A few newbie questions

pbmaniac2000 · Post by **pbmaniac2000** » Wed Mar 01, 2006 12:42 pm

Ok, so i'm definetly coming to burning man this year and have a few questions. The first one is what is the average age breakdown of burning man. I am 18, and wanted to know if people my age will be there? My next question is what is the main "sleep housing" choice. Is there a lot of people in rvs, or is it mostly tents. I have a 45 foot prevost, but don't want to bring it down there and look super out of place. I also have a large wall tent thats about 20x15 that we use for camping. So i can do either. The next thing is i'm super confused on theme camps. Are they something where i can show up, and saw this looks like a cool theme camp and pitch my tent, or is there more to it than that. Then is there a list of theme camps, or do they just sort of pop up? Ok one last question for now. What is security like down there? Is there a lot of theft and problems down there or are people mostly cool.

StevenGoodman · Post by **StevenGoodman** » Wed Mar 01, 2006 1:20 pm

Well, the quicky answers...

1) You have gotten to the BM website. Spend a couple of hours reading all kind of stuff here, and many of your questions will be answered.

2) The age range is young to not-young. There will be plenty of 18ish people, and other-ish people.

3) There are more tents than RVs, but there are lots of RVs and trailers. What is better depends on what you want/need.

4) Theme Camps are the "other part of Burning man" (the not-Art part). Theme Camps are organized ahead of time, they need to know how many people they will have, how much space they need, etc. They submit all this to the BMORG and get assigned space. It is hard to just "add stuff" to a Theme Camp on the playa.

If you want to be part of a Theme Camp start looking for one now; find one you are interested in and volunteer to help out.

4b) Most of the space is "open camping"; check the map from BM2005. You can just show up and camp in the "non-Theme Camp" area.

5) Mostly people are cool. There are always a few jerks/idiots. Just be a little careful with stuff, put stuff away, etc. A bike lock is good, as bikes wander off occasionally (rarely theft, more common is mistakes, or too "wacked out" to find there own bike).

Mostly, come on down and have fun! But read up and be prepared.

Tiahaar · Post by **Tiahaar** » Wed Mar 01, 2006 11:21 pm

pbmaniac2000 wrote: ...I have a 45 foot prevost, but don't want to bring it down there and look super out of place. I also have a large wall tent...

damn

as one who knows what a 45 foot prevost is I am envious of you having one

if you bring it be prepared for it to get very very dusty, but hey you and 10 or more of your closest friends will be stylin. as the proud captain of a dedicated BurningMan bus I wish you a great burn, bussing or tenting it.

spectabillis · Post by **spectabillis** » Fri Mar 03, 2006 1:05 am

ignorance: whats a prevost?

robotland · Post by **robotland** » Fri Mar 03, 2006 5:41 am

spectabillis wrote:ignorance: whats a prevost?

A hexagonal joist, wedged in at a thirty-degree angle.
OR
One step BELOW "Field Marshal".
OR
Decommissioned class of Soviet space vehicle.
OR
The part of a book between the spine and the stitching.

(I'm not sure either....But my guess is that it's a bus.)

pbmaniac2000 · Post by **pbmaniac2000** » Fri Mar 03, 2006 8:07 am

lol. Yeah a prevost is a type of high end motorhome. They are the top of the line motorhome. Base price starts at just under a million dollars.

Post by **AntiM** » Fri Mar 03, 2006 2:00 pm

Will you adopt me? And my cats? And Larry? and my quasi-kids?

pbmaniac2000 · Post by **pbmaniac2000** » Fri Mar 03, 2006 2:19 pm

lol. I get that a lot.

Lassen Forge · Post by **Lassen Forge** » Fri Mar 03, 2006 3:55 pm

Did you get the 4' chandelier option? >grins<

A loooong time ago (my carnival daze) I had a boss who had a Wanderlodge (same class of kahuna). I heard it was a palace on wheels, what I remember most was when you walked in, there was a chandelier hanging from the ceiling almost the width of the cabin. Supposedly it was (for a bus) a real dream to drive... built on an "Americuriser" coach body (the one with the high top and skylights on the sides)... pure opulence.

