2023 AfterBurn

The AfterBurn is our annual look back at the past year in Burning Man history — our ups, downs, and get-back-up-agains. Burning Man Project, the official name of the nonprofit Burning Man organization, is operated and supported by thousands of people who take responsibility for making Burning Man happen in the Black Rock Desert and around the world. The AfterBurn Report highlights what Burning Man Project’s various departments do, why we do it, what changes occur year to year, our successes and failures, and our vision for the future. Browse past years’ AfterBurns here. (We also annually publish the Dispatch, a richly-illustrated folio that tells the story of our year — as an event, an organization, and a global culture.)

Burning Man 2023: ANIMALIA

About the 2023 Theme

The Wild Tail of ANIMALIA

And just like that, the global Burning Man community imagined, built, experimented and explored its way through another 12-month cycle. Whether you are tied to the Black Rock City event cadence, or involved with multiple other Burning Man happenings throughout the year (maybe all of the above!) our 2023 AfterBurn is chock-a-block with learnings. 

Burning Man Project is the nonprofit that collaborates with the community to produce Black Rock City and nurture the global Burning Man cultural movement. We’ve published an AfterBurn annually since 2001; it serves as a space for collective memory, and an educational tool to unpack and share what was accomplished, learned and unlearned. Dive in.

So let’s get into it. Here are some highlights.

Art that Frolicked, Purred and Preened

In 2023 the humanimals and all manner of fauna came to frolic in the vast Black Rock Desert. Among the art installations that rose on playa, 45% spoke to the ANIMALIA theme. There were fantastical creatures, wild and elusive forest beings, domesticated animal friends, and several Latin American creatures — including “Quetzalcoatl,” an “Axolotl” and “Alebrijes.” 

43% of all funded Art had a female lead. The Honoraria Program prioritized funding artworks led by women artists. Temple of the Heart had a female co-lead, Ela Madej, whose design blossomed with floral elements. Across the playa, solar was all the rage — dozens of art installations were powered by solar technology.

And Then the Rain Came

2023 felt delightfully, predictably, on track with a smooth beginning to Black Rock City. Then it went from smooth, to damp, to slippery and sticky.

Let’s pause to acknowledge the heroic work of all Black Rock City citizens and the Playa Restoration crew – everyone contributed to an amazing Leave No Trace masterclass!

Gatherings, Creativity and Innovation Year Round

Beyond the Black Rock Desert, the Burning Man Project nonprofit brought people together to plan, dream, and celebrate in a myriad of ways. Fly Ranch hosted several community campouts, including the annual Burners Without Borders Spring Summit. After a hiatus, San Francisco Burnal Equinox and Decompression were back with bells on — thanks to the intrepid Community Events team. 

Years of behind-the-scenes innovation made it possible for the Off Fossil Fuels and Sustainability teams to test and roll out new solar infrastructure on Burning Man Project’s Northern Nevada properties, and in Black Rock City. To support community innovation, the Green Corridor emerged to serve as an experimental neighborhood in Black Rock City that showcased sustainability initiatives. 

Sharing stories is at the very heart of this cultural movement — whether gathered around a campfire, or crafting tales in digital space. Burning Man Project’s Communications team stoked the digital fires with storytelling via the Burning Man Journal, while keeping the community informed through the Jackrabbit Speaks newsletter and our effervescent social media channels. Powered by the Philosophical Center, the Burning Man LIVE podcast rolled out a carnival of audio conversations with fascinating humans within and adjacent to the global Burning Man cultural movement.

A Wildly Dynamic and Inventive Force in the World

Burning Man — Black Rock City, 87 Regional Events and countless projects, communities and happenings around the world — is so much more than the sum of its parts. It’s as wild and diverse and eclectic as every person who feels drawn to this movement. Behind every section you read in this AfterBurn report, there are hundreds of people who imagine and show up, who create and build, who contribute to this ever-evolving culture in ways that are impossible to quantify. 

Keep it up, dusty pals. The world needs more Burning Man.

Support Burning Man Project

Ensure the future of Black Rock City, fund playa art, and support our year-round work in service to the Burning Man global cultural movement. Make a tax-deductible donation to the Burning Man Project nonprofit.

Table of Contents

For complete descriptions of the various Black Rock City teams, visit the Volunteer teams page.

1. Art & Civic Activation

Burning Man Arts
Burners Without Borders (BWB)
Community Events
Regional Network

2. Burning Man Project Staff & Year-round Operations

Communications
Documentation Team
Education
Fly Ranch
Government Affairs
People Operations
Philosophical Center: Burning Man LIVE Podcast
Radical Inclusion, Diversity & Equity (R.I.D.E.)
Sustainability
Technology

3. Black Rock City (BRC) 2023 Operations

Airport
American Sign Language (ASL) at BRC
Arctica
Black Rock City Event Operations
Center Camp
Department of Mutant Vehicles (DMV)
Emergency Services Department (ESD)
Fire Conclave Council
Gate, Perimeter & Exodus (GP&E)
Greeters
HEaT (Heavy Equipment & Transportation)
Lamplighters
Media Mecca
Nevada Operations
NVO Specialty Construction
Outside Services (OSS)
Placement
Playa Info
Playa Restoration
Rangers
Recycle Camp
Temple Guardians
Ticketing
Volunteer Resource Team (VRT)
Volunteerism

1. Art & Civic Activation

Burning Man Arts

Katie Hazard writes:

While rain and mud were big parts of this year’s Burn, a lesser-publicized challenge to our BRC team was the nearly two-day shutdown generated by Hurricane Hilary, which fell during the peak of our busiest time on playa: build week. With driving halted and entry to the event prohibited, the eight artists with the largest, most complex artworks — including the Temple and “Chapel of Babel” — were forced to stop and wait until the playa dried sufficiently to resume building. And the more than 350 artists who hadn’t arrived yet were left waiting in Gerlach or Reno for the gates to reopen as they watched their already short build timelines dwindle.

Anticipating that the delay was going to cause an anxiety build-up for the artists waiting both inside and outside of BRC, our staff and volunteer teams (ARTerians, ASS, FAST, ARTery Ops, Quartermasters, Eyes on Art) sprang into action. We spent the “down time” brainstorming ways to speed up our processes once we were allowed to resume operations so we could increase our throughput and help more artists more quickly. Many options were discussed and ultimately implemented: double staffing, extended ARTery hours, ways to streamline our check-in process, closer collaboration across our teams and other departments, along with shared vehicles and other resources. The result was amazing: nearly 400 artworks installed from the time the ARTery re-opened Wednesday at 1pm until the start of the event, with nary a hitch — and with surprisingly good spirits all around. We are Burners, after all… we get it done!

While we’ll take credit for jumping into action to streamline things and reduce stress on the artists, we have to add that the enforced rest was good for everyone. The Temple and other big art projects that were already on playa had a day off from their grueling build schedules, our volunteer teams had time to get to know each other and bond through the muddy adversity, and instead of arriving in BRC super exhausted, artists on the way there got to pause. (One artist arrived saying, “Do you know they have a bowling alley in the Grand Sierra? Never stopped there long enough to notice!”)

  • Build Week rain: The ARTery was closed for about two days, and hundreds of artists arrived later than planned. Our ARTery teams adapted our procedures in a number of ways to increase throughput once we reopened — longer hours, all hands on deck, walking out to check on artists — in an effort to keep artists on track to complete their builds by event opening. 
  • Burn plans changed: Four artworks that were planned to burn on Friday and Saturday were not able to do so, due to the rain. We adapted and made alternate plans for all four projects: two were disassembled and taken home by the artists, one burned in a burn barrel, and one burned in the Temple. Fewer volunteers were available on Monday and Tuesday for the “Chapel of Babel” and Temple burn perimeters, so we rallied staff and many jumped in to support. 
  • More fireworks! Dave X put together a special show on Sunday (our normal Temple burn night) to keep everyone’s spirits up and to celebrate making it through the rain.

ART BY THE NUMBERS

  • We put a special emphasis on supporting female artists. For example, the Honoraria Program prioritized funding artworks led by women artists: 43% of all 2023 funded artworks, to be exact. We selected a female co-led Temple. And there was a lot of art with a female focus this year, including the Temple, “Zhina”, and the “Tip of the Iceberg” (a giant anatomically-correct clitoris with educational opportunities for all). 
  • We experienced many more artists from Latin America sharing their artworks in BRC, from “Quetzalcoatl” to “Axolotl” to “Alebrijes.” And we saw artists enthusiastically embrace the theme: 45% of the Honoraria projects were tied in to ANIMALIA. 
  • The Temple of the Heart — what a success! With its female co-lead and uniquely feminine look and feel, the structure was beautiful, had an amazing vibe and offered a loving, embracing space. The extremely thoughtful design provided all the spaces, nooks, and seating you could ask for in a temple, to leave offerings or sit in quiet contemplation. And it was truly a reflection of the team that built it, who were warm, friendly and loving throughout their build, and poured that energy into the very fiber of that Temple. The love was palpable!
  • We built significantly on our 2022 sustainability gains. The Honoraria Program prioritized funding projects that focused on environmental sustainability. The Art department collaborated with the BRC Power/Solar team and experimented with using solar to power all the art in the city plazas. On the open playa, the Temple was completely powered by solar, using a “Unicorn” unit supplied by the Power/Solar team. We powered 12 art projects on the open playa with “Scarab” solar units. And our efforts to support artists’ use of solar paid off. “The Solar Library,” an art project offering battery charging stations for artists, returned for its second year. Solar systems seemed to be everywhere. Ken from the Renewables for Artists team (RAT) said that as he walked through the open playa this year, it was hard to find a project that didn’t have solar, a very clear sign that artists are willing to take that step towards sustainability. RAT themselves supported 25 projects in “going solar.”
  • We continued to expand education for artists, including cross-pollination opportunities with other artists, to support their efforts to build and bring art to Black Rock City. Our monthly Brown Bag lunches for artists were very popular and successful, attracting more than 500 attendees over the seven events offered. And we created a new space on Hive for artists, which will be an ongoing space for them to collaborate and exchange ideas and information.
  • In a similar vein, last year was the first time we offered virtual Q&A sessions with key Art department staff for our 2023 Art Grant programs, where potential applicants could ask us anything. We had 46 artists register for the Temple Q&A and 321 register for the Honoraria Q&A, including people from over 14 countries and from all walks of life. This is equity in practice. Offering these opportunities allows for more people anywhere in the world to learn more, feel more confident in applying, and submit the best possible proposal.
  • It may not sound sexy, but we optimized a lot of our Art department processes in 2023, taking advantage of the fact that we had no new year-round staff this year. As a result, it felt like things were all back on track after the 2020-2022 ‘weirdness’… despite the 2023 wetness! We fixed a lot of small things, and some big things, like decreasing wait times for artists at the ARTery. 
  • New Q&A sessions offered in Fall 2022 for applicants to the 2023 art grant programs:
    • 46 people attended the Temple Q&As
    • 321 people attended the Honoraria Q&As
  • 383 art projects total in BRC
    • 75 Honoraria artworks selected
    • 56 international artworks
    • 28 countries
    • 26 U.S. states
    • 9 projects that burned (including the Man and Temple); 4 didn’t burn because of rain
    • 16 projects with flame effects
    • 82 projects with flame effects in camps
  • 222 Art Department volunteers:
    • 83 ARTerians
    • 63 Art Support Services
    • 34 Fire Art Safety team
    • 9 Quartermasters
    • 19 ARTery Ops
    • 14 Eyes on Art
  • Art department staff was on playa for 34 days

LOOKING AHEAD TO 2024

  • Contingency Planning: After two years of extreme weather, we have to be aware that there’s a new climate reality and we need to be prepared for it… or at least for the unknown, in this context. The Art Department and artists need to have more of a playbook / contingency plans for these types of events. 
  • Cancellations: There are always artists who have to cancel their projects — no more in 2023 than in the past few years — and we need better tracking of steps for our staff and for artists in those cases. (For example, to make sure any tickets and other resources we provided are canceled so they’re not used by the artist and crew if they don’t bring their artwork.) 
  • Good Standing Program: We started to implement our Good Standing program for artists in 2022, and are step-by-step building it up. We plan to roll out the full program in 2024, including a form for anyone in BRC to submit feedback about an artist or their crew after an interaction with them on playa.

LEARN MORE

IN THE JOURNAL:

Burners Without Borders (BWB)

Christopher Breedlove writes:

Burners Without Borders (BWB) dedicated a portion of its annual efforts to advancing community initiatives aimed at fostering a more sustainable and regenerative world—both on and off the playa. Building on the momentum from our ‘Sustainability and Regenerative Culture’ Fall Summit at Fly Ranch in 2020, which led to the Green Theme Camp Summit in 2021, the year 2023 marked a milestone for several projects initiated at these events.

Within the BWB camp, we hosted two key programs: BLAST (Burner Leadership Achieving Sustainable Theme Camps), a sustainability-rating system for theme camps; and RAT (Renewables for Artist team), supporting art projects and camps getting on solar power. We also pioneered a new experimental neighborhood in Black Rock City called “The Green Corridor,” hosting camps that had participated in BLAST 2022, as well as other legacy sustainable theme camps. These camps showcased exceptional initiatives in the six key BLAST infrastructure areas: Power, Water, Food, Waste, Shelter, and Transportation and were located between the 3:30-4:00 sector.

BWB BY THE NUMBERS

  • Green Corridor: Successfully hosted 10 camps in its inaugural year.
  • BLAST: Grew from 21 participating camps in 2022 to 63 in 2023, marking a 200% increase. (Read the BLAST After-Action Report here.)
  • RAT: Expanded from 12 projects in 2022 to 32 (28 art projects and 4 theme camps) in 2023, marking a 166% growth. (Read the RAT After-Action Report here.)
  • In addition to these initiatives, we launched a new website to serve as a centralized hub for our sustainability efforts within the Green Theme Camp Community, thanks in large part to the support from Scott Williams. Concurrently, “The Thrival Guide,” an online repository of best practices for sustainable and regenerative infrastructure, also received a revamped website and process, spearheaded by Satya Kamdar. 
  • Alongside these efforts we also continued to support a variety of other sustainability initiatives, including the Haba Build, an indigenous shade infrastructure project built by members of the Ripple team and BWB Summit volunteers at the Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe Museum. This project was a 2022 Community Micro-Grant Winner, which was one of 12 projects focused on sustainability work around the globe. We also hosted a BWB Worldwide conversation ‘Burners With Bees’ highlighting the Fy Ranch Bee Project, and utilizing the momentum to build volunteer support for that project.
  • BWB Hosted 99 participants at Fly Ranch for the BWB Spring Summit 2023
  • Engaged 110 BWB campers in producing the BWB Esplanade camp in BRC, hosting various offerings for the public and amplifying civic impact of Burners around the world.
  • Engaged with 22 projects through the BWB Project Proposal Form
  • 16 BWB Chapters contracted or in good standing/contracting in progress. 16 Active BWB Working Groups for a total of 32 activated groups across the globe.
  • Hosted (3) Worldwide Calls with a total attendance of 181 participants — BWB 3 Short Films, Burners With Bees, Nourishing Resilience

Like most communities in BRC, the Burners Without Borders camp faced a unique challenge when the city was transformed by mud. Thankfully, the work we’ve been doing culturally, as well as on implementing more sustainable infrastructure both helped us thrive in the moments of uncertainty. This experience underscored the importance of key terms like ‘community of practice,’ ‘preparedness,’ ‘resilience,’ and ‘adaptation.’ We witnessed the community coming together through our response efforts.

When the storm hit, we moved into response mode. We allocated the resources we would be able to share with the wider community (power, wifi, toilets, dry shade space, and fire) and created a community resilience hub. We then canvassed our neighborhood to assess needs and available resources and connected those who had resources to share. Finally we created a PSA on BMIR to help spread the concept of camps becoming a mutual aid resource zone. Most importantly, we continued to find joy in each other’s company while weathering the storm. More highlights from the 2023 BRC event include:

  • A three-day speaker series focused on sustainability, creating impact, and building community. These sessions showcased community members and the initiatives of Burning Man’s year-round programs. The “Art as a Tool for Impact” panel was a collaboration with our friends at the Far Away Projects.
  • Burners from BWB Maui shared up-to-date information about the recovery efforts in Lahaina during our speaker series and on BMIR.
  • Supported 3 BRC-related Community Civic Initiatives:
    • Learn By Playing: Native Solidarity Project Partnership toy drive pre-BRC benefiting children in the Pyramid Lake Paiute Reservation.
    • Post-BRC Food Drive for Pyramid Lake Food Distribution Warehouse (Native Solidarity Project)
    • Burner Gear Giveback (impact TBC): camping gear and non perishable drive supporting people experiencing homelessness in Reno.

We onboarded one new chapter (South Africa), and one new working group (Madison, Wisconsin). We also onboarded new leadership for the previous dormant Australia working group.

BWB continues our work toward achieving the goals laid in the 2030 Sustainability Roadmap. Our camp served as the entrance to the newly formed Green Corridor. As such, we hosted conversations on sustainability and a mix and mingle for other camps along the Green Corridor. We tested a new solar-powered refrigerator created by the Burning Man Project solar team as well as the new hybrid generator system:

  • 10 camps participated in the newly formed Green Corridor
  • 62 camps were visited by BLAST volunteers (vs. 21 in 2022)
  • RAT mentored 28 artists and 4 theme camps to begin using renewable energy.
  • We worked closely with Tech and plan to launch a new website before the end of the year.

After the fire in Maui, we re-opened a formerly dormant BWB Hawaii Working Group which provided a space for the community to come together in a time of need.

Quotes from Community Members

Bardia shares how BWB’s support impacted this project:

“You guys (BWB) planted the seed in my head by asking what, if any, I am doing regarding the revolution in Iran. I would not have expected, in my wildest dreams, to have the project reach this wide of an audience! That was almost one year ago. Thank you!!” — Bardia Saeedi (Project Lead)

”The most important thing from the experience is that I fell in love with building. I feel that what I’m doing right now is a direct sequence from the grant experience. At the moment, I’m building a radically sustainable autonomous house and sharing it with other Burners and communities.“ — Sergii Dumyk (BWB Grant Recipient)

After a three-year hiatus, the Burning Man Project and Burners Without Borders announced the return of the Global Grants program. This refreshed grant combines two previous granting programs (Global Art Grants & BWB Community micro-grants) and marks the 20th year and $1M of funding for art outside of Black Rock City. These granting programs have always aimed to support work at the forefront of emerging creative and civic trends. We continue this evolution as we now shift our focus toward funding “Impact Art.”

During our 2023 Spring Summit at Fly Ranch, participants were able to opt into two different work projects that had been funded through our 2022 Community Grant Cycle. Over 30 participants helped the Ripple team build a ‘haba’, or traditional Paiute shade structure, that now stands outside the Pyramid Lake Paiute Museum in Nixon, NV. This project was a collaboration with the museum director and helped deepen the relationship with the Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe.

BWB team hosted two hours of BMIR programming highlighting civic impact and engagement on and off playa. We received several emails after the event from our interviews that took place during ingress and exodus.

BWB had a booth at Decom in SF that hosted volunteers from BLAST, RAT, and our BWB BRC community. We connected with our SF community and added 25 names to our mailing list.

LOOKING AHEAD TO 2024
Molly Rose Levin left her role as Program Manager in October of 2023, and BWB began moving through the hiring process starting in November 2023. We plan to communicate more fully with the BRC Power team pre-event. We plan to implement more SOP’s per our extraordinary organizational goals We are continuing to develop BWB BRC camp leadership.

LEARN MORE

IN THE NEWS:

LEARN MORE

BWB 2023 Photos

Thrival Guide 

Nourishing Resilience: Preparing for Disasters Worldwide Call

IN THE JOURNAL:

Community Events

$teven Ra$pa writes:

Bringing back both San Francisco Burnal Equinox and SF Decompression was a significant part of 2023 for us. Both had been put on hold since 2019 due to COVID-19 and a need to prioritize bringing back Black Rock City as an organization before bringing back these local events.

