Live From Burning Man 2024

Observations From A First-Time Burner

I rode up with Kevin Kelly in his Toyota Sienna van on Friday. We had a great lunch at (take note Burners) the Great Full Gardens in Sparks before heading north to Burn territory.

We then ended up waiting for 5-1/2 hours to get in the gate. During which time there was a series of dust storms, or “whiteouts.” (Get it together, Burner organizers, this is ridiculous.)

We found our camp, the Epiphany Jewelry Company, a jolly bunch of burners who give out free jewelry (mostly necklaces) to all and sundry. (Not really a jewelry company, but a bunch of playful kindred spirits that get necklaces from thrift stores — last year they gave out 600 pounds.) In exchange for helping them out we get to park our RV (four of us) and have good hookups, including electricity and fast wi-fi from Starlink.

The next morning it rained, but luckily it wasn’t of the torrential persuasion as famously happened last year. By afternoon we were able to go out and explore.

Experienced burners said it’s good to get here early so you can do some exploring before the hordes arrive, and this is certainly true.

This whole thing is just — for lack of a better word — AWESOME. A city of 70,000 people set up (and then completely dismantled) in a week

Without further ado, here are some early pics. I‘m posting from a laptop, so not editing photos. I’m shooting so many photos I’m gonna post more frequently than usual. If you’e getting too many emails this week, you can turn off email notifications.

Here we go — a week of visual posts.