Looking for a small area to camp near Center Camp...

[Jake Squirel]

Hey I was hoping for some advise, I have a camp confirmation at 5pm & B.

What I wanted to now is, if I show up on Tuesday afternoon, what is the realistic likelihood that there will be a small area(15"x20") for me to set up camp on the edge of Esplanade? Last year I stayed at the PostOffice but this year they are full, but it was so cool being right on Esplanade, tent facing the Center Camp structure. I'm a single guy, 40, fun funny love to dance converse chill and can help out!

Any shot at there being a space at that type location???

Thanks all, see you next Tuesday afternoon! )*( JohnnySquirel.

[strange love]

You can do what the hippies do, use center camp as YOUR camp.

[Sundial]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but don't the spots near Esplanade tend to fill up first?

[Savannah]

It's unlikely--but then again, you somehow managed it last year.

The Esplanade is booked solid, Jake. Frontage on the Esplanade is generally meted out to some of the most visually interesting and spectacular camps; glamour in the front, residential areas in the back. If you know anyone at any of this year's Esplanade camps you could email them, I guess. (It doesn't hurt to ask, provided you can let incredulity or laughter roll off of you.)

But any camp that big or labor-intensive is leaving for the playa right now, if it hasn't already.

[Eric]

what is the realistic likelihood that there will be a small area(15"x20") for me to set up camp on the edge of Esplanade?

I bet someone would give you 15x20 inches just to see if you could actually live there for a week. You'd have to figure out how to sleep either standing on all your stuff or balancing it on your head.

Seriously though - no. All the camps along Esplanade & in Center Camp are placed in those spots by Burning Man, generally because of what they can bring to the community. Those camps are filled with people who've worked their butts off to make them happen, and they get filled up by those hard workers camping there.

Set up with your friends this year, and if the Esplanade is the be-all and end-all for you, find a camp this year that you really like that seems to get placed there, and work to become a member of that camp. That means putting in work during the "off season", not just when the Gates are open. If you're a good worker you can probably work your way to what you're looking for in time for the 2014 Burn. There's a lot of fun to be had away from the Esplanade - just like Times Square is mostly for tourists, the Esplanade is the bright distraction from a much more interesting rest of the city.

[stew]

I hear next year the city will be a 10 mile circle with just one street. Everybody gets to camp on the esplanade!