  • Members of our team helped organize a Leadership Week for staff in Reno to focus on team building, skill sharing, discussing organizational priorities and developing standard operating procedures for the future of Burning Man.
  • Volunteers of our Community Events team hosted the SF Burnal Equinox in March for over 1,500 participants to kick off the art making season in the Bay Area, to feature art projects seeking volunteers, and to provide a forum for many first time artists and members of our community to meet one another.
  • Members of our community supported leadership gatherings at our Nevada Properties, including gatherings of Burners Without Borders leadership, LAGI, and Environmental Sustainability initiatives.
  • Members of our Community Events team organized the 25th Anniversary Regional Network Celebration Mixer in Black Rock City. (See Regionals report for more info on that).
  • The Community Events team organized a 10-block Decompression in San Francisco, for the first time since 2019. This gathering seeks to bring some of the magic of Black Rock City into an urban setting as a kind of “Black Top City” that features many kinds of creativity and a myriad of local artists and performers. Of special note, we worked closely with the San Francisco Fire Department to get special permits and present choreographed fire performances and a fire art garden; both these groups have not been able to present work in San Francisco since we hosted our last gathering and we were proud to present fire arts programming in the city again!
  • Our Events team collaborated with many departments to help them produce successful Department and Program-related events, including Regionals, Event Ops, Placement, Fly Ranch, BWB, VRT, Art, Placement, OSS, Legal, and Facilities.

We were able to bring back in-person events, both internally for Burning Man staff and externally for the community, in a safe and successful manner.

Members of our team will help explore bringing back public leadership convenings in Europe and other locations.

COMMUNITY EVENTS BY THE NUMBERS

Burnal Equinox 2023:

  • 1,560 tickets issued
  • $1,500 given in microgrant artist honorariums
  • 14 placed art projects presented
  • 50 performers, many trying new material
  • 35 Community Events volunteers led the event. Many learned how to organize such an event for the first time, as is consistent with our priority to provide learning and mentorship opportunities through our community gatherings.
  • 40 additional community volunteers helped run it

SF Decompression 2023:

  • 8,200 tickets issued
  • $10,000 Artist Honorariums
  • 57 placed art projects, including 4 fire art projects
  • 20 theme camps, including food theme camps gifting food and a wide variety of experiences
  • 5 community stages with 3 mutant vehicle sound areas
  • 190 performers + 19 fire performers performing choreographed fire routines
  • 43 Community Events team lead volunteers + 90 day-of volunteers
  • 10 blocks of street transformed into Black Top City in San Francisco

Thanks to all our community for bringing our culture and 10 Principles to life year round!

Regional Network

Iris Yee writes:

In 2023, the Burning Man Regional Network celebrated 25 years! The Regional Network has become a complex ecosystem of interconnecting people, communities and events that happen year-round. We recognized the need to reflect, and chart a thoughtful path for the future evolution of the Regional Network. In collaboration with regional communities, we completed a year’s work on the 25 to Thrive: Regional Network Evolution Project, completing a comprehensive analysis of the network’s past and present before we begin the next phase to map out the future.

This year, we also saw the maturation of many official Regional Events. Over the years, these events have flourished, attracting a diverse array of participants from around the world. However, with growth has come growing pains, including recruitment, retention, succession of volunteers — especially in key lead roles — and challenges obtaining affordable insurance. Some regional events have transitioned to non-profits. Some have purchased land to ensure the longterm sustainability and integrity of their events and are learning how to be responsible land stewards and neighbors.

In a world where the cultural and political landscape is constantly shifting, war and tragedies have had a continuing impact on communities and events in Israel, Ukraine, and beyond. We mourn with them and have been learning how to support our community members while maintaining unity and connection.

Burners in Ukraine demonstrated incredible resilience in the face of adversity. Despite the challenges posed by an ongoing war, they returned to Black Rock City with a dedicated theme camp. The Ukrainian Honoraria art projects, “The Hedgehog Temple” and ”Phoenix,” displayed a remarkable ability to adapt, exemplifying the creativity and community connectedness that is integral to the network. The Kurenivka Kids Fest, rooted in the 10 Principles of Burning Man, brought joy to children and their families, offering creative participatory experiences like a DJ school, cooking classes, clay work, and more. Ukrainian Burners have continued with mutual aid efforts, including raising funds to help purchase ambulances to save thousands of lives.

The Temple of Tranquility in Boulder, Colorado, demonstrated the power of art to offer healing from grief and trauma. This project brought together local community members and residents to find solace and healing from societal and natural disasters through artistic expression and community connection.

Reunion and Amplification of the Regional Network in Black Rock City: We continued to find ways to introduce the people of Black Rock City to the Regional Network, moving through the city to meet people where they are.

We partnered with camp co-host, Nordic Paradise, for the annual Regional Network Celebration.

We hosted a radio program on Burning Man Information Radio (BMIR) during Exodus to raise awareness of how Burners can bring their experience home featuring conversations with Regional Contacts and community leaders from around the world.

Two public service announcements broadcast on BMIR invited participants to playa talks about the future of the Regional Network and burn year round in the Regional Network.

The BRC Regional Event Lead Mentorship Program, now in its sixth year, was reached nearly pre-pandemic participation levels with 26 leads from 17 official Regional Events and 10 countries. The program offered more optional learning opportunities than ever. A toolkit was also created to support other Regional Event Leads in starting their own mentorship programs to foster learning across the Network.

We hosted or participated in conversations and meetups with Meta Regional Contacts, Regional Events Committee, Ukrainian “Hedgehog Temple” Honoraria art project team, Lithuania and Amber Burn organizers, EuroBurners, Midburn leadership, China and Dragon Burn Burners, France, Germany, Denmark, Namibia, Belarus, and Portugal Burning Man community organizers.

25 to Thrive: Evolving the Regional Network Project 

Over the last 25 years, the Regional Network has grown organically from three Regional Contacts in three regions to over 200 Regional Contacts in 34 countries, with over 100 official Regional Events and thousands of community gatherings taking place across the world in a typical year. In thinking about the next 25 years, the Regional Network Committee continued work on a 25 to Thrive: Evolving the Regional Network Project launched in December 2022 to consider how the Regional Network can continue to evolve into the next quarter century and beyond.

We hosted monthly meetings for the Project team members to surface perspectives on the purpose of the network. 

We hosted a Co-Design Workshop for the Project at BMHQ, bringing together 17 Project team members, and Burning Man Project staff contributors. These findings support the continued development of the purpose and vision of Regional Network and, and served to develop design criteria for the next phase of the Project.

We hosted talks in BRC at Burners Without Borders Camp and Center Camp introducing the Regional Network and the 25 to Thrive Project, inviting input and questions.

We also kicked off the next phase in which we propose solutions that address identified network challenges.

Welcoming New Regional Contacts and Supporting Succession

We welcomed 30 new Regional Contacts to the Regional Network and recognized the volunteer service of 8 departing Regional Contacts in 2023. We also implemented process changes to expedite support of leaders through the Regional Contact (RC) lifecycle. A Human aka Robin MacPherson, (North Queensland, Australia) and Dr. Naked aka Patrick Morrison (Idaho) were among those recognized when they retired from their RC roles after 22 and 26 years as RCs respectively.

Regional Contact Forums: The Regional Network Committee continued to produce three online Regional Contact Forums. Regional Contacts learned about the “State of the Regional Network” generated through an analysis of information collected from annual reports submitted by Regional Contacts and Official Regional Event organizers. This group also participated in facilitated breakout discussions focused elements of Regional Events most in need of support. These areas included volunteerism, starting civic projects, conflict mediation and resolution, and establishing open topic chat rooms for social connection and emergent topics. RCs also received regular 25 to Thrive Project updates at the forums.

Facilitating Peer Support: We continued to produce the “Trash Fence Café” Regional Contact peer-to-peer support calls, a virtual social hangout at the boundary between Black Rock City and the world beyond. This series reunited Regional Contacts to discuss hot topics in their communities and share potential solutions. Meta Regional Contacts helped Regional Contacts complete their 2022 Annual Regional Recap Reports and RC Self-Assessments with two Cafe sessions in January. Meta Regional Contacts also hosted a “Meet the Metas” session in July, raising current RC challenges and identifying needs that Meta RCs can support.

Supporting Local Leadership Events: The Regional Network Committee supported five local leadership conferences hosted to strengthen their regional communities and develop best practices. These included the Southeastern Leadership Roundtable (SERT), the Mid-Atlantic Leadership Conference (MALC), Multi-Regional Summit (a leadership event for the Reno, Sacramento, Tahoe, and San Francisco Bay communities); Burners of New Zealand and Australia Summit (BONZA), and the new leadership event Burn After Meeting in Denver, Colorado.

Radical Inclusion Diversity and Equity (R.I.D.E.) Support: The Regional Network Committee supported community diversification in Black Rock City through the Community Action Ticketing Initiative, especially focused on international diversification.

A Robust Calendar of Regional Events: The Regional Events Committee welcomed back in-person Regional Events, including San Francisco’s own Decompression after a three-year hiatus. Event attendance nearly matched pre-pandemic numbers. Regional Event trends included:

  • Venue-related challenges
  • Leadership succession uncertainty 
  • Difficulty finding affordable insurance, especially in North America
  • A trend toward non-profit formation
  • Greater experimentation related to environmental sustainability and Radical Inclusion, Diversity and Equity (R.I.D.E.).

Exploring the Return of an In-person Leadership Gathering: We began exploring the return of an in-person gathering of Regional Contacts, event leads, and other community leaders to share learnings in 2024. This has included careful consideration of scale, decentralization, and financial sustainability.

Improving Share-Outs of Regional Network Feedback and Data: We produced a summary report about the State of the Regional Network and an Official Regional Events Afterburn summary from information collected from official Regional Events throughout the year and from annual reports submitted by Regional Contacts. These aggregated responses allowed us to share insights with each contributing Regional Contact and Regional Event. The summary reports helped focus and shape offerings to help regions address key needs, and identified areas of strength and areas for improvement.

The Regional Events Committee launched a peer-to-peer discussion list for all leads of official Regional Events, called the “Official Event Leads List” (OFFEL) with an amusing tagline “It’s great to be OFFEL!” In association with this list, an official Regional Events Library of Resources was created with an invitation to all official Event Leads to add their own tools and templates. The intention is to encourage more peer-to-peer sharing, build upon best practices, and accelerate leadership development throughout the Network.

We plan to produce a reimagined leadership summit to support global participation and make learnings available to audiences across the network.

The 25 to Thrive Project will be a major focus as we prototype solutions to challenges and lay the road to the Regional Network’s future.

We want to develop clearer practical guidance for RC succession planning.

We would like to improve the feedback and complaint processes along with workflows to expedite conflict resolution within the Regional Network programs, as well as offer guidance to help Regional Event Leads resolve conflicts in their own communities without involving Burning Man Project as arbiter.

We’d also like to sync the Official Regional Event Afterburn and Regional Contact Annual Regional Recap reporting for earlier delivery of information to stakeholder groups.

REGIONAL NETWORK BY THE NUMBERS

  • The Regional Network is composed of 245 volunteer Regional Contacts in 110 regions in 34 countries and one virtual space.
  • The Regional Network program is supported by three full-time employees and four part-time employees.
  • 8 Regional Contacts retired from their RC roles in 2023
  • 30 new Regional Contacts were added to the Regional Network in existing regions. No new regions were added to the Regional Network in 2023, as we continue the 25 To Thrive Project of self-reflection
  • Official Regional Events increased from 40 (in 2021) to 77 (in 2022) to 91 in 2023, approaching the levels of 108 official Regional Events held in 2019
  • There were 87 in-person official Regional Events:
    • 53 in the U.S. across 27 states — Arizona (2), California (8), Colorado (5), Connecticut, Florida (2), Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas (2), Kentucky, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri (3), Nevada (2), New Hampshire, New Mexico, New York (3), North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oregon (2), Pennsylvania (2), Tennessee, Texas, Utah (2), Vermont, Virginia, Washington (3), West Virginia (3)
    • 34 Regional Events were held outside the U.S. across 18 countries — Argentina, Australia (4), Austria, Canada (8), Finland, France, Germany, Japan, Lithuania (2), Netherlands (2), New Zealand, Romania, Russia (3), South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom (3)
  • There were 4 online official Regional Events — all were held in the long-established cyberspace region of Burn2 in Second Life.
  • The smallest official Regional Event in 2023 was Melting Man held in North Dakota in February with under 20 people.
  • The largest official Regional Event in 2023 was AfrikaBurn held in South Africa in April, with an estimated 9,500 participants.
  • New official Regional Events in 2023 were Sydney Metacompression in Sydney, Australia and the events for Temple of Tranquility project in Colorado.
  • The 2023 BRC Regional Event Lead Mentorship program had mentors from 15 BRC teams and 26 Regional Event Leads from 10 countries. Leads were offered additional learning opportunities with 17 other teams in BRC and access to year-round Hive training courses.
  • Official Regional Event art grants given are expected to once again exceed $1M (USD equivalent).

LEARN MORE

Roxane Jessi: Once Upon a Time in the Dust — Burning Man LIVE Podcast

Monique Schiess and AfrikaBurn — Burning Man LIVE Podcast

Ignight Experience Bring Interactive Art to the Valley

Nowhere, la ciudad efímera de Monegros, cumple 17 años

Honouring the Dead: Ukrainian Installation at Burning Man Festival

Phoenix and Memorial to the Fallen: Two Installations from Ukraine Opened at Burning Man

Boulder’s Temple of Tranquility creates ‘a sense of coming together’

IN THE JOURNAL:

(Return to Table of Contents)

2. Burning Man Project Staff & Year-round Operations

Communications

Kirsten Weisenburger writes:

Burning Man Project’s Communications team is multidisciplinary. We’re veteran Burners and media wranglers, social media creators, journalists, web content managers, photo editors, event producers and wordsmiths.

In Black Rock City we manage communications about event operations, join forces with the Media Mecca crew to support members of the press who are covering the event, and run all aspects of Media Mecca, Black Rock City’s press center. 

Year round, Communications oversees everything that is written, produced, or published about Burning Man and Black Rock City — press, films, books, photography… And we manage Burning Man Project’s in-house publications, of which there are many — the Burning Man Journal, Survival Guide, the Jackrabbit Speaks, Dispatch, our social media channels, and of course the vast Burningman.org website.

2023 was the current iteration of the Communications team’s second event cycle working together. While every year has its special qualities and challenges, in 2023 we hit our stride. Year-round Communications developed stories about the global community and helped teams at Burning Man Project to get the word out about their projects and goings-on. Then, when the Black Rock City event cycle kicked in, we rolled out pre- and post-event comms and publications, reviewed potential Black Rock City media projects, and collaborated with the Media Mecca crew to bring our press and media hub to life on playa.

Media Mecca, Our Home in Black Rock City

Media Mecca serves as headquarters for the Communications team, the Documentation team, and a crew of dedicated humans who work with content creators and the press, and keep Mecca operations running.

Overall, operations were very smooth. Media Mecca staff worked well together and were able to assist press throughout the event, including after the rain. 

We hosted two well-attended media art tours — one on the Monaco at sunrise, the other on the Pariah at sunset. New for 2023, Mecca staffer Ray of Sunshine produced “Burned,” an evening of Burning Man storytelling. Media Mecca was a hub of daytime activity. Media folks old and new dropped by to mingle in the shade and sync around projects and shenanigans.

We implemented changes to the camp layout that resulted in a more vibrant social atmosphere, both in Mecca’s front and back of house. The intrepid Media Mecca build and strike team worked extremely hard to keep up with build and strike through two rain events. 

Acculturation Content for BRC Participants

In addition to producing the BRC Survival Guide and WhatWhereWhen guide, the Communications team created several Journal posts intended to acculturate and inform BRC-bound participants. The “Back to BRC” journal series, which featured acculturation Journal posts about eBikes, Exodus, DJing in BRC, a message from the Paiute, and more. We also rolled out a fun series about mutant vehicle owners and history.

For the second year in a row, we created an illustrated section in the WhatWhereWhen guide that gave fast access to important information, and shared acculturation content. Whimsical images and copy taught / reminded participants about wellbeing, Leaving No Trace, making Exodus a little easier, and more.

Books About Burning Man

Communications supported two authors on their journey to publish books about Burning Man — Burning Man Desert of Dreams, by Mauro Martignoni and a new edition of Burning Man: Art on Fire by Jennifer Raiser. Communications helped get the word out about the latest book from Burning Man Publishing — Once Upon a Time in the Dust: Burning Man Around the World by Roxane Jessi.

The 2022 Dispatch

As we have since annually since Burning Man Project became a nonprofit, we produced the Dispatch (formerly known as the Annual Report) a beautifully illustrated folio and website that highlights goings on in the global Burning Man community, and our year-round work as the hub of this community. Read the 2022 Dispatch here.

Appearances at Conferences and Events

The Speakers Bureau manages speaking engagements for Burning Man Project leadership at conferences and events around the world. Notable speaking appearances in 2023 included the MAPS Psychedelic Science conference and the World Happiness Festival. The Speakers Bureau sourced and supported speakers for the Robot Heart Residency in Oakland, and the Google Visitor Experience opening.

Our Work on Radical Inclusion, Diversity and Equity (R.I.D.E.)

Dominique Debuquoy-Dodley, our Associate Director of Communications, wrote a Journal post that highlights Burning Man Project’s accomplishments since publication of Burning Man Project’s R.I.D.E. Pledge, one year earlier. He collaborated with filmmaker Alba Roland Mejia on a Journal piece and the release of Alba’s video about Burners of Color in Black Rock City. On playa, Burning Man Information Radio (BMIR) produced a full slate of programming related to several R.I.D.E topics. 

All Hands on Deck During the Rain Event

Heavy rain at the end of Burn Week played a pivotal role in our Black Rock City communications cycle. Over several days, key members of the Comms team collaborated around the clock with Event Operations, Government Relations and leadership to gather and share information with BRC participants, and the world via X, BMIR, GARS, BRCWeather, and Facebook. Leslie Moyer, our Senior Communications Manager, played a crucial role in getting messaging out to the public and keeping operations going.

Communications published the Wet Playa Survival Guide, which supported participants with tips for managing in the rain and mud. It also provided the latest information for interested media outlets and concerned friends and family. We updated this online guide with the latest information, as it emerged. Simultaneously, we sent out regular press updates.

Following Black Rock City, we adjusted our communications strategy to emphasize sustainability and playa restoration — two topics of interest to the community and the media.

Supported Our Position on the Ormat Geothermal Project

Early in the year, we supported Government Affairs and Legal by developing a press release and Journal posts on Burning Man Project’s lawsuit against Ormat’s proposed geothermal project in Gerlach, Nevada. 

Two New Members of the Team

We welcomed two new humans to the Communications team. Internal Communications Manager Allie Wollner will develop and manager an internal communications strategy for BMP. Megan Baroska joined us as a Communications Strategist to develop an organization-wide narrative and strategy.

BMIR / Webcast / Census

At Media Mecca, the Communications family of teams extends to BMIR, Census and the Webcast. At the end of Burn Week, BMIR kept busy sharing up-to-date information about the weather, wait times at Gate, road conditions and more. Despite the weather, Census successfully gathered random sample data from participants at Gate, around the playa, and at their camp in Center Camp Plaza. Running on a skeleton crew this year, the Webcast began broadcasting on Thursday, successfully broadcasted the Man Burn and Temple Burn, and stayed live until Wednesday morning, post Burn.

A big part of Communications’ year-round work in the year ahead will involve developing tools and processes to socialize the Shared Narrative among Burning Man Project’s year-round staff.

