Profile, and on the Volunteer Questionnaire click Airport. Our Volunteer Coordinators will respond to you via email and you’ll be ready for takeoff!
All Airport volunteers sign up for shifts via Shiftboard. If you sign up for a shift and cannot make it, be a rockstar and tell us beforehand. To do us a serious solid, arrange your own replacement by recruiting a neighbor or a campmate! You’ll wish you kept your shift when you hear their seriously incredible stories later on. Magic, weirdness, and amazement await.
Send love notes and questions to airport@burningman.org
Visit the 88NV website at airport.burningman.org
Do you like answering questions and helping people? Do you have free time before heading to the playa? Or, are you not going to the playa this year but still want to actively participate? If any of these apply to you, then you could be a good volunteer for Air Playa Info.
Established in 2008, Air Playa Info is an off-playa bureau of Playa Info. It is an Information service provided at the Reno-Tahoe International Airport by Burning Man and the Reno-Tahoe Airport Authority during the event to assist Burners arriving via the airport. The Airport Authority estimates approximately 10,000-15,000 Burners come through the airport during the event, so our Info service is very helpful and needed!
Air Playa Info Oracles greet Burners and answer questions. A variety of information and resources are available to assist travelers in getting the details they need, so they can move onward toward their playa destination. We provide information such as directions to Black Rock City, local Reno-area resources, and rideshare possibilities.
If you enjoy interacting with people and know enough about the Reno area and/or the Burning Man event to answer questions, we would love to have you as a volunteer for a 3 or 4-hour shift!
If you would like to volunteer with Air Playa Info, please check the “Air Playa Info” box under the “Volunteer Team Interests” section on the Volunteer Questionnaire, or contact us at airplayainfo@burningman.org for more information.
You will find the gratitude of the people you help enormously rewarding!
Gate, Perimeter and Exodus (GPE) is one of the first departments to arrive on playa, and one of the last to leave. Operations begin in early August and run until mid-September, 24 hours a day. We work closely with nearly every other department on playa.
GPE’s primary function is to regulate the flow of traffic into and out of Black Rock City:
In support of these three functions, our teams have grown and refined their processes, creating one of the most intricate and interwoven departments in Black Rock City. Overall GPE has seven departments with additional operational groups or supporting functions. GPE staff and volunteers talk to and process 99% of Black Rock City’s 70,000+ participants, staff, artists, vendors and other cooperators.
Gate staff usher thousands of people from the blacktop to the playa. Some mistake us for Greeters, some refer to us as security, and to some we are those folks in black who search your cars and tear your tickets. It is mostly the latter, but we do so much more than that. The Gate itself is situated between one and three miles outside the city on Gate Road. There, several containers house our supplies and provide shelter, and the Apex kiosks between the lanes mark the beginning of Gate processing.
Gate procedures fulfill various stipulations of the BLM permit. Our top priority is to ensure each inhabitant of Black Rock City gets in safely and with the proper credentials (read: ticket in hand). We search vehicles for stowaways, potential MOOP-makers (Matter Out Of Place), firearms, fireworks, and dogs. We ensure all Mutant Vehicles entering are pre-registered with the DMV. We get the ice trucks, water trucks, and “poop pumpers” into the city as rapidly as possible. All this while making sure that traffic on the highway doesn’t back up.
Perimeter Scouts watch the city’s boundaries and ensure anyone entering or exiting the city uses the correct routes. Perimeter’s tasks include patrolling the fence line, intercepting those who attempt to gain unlawful entry into the city, and helping participants who wander outside the fence. Perimeter works with the Bureau of Land Management to monitor the 51,000-acre closure area around the event site.
Exodus supports Burning Man participants—starting at Greeters—as they make their way on Gate Road to pavement from Saturday Burn night through Tuesday post-event. We closely monitor traffic flow to ensure the process is running smoothly and fairly, and to maintain the stipulated number of vehicles that can be released per hour to County Route 34. Our Traffic Operations Center tracks egress traffic from Greeters to State Route 447, reporting any circumstances that might affect efficient traffic flow (accidents, breakdowns, wildfires, etc.) We operate the Gate Advisory Radio Station, or GARS, at 95.1 FM, providing regular updates on wait times and weather, and any extraordinary events that may delay traffic. Our Pulsing teams strategically hold and move traffic—saving fuel and keeping vehicles from overheating. And the last contact participants have as they hit the pavement are our Nevada-certified highway Flaggers, keeping the intersection safe and flowing for participants and other users of County Route 34.
GPE is a dedicated and diverse group, and many of our core staff have worked for the department for years. We’re a tight bunch with a keen sense of camaraderie. The work can be physically grueling and mentally taxing. Dust storms don’t faze us–we can’t let them. We have a job to do. This is our Burning Man, and we love it.
We have many types of positions to suit people with different skills, interests, and abilities. There are, however, a few traits and skills that will serve you well in our department:
We look for people to help us make a positive impact on everyone’s experience as they transition into and out of Black Rock City. We need volunteers 24 hours a day during event week, and a few days after for Exodus. Most shifts are six hours, and given we operate 24 hours a day that means we surely can find a shift that suits you best.
Volunteers must have attended the event at least once before they work with Gate and Perimeter. First-year Burning Man participants can volunteer with Exodus. You must also be able to take training before signing up for shifts. There is an online portion to the training that is available before the event, with a separate and mandatory hands-on training occurring on playa for new volunteers.
If you wish to join the Gate, Perimeter and Exodus crew, please indicate this on the Volunteer Questionnaire by checking the appropriate box. Our Volunteer Coordinator will email you with more information. Please note that by the beginning of August we make our way to the playa to set up the Gate (which means we may not be checking email) and other department operations, so if you want to volunteer with us for the current year, please fill out the questionnaire as far in advance as possible.
For other questions or comments, email gate@burningman.org.
