Flying in? Ship bulky gear to Reno
A suitcase is not a shade frame. Amazon Hub Locker, Hub Counter, or a hotel hold, using the rules Amazon published.
First burn guide
Your first burn, minus the panic
You will probably cry, and you will still come back. This is the page we wanted before our first time: a straight path, sourced numbers, and a blank where the official site has not published one yet.
Black Rock City 2027, called Spellbound, runs Aug 29 – Sep 6, 2027. Black Rock City 2027
Flying in, or sleeping in a rig
RV for your first burn
When a rig helps, the mistakes that catch a first year, and the booking clock El Monte already printed.
You are not the only one
First-timers, the census calls them virgins, were 28.4% of Black Rock City in the 2025 Census (confidence interval 26.4–30.4%). The share was 31.8% in 2024 and 34.7% in 2023. Black Rock City Census
The gap
The official first-timers URL does not hold a guide. It redirects to the general Black Rock City page. Burning Man first-timers URL Roughly 16% of attendees came from abroad in 2024. San Francisco Chronicle
Start anywhere. Just start.
Amazon to Reno
Ship the bulky gear ahead, then pick it up.
RV, first burn
Avoid the rig mistakes. Book the right one.
Roadmap
What to do between now and the week itself.
Tickets
How the sales work, and what is still unpublished.
Cost
Other people's budgets, and a calculator with empty boxes.
What to bring
Water, dust gear, shade. The unglamorous core.
Getting there
Reno, the bus, and the mileage we will not invent.
Camps
You do not need one. You might want one.
The quiz
Tent, RV, Reno hotel, or a camp. Eight questions.
Wish I knew
The advice burners repeat every year.
Flying in
Germany, the UK, the Netherlands, Australia.
Been before?
The second year is a different set of questions. Power, shade, an RV, and whether a gear sale is real all live on the next-burn pages.
Gear, when you want it
Affiliate disclosure: Some links on this site are affiliate links; we may earn a commission at no cost to you.
What we would watch, seasonally, is Burner Supply's Black Friday gear page. Nothing here is a countdown. If the deals are not up, the page will say so.
Last updated Nov 5, 2026. Where a figure is not published, this site says TBD next to the official link.