For Black Rock City 2024, we’re exploring ways to improve communications on the ground in the event of another emergency situation. We also want to make the drone registration and confiscated drone pick-up process smoother. We’re looking at some of BMIR’s systems and workflows and how to integrate better with the Comms team, and we’d like to turn the Webcast trailer into a cozy lounge for inviting interview guests. We’re considering alternatives to X (Twitter) for real-time Black Rock City traffic updates.

Communications by the Numbers

  • 258,000 Jackrabbit Speaks newsletter subscribers
  • 31 Jackrabbit issues sent
  • 84 Burning Man Journal articles published
  • 1.4 million Facebook followers
  • 1.5 million Instagram followers
  • 60,000 YouTube subscribers
  • 850 Medium followers
  • 30 speaking opportunities managed
  • 241 BRC media projects proposed
  • 180 BRC media projects accepted

Big Media Stories from 2023

“How dancing through rain and mud helped relight the lost fire of Burning Man” by MORENA DUWE, Los Angeles Times

“Marian Goodell et al: Inside Burning Man’s Worst Case Scenario” Life is a Festival podcast

“Burning Man Is Always a Challenge, but Burners Like Me Know This Time Is Different” by Cory Doctorow, New York Times

“WTF Just Happened at Burning Man Part 2: Why 2023 Was Black Rock City’s Finest Moment” by Buck Down, Medium

“Burning Man survived a muddy quagmire. Will the experiment last 30 more years?” by Scott Sonner, Associated Press / Washington Post

“Finding the Future at Burning Man” by Sarah Davanzo, Rolling Stone

“Burning Man starting to feel more welcoming to people of color” by Trevor Hughes, Reno Gazette Journal 

“Meet the Guy in Charge of Cleaning up Burning Man” by Gabriella Paiella, GQ

“Burning Man sues BLM over clean energy project near Black Rock City” by Silas Valentino, SFGATE

“Gerlach geothermal exploration project on hold after Washoe County rescinds permit” by Amy Alonzo, Reno Gazette Journal

Documentation Team

Michael “Dustin” Fasman writes:

The Documentation team worked closer with staff teams to develop and complete a variety of assignments and deliver photos and videos during the event for use in social media and other communications.

The Documentation team fulfilled many assignments that were compiled in the months leading to the event. Several departments submitted requests that we matched in advance with photographers and videographers based on their skills, experience, and interests. Many of these shoots took place during build week, and of course, the team fully documented the rain, the rainbows, and the aftermath.

Thanks to the awesome DPW shade crew, our team’s office container had, for the first time, a shade structure, which we furnished with a couch, tables, curtains, an information board, and beverages. This allowed the team to congregate and collaborate more often.

Our office container provided safe harbor for photographers and other Burners to regroup during the rains. We learned that DPW shade can focus rain into a mud pit that then dries slowly. Several photographers helped Michael Vav (Doc Team logistics) strike our office container, and help with Media Mecca strike, including memorable moments like rolling up muddied rugs and cutting them into strips small enough to lift into garbage bags for disposal. Good times.

The Documentation team plans to implement an even better process for getting images and video to the Communications Department on a daily basis during the event.

We are exploring ways to add keywords and otherwise tag video content.

We plan to provide training for post-BRC post-production before BRC and provide extra support to new volunteers.

DOC TEAM BY THE NUMBERS

  • 90% of the team returned from last year
  • 5 new members from California and Ohio, Canada, Sweden, and Tahiti
  • 15 unique assignments involving over 20 volunteers
  • Dozens of high-quality photos and videos of Build Week and Burn Week were provided to Burning Man Project’s Communications department during the event
  • Most  Journal articles, JRS editions, and social media posts feature the Documentation team’s work (photos & video coverage) over this past year

Education

Karen Jacobs (aka KJ) writes:

The biggest story for Education in 2023 was change. The year began with a major user experience overhaul in our learning network, Burning Man Hive, that gave our team much more autonomy in the architecture of all content contained therein. This change continues to reverberate through our daily work as we constantly look to refine the experience for users, and to make improvements and elevate important and vital conversations and information.

Another change was the return of in-person gathering and co-learning for Burning Man Project staff, as the Leadership Week event convened in February 2023. This was the first in-person gathering to take place for the organization since before the pandemic began in 2020, and the first event to take place for Education with the current team roster in place. Leading the content team and being a part of the event production was an honor for the Education team, and a huge learning opportunity. It was thrilling during that time to get glimpses of what the future may bring for community and organizational learning and collaboration, and also nerve-wracking to see how much still needs clarification, documentation, and refinement.

Finally, the second Black Rock City since the pandemic years rose and then disappeared. This second iteration of our dusty metropolis gave the Education team new ways to explore our community connections, live and in real time. We are excited to be entering into deeper collaborations with Burners who are passionate about learning.

We still have much to learn as a team. We are ending 2023 by developing a long-term strategy, and considering how we can better mobilize volunteers in learning and education-based endeavors. The work continues.

  • 2023 saw expanded internal collaborations with other teams bringing their learning content into Hive (8 successful collaborations and 4 teams expressing interest): GPE, Art, DPW Utilities, PEERS, Placement, Box Office/Ticketing, R.I.D.E. Liaison Group, Molly V./Public Speaking, kbot/Comms, Regionals/25 to Thrive, and Contract Management
  • Deep work developing the content plan and delivery for Leadership Week gave the Education team a chance to collaborate with new internal partners and highlight a path into the future for learning in Burning Man culture.
  • Ongoing collaborations with volunteers from the R.I.D.E. team underscore our belief that Education can be a nexus for R.I.D.E. in the Burning Man Community
  • The return of large in-person staff gatherings, for the first time since 2019 and for the first time for the current roster of Education team members. The work Education contributed towards the planning and execution of Leadership Week 2023 illuminated the role this team can and should play in the efforts of our organization to gather, collaborate, and co-learn.
  • The Education team expanded connection and collaboration in BRC with learning-focused camps including the Black Rock City Community College, the Bureau of Erotic Discourse (B.E.D.), and the Black Rock Explorers.
  • The team designed a new content and engagement plan for Hive, to be launched in late 2023 and to continue through the 2024 BRC event
  • Evaluation of current engagement practices for team volunteers and what the future of volunteering with Education looks like
  • Utilization of a known engagement cycle to drive what kind of content we share throughout the year and when
  • Consideration of our team meeting culture (1:1s, team meetings, cross-departmental summits) and how we might elevate individual and team productivity through different and/or fewer meetings

EDUCATION BY THE NUMBERS

  • In March 2023 — May 2023, Hive added ~300 new members per month
  • In June 2023 — August 2023, Hive added ~1100 new members per month
  • Current Hive membership is 14,050; this is a 60% increase in new members compared to one year ago (October 2022)
  • Burning Man Hive members live in over 2000 cities in 92 countries across 6 continents
  • In 2023, 4 Black Rock City teams entered into deep collaboration with Education to house their training materials in Hive (Art, GPE, DPW Utilities, and Box Office)
  • In October 2023, the Education team had two requests from Black Rock City teams (GPE and DMV) to prepare for playa-related training in 2024 — our earliest requests to date!

LEARN MORE
Log in on Hive:

IN THE JOURNAL:

Fly Ranch

Zac Cirivello writes:

In 2023, we launched a new monthly campout program to bring the Fly Ranch and Burning Man communities out to the project to enjoy a weekend and spend time working to improve the land. We launched registrations in January and welcomed up to 85 people for some of these campouts. Some major projects included developing a new interior biking trail with solar light markers that run through the property, installing bee hives, modeling our welcome center and bringing “Paradesium,” the Temple of Gravity, and several other sculptures to the property.

In October, we prototyped a new model of campout using our stewardship campout date and aligning it with the eclipse. Instead of camping at our usual location of the Operations Center, we invited folks to camp dispersed throughout the Hualapai playa portion of Fly Ranch on the site of Burning Man ‘97. Small camps of 5-10 popped up around the old burn barrels that dotted the esplanade of BRC 1997 and instead of programming that was designed as a work weekend, we invited people to explore the property and contribute what they wanted to the weekend. Several camps cooked and shared meals, one camp hosted a scary movie night, and others brought telescopes and a dance music zone and a sauna.

This model of decentralized camping on the Haualapi was such a powerful and enjoyable experience for our crew and participants that we’re hard at work on setting up 4 dates with a similar offering for 2024.

This year we continued to integrate with the developing NVO ecosystem and continued to prioritize cohesion and long-term stability by forcing internal breaks. When we’re out there all year, that shit is critical, yo.

We’ll be launching Fly Friends and Family Campouts on the Hualapai playa for March, April, May, and October.

We’re bringing on an additional staff member to help address deferred maintenance and ongoing operations.

We’ll finish remodeling the welcome center at the Operations Center and installing 4 new beehives throughout the property.

We’ll be installing a new layer of infrastructure including a new well and set of stick-built outhouses (because portos suck).

FLY RANCH BY THE NUMBERS

  • 60-250 weekly visitors for 32 weeks on volunteer-led projects supported by solar without generators since 2018
  • Bioblitz: 15 new plants documented, three new snails, two new beetles, and two dozen new government Stewards
  • 51 Nature Walks, weekly Labyrinth Walks, weekly (Sunday) staff soaks 
  • 150+ Guardian Shifts, completed by 50+ active Guardians from nearby and around the world 
  • Eight Stewardship Weekends open to 1.7K Stewards & two events: BWB Summit and BioBlitz 
  • Estimate of 11,440 hours of volunteer hours in 2023 to do campouts, Fly Guardians, and walks 

IN THE JOURNAL:

Government Affairs

Cailen Caplan writes:

Rain Response

Government Affairs’ actions during two major rain storms demonstrated our team’s ability to problem solve quickly and work collaboratively with government agencies and elected officials under unprecedented circumstances. Our work in 2023 underscored the importance of Government Affairs as a bridge between Event Operations and government agencies.

During Hurricane Hilary, Government Affairs provided frequent updates to partner agencies and elected officials detailing the status of Burning Man’s response and plans to resume Build Week operations. These updates evolved into formal briefings with Event Operations and a wide range of partner agencies and other stakeholders during the second major rain storm September 1st through 3rd. Nearly 80 representatives from 21 different agencies and organizations discussed coordinated response, resource allocation (including mobile cell towers for participant use), and emergency management during these briefings run by our Director of Government Affairs. During these prolonged weather incidents, the Government Affairs department supported our organization, Black Rock City builders and participants, and the public.

Government Affairs is grateful for the incredible expertise, steady leadership, and thoughtful problem-solving of Burning Man’s operational departments during the storms. The strong and capable responses of our colleagues made it possible for Government Affairs to build trust and confidence with offsite officials who were hearing false rumors and misinformation about event conditions.

Government Agencies to Black Rock City

Government Affairs works with more than 20 federal, tribal, state, and local agencies to permit and protect Black Rock City. While several of these cooperating agencies have a regular presence in Black Rock City, most do not, so our team hosts representatives of these offsite agencies for a day in Black Rock City to help them understand the scale and scope of Burning Man and to provide richer context for our public health and safety operations.

These agencies included the Nevada Department of Transportation, Washoe County Roads, Washoe County Sheriff’s Office, Nevada Division of Public and Behavioral Health, and the Reno Tahoe Airport Authority.

Increased Presence of BLM Compliance Monitors

In 2023, BLM significantly expanded the number of personnel watching participants and event service providers for compliance with federal rules and regulations, with an increased focus on theme camps. This increase in BLM monitors resulted in multiple, and sometimes unannounced, inspections of camps and busy operational areas, diverting critical staff time and resources. Government Affairs worked with BLM and Burning Man’s operational leadership to respond to increased BLM oversight.

Pershing County Sheriff’s Office 

The Pershing County Sheriff’s Office (PCSO) made a number of significant operational changes immediately prior to the event. Government Affairs worked with Event Operations and the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to understand and adjust to the Sheriff’s unexpected shift in protocols. PCSO’s last minute decisions changed the way law enforcement was dispatched to emergencies and calls for service in Black Rock City, including suddenly opting out of the Computer Aided Dispatch system that had been utilized for previous events. 

PCSO was uncertain whether their technology, which hadn’t been adequately tested, would even work during the event. Government Affairs held a meeting with PCSO, BLM, and Burning Man Emergency Services (ESD) to come up with an agreed upon method of dispatching PCSO.

PCSO also announced at the last minute the Sheriff’s decision to no longer participate in daily Tier 1 meetings and daily law enforcement briefings with BLM and Burning Man, exacerbating public health and safety risk by decreasing coordination and availability.

PCSO moved their personnel and base of operations in 2023 to an area previously used for Medevac operations – again at the last minute – leaving ESD and Government Affairs to scramble with outside agencies to find alternative safe and adequate landing zones.

Gerlach Geothermal 

Government Affairs led the coordination of efforts with environmental non-profit organizations, the Summit Lake Paiute Tribe, and Gerlach residents to oppose Ormat Geothermal’s plans to develop 19 geothermal well pads and ultimately a utility scale power plant in Gerlach.

Ormat is a multinational corporation engaged in geothermal project developments worldwide. The Government Affairs team initiated its efforts to understand Ormat’s intentions and scope for geothermal development in Gerlach, along with the procedures required for their approval, in December of 2020. At that time, Government Affairs collaborated with local non-profit organizations and environmental interest groups to submit concerned comments to the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) as part of BLM’s pre-scoping process.

Fast forward to January 2023, Government Affairs stood by Gerlach residents as they confronted the processes and leaders who failed to recognize their voices, concerns, and stakeholder role in a plan that posed a significant threat to the ecological equilibrium and the quality of life in the region.

  • Government Affairs collaborated with Burning Man’s Legal department, several non-profit organizations involved in the 2020 pre-scoping comments, local residents, and the Summit Lake Paiute Tribe to initiate a lawsuit against the BLM. This legal action aimed to halt the development of noisy, brightly illuminated, and extractive test wells. The lawsuit was filed against the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) because of their mishandling of the pre-scoping process, resulting in unwarranted preliminary approvals for the project.
  • Key moments from 2023 that addressed the Gerlach community’s disenfranchisement during the official processes included:
    • Community meetings held in Gerlach, designed to inform, engage, and empower the community, where concerns and questions were finally addressed by a panel of experts organized by the Government Affairs team.
    • Katie Hoffman and Natalie Nicol submitted a comprehensive appeal, challenging the Washoe County Board of Adjustments’s approval of Ormat’s administrative permit for the construction of geothermal test wells, which ultimately led to a hearing before the Washoe County Commission. 
    • A two-hour-long hearing before the Washoe County Commission, which featured Ormat representatives. During this hearing, the Government Affairs team adapted their strategies on the fly as Ormat defended its processes and ability to address the concerns of local residents. Gerlach residents shared their stories and heartfelt concerns in this tense and public setting.
  • With steady support from Government Affairs, the Gerlach community mobilized and channeled an authentic, consensus voice, championing the preservation of their unique environmental and cultural habitat, standing up for rural life and the interdependent wilderness that defines Gerlach
  • In the end, the Washoe County Commissioners denied Ormat’s administrative permit for the proposed geothermal project in Gerlach. This achievement marked a significant success, and one that presented administrative, tactical, and diplomatic challenges.
  • The impact of this work and its outcome received coverage from major national news outlets, emphasizing the distinctive environment, community, and culture of Gerlach and the Black Rock High Rock National Conservation Area.

XRT: US Census team on playa

This year, Government Affairs had the opportunity and honor to host staff from the US Census Bureau in Black Rock City. The group, which included Director Santos and his wife, joined the Black Rock City Census team and members of Government Affairs for a full day in our city, which closed out with a sunset and evening External Relations Tour, with other elected officials, local seniors, and guests. The day was an inspiring experience for all those who participated. The two census teams conferred on methodologies, goals for census data collection, and the role the information they collect plays in fostering dynamic and representative communities. Our guests from DC toured Center Camp, the city streets, and ate lunch in the Commissary. They met artists, participants, and members of Burning Man Leadership. They saw and understood the power of convening in Black Rock City: The activation and community capacity generated through the intentional neighborhoods, art, and experiences co-created by disparate groups of participants. Their curiosity was piqued, and our teams were thrilled to align goals for the future of the US Census. 

Nevada Properties Permitting 

  • Government Affairs has added value to ongoing permitting processes by ensuring that internal strategic coordination is achieved prior to any outreach and correspondence with government agencies and individual staff. 
  • We’ve also added value through technical participation during planning processes, and by helping to administer and record the public participation elements of these processes, particularly relating to The 360.
  • We’re steering the effort of bringing all of Burning Man’s properties up to regulatory compliance after many years during which this project was not prioritized. 
  • We’re making sincere efforts to show Washoe County and the State of Nevada that we will operate in good faith, follow through on promises, and take state and county regulations seriously
  • Through these means, we believe trust will be rebuilt with our government agencies and their staff to ensure that we can realize near and long-term goals.

Relationship with BLM

  • The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is Burning Man’s largest permitting agency. Government Affairs works closely year-round with BLM and the 2023 event cycle was one of the smoothest and most collaborative planning cycles in memory.
  • Burning Man and BLM representatives met weekly throughout the planning season to strengthen and improve joint protocols, plan infrastructure, and understand roles and responsibilities.
  • Following the September 1st rain event, Government Affairs worked with Burning Man operational leadership to identify and understand the unique strike challenges camps might face. In coordination with BLM staff, Government Affairs quickly developed and implemented a new permitting and event entry process that allowed camps to return to Black Rock City with additional support to complete their strike.
  • Government Affairs appreciates the trust and flexibility BLM’s team displayed this year as we faced challenging circumstances during two unprecedented rain events. After a difficult Environmental Impact Statement Process in 2019 and canceled events in 2020 and 2021, we are pleased to have built a great foundation for collaboration with BLM. 

GOVERNMENT AFFAIRS BY THE NUMBERS

  • Number of agencies that joined the rain event briefings: 24 
  • Number of fuel or blackwater spills necessitating reports to the Nevada Division of Environmental Protection: 0
  • Positive feedback for LE: 70% 
    • A historically low 15 arrests by Pershing County Sheriff’s Office 
  • Number of agencies on site: 6
  • Number of BxB passengers Greg hosted overnight at the EOC: 16
  • Number of communication channels Marnee was using on Saturday through Monday: 10

LOOKING AHEAD TO 2024

  • Leave No Trace compliance best practices:
    • Government Affairs and Environmental Compliance captured our experience and lessons learned into a document outlining potential improvements to operations as well as regulations that we believe should change.
    • In particular, the fuel storage regulations could be improved, which would allow the limited LNT staff and volunteers to focus on other, more directly useful things and spend more time educating participants about LNT.  We believe this would have a larger positive impact on playa health and MOOP. 
  • Improving support for operations teams that interface with government agencies
    • As BLM continues to expand its on-playa monitoring program and areas of focus, Government Affairs recognizes the need to provide increased support and training for operations managers that interface with BLM staff. 
    • Government Affairs will be developing guidance for these managers in the form of concise and actionable standard operating procedures. We are also looking at hosting pre-event trainings for these managers to help them feel comfortable and confident in their interactions with government representatives. 
  • Stronger external comms to help get out in front of narratives about our event in the media.

LEARN MORE

IN THE JOURNAL:

People Operations

Logan Mirto writes:

2023 was a great year for People Operations on playa, where we got to reap the rewards of our months of solid planning and preparation. Our biggest story this year revolves around excellent execution and strong teamwork. All areas of our operation had good coverage and minimal burnout, thanks to a well-rounded, experienced, and extremely capable team. The systems and processes we had in place worked almost exactly as intended, leading to minimal delays and good throughput. The result was a year that can only be described as a success. No punishing defeats to speak of, just a smooth year for our operation that validated our methods and strategies. It’s one that we’ll look back on as a benchmark for how things should be done.

