Burning Man. Part 3. Build your own party.
In the beginning there was nothing. In 2 days there was a Berlin Techno club.
Burning Man officially starts at midnight between Sunday (Aug, 25) and Monday (Aug, 26). To make sure that people arriving then come to a functional city, rather than an empty desert, few people are allowed to arrive earlier for construction. We were planning to arrive on Friday evening (Aug, 23).
We went to buy groceries and all necessities on Thursday. We counted to have enough water and food for 9 days. Our food and water expenses were around 125$ per person. When four people travel in one car for 9 days to the desert, they have a lot of belongings, and the major challenge was to make sure that everything can fit in the car. After a couple of hours of packing we were ready to leave from Oakland to Black Rock City, which is about 6-9 hours drive, depending on the traffic.
There was a few hours long waiting line at the entrance, as there were many more people arriving earlier to Burning Man. We arrived to our camp lot at night very tired. Few other cars arrived around the same time to our camp, so we met our camp mates (eventually become soul mates). At that moment the view of Black Rock City was the following: a lot of cars, not much light, some semi-assembled structures, and some pieces of recognisable art cars.
According to the forecast we expected some rain, and all we needed to do that night was to set up one tent so that the four of us could sleep (eventually we needed 2 for the 4 of us, but not for the first night). With the help of some flashlights, and the collective intelligence we assembled one “No Bake Tent” and went to sleep.
By noon Saturday the rain was over and the terrain was drying quickly, so we could start doing work. We assembled the other tents (we slept at Kodiak tent), the shade structure for them, and the shade structure for common areas, made out of 3 carports connected together. It was very fulfilling for me to participate in that construction and seeing how we go from an empty lot in the desert with few cars to a lively space with few tents and common areas, to a fully functional Techno club camp by Sunday night.
We spent most of the Sunday to assemble the stage (which looked like a cube). Other camp members were involved in the design of the space, and till the very end I did not know how the final version would look like. I was very impressed with what we have assembled. We even had a red-lit up badminton court!
When our DJs started playing music, I was full of excitement to dance there. Few hours later people from other camps started to pass by, and I talked to few of them, and they told me:
We have a music camp ourselves, but your camp is really another level, we think we will hang out here a lot. It is so great you guys brought a techno club to Burning Man!
Given that 2 days ago, there was nothing, it was a very satisfying to hear it.
