What To Bring

Essential

• Ticket: Don't forget to bring your ticket, or you are screwed.
• Water: Each person needs to bring between 1.5 gallons and 2.5 gallons per day for every day you wish to spend on playa. The most popular approach is to purchase 5 gallon cardboard boxes of Arrowhead water from Costco - each box contains a pair of 2.5 gallon plastic containers with a handle and a spout.
• Food: Whatever you need to eat a solid two meals a day for the whole week. Popular items are canned beef stew, sardines, saltines, power bars, cliff bars, tastybite indian and thai food, instant miso soup, any precooked frozen food, or anything you can boil in a bag.
• Beverages: You're going to be suprised by just how good regular old water tastes in the desert. That said, variety is the spice of life, so you don't skimp on the exotic stuff.
• Shelter: Unless you want to build some sort of custom shelter for yourself, you need a tent that can be sealed airtight against the dust - and most people like a tent they can stand up in. By far the best tent you will ever buy, for Burning Man or any other adventure, is a canvas tent by Kodiak or Springbar.
• Long Tent Stakes: This is vital for securing your tent against those 70 MPH winds - the little stakes that came with your tent are just not sufficient. As per Bob on Rebar, Rope, and Rigging, rebar and other solid options can often be found for free, or bought for cheap in bulk.
• Rebar Toppers: Plastic bottles, tennis balls, teddy bears, or anything else that you can stake on top of your rebar to keep people from gashing open their legs by running into them in the darkness.
• Sleeping Bag or Pillow and Blankets: It can dip down to 40 degrees in the early morning hours, and you want every minute of sleep you can get to be high quality.
• Water Bottle: You must carry water with you at all times or you will die. I highly recommend you just splurge and buy a CamelBak with a backpack and lots of pockets built it, so that you can have a full day of water and all of your gear and powerbars with you at all times.
• Goggles: There will be alkaline dust storms that can blind you. Swimming and diving goggles are best, because they have no breathing holes that let the dust in. Ski and flight goggles will need to be modified to keep the dust out. Don't forget to make sure they block both UVA and UVB entirely.
• Dust Mask: If you want to be able to breath during dust storms, you need at least a bandana. Better yet, get a filter mask or a full face respirator.
• Sunglasses: Make sure they block UVA and UVB entirely, and bring some backup pairs.
• Sunscreen: Be careful choosing your sunblock! You need something at least SPF 30, and it needs to block both UVA and UVB. The best options appear to be Coppertone Sport SPF 30 (Ethylhexyl p-Methoxycinnamate, Oxybenzone, 2-Ethylhexyl Salicylate) and No-Ad SPF 45 (Octyl Methoxy Cinnamate, Octyl Salicylate, Oxybenzone). If you find something with Avobenzone, Zinc Oxide, or Titanium Dioxide, then that is even better. One way or another you'll be applying a fresh coat of the stuff every few hours for the duration of the week, so bring plenty.
• Lip Balm: Wear it on a rope around your neck.
• Garbage Bags: Despite being a city of 30,000 people Black Rock is still a leave no trace event, just like a camping trip. Everyone is individually responsible for taking out of the Playa every scrap of material they brought in. That means you have to collect and bring home every power bar wrapper, cigarette butt, and orange rind that you produce - there is not a single public garbage can in the entire city, and it is considered deeply offensive to ask someone if you can throw some of your trash in their can.
• Flashlight: There will be no moonlight this year, so portable lighting is crucial. The most important thing is to have lighting you can hang in your tent so that you can find your stuff in the dark of night. You'll also want to have a pocket lamp for reading maps and such, and something more serious for scanning the open desert.
• Batteries: Backups of every kind you use for every kind of gear you bring.
• Hat: Unless you're seeking a religious experience through heat stroke, you need a hat with a wide brim that blocks the sun. And given the possibility of 70 MPH winds, a chin strap to keep it on your head is a good idea as well.
• Handy Wipes: This is the easiest way to clean up before meals, after using the porta potties, or if the shower is just too busy. You want something antibacterial and individually wrapped.
• Lighters or Matches
• Work Gloves: For construction and cleanup you need leather or something comparable.
• Warm Gloves: For strolling around town on those cold desert nights.
• Ziploc Bags: Just about everything you bring should be stored inside a ziploc bag, to keep the dust out. You can never have to many of these.
• Plastic Containers with Snap-on Lids: They work like ziploc bags to keep the dust off of all of your clothing and other stuff.
• Mug: You can get a drink just about anywhere, so long as you bring something they can pour it into - we're one of maybe three bars in the entire city that provide their own glassware. I brought a steel camping mug that I hung from my CamelBak, so that it was with me at all times, and it was big enough to double as a bowl in the event someone offered me some food.
• Waistpack or Backpack: These are great for stashing the gifts that other people give you, as well as for carrying whatever you might be planning to offer as barter yourself.
• Smokes: Assuming you smoke, bring enough for yourself for the whole week, as well as whatever you expect to give away.
• Cooler for Nonperishables: This is for anything that you want to chill and get at repeatedly throughout the day. Most people use this cooler for beverages they want to remain cold throughout the heat of the day.
• Cooler for Perishables: If you have any perishables you intend to bring, you need a separate cooler for them alone, and you need to pack it with ice (and maybe dry ice) ahead of time. You want to open this cooler no more than twice a day in order to keep the contents frozen.
• Moisturizing Lotion
• Eating Utensils: Most of the food offered can be eaten by hand, but there are exceptions. In the worst case your leatherman or utility knife can cover you here, but do you really want to be waving sharp objects at your face while intoxicated?
• Toilet Paper: The porta potties provide this, but do you want to gamble on them not running out near the end of the event?
• Prescriptions: This includes contact lens supplies and just about anything else you need to maintain your health and comfort without any access to the outside world for a full week.
• Toothpaste
• Toothbrush
• Mouthwash
• Dental Floss
• Soap
• Shampoo
• Towel
• First Aid Kit