Our major successes all came from building off of the lessons of 2022, and honing our strengths while building a strong foundation for success. Our team was well-balanced both in our skill sets and our cohesion, and this year everyone had at least one year of working on site under their belt, which made a notable difference in our tone, confidence, and capability. We also had the welcome addition of a Lifecycle Manager, which added another set of hands to the Employee Relations side of our team, and put a fresh set of eyes on our processes.

Another noteworthy success was revamping the layout for People Operations and Peer Support in the Commissary Business Park. This new blueprint not only made for a more inviting space for our staff and volunteers, but also helped make collaboration between the teams more effective.

Early on in 2023 we increased our staff support resources by arranging for monthly visits to Gerlach by a mental health clinician, and rolling out a playa-centric Manager’s Toolkit which serves as a quick reference for a lot of policies and protocols.

Finally, on the tech side, we have transitioned to Asana for more of our process management, which has been helpful in both project organization and team collaboration. Between that and Paycom becoming a familiar tool after a full year of use, we had a great set of tools to work with throughout the season.

Fortunately, the weather challenges of 2023 did not have a significantly negative impact on our work, beyond a few delayed meetings and logistical complications.

PEOPLE OPERATIONS BY THE NUMBERS

  • Total Number of Seasonal Employees: 1,083
  • Total Number of Seasonal Roles: 1378
  • Total Number of Seasonal Hiring Requests (Pants) Submitted to PO: 2,144
  • We are not in the spotlight, and that’s as it should be.

LOOKING AHEAD TO 2024

We faced communication challenges, language barriers, technological challenges, and an unintentional three-tiered approval process, which resulted in significant bottlenecks and delays. This process is already being reimagined and reworked to make sure that we have a much smoother system in place for 2024.

Other things that worked but that we will continue to refine were our PO office schedule, which was largely effective but occasionally left us both over and understaffed, and our Manager On Duty program, which needs a bit more definition and clarity of purpose to be maximally effective.

Philosophical Center: Burning Man LIVE Podcast

Michael Vav writes:

We experimented, we expanded, we refined. 2024 is when we will shine.

We published a dozen episodes this year, about 50 minutes each, with custom episode pages, graphics, social media posts, notes, links, photos and transcripts that are accurate and readable. We have published 73 episodes in total since we launched in June of 2020.

This year’s episodes spanned from AltSpace to Midburn to trippingly.net to the biology of northern Nevada to positive pranking to innovations in sustainability.

This year’s episodes:

We worked with the Documentation team to record video of the Playa Pops Orchestra performing at The Temple, the Black Rock Philharmonic performing at Chapel of Babel, and the Playa Choir & Sunday Sermon performing at their camp. We will pair that video with interviews we conducted before BRC to create episodes with complementary video assets.

We are just beginning to record higher quality audio and video remotely with less demand on the guests by using a remote studio platform called Riverside.fm instead of Zoom and personal recording devices.

We just hired a part time Media Editor to support the creation and production of audio and video projects and promotions.

We are now getting support from a new member of the Communications Department on podcast strategy. In addition to Kirsten Weisenberger, we will have Allie Wollner helping us better scheme and scope episodes, optimize who to talk with when, prepare the narrative arc of the interviews, and sculpt the final products.

We are transitioning our process from dog-eared spreadsheets into a robust project management tool used organization-wide.

We plan to reduce post-production time by better preparing guests to provide more succinct and impactful answers and dialogue, while retaining our spontaneous conversational tone.

We plan to produce video clips to promote episodes, short video stories for social media, and stand-alone video vignettes based on our podcast episodes that cross-promote the episodes.

BURNING MAN LIVE BY THE NUMBERS

  • 100,000 total downloads between our start in June 2020 and August 2022.
  • 175,500 total downloads to date.
  • Our episodes continue to be downloaded once a day per episode on average.
  • We continue to syndicate to Shouting Fire Internet Radio monthly.
  • We now syndicate to Gerlach Radio 94.5 FM thanks to Steven Blumenfeld!
  • We do all this with a ragtag team of 5 staffers who are also busy with other roles!

Andie Grace also adds:

Burning Man’s Oral History Project is a multi-year collection and preservation effort to gather the oral histories of Burning Man as told by instigators and collaborators from throughout its existence and from every corner of the culture.

Through an ongoing series of hundreds of 1-on-1 video interviews, we are creating a broad and enduring repository of personal accounts that detail the origins of Black Rock City, its various traditions, its departments and teams, and many of its cultural practices.

Oral Histories are “primary sources that are meant to be accessible, discoverable, and understood; evidence for historical and anthropological understandings, as well as other disciplines; cultural objects; and archival objects requiring long-term preservation.” (Source: Oral History Foundation.) Thus, in contrast to many interviews we and other players have conducted or participated in for some external sources and entertainment projects, an Oral History seeks first and only to take a studious, balanced approach to the task of gathering as many of these stories as possible into one shared repository, and to weave a lasting history of Burning Man so that it may be widely and persistently understood from a cultural perspective.

Through this collection effort, those stories are captured through the memories of the people who made it happen as it unfolded through time, including not only our early staff and founders, but a wide swath of cultural progenitors and contributors from all around the community. We’ve begun interviewing Burning Man’s very earliest artists and builders, its first DJs, and the first guy ever to make a stink about people digging holes in the playa surface. We’re querying the originators of what became BRC’s infrastructural teams and processes about how, exactly, we came to do the things we still do now on the playa, and beyond. (Why did we ever say, “No Spectators,” and when did we stop? Who invented DPW Ladies Night? Did the Greeters really used to spank people? Who shot Flash?)

We’re digging into the source code for Burning Man, from the diehards who’ve been working on it since day one, to those who left the dust behind years ago (but who still get to say they knew the Man back when). From symbols and rituals to norms and beliefs and to literal desert building practices, we seek to explore and preserve the roots of our culture.

These recordings will be held as a repository and shared not only through future presentation and preservation as a digital oral history; we may include highlights from time to time through our other media, such as the Burning Man LIVE podcast, via social videos and other such productions, in addition to sharing these many hours of material and supplemental research once all are compiled to share with the world.

Most of our subjects, even those whose interest in Burning Man participation has waned, have been more than happy for their chance to enter into record their memories and stories, and after almost a year of capturing these video interviews in person and remotely, this small team has hundreds of them still ahead. We also created a standard operating procedure, so that as resources allow, a wider team of interviewers can contribute to this effort as we move through the timeline, and ever more names are added to the list of Burning Man’s many instigators and collaborators from all throughout its history.

No interviews were conducted on the playa for this project, but we are proud to have captured some gold already. And, we’re just getting started! Have also created a field kit for on the road interviews, we have so far gathered histories in Portland, OR, Gerlach, NV, and Doyle, CA.

LOOKING AHEAD TO 2024

Our goals:

  • Streamlining post production process, utilizing assistance from new part-time Video Editor
  • Switching from Zoom to Riverside for remote interviews to improve audio quality
  • Keeping the autofocus ON

LEARN MORE
LIVE.BURNINGMAN.ORG

Radical Inclusion, Diversity, and Equity (R.I.D.E.)

Harley K. Dubois writes:

We expanded and improved our ticket program for the Burning Man event. We were able to distribute 1,500 tickets (150 more than 2022) to BIPOC and other underrepresented Burners across individuals, Multicultural POC Neighborhood groups, R.I.D.E. Roundtable network, theme camps, artists, and mutant vehicle teams. This is our most concrete and scalable effort to diversify Black Rock City. The ticketing program opened in May and carried through July with individuals able to request ticket access by emailing RIDEticketing@burningman.org. We also shared information to ticket recipients about potential host camps for BIPOC Burners to connect those who needed it with a home camp in BRC.

R.I.D.E. in Black Rock City

  • We had a lot of on-playa talks and meetings
  • Chef Juke and Emma Weisman were interviewed on Diversity Chat by Kanizzle on BMIR
  • There was a R.I.D.E. panel at BRCC (Black Rock Community College) which included Pedro, Emma Weisman, KJ, King Viv and X from Stewardship, and Siobhan from Education, and Haven from DPW.
  • R.I.D.E Stewardship supported the MCPOC Neighborhood in its second year.
  • An MCPOC panel on Friday, September 1, was Hosted at Kosmic Kamels by Diara J. Townes featuring three camp leads: Mama Dynamite, Nexus, Playa Chuck, and guests Harley & Level: Multiculturalism in the Muck of Burning Man.
  • We held the Choose Your Juice Mimosa Toast — a very fun event dreamed up by long-time R.I.D.E. volunteer R.M. Michaële Antoine — at Center Camp. We invited all staff and community to choose their juice to reflect how there are many ways to choose how to support and be involved with R.I.D.E work.
  • BIPOC Beats Collective supported the booking and promotion of DJs of color at Burning Man.

Accessibility & Diversity Initiatives in Black Rock City and Beyond the Dust

  • Mobility art tours were offered throughout the event
  • ASL camp expanded, and ASL was available at Playa Info
  • Blind Burners’ touchable maquettes were available in the ARTery
  • R.I.D.E. content expanded with Hive collaborations including creation of Black Rock City R.I.D.E. Resource Group
  • R.I.D.E. Stewardship team continued to offer R.I.D.E. Stress Test training online to further circulate this tool, and develop a community of peer leaders to support one another in interrogating our own blindspots
  • Analyzed information about how Regional Contacts and official Regional Event organizers are engaging in R.I.D.E. work through information shared through their annual reports and AfterBurns.
  • We saw more volunteer support with R.I.D.E. initiatives
  • Diversity Chat continues to have well-attended biweekly meetings.

R.I.D.E. Art in Black Rock City

  • Farmer the Rigger
  • Build a Seat
  • Pada Pagoda
  • Mona
  • Healing Sirens
  • Cactus of Life
  • Alabrijes
  • Animales de la Playa
  • Jibaro Soy

LOOKING AHEAD TO 2024

  • Placement will need administrative help with ticketing and R.I.D.E. program alignment.
  • Our team will work on better communication of the ticket program, schedule, and process. Currently only one volunteer will be returning. We could use two more.
  • More widely shared information about R.I.D.E. events happening in Black Rock City.
  • We are planning to host a 2024 Town Hall event.
  • Institutionalize R.I.D.E. as a cultural value.
  • Commitment of time and resources time to Radical Inclusion.
  • Solidify our relationship with the R.I.D.E. Roundtable.
  • Create more support for R.I.D.E. work across departments, including co-learning opportunities to increase R.I.D.E. as an institutional value.
  • Invest in rest, acknowledge team burnout.
  • Goal of collecting inclusive data.
  • Diversity in hiring.

LEARN MORE

IN THE JOURNAL:

Sustainability

Gremlin writes:

2023 was a pivotal year for our Sustainability efforts, showcasing exciting results emerging from four years of heroic work by many organizational leaders around the 2030 Sustainability Roadmap goals, and more recent collaborations between our BRC Ops teams, our internal program leadership groups (i.e. NVO, Fly Ranch and BWB) and participant-led initiatives. We’ve built upon the framework provided by the 2030 Sustainability Roadmap and the testing and prototyping performed in 2022, and powerfully expanded our efforts to further reduce our fossil fuel use, utilize renewable energy, transition towards electric vehicles and grow our support of participant-led projects and organic community efforts.

Before the event, the Off Fossil Fuels team formed and facilitated two new cross-departmental “Net Zero BRC” working groups consisting of leaders from the Department of Public Works (DPW), BRC Operations, Power and Utilities, Placement, Art, Solar, Communications, Business Services, Outside Services, Burners Without Borders, Fly Ranch and Nevada Operations to support our sustainability efforts in Gerlach and Black Rock City, with a particular focus on our 2030 Sustainability Roadmap goal “Being Carbon Negative.”

BIG STORY: NEW POWER VENDOR ALIGNED WITH OUR SUSTAINABILITY GOALS AND GENERATOR-BATTERY COUPLING FOR DPW GRID

The financial support provided by our OFF program in 2023 allowed our DPW/BRC Ops team to capture the momentum around the successful 2022 battery coupling test case on our Point 1 grid. This ultimately led to a transition to a new power vendor that could support this effort, and has now committed to working with Burning Man Project to achieve our Net Zero BRC carbon impact goals.

In addition to providing a larger suite of technological solutions, better pricing, and a more collaborative approach with the support of their sustainability department, this new vendor also supports investments in carbon off-sets to help us get to a Net Zero impact. This vendor partnership move alone has enabled and accelerated Burning Man Project’s ability to drive our emission goals related to BRC grid operations from a 0% to 99% probability of success in the next 3-4 years if we keep on track, and has been a transformative development for Burning Man Project in this space. 

On the execution side, after three years of analyzing grid data provided by utilizing in-house monitoring systems developed by our power consultant, Genie, and guided by the sage management of Hotspot, we took a huge step forward this year by (i) breaking up our 8 megawatt power grid into 62 smaller distributed grids and (ii) coupling 80% (47 of 62) of such grids with batteries.

These efforts had two impactful results. First, they allowed Burning Man Project to utilize smaller, more efficient generators. Second, we were able to otherwise store and utilize all power we generated, greatly reducing, if not fully eliminating in some cases, any wasted energy produced by burning fossil fuels.

More importantly, this initiative had the unanticipated and priceless butterfly effect of providing resiliency to our grid infrastructure at just the right moment. In 2023, we experienced two major rain events where fuel trucks were grounded and unable to make deliveries for 2-3 days during a critical build operations time period and peak event week activities. During these two rain events, the DPW grids experienced zero failures due to lack of fuel. All critical infrastructure and related communications — radio, internet, cell service — were able to maintain full functionality.

SOLAR

In 2023, we doubled our fleet of mobile solar pop-up assets to eight (8) units, including showcasing our Solar team’s innovation efforts with two new single container designs, one a solar refrigeration or “reefer” and one a stand-alone solar powered workshop. Both were displayed at Burners Without Borders Camp in the Green Corridor.

Similarly to last year, we powered the build and the operations of the Man Pavillion, and this year, for the first time, fully powered the Temple with a “unicorn,” a double-container solar shade structure. We built a third “next-gen” unicorn to support Center Camp operations that was integrated in a battery-coupled grid, and also powered Gate, DMV and Ranger Outpost Zero completely on solar.

We upgraded 20% of our mobile solar trailer (the “Scarabs”) to increase their solar production capabilities and energy storage capacity. The Scarabs successfully supported our build and strike operations, replaced generators for smaller power needs, supported selected art installations and various operations in and around Northern Nevada year-round.

In total, our solar assets generated over 7.7 MWh of energy in 2023 and continue to provide renewable energy supporting our year-round operations in Northern Nevada.

In Northern Nevada, we’ve contracted for a rooftop solar installation to be installed this fall for the Gerlach office and Helen’s House, continuing to move our year round operations off of fossil fuel based energy sources, and creating the initial infrastructure for clean electric vehicle charging.

RENEWABLE FUELS

In 2023, we hired a Renewable Fuels Project Manager who helped procure 7,476 gallons of R99 renewable diesel to test more broadly on diesel-run equipment and reduce our operational reliance on fossil fuels. The working group successfully received consents from all our key vendors to utilize the fuel, and we were able to successfully test R99 on all key infrastructure equipment, including generators, reefers, and heavy machinery.

This innovation has paved the way for future Renewable Fuels program expansion and opened up a key pathway towards a fossil-free BRC.

COMMUNITY-LED INITIATIVES

We continue to collaborate with community members such as the Green Theme Camp Community (GTCC), Black Rock Labs, and Renewables for Artists team (RAT). This year, we created the Green Corridor, an experimental green neighborhood and placed 10 camps working towards the goals of the 2030 Sustainability Roadmap in the 4 o’clock Sector of the city. GTCC conducted the Compost Project hosted at the theme camp IDEATE to divert over 24 cubic yards of community-generated food waste. In addition, GTCC also hosted BLAST (Burner Leadership Achieving Sustainability Theme Camps), a green camp rating system, in which 63 camps participated. RAT mentored 28 artists and four theme camps to transition their projects and infrastructure to be powered by solar.

SUSTAINABILITY TRENDS ACROSS BLACK ROCK CITY

  • 671 camps (53%) worked towards the Sustainability Roadmap (74+ more than 2022).
  • 868 camps sorted waste into compost (69%).
  • IDEATE hosted a compost project for broad participation for the 6th year..
  • 539 camps (43%) used renewable power.
  • 239 camps (19%) received sustainability tickets.
  • 245 camps (20%) participated in Humans Uniting for Better Sustainability (HUBS).
  • 35% of Honoraria Art Projects made significant effort towards Sustainability Roadmap.
  • 65% of Art Projects are working towards the Sustainability Roadmap.

To have the Washoe County Sustainability Manager speak on our Sustainability Call along with artists, MVs, camps, Autumn Harry from Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe, and our CEO represented major progress towards our sustainability efforts, and demonstrated the emergence of this work as a core value and mission of our year-round community. The 2030 Roadmap and goals are becoming central to what Burning Man, BRC, and participants do, and that has overflowed into positive collaborations with many outside organizations and people.

In 2023, the OFF team and associate Net Zero BRC working groups accomplished the following:

  • Successfully integrated and tested multiple battery technology solutions coupled with diesel generators in Gerlach during the event pre-season, allowing us to move forward with our BRC grid/battery program. This effort required weeks of tireless trial and error with our DPW Power team, SunBelt and 14-17 battery software reprogramming attempts — a truly innovative and collaborative effort. There are some real unsung heroes here, and we are tracking down more details on the whole story.
  • Implemented a new grid design, breaking down BRC’s event operations 8MW electrical grid into 62 distributed grids, allowing a transition to smaller, more efficient generators and reducing fuel consumption.
  • Coupled 80% (47 of 62) of our grids with batteries on playa based on testing in Gerlach. The new grid design survived two major rain events with zero grid failures due to fuel needs, preliminarily indicating a significant operational fuel reduction.
  • Expanded our “pop-up” mobile solar demonstration fleet to eight units. We powered the Man, the Temple, Center Camp, Gate, DMV, and Ranger Outpost Zero, among other key infrastructure, and notable demo projects, completely on solar.
  • Expanded our testing of high performance, renewable diesel on equipment and vehicles to 8,000 gallons (8x increase from 2022 to 2023), and can report back zero issues in any use case that we trialed, paving the way for program expansion. For 2024, we also hope to explore options on organically-derived alternative fuel replacements for gasoline, propane, and kerosene.
  • Upgraded 20% of our 60 mobile solar trailers (the Scarabs), improving their solar panel production and battery storage capacity, and power our build and strike operations, as well as 17 art projects.
  • Purchased and tested four (4) small electric UTVs as potential replacements for diesel truck needs on playa and year-round on our Northern Nevada properties (big potential for future operational cost saving here as well).
  • Continued our transition from diesel to solar-powered light towers where operationally and financially feasible (from 40 to 70 units in 2023).
  • Executed rooftop solar contracts for clean power generation and EV charging stations on the Burning Man Project HQ office building and Helen’s House in Gerlach.
  • Continued the composting and recycling of all waste from Burning Man Project operations in BRC and our Nevada properties. In 2022, 100% of the organic waste from BRC’s operations was reclaimed and used for a carbon sequestration and native species land rejuvenation project at Fly Ranch.
  • Continued the year-round use-case testing of our mobile solar fleet on our properties in Northern Nevada, and reduced our off-grid properties’ dependence on diesel generators.
  • Opened pathways for BRC participants to learn and implement renewable practices, including the Sustainability Ticket Program, and launching the Green Corridor
  • Supported and participated in local coalitions, with Team Climate-Resilient Gerlach securing a Federal Energizing Rural Communities Prize award in 2023.
  • Dedicated a full-time team of organizational leaders, project managers, and a data scientist to support implementation of our Net Zero/OFF initiatives and report on our CO2e emissions and the impact of these efforts going forward.