If I can ever find one... Yeeee-haw!

bb

pbmaniac2000 · Post by **pbmaniac2000** » Fri Mar 03, 2006 11:00 pm

nah, its not about chandeliers anymore. Now its all about the led and fiberoptic lights. lol.

Post by **AntiM** » Sat Mar 04, 2006 6:02 am

Oooh, an LED chandelier, what's not to love?

falk · Post by **falk** » Sun Mar 05, 2006 7:49 pm

I would not bring a high-end vehicle onto the playa; you'll never get the dust out of it.

Kinetic IV · Post by **Kinetic IV** » Sun Mar 05, 2006 8:58 pm

What good is the damn thing if you protect it like it's made out of eggshells? You spend the money on something nice like that to enjoy it. Sure you know it's gonna be dusty on the playa but there are many things you can do to mitigate that....if it was mine I'd roll that awesome bus North on 447 and enjoy my time on the playa!

pbmaniac2000 · Post by **pbmaniac2000** » Sat Mar 11, 2006 1:06 pm

Yeah i don't mind getting it dirty at all. It's been to paintball and motorcross events so its been through the ringer.

HughMungus · Post by **HughMungus** » Sat Mar 11, 2006 1:48 pm

pbmaniac2000 wrote:Yeah i don't mind getting it dirty at all. It's been to paintball and motorcross events so its been through the ringer.

Yeah, don't worry about it being out of place. There are so many different types of vehicles out there that no one will notice. The thing about bringing a motorhome is that you're not required to camp in it. Just because someone brings an RV doesn't mean they're not in the spirit of Burning Man. In fact, what I love about bringing one is that we're able to give more to the community by helping our neighbors out with somewhere to cook, clean themselves, get out of the dust/wind of they need to -- and we've even had people ask if they could camp next to our RV for the shade/wind blockage. So if you've heard anybody bitch about RV's, don't worry about it. It doesn't sound like you're the kind of person to drive it there and hole yourself up in it. Last year we had an RV *and* we had some public shade space. We spent most of our time out in the shade space and really only hung out in the RV when sleeping/cooking/cleaning.

Regarding this:

"4) Theme Camps are the "other part of Burning man" (the not-Art part). Theme Camps are organized ahead of time, they need to know how many people they will have, how much space they need, etc. They submit all this to the BMORG and get assigned space. It is hard to just "add stuff" to a Theme Camp on the playa."

Just wanted to say that you don't necessarily have to be registered, etc., to have a theme camp. Some people (like us last year) just showed up, found an obviously available spot, and setup our theme camp there.

Odds are that you won't be able to just join a camp. My advice is that you just go and don't worry about that; I promise you won't feel left out because there will be plenty of camps that are public and you'll meet lots of people by the by. NEXT year is when you should think about doing a theme camp. Another pitfall to avoid is joining a camp with people you don't know -- they might hear about the big tent or the RV and let you join without caring if you're compatible and that's where the drama begins. Just go this year and worry about doing a theme camp next year (or next time).

One thing you should definitely do is meet your neighbors, tell them what you might have if they need it (e.g., if you have the RV, tell them if they need batteries charged you can do that or -- IF YOU WANT TO -- that they could have a shower or whatever), invite them over to your camp to hang out, etc. But you really don't even have to do that, either -- I just think it's a great idea, myself.

Edit: If you're coming with a group one thing I would probably advise is to keep the RV as your private space. We did that just for sanity/security reasons. You don't want people thinking they can come in or come knock on your door whenever they want to and it's nice to have a place to get away from it all (especially if you're new).

A few newbie questions

A few newbie questions

Re: A few newbie questions