Recommended

• Shade: Your tent is going to turn into an oven during the day unless you enclose it in some kind of a shade structure, and that shade structure must be properly vented unless you want it to turn into an oven as well. Various shelter and shade options can be found on our Burning Man Links page, and for covering a single tent it is often sufficient to properly anchor a cheap canopy like you find at Target and throw camo netting or shade fabric all around it.
• Camp Chair: If you expect to sit down, you need to bring your own seat.
• Cooking Stove: If you want to heat your food, you'll need a good camping stove or the like. This is something you'll probably want to mail the list about, because someone might be willing to let you share theirs.
• Earplugs: Half the town is populated by teen ravers who think that pointing a sound system at your residence is a daring political statement. Earplugs are vital if you're noise sensitive and want to sleep at night.
• Umbrella or Parasol: For both rain and sun.
• Barter: This is anything that the average person would actually want. If you're a beautiful woman, a kiss or a back rub will likely do it. If not, a solid story or joke may do the trick. Failing that, you might try exotic food, booze, or smokes. Stay clear of cheap trinkets or widely available food products - nobody is going to be impressed by a shell necklace, plastic giraffe, or snickers bar.
• Waterproof Labels: You stick them to everything you own, especially things like your bicycle that are likely to wander off, and things like your camera that you're likely to drop. They should have your name, address, email, and the name and BRC address of our camp.
• Full Length Mirror: Great for making sure everything looks right before heading out on the town. You can pick up a cheap one for about $5 at WalMart.
• Deodorant: Actually, antibacterial wet naps can cover this base.
• Cooler for Ice: Those truly serious about bringing comfort to the desert always have a cooler devoted entirely to the storage of fresh ice, probably backed up by a slab of dry ice to keep it frozen through the whole event.
• Inflatable Mattress
• Eye Drops
• Nasal Spray
• Rope
• String

Optional

• Camera
• Bicycle: I insist on going everywhere by foot or by hijacking an art car, but bicycles are very popular, and great for running quick errands. If you bring one, strand cruisers are more comfortable than mountain bikes.
• Bicycle Lock: Although the odds of your bike getting flat out stolen are low, the odds of it getting borrowed by someone too drunk or high to understand the concept of personal property is quite high.
• Bicycle Light: You can also rig your flashlight, by fitting it to your basket or somesuch.
• Tire Patch Kit
• Spray Bottles: For misting yourself and others during the peak heat.
• Walkie Talkies
• Ham Radio
• Compass
• GPS
• Binoculars

Disapproved

• Feathers: Remember that leave no trace thing? Feathers and feathered clothing shed bits of themselves all over the place. Wear something with feathers and you risk being beaten to death by people who take the local environment seriously. Try marabou instead.
• Glass: You want to bring as little glass as possible, because it can be a pain to carry all your empty glass bottles around all day - its even more of a hassle when it breaks and you have to pick up the pieces. People lean towards beverages that come in aluminum cans, because you can easily crush the can and throw it in your pack after you drink the contents.
• Packaging: Many participants go so far as to remove the outer box from cereals and just bring the inner bag, in order to reduce the amount of stuff they need to carry home.
• Glitter: Its fine if you stick it to something, but if it drifts off loose, who's going to pick it up?
• Nuts in Shells: Do you really want to collect and carry around every piece of every shell you break open?