This year we sought to empower key operational leaders to implement initiatives that were workable within their teams and existing operations through the formation of initial Net Zero BRC working groups. We see a huge opportunity to expand on this successful approach more broadly across the organization and integrate these efforts going forward to achieve our 2030 Roadmap goals.

OFF BY THE NUMBERS

  • 47 of 62 DPW power grids (80%) coupled with batteries
  • 8 pop-up solar installations deployed to power the Man Pavillion, the Temple, Center Camp, Gate, DMV, and Ranger Outpost Zero, among other key infrastructure, and notable demo projects, completely on solar
  • 8,000 gallons of renewable fuel (R99) procured, utilized, and successfully tested on various equipment
  • 70 solar light towers, increased from 40 in 2023
  • 10 camps placed in the Green Corridor
  • 60 Scarabs (mobile solar trailers) deployed, 10 upgraded
  • 7.7 MWh generated by solar assets in 2023
  • 4 electric UTVs tested

LOOKING AHEAD TO 2024

  • Integrate more standardized data collection processes to feed into an annual emissions inventory report, and focus key departmental leaders on keeping records of key data so we can make smart decisions on investments going forward.
  • Incentivize participant progress around sustainability by revamping our Sustainability Ticket Initiative.
  • Grow, institutionalize and empower internal working groups to clean up our own operations to lead with integrity.
  • Focus on providing more educational initiatives, gatherings, event-related incentives, programs and general access for BRC participants to engage more powerfully around Burning Man Project’s sustainability efforts.
  • Build more prototypes for our deployable solar installations and develop working groups to explore long term, bigger picture partnerships and opportunities for innovation around regenerative (carbon removal and storage) practices and investments.
  • Coalesce around a shared fundraising program narrative to capture the energy around this issue and focus our work on clear impact in this space.

IN THE JOURNAL:

Technology

Steven Blumenfeld writes:

Our Technology team underwent significant changes at BRC, as we operationally split the network into two main functions with dedicated teams for the Core Network and Playa Networks. The biggest change in the Playa Network is that it was predominately wireless which resulted in better coverage and the elimination of  about 23 miles of copper ethernet cable!

The Core Network also saw a huge improvement this year as our technology team worked hard to bring fiber to Gerlach. The fiber showed up just in time, giving us a huge increase in bandwidth and reliability to support all our operational needs in Northern Nevada.

We simplified our handling and distribution of the thousands of devices, cables, printers, monitors, computers, etc. that we deploy to run BRC every year. This year, we outfitted our storage semi truck so it could act as both off-season storage and inventory office during BRC. Not having to load and unload inventory saved time and, more importantly, allowed us to better track items. Additionally, this year we deployed an updated inventory tracking system that allowed us to better support all the various needs on playa.

We did a significant amount of training for staff and stakeholders. We accomplished our goal of offering more self service and gave the technology staff the ability to focus on resolving the bigger issues we faced. During the rains and mud that followed, the team was able to jump into action and very quickly deploy a participant wifi network. We deployed a high speed wifi network in three strategic locations so our BRC citizens could communicate with family and friends, make travel arrangements, find child care, and more. This year, we saw over 24,000 unique devices on the network and over 60 terabytes of data to and from the playa over the course of the event.

In Software Engineering, we have been working on broad maintenance projects, normalizing data, and cleaning up tech debt. We have been working closely with our stakeholders and incorporating feedback from their users in order to enhance the participant and staff experience. These projects vary from Asset Management, DMV, Placement, to Resto, Utilities and a host of others. 

Our User Success team has been busy ensuring that our staff and volunteers are constantly learning new skills, through trainings, demos, and learning opportunities. The User Success team also provides technical support for our entire infrastructure year round. Additionally, this year they are supporting a huge rollout of our project management software Asana to the entire organization.

Throughout the year, the technology team supports many year-over-year, ongoing, and new projects. These projects are now scoped, prioritized, managed, and deployed in an organized fashion so we can better and more consistently support our customers. We are continuing to modernize our programs and processes to better align with Burning Man Project’s organizational goals. We will continue to look for new ways to amaze and delight everyone at Burning Man with new ideas, new technologies, and new ways to do old things.

(Return to Table of Contents)

3. Black Rock City (BRC) 2023 Operations

Airport

Simon Hill (aka Trash Dad) writes:

2023 was a year of changing conditions at the airport. Before the rains hit on Friday, we had a week of temperate and beautiful flying weather. Conditions allowed the pilots to gift scenic flights to participants. Then the rains hit, which prompted us to shut down the airport for over two days, which shifted our attention to the tasks of continuously analyzing the runways’ surfaces (essentially, watching mud dry), enforcing the airport closure, and communicating the status of the airport and the evolving forecasted opening time to the many various groups of stakeholders on and off playa.

Over the last two years, we have developed a system for tracking flight operations and data by monitoring information being broadcast by the planes in flight (known as ADS-B). This year, we were able to implement tools to automatically track all landings and takeoffs, as well as identify potential pilot registration issues by analyzing this data live. This development greatly reduced the burden of manual data entry and the inherent potential for human error.

We fostered connection with other departments by gifting rides to dozens of staff and volunteers across the organization.

We expanded participation opportunities outside of scenic flights by hosting a variety of aviation-centric talks and classes at the airport.

While we have pre-defined emergency action plans to guide us in the event of airport closures, the context around each circumstance requires a custom plan. Our airport management team came together beautifully to determine all of the steps necessary to keep everyone safe and for the airport to open again as soon as possible. These projects included strategizing on how we would alter the Burner Express Air schedule to ensure the ability to get all passengers off playa in a timely fashion, as well as the best way to communicate these changes to participants who may not have internet access on playa. We also had to extend our Air Traffic Control schedule into strike week to ensure we had coverage for the late departure of aircraft. Additionally, we had to develop a system of communication with the general aviation pilots about the runway inspection results as we were preparing to open to airport. While we have inspection criteria for determining the durability and safety of the runway surfaces, we discovered that we need more detailed and empirical methods to help us justify our decisions around whether to open or close the airport when the playa is drying.

Most art cars that come to the airport to pick up passengers only offer to transport members of their own camp. We are working to develop systems to encourage mutant vehicles to offer rides to other participants waiting at the airport as well.

AIRPORT BY THE NUMBERS

  • Total Flight Operations (takeoffs and landings): 2509
  • Total number of active pilots: 126
  • Total number of gifted scenic flights: 612 (average of two participants per flight)
  • On our peak days ,we were the 100th busiest airport in the country.

LOOKING AHEAD TO 2024

While we made strides in 2023 towards ensuring a balanced workload for the airport team, we want to continue towards our goal of protecting at least two days off during the event for our paid staff members.

American Sign Language (ASL) at BRC

Terry Schoop writes:

We added four Burn-newbie interpreters, and a new, passionate volunteer coordinator who was inspired to step up after witnessing year one as a Playa Info volunteer. The Community Services Department administrative coordinator took the reins for all team logistics, providing a needed single point of contact. Their duties included scheduling interpreter panel reviews, assisting with ASL camp infrastructure, and requisitioning interpreter resources. Interpreter traveling companions/support persons stepped up to assist in significant ways. A mention of the program at an Event Leadership team meeting by Emergency Services lead staff demonstrated that the Burning Man Project staff was better informed about the presence of this program than last year.

We gathered a mostly new team of professional interpreters, who quickly found their stride and supported one another.

We are grateful that deaf camp Backfire hosted our first social, where our interpreters and managers met and mingled with deaf campers.

Post-event, we were delighted to see one deaf participant describe the interpreters as ‘top notch.’

This year we invited the leadership of deaf theme camps onto our panel reviewing interpreter candidates. We sought to grow the team from six to ten interpreters. Unfortunately, some of our prime candidates withdrew from consideration, and in the end we fielded seven interpreters: three returning veterans from 2022, and four new to the team. Interpreting is physically demanding work, and bicycling to assignments proved challenging in 2022. We requisitioned a four-seater golf cart this year, and support persons took the wheel to chauffeur the interpreters to their more distant assignments and also help in myriad ways.

With the successes of interpreters new to the event in 2022, we downgraded the prerequisite of Burn experience to ‘nice to have.’ As one of our review panelists stated when debriefing 2022, ‘what is documented, can be improved’. In 2022 some 11 assignment categories were recorded on whiteboards. In 2023 we recorded via tablets a robust collection of 30 assignments, including: Green Your Burn, Tantric Foreplay, Art Discovery tours via mutant vehicles, Ranger Family Unification Network, the Neuroscience of Psychedelics, Twerkin’ and Tassel Twirling Lesson and Showcase, and a Playa Sustainability Mutant Vehicle Tour.

LOOKING AHEAD TO 2024

We need to grow the team next year, and will redouble our efforts for a national ASL registry to post our call for participation.

We will add more year-round planning meetings, so the interpreters are more empowered to plan camp and run the program.

We want to help interpreters match to their specialities, whether that be entertainment, or more technical and academic assignments.

We want to spread the service far and wide and will be looking to better serve a wider audience.

Arctica

Ryan (Queen Crash) Welliver writes:

For Arctica, the biggest story was the new Ice Outpost on 6:30 and K. We had a bit of a rough start with the weather, minimal infrastructure, and no internet (resolved quickly thanks to the Tech team). Still, we managed to leave a sizable and positive impact on both the participants, and other working crews/teams at the Burn.

  • The outpost affectionately named “The Outhouse” by our camp was hands down our biggest success story this year, with which we were able to expand our service locations.
  • We reigned in our overextended camp kitchen program.
  • We set a new record for an orderly camp teardown with minimal grumping.
  • We had a successful year with brand new Operation Manager and Transportation Manager.

Arctica has seen every kind of weather the playa has to offer so far. We have a pretty solid plan of action for wet weather, which mostly means hunkering down and staying as dry as possible in a big mesh dome for those working at the poles, and not driving for everyone else. When the weather shuts down our mobility, the best plan of action is keeping spirits high, even when we are vibrating in our chairs for something to do. Thankfully, one of our Escorts had been stocking away a pig onesie just for this occasion. Warm drinks and some muddy performance art kept us laughing through it all.

For those who were delayed entry an impromptu gathering was held in Reno, and we kept in touch to update them as the situation developed. Because we are so dependent on other teams for our setup and infrastructure, we reminded our folks that everyone was doing their best and kept a level head. Even with every team being 3 days behind, we managed to open more or less on time. Every team we met was greeted with understanding and copious amounts of gratitude for their hard work.

ARCTICA BY THE NUMBERS

  • This year marked the longest we have been open and in operation on playa, staying open a day later than usual at Center Ice.
  • We had our largest Transportation team at 17 members.
  • Fewest number of trucks “cracked” for ice in nearly a decade, at 52 trucks
  • Most number of days not driving the semi’s on playa (nearly a week)
  • We had our best percentage of credit card sales this year.

LOOKING AHEAD TO 2024

  • More and improved infrastructure for the outpost 
  • Revising our truck logging and reporting
  • Finding better ways to track and deliver truck invoices
  • Continuing to revamp our in house kitchen plans
  • Timely and accurate camp mapping
  • Better management of our pre-event budget
  • More dancing!

 

Black Rock City Event Operations

Charlie Dolman writes:

The biggest story from 2023 was the positive, cooperative, supportive and good-natured atmosphere at the event. The complete turnaround in the atmosphere from 2022 to 2023. This year we felt good, glorious in many ways, and this was notable shift starting very early on in the season.

In the months running up to the event, it was often overheard, “Hey, this feels good, my staff are having fun, and things are going very well!” And this sentiment carried out onto the playa. Staff, volunteers, and participants of all flavors reported feeling good, enjoying themselves, and that the 2023 edition of Black Rock City was one of the best yet, despite, or perhaps because of, the adversity we shared.

The Weather Events: For many reasons, the weather events were clear illustrations of the competence of the organization, and the resilience and proactive nature of the community. Burning Man Project’s pre-gamed weather response plans worked as intended, and mostly survived contact with the enemy. The community pivoted and recalibrated their engagement with life in the city, supporting themselves and each other. Collectively, Black Rock City’s inhabitants not only survived, but many thrived and prevailed. Of course, this is not an absolute, but the bar has been set very high, and (nearly) everyone on the ground in Black Rock City was part of that.

The rain response is one component of Burning Man Project’s operation, keeping the city going during adverse weather. Re-calibrating build or strike plans afterward is a whole other story. The first weather event impacted everyone’s build timelines. Burning Man Project, Artists, Vehicles, and Camps were all delayed because of rain or, to put it differently, blessed with some downtime to recover from the previous many weeks of labor or take advantage of extra pre-playa planning time. This pre-event hiatus in the regularly programmed schedule felt, in the main, like a blessing, and a lesson for our future selves in human capacity and schedule management.

The big learning from this year’s Black Mud City? We need to improve communication channels between different areas of the organization and between the organization and participants. We need clarity on the tools used, as well as where and when to use them, and the content appropriate for each channel.

In our post-event debrief, open to all Burning Man Project staff, over 50% of the feedback harvested was positive feedback, as opposed to 2022, when 95% of the data was negative.

The 2023 event was a moment in time that restored the collective faith in Black Rock City and its power to be a crucible for change and growth. Event Ops leadership feels empowered to look forward in ways it has not ever done before.

Center Camp

Tinker writes:

Out of the six major working days we had to build out Center Camp, we were only able to properly start halfway through the fourth day, as a tropical storm cell swept across Black Rock City during build week, leaving the playa wet and, in places, totally impassable. Through sheer grit, creative planning, camaraderie, determination, and volunteers continuing to lend a hand after the event had started, we were able to get things placed and opened only a day behind schedule, an impressive and exhausting achievement.

Rain made the setup work much more difficult, and extended the build until mid-Monday of event week. Then the second weather event hit on Friday during the event, bringing more rain… and the public areas of Center Camp had to be shut down after only 3.5 days of operation. Our brand new flooring had become slippery, prompting us to cover all of the sound equipment, place a trash fence around the structure, and button things up as we said goodbye for now to our beloved Center Camp.

Our crew sheltered in place at camp, and we used the old coffee shop flooring that was slated for destruction to build an intricate system of pathways throughout off Center Camp so we could access the common areas and bathrooms more easily and have platforms to keep things out of the water. Later, we extensively MOOPed those areas, and cleaned everything up. It was an impressive team effort that seemed largely self-directed.

We had daily meetings about the storm, where the veterans passed on best practices about keeping tents dry, how to best walk around in the mud, and the camp banded together to keep the common areas serviceable and get everyone what they needed.

During the 3.5 days that Center Camp was open, there were some remarkable events, yet it felt like the space we built with so much care and effort never truly had its time to shine.

Center Camp highlights from 2023:

  • SWIFT, the Shenanigans Wrangling, Facilitation, and Instigation team, completed its second season. We are so looking forward to continuing to refine and develop SWIFT, and continue the shenanigans in new and exciting ways!
  • The Cacophony Society hosted a beautiful cocktail party that brought in gorgeous gowns and stunning suits, tremendous tuxedos and marvelous masks. A delightful time was had by all.
  • We rolled out (er, unfolded) some brand new canvas flooring, replacing the dusty, heavy carpet of previous years. The canvas was lighter, easier to work with, and provided new puzzles to solve.
  • A few members of our team facilitated the purchase of a lot of new couches for Center Camp, a process spanning many emails, a trip to Reno, a temporarily misplaced semi-trailer, logistical puzzle-shooting, and a whole lot of help loading and unloading!
  • Our Production team brought in a crew member from AfrikaBurn, as part of a new exchange program.
  • Our new canvas allowed us to get creative; we worked more closely than ever with Oculus, Center Camp’s build team, to install the flooring without cutting large slits by carefully and temporarily disconnecting rigging lines, one at a time.
  • Volunteers from our 11 different teams all banded together when the second weather event hit, helping to elevate and wrap electrical connections, build boardwalks in camp, keep each other’s spirits up, and share resources.
  • Staffing changes in the pre-season meant we got to see faces and personalities, both new and familiar, shine in their evolving roles on playa.

CENTER CAMP BY THE NUMBERS

  • 177 people (staff and volunteers) dedicated their hands, hearts, and hard work to make Center Camp a reality this year.
  • Of those 177 people, 140 camped in our staff camp, Off Center Camp.
  • The Scumbag Café, Center Camp’s staff kitchen, served a total of 1100 meals to Center Camp volunteers and staff in 2023.
  • Center Camp acquired 3,550 linear feet of new 10′ wide canvas groundcover this year. That’s 35,500 square feet, or .81497 acres… equivalent to about two and a half Olympic sized swimming pools, or 1,387 (and a quarter) Twister game mats.
  • In 2023, The Production team scheduled 116 slots on the Center Stage, Center Camp’s main stage. Unfortunately, the rain storm that hit during the event meant that some of these performers could not join us.

LOOKING AHEAD TO 2024

  • Center Camp continues to refine and redefine its role as the Center of the City and will be actively looking at ways to bring vibrancy and life to the space in a decommodified manner. The future of Center Camp is bright and exciting with myriad possibilities and opportunities. You can expect to see many upgrades and improvements in 2024!
  • Our Decor team (the Deco Society) plans to reinstate an earlier calendar for idea generation and implementation, with calls for ideas beginning in November, meetings beginning in December, announcements in January, and design execution beginning in February.
  • SWIFT (the Shenanigans Wrangling, Instigation, and Facilitation team) continues to identify areas of opportunity, and conversations are underway to make 2024, its third year in action, the best year yet.

LEARN MORE

Center Camp — the Playa’s Living Room 

Center Camp Events & Happenings

IN THE JOURNAL:

Department of Mutant Vehicles (DMV)

Dapper writes:

Last year we made a small change to the way we processed Mutant Vehicles (MVs) which resulted in a BIG change in our on playa experience. We selected a subset of MVs for an expedited processing which required them to only come in once (most come in twice) and allowed them to come in whenever they wanted to during our open hours (most have to come during the day first, and then at night second). The result was that we virtually eliminated our waiting lines. While that was mostly good, it left us concerned about volunteer retention if the job became too boring. This year we focused on volunteer retention by encouraging volunteers to engage more with the vehicles. This had minimal impact on the duration of time each vehicle spent waiting to be processed, but maintained volunteer engagement and enjoyment.

We completely removed ourselves from our city side location and operated 100% out on the playa side of the Esplanade. This consolidated our operations and improved our efficiency. In doing so, we devised a new layout for our structures which greatly improved the flow of vehicle processing by adding a central shade structure with complete visibility of both lanes. We put a lot of attention on our training this year with written materials, and less ad hoc activity.

The rain, of course. It caused us to close early, and it prevented us from doing our teardown on the days we had volunteers scheduled for that work. Without an explicit means of communication we had to rely on word of mouth to coordinate once the weather dried out.

DMV BY THE NUMBERS

  • We added 4 new council members, for a total of 12 council members
  • We licensed 40 daytime MVs, 15 nighttime MVs, and 506 day and night MVs
  • We licensed 361 accessibility vehicles

IN THE JOURNAL:

Emergency Services Department (ESD)

Kate Gonnella writes:

Across all branches of ESD, we experienced positive interactions with our cooperating agencies. We received positive feedback from the BLM on the vehicle fires and hazardous materials incidents our Fire Branch handled.

We implemented the Fulcrum platform to log patient contacts and identify stored fuel locations, which improved both documentation compliance and accurate location identification and reporting.

Burning Man Project moved its dispatch function away from the JOC co-location with the BLM back into the city to the communications hub. With detailed planning and copious communication with the BLM subject matter experts and our vendors, the move was a great success, increasing volunteer and leadership satisfaction. Additionally, given the rain event, we would not have been able to staff our dispatch center had ESD 911 Dispatch been located at the shoreline, so this made it a double win.

