I just got back from my first time at Burning Man. It was probably the best week of my life. Here are some thoughts.

Feeling like I was in a dream

The first day I got to my camp, 8-or-so of my campmates and I rode out on our bikes. The first thing we really came across was a giant rooster art car blasting house music infused with rooster sounds. Then we got to the open playa and I saw all the lights, and I honestly had to do a gut check and ask myself “am I dreaming?”. As I was trying to keep up with my friends zooming around, I was thinking “don’t wake up, don’t wake up, please don’t wake up, this too awesome”. And I was thinking “don’t get left behind!”, which to me feels straight out of a dream.

The spirit of exploration and all the possibilities

When you’re out in the middle of the playa, especially at night, you can turn 360 degrees and see something to go to at every degree. I could pick any way I wanted and find something cool. It’s almost like an open-world video game, with a lot more content, and you actually get to live it rather than staring at a screen. It felt like there were so many possibilities out there waiting for me, whichever direction I chose.

Nudity

Just about everywhere I went in Burning Man, there was nudity. Usually just boobs; but often more. The weird thing to me was that it wasn’t that sexual. Certainly, people took sneaky little peeks. But the whole point of it felt more like being free and liberated, not inciting lust. Just sort of saying “this is who I am, and I’m comfortable with it.”

Biking at night

Biking at night in Black Rock City was interesting because I couldn’t (and didn’t need to) see the ground in front of me. The playa, being flat and without rocks as it is, allows you to travel any direction you want. Of course, obviously you have to swerve through other bikers, pedestrians, and art cars. But I found myself picking out a landmark in the far distance and striking out a straight line for it.

Running after art cars and the view on top

They told us at “noobie orientation” in SF a few months ago that you’re not allowed to get on moving art cars - they have to be completely stopped. This did not happen. The cars expected you to run after them and board them Indiana Jones-style. Which, might I add, was awesome. And once up there, it felt like I was on Jabba the Hutt’s sand barge from Return of the Jedi. It was so trippy and cool to see all the lit-up bikes, people and smaller cars buzzing around it like insects.

Being unplugged

I loved decompressing from my phone. In the normal world, I tend to kill nearly all blocks of downtime by pulling out my phone. By the first day, I was loving not having this constant distraction. The social ramifications were profound. People actually talk to each other when in close quarters. Ya know, how human beings presumably used to interact. I would roll into a bar/camp area (oftentimes by myself), not knowing anyone, and instead of whipping out my phone, I would instead strike up a conversation with the nearest person.

Climbing things and feeling like a kid

Burning Man felt like an adult playground. I loved climbing jungle gyms and trees as a kid, and this spirit of playful fun came through at Burning Man. So many cool art pieces, upward-extending multi-level dance floors, and other oddities to climb. And of course, there was almost always a breathtaking view from the top.

Not paying for things

Not having money was interesting, and I think it was a net positive impact most of the time. Sometimes it was annoying. But for the most part it was really freeing. I had almost nothing in my pockets most of the time. No phone, no wallet, and only one key (for my bike lock). Normally in life my pockets are weighed down by tons of that stuff.

Talking to strangers

I practice talking to strangers in my regular day-to-day life. It’s something that has never come easy to me. I’m really glad I had been practicing this, because it served me well at Burning Man. Starting about 2 days in, I made it a point that every time I was idly next to someone, I’d start up a conversation. What I noticed is: the same nervousness in the real world exists at Burning Man too before initiating the conversation. But, once you say something (anything, really), people were by-and-large very willing to talk. Someone’s gotta break the ice, and that’s a burden I’ll readily take on.

At one point I was drinking a mojito at a party, saw a girl next to me waiting to order one, and I asked her if you’re supposed to eat the leaves. I honestly really wanted to know the answer, haha. We started talking, got along pretty well, and she asked if I wanted to go bar-hopping right then. I was like… “sure!”, and we ended up spending the entire day together, biking around and getting drunk.

The bond you form with your campmates

I got super lucky with my camp situation. My camp was a well-run 50-person camp with a lot of cool people, especially at the top (the organizers). While still prone to some amount of cliquey behavior, I was happy everyone got along. We went out as a group nearly every night (sometimes several smaller groups, which worked much better), cooked meals, and just hung out around the camp site. I really grew to enjoy the time around dusk when everyone had returned back to camp, sharing how awesome their day had been.

Staying up until sunrise

I stayed up until sunrise a few times, including my last night on the playa. It was wonderful. (The downside was that it was almost impossible to sleep during the day.)

The contrast between night and day

Day-time and night-time at Burning Man are totally, totally different. For example, most of the action in the day-time happens in the radial streets (at theme camps, etc) whereas in the night-time, most people moved to the open playa and the esplanade. For me, I preferred the day-time. Easier to roll solo, easier to make new friends… just more my style. And I wasn’t a fan of the huge night-time sound camps.

The radial system

The clock-like street system definitely threw me for a loop at first. I’m so used to grid-based systems like you’d find in any major city. On a grid, you can find whichever of the cross-streets you want and follow it to your destination. Doesn’t work like that on a clock. For example if you were at 4:30 and G and you wanted to go to 9:30 and G, my initial intuition was to take G the whole way. I found out pretty quickly, this was wrong. It’s much faster to cut through the center of the “clock”. But, going from 4:30 and G to 5:30 and G, you obviously would take G. The tricky ones were the ones in between. For example, 4:30 and G to 2 and H. It’s a tossup. Those G and H blocks are pretty huge compared to A blocks.

Burner Express

I took the Burner Express bus from SF to BRC and back. This ended up being a great decision. It was well-run, left on time, and I made friends on it which I later saw during the week. Also, we got to skip the car-line once we reached BRC, and similarly skipped right passed the Exodus line on the way out. So worth it.

Lack of advertisement

I absolutely loved the ban on corporate brand names and logos. While people didn’t do a flawless job of covering up logos on rented trucks, they did a great job on clothing and costumes. For example, I saw very few sports teams’ logos, which was great.

Hugging

I loved that hugging was the default greeting. Hugs felt so warm and personal. At the time of writing this, I’ve been away from Burning Man for less than 11 hours and I could really use a hug right now. I miss them!

In summary

At the end of the day, I didn’t like everything about Burning Man, but on the whole it was pretty amazing and I wanted to focus first on the good parts.