The spirit of modern-day hippie-ness that surrounds Burning Man will have you thinking that the average Burner is also an average human in terms of living standards. However, that’s usually not the case. Despite the festival’s essence, elite crowds are widespread throughout the event.
Some 79% of the participants were white, and their median household income exceeded $94,000 a year, that’s more than double the county’s norm. When elites invade Burning Man, they bring luxury with them. Ultrarich festivalgoers sometimes charter private planes or helicopters to the event. A week before it starts, volunteers cobble together the Black Rock City Airport on a dusty road.
The Essence of Burning Man
Have you ever taken a ride in a firefly? Well, the people in this picture have, and now we wish we were there with them. This light-strung vehicle is a mode of transportation that can only be made by a group of dedicated people. This is one of the core qualities of Burning Man culture — coming together to create fantasy just for fantasy's sake.
The growth and infrastructure allow for more creativity from the participants, who then bring back Black Rock City's essence to the “default” world. If nothing else, the pure harshness of the desert will continue to make collective survival a uniting factor for most inhabitants, forcing burners to rely on each other and find commonalities.
Dust Storms
As the festival is held in a lakebed desert with sand so fine and powdery, it makes sense that there would be a lot of dust storms, so many of the Burners come prepared with appropriate provisions, such as goggles, bandanas, and masks to help reduce dust inhalation and end up with cleaner lungs.
As you can see, these dust storms can be quite brutal and sometimes even dangerous as the storm reduce visibility to a few feet. This also means that whatever costumes, installations, and modified cars Burners are planning to bring — they need to make sure they can withstand those dusty conditions.
Accommodation
There is a medley of accommodations to choose from, depending on festivalgoers' budgets. Most participants stay in tents or camp in their vans. Many more have formed small communities and stayed in theme camps. These camps developed as a way for groups of Burners to create spaces for interactive experiences while also offering shelter.
The camps usually group themselves around a common theme or interest. It can be as simple as their love for country music or as random as their love of an incredibly specific flavor of Ben & Jerry's. Finally, luxury camping sites became known as "plug and play" camps and made their way to Burning Man.
Crowds
As you can imagine, it can get pretty crowded out there on the Playa. The festival usually gathers crowds of up to 80,000 Burners, so yes, that's a lot of people! Many prefer to be amongst all the people and soak in all of that human energy. Others, however, can be overwhelmed by it, and we can't really blame them.
Wanting to be more secluded and sequestered, those people will choose to set up their camps in Black Rock City's "suburbs," the far-out areas that are less dense. This will help them avoid the sensory overload that can sometimes take over one's consciousness when they get into a large crowd.