The incredible cooperation between ESD, Rampart, and BLM made transports off playa and to the pavement possible, despite the challenges of mud and rain.

The rain event posed serious challenges to the delivery of effective fire protection and mobile EMS services, though we were able to adapt using UTVs from other departments. There was a clear decrease in the volume of medical and other emergencies during the rain event that helped mitigate those challenges a little. Our CIT branch typically responds by bicycle or golf cart, so their response times were greatly increased.

Although we plan and train for a variety of unusual obstacles to our normal event operations, mitigating unique challenges in real time during an event like this isn’t for the faint of heart. With support from other ESD branches, Burning Man Project departments, and outside agencies, we were able to maintain an exceptional level of medical care and emergency response. Some highlights during this time included:

  • CrowdRX licensed ambulances were unable to drive on wet playa, so ESD and Burning Man Project facilitated the reappropriation of UTVs as ALS response units.
  • BLM-staffed dune buggies were instrumental in transferring numerous patients from Rampart to the pavement for rotor or ground transport to Reno and beyond.
  • Fire Branch leadership coordinated the melding of their volunteers with Medical Branch and Rampart assets to help with patient care and movement across playa.
  • ESD volunteers stepped up to cover all the extra shifts and maintain coverage for participants on the playa.

Witnessing so many humans thriving in spite of a lot of literal and figurative muck made the 2023 event particularly memorable. We could not be more proud of the way our staff and volunteers worked with other Burning Man Project departments and outside agencies to ensure that public health and safety weren’t negatively impacted during this time.

Most of our interactions were positive, including the compliance inspection, which went smoothly. All in all, things were unchanged. We continued to follow established emergency services SOPs with the only significant pivot being the use of walking, UTVs, and bikes when responding to calls. Because it was harder to get across the playa, we asked people to report for duty to their nearest medical station.

Whereas we had only one lithium battery fire in 2022, there were five this year. With the increased use of solar power with battery backups, and the increasing numbers of homemade battery packs, its imperative participants and Burning Man Project are adequately equipped with fire blankets and overpack kits in the years to come.

The rain and mud proved a challenge on all of the trucks and cars. Our most reliable transportation was UTVs. We will plan for patient transport and fire response retrofits in the future.

Fulcrum proved invaluable for logging patient care records this year. We plan to develop our longform (more comprehensive documentation for the more seriously ill and injured) into the Fulcrum app if possible in 2024. Our fire branch also used Fulcrum to locate camps with fuel storage. We will enhance the use of Fulcrum in the fire branch in 2024 also.

We’ve been in conversation for years with PCSO regarding sexual assault response and finally developed a protocol that satisfied PCSO while at the same time supporting the survivor. Unfortunately, while Burning Man Project  followed the protocol to the letter, PCSO did not, frustrating survivors and disappointing staff.

ESD BY THE NUMBERS

  • 617 ESD staff and volunteers; 197 were new in 2023
  • 213 medical, 16 fire, and 17 Comm vendor personnel supporting ESD operations
  • 3,347 patients seen by medical (ESD and Rampart combined), 66 crisis team interventions, 28 fire department calls, 842 calls for service via BRC 911 Dispatch

LOOKING AHEAD TO 2024
Staffing very early and very late continues to be a challenge. We plan to spend time in the off season strategizing ways to incentivize folks in order to ensure adequate coverage.

Fire Conclave Council

Crimson Rose writes:

Despite the rain and cancellation of the Fire Conclave activities prior to the release of the Man, the fire groups came together to honor the rituals of the playa anyway. Some presented their shows that they have been building for Burning Man all year, others jammed with new and old friends. They were supported by the BRC Rangers and had a fantastic experience!

Brandon Quillici (a.k.a. Sidequest), Fire Conclave Final Report, writes:
 We arrived early on Monday night and set our fire blankets in a nice big circle with a proper dip station. Most of our conclave came and free spun and many other spinners and a few conclaves joined in. We got to see the Australian conclave perform their fan bit which we really appreciated. Eventually the Rangers told us when to shut it down and they told us they appreciated us still spinning that night.

Chu (a.k.a. Essence), Fire Conclave Final Report, writes:
I’m so happy to report that we had our conclave performance for Monday Man burn. We were shocked to have so many ambient drummers show up… it was absolutely amazing. The feeling of the crowd on all sides of us radiated through our flames. The cheers. The music, the drums pounding away to the Essence of our souls that we are giving and taking at the same time. We followed the same protocol as any normal year… we got to our spot early. We held a perimeter around our performance, cleared by the Rangers, and got to do it all in front of most of the Council. Maybe all of you… don’t quote me on that. To finalize our performance Lady Nichole was proposed to by Trei in front of all of us. Oh man, the tears are coming down as I write this. After this crazy year it couldn’t have ended on a higher note. We went out with a bang and I couldn’t be more proud.

The Tuesday night photoshoot offered as a gift by the Great Circle Documentarians to the Fire Conclave was a great success. The team of 5 photographers and 2 videographers hosted the shoot at the 6:00 spires on L4K and received approximately 200 fire dancers over a 5 hour period. They captured 1000’s of images which they spent Sept and October editing and are about to release to the world. These images are a gift to the fire dancers who may use them for non-commercial purposes. For some, the experience of seeing themselves wielding fire is empowering and transformative

Kevin LeVezu, who put Joshua Nelson on the Conclave wall this year, writes that he just received this note from Joshua:

I had really fallen into being more of a behind the scenes guy building props and managing the fuel station cause that’s where I could be really useful. I didn’t even intend to breath fire for the photo shoot last year and was just there to support the other performers. One of them told me to get up there and I said I didn’t bring my things so she pulled out fuel and a torch and I protested that I wasn’t in fire-safe clothing so she ripped off my damn shirt and I was out of excuses. Seeing that photo last year really reignited a passion for performing and had a big effect on how I see myself. Seeing it this year on the Conclave wall was seriously a lot to process but in the best of ways. I picked up learning fire things after my divorce as a way to find myself again. It’s been quite a journey of discovery. Last year you helped me see myself in a new light that I’ve never really seen before and this year what had felt like a hapless journey wandering aimlessly to wherever it took me felt like I had truly arrived somewhere that I never expected to be but I felt I belonged and had achieved. Beyond the pride, it really brought me a deep sense of honor and peace. Thank you endlessly!

FIRE CONCLAVE BY THE NUMBERS

  • In March of this year, 39 fire groups submitted their intent to perform. On June 21, 30 of those groups submitted their audition videos, and of them, 25 were chosen to perform around the Man and 5 were asked to stand Sentinel.
  • If the Great Circle performance had taken place, approximately 1,100 performers, musicians, crew, and safety would have participated.

Gate, Perimeter & Exodus (GP&E)

Fowler writes:

Due to the first rain event, much of our staff had not been able to make it to playa as scheduled. We needed to re-open the gate when roads dried, but we did not have the staff inside the city to do so. In true Burning Man spirit, the community stepped up and we got volunteers from other departments while we opened the gates to critical staff. Our staff was then able to make it in the city and we were able to keep wait times relatively low when we opened the gates to the public. The second rain event caused challenges for staffing as we could not move to the gravel to relieve staff without a UTV. Donated gators from other departments saved the day and we were able to move supplies and change out staff who were stranded at their station.

I am most proud of how everyone came together to solve the rain issue and the positive attitudes people had during the process. This was credit to our efforts to reduce burnout in the department. We were able to create a new portion of Gate Road to avoid the muddy diamond. As far as I know, this is the first time we have had to re-route the road itself. We were able to extend some operations past schedule to allow for people to return to get their belongings.

We had to adapt by placing staff on the highway during the rain events to prevent traffic from entering the playa. We also had to staff operations later than usual. We had to share/pool resources with each other and other teams to make it work.

Rain preparation to-go kits for staff who get “stuck”outside of the city as they post up at the highway entrances. They will have more supplies ready to go on a moment’s notice.

There seemed to be a very steady rate of traffic through gate during event opening, and our staging lot was cleared in under 2 hours. We had 691 total staff (including volunteers), 187 of which were new volunteers.

Shimmer writes:
Renegade Exodus was the biggest story for Exodus Operations. The sight of Burners walking and driving out into open playa when there was a No Driving order in place meant that we would suffer the consequences of other people’s poor choices. Two significant characters were ChAos the human, and chaos the reality, as we approached the Gravel T (the intersection of the gravel road and CR34) on Sunday afternoon.

Nothing was as it should have been, and for many reasons. The media presence that started with the largest satellite truck I’ve ever seen and kept growing with an unending number of black SUVs, lighting setups and microphones reaching out to someone’s face. The BOAT. Yes, that’s right, the BOAT marooned at the side of the road in everything’s way. The “new” flagging configuration was established by local law enforcement to facilitate the walkers trying to get to Gerlach via our newly created shuttle/bus system. We walked into all of this and went to work without all of our crew, our equipment and our regular systems in place (no pulsing yet, and sadly, no F Lot). When Exodus actually started on Monday afternoon, with a completely new set of radial lanes to take vehicles over the two playa highway “rivers” and back onto the gravel road (avoiding Lake Exodus in the middle of Gate Road), we had re-invented pulsing on the fly to keep the traffic flowing. The teams were amazing, and though many Burners were confused and of course, weary, we received many, many thanks because they watched what we had to do to make the traffic flow meet the demand in real time.

The best collaborations this year were with Burning Man Project IT, especially Cat and crew. Though F Lot never manifested in full, we were able to place our tower, power it with solar, and connect it to the internet. We know we can make that work for 2024 and provide participants with better solutions when they need it during Exodus. On the other hand, poor F Lot would not see the light of day because of the rains and the need to reconfigure Gate Road for Exodus. At the same time, that actually helped me to see how I can make it even better for 2024 in terms of where it will be and how it will be used and staffed. So thanks, rain, for that.

And in the spirit of the “little thing that could”… We placed a solar-powered changeable message sign at Greeters this year to help Burners find their way to Gate Road, based on what we experienced in 2022’s dust storms and white outs. That little sign became a harbinger of information throughout both rain events, when the Gate was closed, when there were No Driving orders, when Exodus was real, and even after most were gone and egress moved to Point 1. Information is POWER.

Our Pulsing teams were amazing making the in real time change to a completely new protocol to keep traffic flowing once we had the new radial roads established.

Our Exodus Flaggers worked 24 hours a day from Sunday through Wednesday evening, the longest we have flagged in years. We kept traffic flowing safely with very low travel times (from Greeters to pavement).

Our Staging Lot crew did an exceptional job loading the lot on Opening Night, and after opening, we emptied the lot back into Gate lanes for processing in record time.

The initial Flagging crew that encountered the Gravel T on Sunday were undaunted by the chaotic operations that had been set up by law enforcement. They jumped into the new roles and made sure everyone was safe during a very, very crazy afternoon into evening. That same crew was the one that worked late into Wednesday night before we closed Exodus down officially. They are my heroes.

Transportation was a huge challenge. Getting things, getting to things, getting people in/out to job sites and back in from being out when the Gate was closed. We would not have been as successful without the UTVs and the fact that other teams were generous with loaning out theirs. The help we received from DPW directing at Greeters during Renegade Exodus to keep Burners from making poor choices as they tried to leave during the No Driving order, often looking to open playa as their route of choice, was very much appreciated.

LOOKING AHEAD TO 2024

  • F Lot for 2024. You’re gonna like it.
  • Travel time. There’s no more waiting. Stay tuned.
  • GARS 2024, with better reach in and out of the city.

Magpie writes:

2023 Successes

  • Moved Gate Road three times and still maintained the flow of vehicles. 
  • Implemented additional managers within ops areas to reduce burnout. 
  • Established extensive collaborations with other departments, especially DPW.
  • Everything happened differently and we adapted by responding with gators and deployment in areas we typically do not staff.
  • C​reated rapid response team to train next generation of leadership, provide relief to overextended supervisors, and respond to urgent situations as they arise with a dedicated team.
  • Managed contracts better.
  • Increased collaboration with People Ops to bimonthly due to addition of Deputy, department manager.

GP&E BY THE NUMBERS

  • 680 volunteers, up by 4%
  • 191 contracts for 170 individuals
  • $8000 submitted via Procurify (up from $0 in 2022), with all expenses submitted on time

IN THE JOURNAL:

Greeters

Vegas Queen writes:

With this year’s “snow days” our team had the opportunity to spend some real quality time all together. Usually we are all over the place making the thing happen, but we were forced to slow down and it was a blessing. It gave the whole camp time to chat, laugh and generally reconnect in ways we have not in some time. I know many of the team felt reinvigorated and reconnected.

The team continues to grow, and growth can be hard. But to the credit of the whole team we have grown slowly and with a lot of thought. The new team members have been a great addition to the existing family and bring passion and skills that will serve the community for years to come.

The team really came together to support not only one another but our neighbors as well as many people navigating the unusual weather. We made sure everyone was fed, we brought those living in tents inside, we checked on our neighbors and were happy to find they were all doing the same.

GREETERS BY THE NUMBERS

  • Greeters had 1,170 shifts staffed by a total of 650 volunteers. 80,000 What, Where, When guides were prepared and distributed by the team.

LOOKING AHEAD TO 2024

  • We are going to expand our shift lead training
  • We need to lay out our camp with a little more thought

 

HEaT (Heavy Equipment and Transportation)

Cuervo writes:

HEaT responded to c. 5,700 requests for equipment assistance for infrastructure, art, and theme camps this year. Certification classes were held for scissor lifts during the build, as well as new and recertifications for HEaT operators and DPW employees. We performed emergency supply runs during the rain event and helped support ESD.

HEaT BY THE NUMBERS

  • 15 new crew members in 2023
  • More than 60 total crew members

LOOKING AHEAD TO 2024

We’d potentially like to put in some walkways in high-traffic areas for next year.

Lamplighters

Snotto (Tony) writes:

The biggest accomplishment was one of the volunteer coordinators reached out to every registered theme camp and took whole camp sign ups pre-event. Volunteering has been dismal in past years. This year, because of this, we had more volunteers than we needed.

We were told on the wet days to not light the city, so there wasn’t much activity. Our kitchen crew still prepared meals — without power — in standing water on a slippery tarp. Total badasses.

LAMPLIGHTERS BY THE NUMBERS

We had the lowest number of campers in the village, but the most outside the village volunteers this year.

LOOKING AHEAD TO 2024

Lamplighters were champs this year, the only thing needed to do differently is keep our lounge kid-friendly.

 

Media Mecca

Carly Rhodes writes:

The challenging weather didn’t phase the Media Mecca team much. We were able to build and tear down our camp in the planned time frame. Everyone came together, supported each other, and had a fantastic time being literally stuck together.

We brought back a storytelling hour hosted at Media Mecca this year. The theme was “Burned” and folks shared stories about burning artwork, being burned by fire, and being burned by friends.

Most of the Communications team went into the event as sophomores this year and it was even smoother than expected. Many of the Media Mecca volunteers have been with the team since its inception and continued to mentor new volunteers and the newer members of the Comms team making this year a success.

MEDIA MECCA BY THE NUMBERS

  • We received 207 media project proposals and approved 173 of them. We saw more international projects this year than in years past with proposals coming from Japan, France, Germany, and Australia to name a few.
  • Media Mecca ran thanks to 77 volunteers.
  • We received a total of 299 media project proposals: 
    • 207 proposals from the press, pre-event
    • 131 of the approved projects checked in on-playa
    • 40 fire conclave proposals
    • 52 from the Burning Man Documentarian team

LOOKING AHEAD TO 2024

Our team is working to improve our emergency response plan. 2023 taught us all a lesson and even if we thought we were prepared, we can do better. We will assign volunteers and camp members roles to take on in an emergency or weather-related situation.

Nevada Ops

Nipps writes:
Nevada Operations is comprised of 16 teams, some of which are planners, builders, maintainers, and movers. Other teams focus their care on our crew providing housing, food and respite. We have a personnel team and waste stream specialists. While others decompress post-event, we shift gears to the next (colder) part of our journey; our season doesn’t stop. We are office folks and heavy equipment operators coming together to grow and maintain Burning Man Projects assets in Northern Nevada. 

GERLACH OFFICE

The biggest story coming out of the Gerlach Office for this year is successfully creating an office environment that was welcoming and safe, such that people wanted to come in to visit, say hello, get candy (multiple times), and get a cuddle and kiss from Patrick the office pup. Every person except for one on the Gerlach Office/Packages team were new to NVO this year, yet we were able to handle office and packages operations efficiently and with a smile. 

 A concern that we identified is that the office space is too confining when there are hoards of people coming through, all with different and unique needs. During the event cycle we welcoming guests, visitors and staff, housing operations for some of DPW and NVO, and provide space for credentialing. While we enjoyed working with the credentialing team, the office team felt hindered in their ability to perform their basic tasks when the credentialing lines were in residence. At that point, the office staff became crowd control. It would be fantastic to find an alternative dedicated space for credentialing. 

The office is the main point of contact for staff and in a constantly changing environment, we need to be informed of all changes as they are occurring. Staff come to the office as a central hub and we need to be apprised of the most up-to-date information so we can accurately and appropriately share it out.

GERLACH CENTER

The Gerlach Center team focused operations onto the land this year, pushing the 360 acres towards the goal of having a space that will eventually be able to house staff and guests. This meant working around contractors who graded new roads and drilled for fresh water. The first test well hit an artisan hot spring, giving us hope for the possibility of having our own viable water source independent of the Gerlach water supply. It was quite the experience to see the hydrologists and contractors in action. 

BRC STORAGE

Did BRC Storage crush our operating goals and deliver an amazing service to BRC Storage participants? Yes, absolutely (and with gusto!). That said, the biggest story from BRC Storage this year is creating a sustainable culture that puts the same emphasis on people as on our operations.

The entire crew was amazing: great selection of talents, great acculturation for newbies. During moments of “uh-oh, this isn’t unfolding as expected,” the veteran crew were invaluable in determining how we would pivot and still arrive at our intended destination. Having crew join from other departments brought experiences from different perspectives.

Collectively, between the returning veterans, veterans from other teams, as well as lots of incredibly talented DPW/NVO first-timers, we were able to forge not only a firm and efficient working relationship with each other but also interpersonal bonds that allowed for our new culture to emerge.

NVO PERSONNEL

2023 was the first full year/event cycle for the NVO Personnel team. Since 2021, the Personnel team has been a one-person show handling everything from covid cases to PO cases, submitting all hiring paperwork, managing two staff support teams all the while participating in the department as a member of leadership, regularly working with People Operations and DPW. Eventually the duties exceeded anything possible for one human to handle (sanely). In July of 2022, the personnel team added one more member who quickly jumped in helping with administrative duties (spreadsheets) and hiring. For 2023 the team had a well seasoned system for processing hiring requests, documenting and disseminating information all the while improving systems to care for the staff of Nevada Operations. 

SUCCESSES

One of the biggest successes for the Gerlach Center crew (besides escaping burnout) was not getting the Hyster stuck on the container pad that had seen some stability changes over the winter. When it came to loading trains and moving containers; we nailed it. We successfully worked with BRC Storage who gave us a list of trains so we’d know in what order to send them to playa. Shifts were staggered, each with a partner in a side-by-side with a map of the PCs. This way, there was time to stage containers outside of transpo hours. The truck drivers complimented us on how quickly we were able to load the trains. 

As for the BRC Storage crew, this year’s successes focussed on planning. This year we made an effort to capture as much information as possible about how long each small step of our operation takes and what tools and staffing are required to complete those steps. The effort produced a reliable data set with which we’re able to identify bottlenecks and other challenges before exponentially expanding the BRC Storage program. Not only will this help inform decisions about equipment rentals, equipment purchases, scheduling of operations, and hiring, it will also help us preserve (and even improve) the crew/volunteer experience by knowing exactly which combination of strengths and qualities to seek when recruiting a team, as well as setting realistic expectations for those individuals. 

