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From wood blocks to 'poop buckets,' how Burning Man organizers told festivalgoers to prepare for heavy rain

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The first time Masha Maltsava attended Burning Man – the annual “ephemeral 
city” that attracts thousands of free-spirited revelers in the Nevada 
desert – she over packed.

“I prepared for maybe three months,” she recalled in an interview with 
CNN. “And I read all the packing lists, all the Reddit threads, all the 
WhatsApp chats, preparing for Burning Man last year.”

But this year – when heavy rain transformed the remote venue into a muddy 
mess that forced attendees to shelter in place and conserve precious 
resources – Maltsava wasn’t as prepared.

She became one of about 70,000 people stuck at the event when Black Rock 
Desert received over two months’ worth of rain in just 24 hours. The 
storms, which started Friday and continued through the weekend, turned the 
desert sand into a sloppy, slippery clay that made it impossible for 
drivers to enter or exit.

“I was overly prepared last year – but I think that’s the right way to do 
it,” she said.

While pictures of Burning Man’s elaborate art installations and people in 
intricate costumes might make the event look glamorous, the weekend’s 
severe weather has emphasized the challenges the experience poses. 
Attendees spend seven days in an isolated, harsh desert environment with 
limited access to outside resources and infrastructure.

And “self-reliance” is one of the event’s core principles, with organizers 
emphasizing participants are ultimately responsible for their own health 
and safety.

The event’s website advises attendees on how to prepare for the seven-day 
festivities – including in the case of extreme weather. Here’s how 
organizers suggest getting ready for the unique experience.

‘It’s one of the most strikingly beautiful and utterly ethereal locations 
in the world that will ever try to kill you’
The yearly celebration takes place in Nevada’s Black Rock Desert, a remote 
and isolated area where the roads become unreliable in difficult weather 
conditions. The closest settlement is Gerlach, a town of just over 100 
people; Reno, the nearest city, is 93 miles away.

“The Black Rock Desert is a huge, flat, prehistoric lakebed, composed of a 
hardpan alkali, ringed by majestic mountains,” says Burning Man on its 
website. “Daytime temperatures routinely exceed 100°F, with extremely low 
humidity.”

Organizers are blunt about the location on the event’s website: “It’s one 
of the most strikingly beautiful and utterly ethereal locations in the 
world that will ever try to kill you.”

Burning Man advises attendees that “ultimately the responsibility for your 
personal health and safety falls to you,” part of the event’s “spirit of 
radical self-reliance.”

While the festival provides “essential safety infrastructure” including 
porta potties, ice for sale and on-site first responders, amenities are 
few and far between. Revelers are typically reliant on the gear they’ve 
brought themselves. Facilities for handwashing and showering are the 
responsibility of individual camps.

The festival suggests a long list of gear for each attendee, including 
food and beverages, an “extensive” first aid kit, warm clothing and fire 
extinguishers.

Additionally, “Burners,” what the event dubs attendees, should bring a 
“poop bucket,” especially in case rain makes porta potties inoperable. The 
website recommends a 5-gallon utility bucket with a lid and garbage bag 
liners.

And the list goes on: Attendees are urged to bring a portable shower, 
waterproof protective bags for any electronic gear, a battery- or solar-
powered radio and warm clothing since temperatures can drop by as much as 
50 degrees when the sun goes down.

In the case of rain, Burning Man emphasizes the importance of wood blocks 
to help keep generators and other electronic devices dry and electrical 
tape to seal off connections.

Nicole Gallub, who has attended four Burning Man events, said despite her 
prior experience and serious preparations, she still wasn’t ready for this 
year’s intense rain. “I don’t think anybody was really prepared for what 
we experienced,” said Gallub, who left the event during a pause in the 
downpour. “Typically, it rains, and it stops – but it just didn’t stop 
raining.”

Amid the difficult weather, the atmosphere was “peaceful” when she left, 
she said. “Everybody else was pretty calm and helping each other,” Gallub 
said. “I would have felt actually okay if we stayed, too, even though it 
would have been very uncomfortable.”

Like Maltsava, Gallub said preparing for the worst is a crucial part of 
the Burning Man experience. “You have to basically plan out the next seven 
days on your own in the desert,” she said. “It takes quite a bit of 
planning to get it right.”

And despite the organizers’ best efforts to prepare and warn attendees, 
“there’s always people that are not that prepared,” she said. And as the 
event has grown more popular, it has attracted participants who might not 
understand the “self-reliance” ethos.

“You get a lot of people that are just coming to party and they just think 
it’s like a big festival,” she said.

Still, Burning Man veterans are supportive of these newcomers, according 
to Gallub. “When people do need help, people are here with open arms 
trying to help each other,” she said.

Omar Sedky, another of this year’s attendees, likewise said more-prepared 
participants helped compensate for those in need.

“We’re overly prepared,” he said of his own group, who rented an RV for 
the event. “And we were also able to bring others in when the rain 
started.”

Participants who chose to camp in tents on the “playa,” the usually dry 
lake basin where the event is held, were in some of the worst positions 
when the rain started, he said.

Sedky said one of the main challenges at the site has been limited 
communication on the radio station, as well as vehicles getting stuck in 
the mud and creating traffic jams. He’s planning to drive a woman who is 
seven months pregnant out of the area in his RV, he said.

“One thing you’ll see a lot here is the sense of community,” he said. “So, 
if someone needs help, there’s plenty of people offering it.”

‘I almost had FOMO leaving’
While the photos of muddy campsites and flooded streets may look daunting, 
attendees said collaborating to survive a difficult environment is part of 
what Burning Man is all about.

Maltsava, who left the venue Saturday for a work engagement, recalled, “it 
was so beautiful to see people helping each other out and sharing supplies 
and batteries and power and water and food and shelter.”

She walked 10 miles to get out of the site, crossing knee-high waters in 
platform boots that slowly broke due to the thick mud. But still, she 
said, she “almost had FOMO leaving,” or “fear of missing out.”

Attendees were still partying and spending time together when she left, 
she said.

“To be honest, I wouldn’t change a thing,” she said. “I would still go, 
even if I knew it’d be such a mess.”

For Lubna Sharief, a six-time Burning Man attendee, the difficult camping 
conditions are part of what makes the event so special.

“The challenge and the survival skills and the preparation – this is a big 
part of it,” she said.

Sharief, who didn’t attend this year’s celebration, said that like 
Maltsava, she prepared extensively for her first Burning Man experience in 
2011. Still, she said, she “didn’t really get it right.”

“You need help,” she said, emphasizing the crucial role that community 
plays in Burning Man. “We are all in the desert together, sharing what we 
brought together.”

Sharief said in previous years, she’d prepared for rain by bringing duct 
tape and trash bags to cover her boots if needed. “One of the good mantras 
to have is you can’t use it if you don’t bring it,” she said. “You can 
bring the extra canned food and you can bring the extra zip ties and rain 
supplies if it doesn’t rain and you know, kitty litter for a bucket toilet 
even if it doesn’t rain.”

The event’s emphasis on community balances its focus of self-reliance, she 
said.

“Reliance – bring everything you think you need,” Sharief said. “But also, 
if you have a problem, self-reliance is also going to find the person who 
can help you.”

https://www.cnn.com/2023/09/04/us/burning-man-heavy-rain-
preparation/index.html

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From wood blocks to 'poop buckets,' how Burning Man organizers told festivalgoers to prepare for heavy rain useapen <yourdime@outlook.com> - 2023-09-05 07:36 +0000

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