Spots are first come first served or not?

[omer]

Hi burners its going to be my first year!

I am planning to bring my car and tent to camp but I am curious about how can I find a spot. I mean, are they reserved or first come first served?

And on top of that, I am considering joining a camp. But I am also confused since there are theme camps and normal camps. Can I join a theme camp? Or is that only for volunteers to join?

Omer

[Elorrum]

Have a look at this photo... zoom in and move around. See how big it is? It might give you a better idea of how it all gets sorted out. I'm pretty sure this photo is taken later in the week, near when the city was at it's fullest. You get a map that shows the reserved areas, and everywhere else is open camping. There might be some theme camps still recruiting new members. I have found that it's a very neighborly place, I have made great friendships lasting years, just by being neighbors by chance at Burning Man.
http://www.gigapan.com/gigapans/966a716 ... 46490e071/

[trilobyte]

Hello and welcome! I'm giving your thread a nudge over to building camps & villages, as that's a better fit for questions about where you can camp. If you'd like to look into specific camps for 2016 and find one to join, you can do that by checking out the 2016 camps & villages board. If you'd like to circle back to the greeter's station and post a thread to introduce yourself, we'd love to hear more about you there.

[maladroit]

In theory, any completely unoccupied theme camp space (no-show camps) revert to first-come, first-camped when the event starts on Sunday at 6pm. If some of the theme campers are already there, then the whole flagged-off space is "held" for later arrivals (although it's bad form to have an empty theme camp on Monday, they likely won't get placed next year).

Note that the gate actually opens 18 hours earlier than the official event start, this year. So you need to be aware that 8am on Sunday is too early for you to determine that a theme camp has forfeited their space, nor is it your duty to complain about how little of the space they're currently using. More people are coming, guaranteed.

Out in open camping, it's less organized. But the very best thing you can do is talk to any neighbors when scoping out a camp site. Sure, only two cars might be there now, but if they say that four RVs, three vans, two cars, and an art car on a trailer are all in line about to show up, there's no reason to argue. Give everyone lots of elbow room if you're early, and everything WILL fill quickly during the next 24 hours.

We usually take a large-ish space with lots of distance (say 10 carlengths) to the next open camp street frontage. This space always gets filled with small camps (one car, an RV, a tent with no discernible vehicle, etc).

[dustyfux]

Even at this late of a date there are still camps out there looking for boost their numbers, can find plenty of contacts out there. If you're looking to slide in and work things out when you get there, sure that happens too.

Closer in, harder to pry yourself in. Camps are pretty well established, infrastructure is built, tents are situated and cars are parked.

As you go further out there's more open areas. Timing is important as mentioned, just cause there's a big empty doesn't mean its up for grabs. As the week progresses there's always a place to stop and stay. My camp always has a corner spot left vacant - maybe someone doesn't show or they got lost, maybe that structure got moved, etc. Every year some really cool people stop by the bar as they land on the playa, and after getting to know each other we extend an invitation to them. I've met some lifelong friends that way.

On the outer ring there's open camping. You can park and walk your camp in 10 feet or 100 feet - you'll have vast space to call your own.

[maladroit]

I did some math here, since there is often a lot of worry about the amount of space used for theme camps (sometimes I worry about it too). But there's a funny thing about areas of circular objects; the outer rings hold a deceptively large amount of the total shape's area.

It's hard to get an exact number due to the fuzzy lines and no measurements of actual theme camps, but here's a simple way to look at it: if the city was booked solid with theme camps EXCEPT for the outer three streets, there would still be MORE open camping area than theme camp area (about 16% more). I think we're doing a bit better than that, so there should be at least 50% more open camping area than there is theme camp area.

[Jackass]

The spacing between the radial roads towards the outer rings is insane. I always go way inward before beginning my traverse of the city, took a few rodeos before that one finally sunk in...

Things don't always make sense out there.