Group baths at Burning Man: Dirty burners line up at Dr. Bronner’s soap-funded camp

Mike Higdon | Reno Gazette-Journal

Show Caption Hide Caption Video captures dusty winds at Burning Man A windy, dusty Thursday morning doesn't stop burners from exploring.

Updated Sept. 7 at 10:15 a.m.: Clarified that logos are not visible to the public once the camp is open

Hundreds of people lined up in front of a circus-sized tent structure on a dusty Thursday afternoon at Burning Man. They all wanted a foam bath. But to get one, they had to consent to be nude or partially nude with each other in a human-sized car wash tunnel.

“Just because someone is naked doesn’t mean you can touch, grab or do anything else,” Foam Against the Machine volunteer Natalie “Ethos” deLeon said to a group of burners ready to get bathed. “This is an intimate experience but it is not a sexual place. If you want that, you can go to other camps.”

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A group of participants gathered around while she talked to them about personal boundaries and possible triggers inside the bath. Some bathers might be upset by the human wash’s resemblance to how Nazis washed Jewish people in concentration camps, she said.

She said the goal of the wash, aside from cleaning off playa-crusted bodies, was to turn body acceptance, boundaries, consent and possible Holocaust triggers into a positive experience.

She encouraged strangers to meet, hug and talk about their boundaries before entering the tent.

“We’re here to bond, love and grow,” deLeon told the crowd.

Inside the tent, burners find a large plastic dance floor with a DJ playing happy music to put them at ease. Lines of naked people stand in front of the human wash, grooving to the beat and growing comfortable with non-sexual nudity, said one of the camp co-founders, Nikolas Schiller.

They file into the wash tunnel in two large groups. Several people holding foaming hoses stand above the group on a scaffold then spray people in a “perfoamance.”

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“I was almost blinded by the foam, then I felt hands on my shoulders,” said Taylor Helfand, who is on her second burn but experienced her first foam wash Thursday.

She said friends and strangers started gently rubbing each others shoulders and backs, but no one tried to be lurid. Afterward, clean, happy people file back onto the dance floor to dry off.

“People come in dusty and tired and come out rejuvenated,” said Schiller. “The clean hugs afterward are the happiest hugs.”

Helfand said she felt reborn. On the back wall of the dance floor, a mural depicts skinless people dancing naked. Helfand said she didn’t understand the painting until after she came out of the foam wash dancing like the characters in the mural.

Once dry, people rest in a nearby tent before heading back out into the dust. Helfand said she wasn’t sure she wanted to put her dusty clothes back on yet and was trying to decide how to get back to her camp.

“Getting my whole body wet in the desert felt so good,” Helfand said. “I’m not interested in the trailer shower life, I’d rather do the foam bath instead.”

Dr. Bronner’s soap company, worth $125 million, is one of the funders of the camp, among other millionaires, Schiller said. David Bronner, the company CEO -- in this case "Cosmic Engagement Officer" -- is a camp member.

Schiller said the camp is made up of about 320 people who range from low-income burners to millionaires. He called it a “hybrid plug and play camp,” but one that gives back to the community because everyone, regardless of status, must participate in some way.

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“People say, ‘Oh, the one percent, this and that,’ but when you’re on the playa, you’re equal,” Schiller said.

The camp started in 2013 and has become a type of experiential marketing for Dr. Bronner’s natural soap company. The company doesn’t use traditional advertising in the real world, but prefers word of mouth.

Similarly, the camp doesn’t advertise its presence to burners. It allows people to find the camp by word of mouth. Sometimes people come looking for the “Dr. Bronner’s Camp” but camp participants have to tell people it’s called “Foam Against the Machine” or other puny names based that year’s Burning Man theme.

Schiller said they decommodify the camp by covering logos on trucks, the bath's air compressors and on after-care product bottles once the camp opens to the public.

“As a camp associated with a company, we have to be mindful of how we’re attached to them and be mindful of decommodifications,” Schiller said.