Going it alone - Burning Man from Europe as a solo traveller

Written by our friend Tarmo who we met out on the Playa :)

Last year I travelled to Burning Man by myself from Oulu, Finland, knowing no one who had every been to the event or anyone who even lived near Reno. 

Planning and organizing everything first seemed quite impossible, but in the end it turns out I worried way too much. I had a great time, met some excellent people from all over the world, made friends, experienced so much weird shit you wouldn’t believe. If you are in the same situation as I was, don’t worry – you can and should do it.

The most important thing is to know what you need to know, how the transportation works, what kind of things you need to plan for, and what you need to bring. Simply gather info by reading the burningman.com site and forum, the SA forum thread, googling, whatever. Look around for people’s experiences, packing lists, and newbie tips. 

Short survival info for convenience - you will need: 

• A ride to and from Reno and BRC. You should expect that you'll need have to bring everything you will use yourself, and expect to need to haul all the trash back as well
• Much more food and drink than you think you will use yourself
• A bike if possible
• Warm clothes
• A tent
• illumination
• A lot of beer and booze
• Fun stuff to wear.

Transportation
If you are coming from abroad your supplies will most be limited by the space you have. If you have a driver’s license and can afford to rent a car – great! Start looking for one now, you can probably rent one from Reno, if you reserve it early enough. If you have enough money you can just roll around Reno buying all the stuff you need a couple of days before the Burn, then drive there and back.  

However if you’re like me with no driver’s license, very little money, and only a small backpack to bring from your home country – no problem, you can still do it! You will need to start thinking about how you will get to BRC and back, but luckily there are a lot of rideshare sites just for this purpose. It might not be until a few weeks until someone can offer a ride for sure, but there are so many people going from Reno to BRC that you will have no problem finding a ride if you just spend some time emailing people.
Theme camps
Another option is to join a theme camp through the ePlaya forums like I did – look around for what looks like fun or something you would be willing to participate, or who is willing to take first-timers. There’s everything from bars to naked yoga camps. Contact the camp and offer your body and mind to the service of the greater good, as well as possibly a monetary donation to the infrastructure. 

Some camps require a daily participation in the camp activities, others like my past camp just want help with set-up and teardown and a small donation. Likewise some camps have a tight close-knit community where it’s mostly friends setting it up, and some are a collection of strangers focused around a few organizers where everyone mostly does their own thing. 

As a first-timer you’ll most likely want to wander around a lot, so make sure your camp would be okay with you not being at camp a lot. You will probably have contacts through the theme camp so you shouldn't have a problem finding a ride. Joining a theme camp is completely not necessary though and most people at Burning Man aren't a part of one (I think).
Supplies
Regarding supplies and limited space - shop around for some of the more difficult to get small items through internet before the trip and bring them along with you – stuff like EL-wire, hats, goggles, etc. The rest of the stuff like food, medicine, tents, sleeping bags and so on is easy to in Reno once you have a ride. 

You might consider a small solid-fuel camp stove and a diet of boil-in-bag meals, beef jerky, dried fruit, and canned tuna. Lots and lots of canned tuna (ok yeah it creates trash you need to take away with you but it is so delicious). 

Simple camping food is easy to find from all supermarkets, and the solid-fuel stoves you can get from online stores or military surplus stores. This was my food plan and I survived just fine, although I did bring a bit too little food. 

Protip: Bring a lot of protein bars or equivalents! They’re very handy on the playa at 3am miles away from your camp after partying for 12 hours. They should also make good gifts forthe same reasons. If your ride is bringing a cooler, ask if it has space for some of your stuff as well. Don’t bring anything that spoils easily.
Bikes
Bikes are harder to get and harder to bring with no car of your own, but I do recommend bringing one, as it makes getting around much easier. Look around the burningman.com site for bike outlets, or buy a cheap one from craigslist or Walmart, or arrange for a bike deal with other Burner. 

You can do fine without a bike too or sharing a bike with a friend. This year I'm actually intending to not bike around as much on purpose, to spend more time just wandering around instead of getting from one destination to another.
Socializing by yourself
Once you’ve ensured that you will stay alive during the Burn, you might ask yourself if it’s any fun by yourself. Yes it very much will be! 

People in general are very friendly to strangers in BRC, I had no problem finding a lot of cool people to spend time with.  Hell, if you’re bored, ask anyone passing by on the street if there’s anything cool nearby, what he’s up to, how his Burn is going. The cool thing is that just by being in Burning Man you both have this enormous common ground, so that makes conversations easy. Just embrace whatever happens and say yes when people ask you to join for an activity or other adventure. Don’t be like me and end up regretting not sucking that lesbian’s dildo!

There’s also internet meetups of several kind, look around if a forum or community you frequent has one. Or you could register on the ePlaya forums, introduce yourself, and go to the ePlaya meetup. Or you could even send me or Nancy a message and we’ll try to find you at some point. Last year I went in knowing no one and came out with a group of awesome friends – all it took was an open mind and a few forum messages.

To sum up, the one thing I most wish I had known was to not worry as much. There are rides a plenty even for a lonely person, most supplies you can find in Reno, and you’ll have fun even if you don’t want to. See you home!