The Gerlach Office improved the system by which lost luggage is logged and delivered to Playa Info, where participants received their luggage much more quickly than in the past (within the same day). Received compliments from Playa Info on the improvement. 

Also focused on planning and preparation of the 2023 season, the NVO Personnel team set the goal of working collaboratively with other departments within Burning Man Project. We achieved this by having open lines of communication with PO, DPW, GP&E, etc about our hiring plans and needs. We aimed to be flexible and accommodating while seeking the best possible outcomes. 

A major success for all of NVO was the coordination of mental health care/therapy sessions running from April through November offering 216 sessions to staff in Gerlach. This was a large expansion from what was offered in previous years. 

WHAT HAPPENED DIFFERENTLY

Luckily, for the Gerlach Center and BRC Storage crews, the rain events occurred at the best possible moments for our operations. 

It was fortunate that we had staff on the outside of BRC (in town) during both rain events, as we did a lot of work to support staff and participants who were stuck in Gerlach due to the rain. We helped cook, serve and clean up meals for in-town staff and supported teams posted at the road entrances to BRC. We also assisted participants as they walked out of BRC to town. 

During the event in 2022 the personnel team was saddled with excessive last minute add on requests, lost credentials, the completion of the NVO handbook (and printing) as well as employment agreement extensions. In preparation of the 2023 season, we reevaluated the timeline for the NVO Handbook to be available before we moved to playa and digital only. We also addressed the handling of contacts to ensure that we were not processing extensions during the event cycle when other departments like PO and accounting are experiencing different than normal work flows and working conditions, we also had no last-minute on-playa credential issues. 

NVO BY THE NUMBERS

Nevada Operations hired 152 different humans into 173 roles and welcomed 28 volunteers. NVO has 27 year-round roles working remotely and in Gerlach to support operations. The bulk of our season is from April to November. Many of our teams welcome folks who have never been to Gerlach, or Burning Man. Like the Gerlach center crew who had only seven members, three of whom had never been to the event. 

  • January 2023 — October 2023: the Gerlach Office received and processed approximately 8,100 personal and purchasing packages for staff.
  • August 28 — September 1: reunited 35 pieces of lost luggage with participants
  • May — August 2023: the office checked in 444 people (numbers may represent some multiple visits by the same individual); May: 38, June: 47, July: 171, Aug: 188 

BRC Storage had the largest event cycle team in NVO with 29 people (14 were volunteers). The team had planned to move 296 participant-owned PCs from The 360 to BRC and place them in highly customized configurations in six days. They completed the task in three and a half days and needed to revisit/move only nine of the PCs for adjustment. This was with only ⅔ of the team available (the rest of the team was pulled to complete surveying where PCs would be dropped). This victory was made possible thanks to collaboration with Gerlach Center and HEaT, as well as the crew’s commitment to rally.

As for camp visits to confirm that PCs were placed correctly, and to assess any wear and tear on the PCs, the rain shortened our window of five days to only three days, yet the team rallied and were able to visit exactly the number of camps that we initially set out to visit. This victory was made possible by the crew and volunteers. They’re amazing!

IN THE JOURNAL:

NVO Specialty Construction

James ‘PoPEYE’ McManus writes:

NVO Specialty Construction consists of two teams. Box Build in the season leading up to the event, and Rehab, working pre-season through post-season. Box Build slammed it out of the park — building 14 new living boxes, three office boxes, and two office containers! Finishing even earlier than last year. They were quickly re-tasked into more construction, building out a semi-trailer. The team rehabbed in the pre-season and rebuilt six living containers that had been damaged and one office container along with learning a new work order tracking software called MaintainX, which helped immensely for repair calls on playa.

The event this year really showed the benefit of our continuing design change. Our Boxes and LCs were reliable, holding up against the weather. Not just the heat from previous years, but also against the rain. It was a great.

This year for Rehab, we started using a new Asset Tracking Software, which we are still in the process of fine tuning. It has helped us track materials, time, labor, and work. For Box Build, the return of committed and experienced builders is allowing us to push the design, not only in functionality. We’re able to add unique character and artistic flair that keeps a standardized build from becoming cookie cutter.

Box Build is looking into adding some new redesigns of the Living Containers,

NVO SPECIAL CONSTRUCTION BY THE NUMBERS

  • Total Assets: 564 
  • 202 service calls on playa

NEW BUILDS:

  • 14 Living Boxes
  • 3 Office Boxes
  • 2 Office Containers
  • 1 Tractor Trailer Office

REHAB PROJECTS:

  • 6 Living Containers
  • 1 Office Container

Outside Services (OSS)

Shaye Harty writes:

There is so much to share from my department that isn’t known in the wider organization. First of all, the job of the OSS manager has changed drastically since 2016. The current role is more in line with a Vending Manager or Vending Relations Manager. 

The OSS Manager and the OSS Department have been key players in maintaining our organization and event compliance for our federal permit. The BLM, on the other hand, has steadily increased their Special Recreation Permit (SRP) monitors for commercial compliance by more than double since 2019. This year, we had six SRP monitors who were charged with observing our compliance efforts and signing off on the fact that Burning Man Project has upheld our permit stipulations.

Post event several teams collaborated to find an adequate process for allowing participants, companies, and hired workers to enter the event site without becoming non-compliant with our permit. The Government Relations team, Business Services, OSS, accounting and Event Ops teams worked together to create a process that worked and the BLM was satisfied with. The big win is that we will have that process in future years (with some changes) if we ever have a weather event or other emergency situation that requires a similar work around.

We opened McKinley Park and the OSS office earlier than ever, which was a huge success both for the safety and efficiency of the OSS program, but also the health and happiness of the OSS providers.

We finally were able to get an OSS Operations Manager, which will be extremely helpful in 2024, after they had their training on playa this year.

The OSS Gate Compliance program was very effective now that we were able to increase the team to two dedicated seasonal staff.

The OSS Special Operations team (aka the “Scooby Doos”) was utilized in a more effective manner due to the overhaul of the Fulcrum app and having one experienced team member train the three new staff members.

Working with the BLM was smooth with the new team. Veterans who have a high level of trust with the department manager fared well too. As mentioned above, we worked collaboratively with the BLM to make a new process for returning to the event for either companies that need an SRP or putting camps under our SRP, should they be required to hire temporary workers to help with their LNT efforts that are beyond their control (i.e. a weather event).

Placement and the OSS teams worked extraordinarily well together again to visit problematic camps and help acculturate them through compassionate and crucial conversations. Camping together helps foster a spirit of collaboration and inspiration.

My team was able to get trained to work Gate for the delayed build opening. They found great value in doing a Gate shift, and many will continue to volunteer for Gate in future years.

The rain was difficult and it made working incredibly hard. We were very thankful that the ELT meetings were moved to the radio, as we could not get on the virtual meetings.

Having some of the team there very early pre-event in Gerlach was helpful to get the flow of our department going and work out a lot of the unforeseen things easily and on the fly.

We need more staff, both paid and volunteer. Currently, the department manager is on call 24/7, which meant they would have to go staff D-Lot at gate at all hours of the night. We will be adding a third person to rotate through overnight shifts.

We will have a dedicated Airport Special Ops team. The department manager was able to spend more time around the airport than usual, but it is clear we need a consistent presence there to help us monitor the airport for vending compliance and concierge issues.

The department manager has been working closely with the OFF team to solidify best practices for data collection in the OSS program. Our department has very important statistics regarding our sustainability goals, and we are developing new protocols and benchmarks to support the program.

OSS BY THE NUMBERS

  • We had a total of 15 staff this year.
  • The OSS program supported a record number of camps.
  • 6 camps that needed to hire paid workers in the post-event LNT process.
  • The gate compliance team had numerous interactions that prevented unauthorized businesses from coming to the event.

Placement

Level (aka Bryant Tan) writes:

Our biggest story was the establishment of Placement Headquarters on playa — finally, a community-facing space dedicated solely to Placement. While our inaugural year for an office was 2022, we shared the shade structure with DMV and treated ourselves as guests rather than co-owners of the space. The DMV relinquished use of the space in 2023, so the Placement team had full ownership of it. We were able to build a large sign in the front, furnish it with playatech benches, and offer more support services including a help desk for BRC’s camp community.

Having an on-playa office also meant needing more hands to help with Placement’s on-playa operations and also required rethinking how we function, given that people can find us and seek support through our new headquarters. As a result, we shifted our dispatching system and tracking of camp arrivals through our headquarters. We have beefed up our volunteer crew so that we now have staff that can interface with participants at our headquarters. We also have the ability to share space with our sister teams, Camp Support and PEERS, and make them more visible to the community. We now hold all our team meetings in the space, which has really made us feel fully at home there.

The space not only serves an operational purpose; it has been useful as a space for team members to take breaks and to socialize with each other, as well as with participants. One of the big complaints people previously had for Placement was not being able to find us when they needed us, and not feeling like they even knew who we were. Having a physical space to call home has already helped us address these concerns.

  • Our teams are growing! The Placement team had 20 Placers this year, with one additional Placer in 4 sectors, which helped to make the workload more manageable across the board. We were also able to recruit 3 additional Mapping Support volunteers, which meant that each sector could have their own dedicated Mapping Support person. PEERS was able to activate 275 “Squaddies” — volunteers who visited camps to interface and collect short surveys in person. That was nearly double the Squaddies we had in 2023. Camp Support was able to recruit new volunteers to help plan the Camp Symposium, Campfire Talks, and to staff their on-playa help desk. The help desk was situated at Placement headquarters to support camps having issues including searching for extra help or equipment during Build Week.
  • We’ve improved the map-making process. Now we have the most updated map in Fulcrum to share across BRC departments. Previously, we used a version made in early July. This year’s version was from a couple weeks before Build Week in August.
  • PEERS was able to visit ~1000 camps this year, compared to 600 in 2022. This was the largest number of camps visited by the team ever!
  • We established Humans Uniting for Better Sustainability (HUBS) in 2022, which allowed for camps to request placement adjacent to each other in order to share resources like power, transportation, and infrastructure in the interest of helping make the event more sustainable. This year was the second year of HUBS, and we saw a 233% increase in the number of HUBS. This year, there were 100 HUBS compared to 43 in 2022. Overall, there were 247 camps within those 100 HUBS. In fact, in 2023 there were more HUBS than villages (58), which are a similar way for camps to collectivize.
  • We shared more information and shared it earlier in the mapping process to help with the logistics and delivery of camp services including with PETROL and BRC Storage. We coordinated more than ever with the PETROL team to try to consolidate the locations of camps receiving PETROL, and also to establish a new Community Service Land alleyway to make it easier for PETROL’s service vehicles to maneuver the city. We also informed BRC Storage of camp addresses earlier than ever so that they could pre-organize the delivery of personal containers to camps. BRC Storage also assisted Placement’s Flagging team to support the flagging of camp boundaries to accelerate the ability to flag container locations within those camps.
  • The multiple rain events created addtional challenges in camp build, camp strike, Leave No Trace efforts, and MOOP proliferation. During Build Week, camps were not able to arrive until Wednesday. So, Placement announced that we would extend our hours to start earlier and go later into the evening to accommodate. On the tail end, we established a process for camps to return to their campsites to retrieve anything abandoned post-event with tight coordination between Charlie, OSS, and Gate, and the blessing of BLM. This included communication with camps to inform them of the option, compiling a list of camps that wished to return, and meeting them at Point 1 to escort them to their camp location. Several Placement team volunteers remained in BRC to support this effort, unprecedented for our team. We also shared our Fulcrum application with several Event Operations teams to better track abandoned items, particularly vehicles and trailers, and ensure their proper removal from the playa.
  • In the spirit of greater transparency, we also were able to provide all plaza camps their shapes this year, an important insight as they are not typically rectangular. Sharing their outlines enabled better planning and layout.
  • With the help of the Tech team, we also were able to complete bringing the last major form in the Placement Process into our Salesforce system. Now, all our data can be integrated and connected from end-to-end, including our pre-season Statement of Intent, our standard Placed Camp Questionnaire, our on playa Fulcrum applications for Placement and PEERS, and our post-event Post-playa Report, and Camp Standings. These elements have been pieced together in the past in different forms. Now, all of them connect within Salesforce, a huge technological leap for us that helps streamline information and the communication required to maintain relationships with BRC’s camps.

PLACEMENT BY THE NUMBERS

  • 1,595 total camps placed, including 1,174 placed theme camps and 58 placed villages
  • ~1,000 camps visited by PEERS volunteers
  • 26 Placement volunteers, 7 new volunteers
  • 19 Camp Support volunteers
  • 275 PEERS volunteers, 6 volunteer coordinators
  • 7 Campfire Talks produced
  • 500+ attendees for the 2023 Camp Symposium, 15 breakout workshops

LOOKING AHEAD TO 2024

  • Given our learnings about HUBS, we plan to remove villages as a placed camp category beginning in 2024. We’re doing away with the current model because it allows for camps Placement is unaware of and doesn’t have a direct relationship with to be set up in villages. In 2024, we will only place independent camps. Camps that were formerly were part of a village must stand on their own, fill out a Placed Camp Questionnaire, and have a direct relationship with Placement. These camps can remain connected with their former village-mates by forming HUBS.
  • We want to help camps understand more clearly how to do proper MOOPing of their camp space, including how to do their own version of a BLM inspection. While Resto is fantastic, the lion’s share of the work should be on campers to leave no trace.
  • We want to begin helping camps understand that we are in a pivotal moment because we cannot continue to offer camps the same amount of tickets year after year. In 2024, we will introduce the option to take a year off and be guaranteed access to tickets the following year for doing so.
  • We plan to continue expanding our team so that we can have more people learn the process and  join the effort to support camps in BRC. We are especially interested in building out a specialized team that can work with camps prone to operating as convenience camps — both pre-event and during. We also will be looking for people to support with communications, data and evaluation, and on-playa office shifts.
  • We also would like to light up the sign for the Placement Office as it’s not noticeable at night. As long as we can have “LACEMEN” lit, we’ll be good.

LEARN MORE

2023 Camp Symposium Recordings

2023 Campfire Talks (Season 3 Recordings) 

IN THE JOURNAL:

Playa Info

Monique Verrier writes:

Glorious victory was having one of our core leadership team members arrive early enough to ensure completion, delivery, and operation of all the necessary items (placement, buildings, IT, power) and have them all working in concert prior to the first rain storm and ground stop/shelter-in-place order.

Our team was able to make sure everyone on our crew had food, shelter, ice, and everything else they needed to be as prepared as possible to ‘weather the storm’. We excelled in keeping our operations moving and taking care of one another.

Playa Info was able to procure a larger building to work with our Lost & Found team to manage our systems — and found items — more productively. Although the number of collected and reunited items was down this year (undoubtedly due to folks sheltering in place), we were able to utilize the building effectively to suit our needs now and going forward. It was a huge and welcome change.

Playa Info was still able to help participants find their friends, events, and locations via our Digital Services even in the rain and mud. We also were a hub for many 911 calls, as we are in a central location in the keyhole. We were able to stay up and running to a functional level thanks to our committed staff camp, which houses many of our core volunteers right there ‘at the office’. They could honor the shelter in place order and still be working at the Oracle desks, Lost & Found, and Directory services.

Playa Info budgeted and received a new storage container (replacing one that was 24 years old) to house the Playa Info infrastructure — this will prevent our infrastructure from being subject to damage due to off-season weather.

Build week came together with a small team and we joined forces on our small Playa Info Private Island (which was a literal piece of high ground on which one staff RV perched above the water line). It became a sheltering, connecting, and morale-boosting gathering place where we shared laughs, resources, and support.

One of our council members was sending out daily updates via our announcement list and text messages to those on their way to BRC so they could stay at home or in Reno and avoid being turned around in Gerlach during the gate closure for Build Week.

Our volunteers who camp with Playa Info really stepped up — taking extra shifts and showing up when scheduled volunteers camped elsewhere could not get from their camps to our Center Camp location due to the shelter-in-place order.

Our Day Manager crew came together to cover for one another and solve problems and deal with challenging situations and personnel issues.

We really leaned into our role within the organization, sending 2-3 Day Managers to the daily Leadership team meetings to gather and distribute the most relevant information for our critical function in Black Rock City. This was a game changer in terms of our effective contribution to the event.

PLAYA INFO BY THE NUMBERS

  • A total of 1,671 items were turned into Lost & Found. Of those, 708 have been reunited. Less items were lost this year due to the shelter in place orders.
  • We received around 10 computer monitors donated via our community outreach efforts — this community generosity has been a big help to keep our budget requests lower year over year.

Ambassador (our roving Playa Info Oracles) Stats:

  • Number of camps visited: 217
  • Number of questions answered: 174

Participant Knowledge, as Discovered by Ambassadors:

  • Participants who knew the location of BRC Lost & Found: 44%
  • Participants who knew the location of Playa Info: 45%
  • Participants who knew the location of the nearest medical station: 40%

LOOKING AHEAD TO 2024

We plan to evaluate our ability to communicate more effectively with our volunteer corps on playa — many of our volunteers do not camp at our staff camp and we had no way to alert them to the status of our expectations around their scheduled shifts when the shelter-in-place order became effective.

We will work to standardize the manner in which Playa Info receives information from various sources in order to pass along to our ‘clients’ — and find a way to triangulate data and information via trusted sources to be sure that we are always providing the most accurate, up-to-date information (this year, for example, we had trouble getting accurate/confirmed/up-to-date Burner Express Bus info, which was a challenge)

Pending budget approval, we will be replacing some of our ground cover (from tarps to mesh) to avoid the hazardous situation we had this year with the water.

We intend to reframe our leadership approach to Lost & Found, adding more team members to continue to grow this essential function.

Playa Restoration & Highway Clean-up

DA writes:

Two years on from the pandemic, the Highway Cleanup leadership team is coming back together nicely. Camaraderie, morale, experience, and cohesiveness — everything went well and there were no injuries.

Highway Cleanup Manager, Barbarella, reports that there was an overall decrease of MOOP on the highways post-event in 2023. Despite the rain’s impact on the playa, the majority of participants still did a great job packing up this year as opposed to 2022 when they were packing up in zero visibility dust storms.

A reminder to participants to beware of unpermitted trash vendors on the highways. They may seem convenient at the time, but have often abandoned your trash after taking your money. Our Highway Cleanup has cleaned up abandoned trash operations on and off the highways all too often. Be sure to check for their permits and check the Leave Nevada Beautiful page on the Burning Man site for other authorized trash vendor locations.

Highway Cleanup continues to have great relations and support with all of our cooperating agencies — Nevada Department of Transportation (NDOT), Caltrans, Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe (PLPT), Highway State Patrol, and Bureau of Land Management (BLM).

Of course, the biggest story from Playa Restoration is the heavy rains toward the end of the event and complicated impact on the playa surface and leave no trace operations.

The other biggest story is the story itself. For those of you watching the news, the overblown sensationalism resulted in a lot of noise that was often distracting to the actual work.

The Department of Public Works’ Playa Restoration All-Star team (Resto), Black Rock City’s last line of defense in Leaving No Trace before the BLM Post-Event Inspection, consisted of approximately 150 people from various Burning Man departments, theme camps, art projects, and community members.

Due to the heavy rains, Resto’s standard strategy which primarily consists of MOOP Sweeps through BRC’s over 3,600 acres, needed to also incorporate a new strategy to include a fleet of heavy machinery to level out the playa surface ruts.

The allowable standard for MOOP (Matter Out of Place) is one square foot per acre (less than .002%). Although close, Black Rock City passed the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Post-Event Site Inspection Thursday Oct 10, 2023 AND reduced the total MOOP average by 25% compared to 2022.

IN THE JOURNAL:

Rangers

Po-Boy writes:

Rangers were able to successfully manage operational tempo that increased quite a bit during the rain event by ‘Rangering in place’ and keeping operational movement to a minimum. While calls from participants were often for bad behavior from people driving or calling for help while attempting to leave the city, very often we were able to help folks find resources, answer questions, and generally maintain Ranger operations during a time of limited mobility.

Before the rain event, operations were largely normal, without any exceptional differences or changes from previous years. Rangers were able to implement small changes to how we responded to During the rain event, we implemented our plan to communicate by radio, text, and community.

Ranger outposts displayed current info — do not drive, stay in place, come to an outpost for Ranger assistance if possible.

We used our all-hands radio and department all-hands text/email system to let Rangers know where and how to find the most current information.

For urgent calls that required a Ranger response, we leveraged our “Gator” all-wheel drive vehicles to go to the location where assistance was needed.

We conserved resources by reminding Rangers to stay out of the way of participants attempting to drive, and to offer assistance while suggesting that participants return to camp until the driving ban was lifted.

Operationally, we implemented new processes and techniques to streamline how we cover situations where we must consider whether a participant or volunteer are asked to leave the city by putting more Rangers who are skilled at the most difficult situations on “007 Standby”, ensuring that we had coverage for possible requests for consideration when a participant or volunteer might be asked to leave the city. This new approach helped us ensure that we were not singling out a small number of the most valuable Rangers to handle these exceptionally difficult calls. 

Our progress on creating new shift leads — usually a multi-year process — has been improved and streamlined with better evaluation and more prompt feedback to Ranger Shift Command Interns. (RSCIs) Ranger Shift Leads are a conduit for guidance and information, working with individual Ranger pairs in the city to respond to calls for assistance, while simultaneously tracking and coordinating response from ESD and Law Enforcement through ESD dispatch and a Ranger working in the ESD dispatch center to help facilitate and dispatch calls.

Various teams within the Ranger department made incremental changes to work with each other better and cross-departmentally.

The two rain events had different presentations and outcomes. During the Build Week rain event, Rangers largely were working on building our own infrastructure and few participants were on site.

Rangers had a prominent role in responding to a trailer fire that occurred on 5:30, guiding people away from a possibly hazardous situation, working with ESD, and making sure the scene was safe.

During the second rain event, Rangers adapted when we found gaps in our existing plans, but largely stuck to those plans. At the top of each hour, Rangers with shift radios got a message from shift leads about the current status of various services and driving conditions in Black Rock City. Rangers with internet service received directions to a status page where messages about where to go and what to do, how to advise participants, and where to find resources during the rain event.

Our use of Gators to move Rangers around non-optional field stations (Rangers at the Man, for example) helped us keep Rangers fed and warm.

We’re still in the process of formulating these specific tactics and strategies, but the places we know we can improve and where we hope to work with other departments include:

  • During contingency events like in 2023, better, more frequent sync of Shift Command and Tier One information, and possibly formulating other solutions to communicating with Rangers who do not carry radios throughout the event.

Often, it felt like some information was being lost between Event Operations updates and the information that made it to Rangers in the field. We’re tackling the task of identifying where this disconnect happened and trying to improve how we pass only the information Rangers need to know in the event of a contingency like the rain event, or other need-to-know information. We were often telling Rangers to ask participants to listen to BMIR, but some vital information that participants should know got missed because FM radios were inaccessible (in cars), and internet wasn’t available to participants until a day into the rain event, and Rangers were often confined to camp, unable to roam the city easily to inform participants, who largely visited Ranger outposts at 5:45&Esplanade, 9:00&C, and 3:00&C.

  • Rumor control was difficult; there’s no easy answer to a problem as old a Black Rock City itself. Consistency and regularity in messaging from our shift command can only help Rangers who have radios, so we are looking for ways to keep Rangers updated if they’re not in a Ranger Camp or don’t have a radio.
  • We’re going to revisit our best practices, documentation, and shift lead guidance to get better consistency and messaging when things beyond our control go sideways, as with the rain event. That process is underway.
  •  We identified some ways we can track hours and shift credits better internally when events cause us to delay certain shifts and operations like the Man and Temple burns.

Our department was able to meet our recruiting goals. Based on experience, we know we need a certain number of new Rangers to replace Rangers who are not attending the event. This year, we were able to meet the number of new ‘Alphas’ who became Rangers. But to maintain our target of 1% of Black Rock City represented by active Rangers, we have to look at better ways of retention, including our annual retention survey.

We had lower COVID-related missed shifts in 2023. Our staffing numbers reflected that we were able to sufficiently staff all our shifts during event week with the notable exception of the rain event, which caused bus to ask Rangers to report in from different parts of the city and to ‘Ranger in place.’ If a call for a Ranger came into shift command, the nearest Rangers would be dispatched.

We saw a slightly smaller number of veteran Rangers return to Black Rock City in 2023. We believe contributing causes to be last year’s extremely difficult heat and COVID-related challenges. Information from our retention survey should help us understand more.

Rangers were able to fully staff the Man and Temple burns, despite the delay of these events.

RANGERS BY THE NUMBERS

  • 803 Rangers on playa
  • 633 vets (535 returning from 2022 and 101 returning from some year prior)
  • 167 Shiny Pennies (Rangers who applied to the department, trained, and passed mentoring shifts to become a Black Rock Ranger in 2023)
  • 661 SCs+RPTs (Staff Credentials and Reduced-Price Tickets) earned**
  • Average Hours Worked: 46.6**

**Hours worked were high in 2023 (due to the rain event allowing people to work more, and stay late). However, the number of tickets earned was lower, and the standard deviation was much higher. Together, these suggest that many Rangers worked a lot more in 2023, but many others worked a lot less, and earned fewer tickets as a result.

Recycle Camp (CSD)

Blue (aka Paul Schreer) writes:

The story of Recycle Camp 2023 is rooted in the 10 Principles. As I imagine it was for all of Black Rock City, Burning Man 2023 was the ultimate test of everything we prepare for every year: Radical Self-reliance, Civic Responsibility, Communal Effort. Gifting, Immediacy and Leaving No Trace, to name a few.

We created new plans and schedules for our set-up team with a new build coordinator to lead the build team. When the first rain event hit, all the planning paid off as we were suddenly working with a shortened build week. Everything went as planned and we were set up and open to collect aluminum cans at 9am on Monday morning, right on schedule.

When the second rain event brought the fun in the sun of Burning Man to a muddy halt, we worked together to make sure that everyone had food, water, and dry shelter. Tent campers were our top priority. Having a camp kitchen meant we had plenty of food to continue meals as planned. However, we had to ration our water as services were suspended due to the no driving order. Information from BMIR and the radio traffic was shared regularly with campmates and neighbors. We shared some great moments around the burn barrel with our neighbors the Lamplighters during the shelter in place times. It really was nice to slow down for those couple of days.

The best part of the story was the ending. The strike that was delayed two days, the resilience of the strike team, the last campers standing. The new Strike Coordinator leading the team. Monday was a drying out day and then we shared one of, if not, the best Man burns on Monday night. Strike picked up pace on Tuesday followed by the very special Temple burn Tuesday night together. Wednesday was the big push day, followed by the final packing of the shipping containers and MOOPing the camp on Thursday. We left a few hours later than we would have liked, but we left the playa on Thursday, basically on schedule.

  • We tested a new OSHA approved aluminum stair and platform system from the TSA. Used by Recycle Camp campers and many walk-up volunteers, it is important to us that the stairs and platform are safe. They worked so well, we will be asking for our very own set for 2024.
  • We filled two 30 cubic yard dumpsters before the rain event on Friday slowed us down significantly. We are quite pleased with what we accomplished considering we had to shut down during what is normally the busiest days of the event for collecting aluminum cans.
  • Despite the rain’s best attempts to thwart us, Recycle Camp departed BRC on time. Well, maybe we were a few hours later than we would have liked, but we made it out of BRC on the day we planned to leave. A success.

The first rain event, just before Build Week, hit us the same as everyone – delayed crew and delayed work. We made the best of it and stayed on top of the information being shared on BMIR and over the radios. We were able to keep the onsite and offsite crew in the know about exactly what was happening. Not getting our DPW shade installed on time proved to be a blessing in disguise. The playa dried out much faster without the shade. We were able to get people into BRC starting Wednesday morning and we got caught up with the build and ended the week on schedule.

The second rain, on Friday afternoon of the event, hit us (and everyone) a bit harder. We stayed informed with radio based meetings and BMIR. We shared the information with all of our campmates and neighbors. We had to shut down our aluminum can collecting operation and that meant fewer aluminum cans and that equals a smaller donation for the Gerlach K-12 School. We are pleased with what we accomplished and grateful to all the participants who did bring us their cans!

  • We will be upgrading to a new set of OSHA approved aluminum stairs and platform with railings for accessing the dumpsters we use to collect the aluminum cans. The safety of our Recycle Camp volunteers and all walk-up volunteers is important to us.
  • Something we have been discussing for a few years and the rain events have us thinking about it again. We will be looking into replacing the rugs and carpets in our chill area with a new flooring concept, TBD. Something that lets the water flow through, the dust fall off, and rolls up into easy-to-store rolls.
  • We are going to look at the possibility of installing full rain protection over our camp kitchen in the future.

RECYCLE CAMP BY THE NUMBERS

  • We had a super tight team of 33 campers including 24 returning grownups, 5 first time grownups, our resident teenager, their 3-year-old sibling, and two babies under 1. Oh my!
  • We had a few dozen walk-up volunteers throughout the week, and they were all awesome! Special thanks to the VRT for sending volunteers our way.
  • We filled two 30 cubic yard dumpsters with aluminum cans this year. This number was down due to the rain event at the end of the week cutting into our busiest days. The total weight is still being determined, but our estimate is 4,500-5,000 lb. When combined with the two dumpsters collected at the Transfer Station, we estimate a total of 9,000-10,000 lb. of aluminum cans. The rebates will be close to $2,500 and that money is donated to the Gerlach K-12 school.

Temple Guardians

Captain writes:

During the weather event, we suspended regular shifts for the sake of safety, but what ended up happening was that Guardians, taking their own initiative, made it out to the Temple and served time there to ensure that space was held for the hundreds of participants that made the same trek.

As always, when there were gaps to fill, folks stepped up to fill them. Temple Oasis, our re-founded support camp, was run smoothly and effectively by Harbor, only a second-year Burner, who was up to any and all tasks.

This year proved to be a test for all of us, Guardians, and other participants alike. During the rain, we pulled together as a leadership team and, more importantly, as a fundamental part of the group of departments that comprise Black Rock City.

From above, the ‘shift as you can’ was certainly different and that amply demonstrated by the coming together of our team. This year, we revised our data-gathering for shift information, consolidating it into one team of only two individuals, with set locations and processes for gathering and disseminating information. This made for better data hygiene and less post-playa work.

TEMPLE GUARDIANS BY THE NUMBERS

  • Out of 1705 shifts (individuals; there may be as many as 12 ‘shifts’ during one time period), 1664 of them were worked
  • 1051 non-training shifts
  • 359 Guardians worked these shifts (~3 each)

LOOKING AHEAD TO 2024

We want to lean further into the idea of a central way to reach Temple Guardians on playa: a common board at HQ advertised well before playa, for instance. Also, we’ll continue to improve data gathering and legibility — looking into the idea of having two dedicated laptops for participants to self-enter information, lessening the likelihood of legibility issues.

Ticketing

Lulu Jones writes:

The biggest story in BRC ticketing this year ended up not really being a story at all, but it’s still on people’s minds, so I’ll tell it.

Leading up to the event, everyone was champing at the bit to ask me about all of the tickets on the secondary market, and if it meant that Burning Man wasn’t cool anymore, if Burning Man Project had finally sold out, if Black Rock City had finally jumped the shark, or whatever other linguistic box people like to put BRC into when they want to both put us on a pedestal and tear us down.

Because of my insight into our ticket sales, and who is buying those tickets and what our registration numbers are, I wasn’t concerned about any of the above — people were coming and they were excited. They may not have been the people who have been coming for the last 10 years, but they were Burners and they were going to have an amazing time.

Did you look around Black Rock City this year and see nobody? Was it an uncool year? Did Burning Man Project sell out? Did Black Rock City jump the shark? Okay, so maybe a shark was jumped, in fact I did see multiple people jumping over a shark this year, but I think that’s beside the point.

Black Rock City answered all of those questions in a pretty resounding way this year. This was a different year than any of us have had in a long time, a year that will stand out from the dusty crusty memories that blur together of all the other years. This is a year that the people who didn’t go are looking at and saying, “I wish I was there.” I wish you were too. We’ll try and help you get there next year to be a part of it. Because we’re already planning to do it all over again. We will always burn the Man.

It is an extremely difficult task to talk about successes in Black Rock City ticketing, because at the end of the day, regardless of how successful our endeavors have been there are still tens of thousands of people who tried, sometimes desperately, to purchase tickets to Black Rock City this year, who were unable to do so. With that in mind, our successes are tempered by the knowledge that these are successes only for those who were able to purchase tickets, and only successes as long as we did as much as we could to ensure an equitable and fair ticketing process this year.

With that being said, I do think we did as much as we could to ensure a fair and equitable ticketing experience for those who participated in 2023. Ticketing worked closely with the Tech team to improve the handoff experience between Burner Profiles and our ticketing partner for those who participated in the Main and OMG sales, and we updated the communications for our Stewards and Late Season Directed ticket sale participants to try and ease the way. We also adjusted timelines around ticket fulfillment to alleviate some of the anxiety and stress around ticket shipping that occurred in 2022.

Overall, this was a year of tweaks and refinements. There were no giant changes, rather an attempt at perfecting what we’re doing to ease not only the participant experience with ticketing, but that of BRC volunteers, and staff as well.

Following the departure of Nimbus at the end of the 2022 season, I agreed to attempt to fill her vast shoes (I’m not calling your feet big, Nimbus, I swear!) as the Head of Ticketing & Box Office.

We were able to onboard a third full-time member of the Ticketing team who has a vast breadth and depth of knowledge of the ticketing industry. We’re grateful to have him with us, and excited to be able to incorporate his expertise into our processes.

Ticketing & Box Office are used to being nimble and adapting to changing conditions, as we adapt to the changing landscape of ticket sales throughout the year. Thankfully, these skills translated well to opening the Box Office two days late and closing it one day early due to rain.

Our primary challenge in adapting to conditions on playa this year was that our operational sites aren’t within Black Rock City, and at times there wasn’t anybody at our work sites to inform us if there was power, internet, or standing water in our containers.

We worked closely with GP&E, Accounting, Airport, and IT to be able to stop and start our operations at odd times and ensure that everyone who needed to pick something up from the Box Office, or drop something off, or make a change was able to do so safely.

The final noteworthy thing to talk about this year was that we saw a lot of change in the type of interest in tickets this year. Due in part to the challenges of the 2022 event, changes in the global economy, and the lifecycle of some Burners coming to its natural conclusion, we saw a reduced interest in the event from returning Burners. This opened up an opportunity for new Burners to easily participate in the event for the first time in quite a long time, and we’re thrilled to see how this changes the culture and grows the community.

LOOKING AHEAD TO 2024
We’d like for our camp to have about 5 inches in elevation. Over 2023, we spent most of Build Week in standing water and we’d prefer to not repeat that.

We’re looking at some ways we can adjust the personnel management structure of the Box Office team to better support the members of that team, as well as better support the staff and volunteers who work with the Box Office.

Following the changes in interest from returning Burners, we’re working closely with our community services teams to explore ways we can ensure that our ticketing processes are serving our current Burner community, and not just the community from 10 years ago.

Volunteer Resource Team (VRT)

Pique (Peg) writes:

From the Collaboration File: VRT is proud to share that we inadvertently took to the dance floor, stepping on toes this year, but turned our clumsiness into a well-synchronized tango!

With nothing but good intentions, VRT expanded and implemented a new protocol this year of sending a Volunteer Opportunity Manager (VOM) out onto playa during Build Week to check in with art installations about whether they were adequately staffed or wanted to list with us for additional volunteers. What didn’t occur to us at the time, was that we were treading on the toes of Art Support Services (ASS), who are providing support to active art installations. (Oops!) Fortunately, when ASS reps dropped by our V-Spot to ask some questions about what we do, our MOD (Manager Of the Day) got our VOMs (Volunteer Opportunity Managers) on the ARTery’s daily meeting agenda and a dance partnership was formed. By dropping in at the ARTery meeting, VRT was able to educate ASS about our volunteer services, and ASS was able to lean in with a process for us to provide focused volunteer support. That was some feel-good choreography which left VRT (and hopefully ASS) looking forward to another duet in 2024. In case you didn’t catch that: VOMs stepped on ASS’s toes, but everyone found their V-Spot.

From the Punishing Defeats File: How does near-electrocution sound? After the rains turned our village into a system of lakes, one of our infrastructure managers got a pretty good ZAP while trying to get our electrical distro boxes off the ground and out of the water. He lost an afternoon at rampart getting EKG’d to ensure that the ZAP! he experienced wasn’t a serious cardiac incident. That rates as one of the edgier experiences for members of our crew.

V-Spot Buttons: Taking an idea that originated with our esteemed boss, Retro, we made buttons this year which read, “The V-Spot Sent Me” and pinned them on every participant who committed to filling a volunteer opportunity. In this way, the departments we serve (e.g., Burner Express, Lamplighters, Burn Perimeter) could identify workers who came through the V-Spot.

Porta-Potty-Campaign: If you visited the portos there’s a good chance you saw one of our clever new V-Spot posters, touting the importance of volunteerism and calling all good souls to come by the V-Spot to learn about opportunities.

Back-up Crew: We scheduled specific back-up workers for each booth shift this year, so we didn’t need to go hunting for coverage when a member didn’t/couldn’t make their work shift.

Expanded Community Camp Shade: We designed, purchased and erected a 20’x30’ community shade structure in our camp this year, for crew members coming from abroad who have limited infrastructure.

Gathering in Fernley, pre-entry: Faced with closed gates on August 21, a good chunk of our crew pivoted and posted up together in a Fernley, NV parking lot for a couple nights.

When the storms shut down playa at the end of event week, we held daily camp briefings, shared updates, and worked together to ensure everyone was covered and cared for.

LOOKING AHEAD TO 2024

We will be dedicating enhanced resources to a roving booth next year. We piloted a roving V-Spot this year but had lackluster results. We think this may be the result of minimal decor and light staffing.

We want to expand our Porta-Potty Campaign to include more locations, a larger implementation team and possibly laminated/reusable flyers to limit their possible use as TP (it seems that folks got pretty desperate this year!). We want to streamline the distribution of our meal and shower provisions. We have planned some infrastructure upgrades to our container decking and community areas.

Volunteerism

Vegas Queen writes:

There was one ongoing case this year that spanned most of the Peer Supports time on playa. The team went above and beyond to support this group of humans. They collaborated with each other, with other departments and their managers and they collaborated directly with the humans involved. This is a great example of how a group of dedicated, professional, compassionate volunteers can make a difference.

Peer Support had many new Counselors this year. As a small, focused team, it can be hard to get new members into the flow quickly. The whole team really put time and effort into welcoming the new folks and getting them comfortable and up to speed right away.

We identified some additional roles that make the flow of work much smoother and the whole team benefited from the additional humans.

VOLUNTEERISM BY THE NUMBERS

  • We had 9 returning counselors and 7 new ones. 
  • The team was activated for 17 days on playa with over 100 shifts. 
  • In addition, the team was available 24 hours a day and worked several after-hours cases.

LOOKING AHEAD TO 2024

  • We’re looking for a more effective way of logging our cases.
  • We are going to create a working group of those with the availability to develop procedures.
  • We are going to evaluate our meeting spaces and make them as useful as possible.
  • The Peer Support team continues to grow and find more effective ways to serve the community. The team has developed a great camaraderie centered around service.

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