WRONGTOWN SURVIVAL GUIDE

Welcome to Wrongtown!

Hi everyone! While the Burning man site had an extremely comprehensive survival guide (Burning Man Survival Guide), this guide is meant to give you information specifically for Wrongtown – where radical self-reliance meets communal effort. 

Culture

With a small camp, chemistry is important, with a big camp, culture is important!

-Buzzkillington, repeating what someone told him. 

Wrongtown is a Big Camp. We expect about 100 campers each year, representing roughly 15 different countries. Moreover, everyone camps together, we don’t assign people into ‘sub camps’ or ‘pods’ like other camps of our size… so what is our culture? 

“Many hands make light work”  

Wrongtown has a lot of amenities, we provide a lot of opportunity for you to participate, and we have a very low financial cost compared to other camps, so whats the catch? Work. While the boring stuff (shade, food, common area, etc.) is figured out, you need to help us build it. And run it during burn week. And strike it. We require two mandatory burn week work shifts hours and one cooking shift. Burn and strike shifts are described below but will generally be assigned based on availability and need.

Water

We’ve totally changed our water system this year! In the past we’ve asked people to bring 2.5 gallons. We’ve perfected our IBC tote system and have water for the kitchen and limited showers. This means that we’re rolling back the water requirements to the Burning Man standard of 1.5 Gallons per day per person.

Also once you arrive on playa please add your water to the water depot and record your contribution to the ledger.  We store all the water together in order to be able to estimate water needs throughout the week. This water is always available to fill your water bottles, and the camp leads will ensure the water depot never goes dry. It is however very important that you add all your water to the water depot because in the past we’ve had people hoard water and it caused us to make a trip into town to purchase more water.  At the end of that burn we had to deal with over 200 gallons of water that we didn’t know was hoarded.  So please don’t hoard water … if we run out we’ll get more!!

Amenities

In order to ease the burden on international campers and campmates who carpool, we provide many amenities for camp use. We have a kitchen, showers, a communal lounge, and a tent camping area called “tent city.”

-Kitchen-
The kitchen is open for use by everyone at all times. Be aware that during meal times it can become congested. While cooking for the meal plan, the cooking staff has priority over most of the kitchen. There will still be a 2 burner stove for individual meal prep during these periods. Also, if you’re not on the meal plan, please do your part to keep the kitchen clean and tidy after you use it.

-Shower-
We have showers available for use in camp! Black Rock City is extremely dry, so this is a huge luxury for the burn. We do have a limited amount of water. Water consumption will be moderated via an electronic interface that dispenses a set amount of water per person (approximately 1 gallon). This should be used in a “military shower” way: rinse quickly, soap up, then rinse quickly. To make the most of your water, shower quickly or consider using a no rinse shampoo or dry shampoo. Or just rub some playa dust into your hair. Playafied hair is beautiful, dry, and full of luscious volume!

-Communal Lounge and Dance Floor-
We have a 50′ diameter shade structure with benches, day beds, rocker beds, a massage table, and rugs. We have a 20 foot (7 meter) wide stage for campmates to perform on during the day and for our DJ’s in the evening. Evening sound is provided by Lashrams six stacks of speakers. It’s also a great place to hang out and nap during the day if it ever gets too hot in your tent. Campmates are encouraged but not required to utilize the stage and chill area for their own participation, whatever form that may take. Please indicate your interest in your questionnaire, as DJ slots and stage time are not required campmate shifts – but we love it when you do!

-Tent City-
Most campmates pitch their tents in our 60’ x 72’ (18 x 22 meter) “tent city”. The roof is a 99% blackout tarp and the sides are permeable shade netting to allow airflow. This provides an extra layer of protection from the sun while keeping it cool enough for most people to sleep during the day. . Please keep in mind that the space is limited in these areas and try so keep your footprint small by not getting a larger tent than you need.

-The Bar (booze, brawndo, and miso)

Our public bar was upgraded in 2024 to include CH₃CH₂OH in addition to electrolytes. In 2025 one of our goals is to have an operating Miso machine for 24/7 miso soup. And miso shots. Bartending is one of the work shifts campers can select. I think our bar needs a name, can you help us name it?

-Twisthanger, Trampolines, & other Burn Mandated Interactivity- 

In 2024 we added the Twisthanger, a two person mashup of the game ‘twister’ and rock climbing! Twisthanger.com for more info. We also bring a number of big trampolines because everyone loves them, and do incorporate other burning-man type activities people have brought over the years, such as wheelchair jousting or fire spinning. We call it it burn mandated interactivity so the Burning Man OrGanization will continue to Like Us and give us good Placement. But it’s fun too.  

Cost Share / Financial Contribution (formerly Dues)

Most years we find ourselves in a situation where we don’t have enough people to setup and tear down. It really is hell at the end of the event when we’re trying to wrap up.
This year we’re going to have multiple tiers for dues. Please see the brief description of the tiers below.

Campmate

• Dues $250
• 2 Camp Tasks during the week, plus 1 Cooking Task.
• 1 Build Shift when you arrive
• 1 Strike Shift on Sunday or before you leave.

Tourist Dues

• Dues $500
• We get it you have a tight schedule and you can’t stick around to help. You can at least help with your pocketbook!
• 2 Tasks during the week plus one cooking task
• No build or strike tasks

Meal Plan

• Price $90
• 1 meal 8/24 (Event start day)
• Brunch and Dinner for 6 days. (8/25-8/30)
• “Leftovers” 8/31-9/2 (anyone who stays to help strike camp gets fed!!)
• All meals are cooked by campmates (your cooking shift). If you’re interested in planning a meal for your campmates as your gift to the camp, please let us know in your campmate submittal questionnaire. We love new food and the supplies can be purchased by our kitchen lead!

Bike Rental 

• Price $50
• This year we’re making 60 available first come first serve.

 

Signups

-Camp Duties-

Many hands make light work. Each camp member is required to sign up for 2 camp tasks or shifts to done at a scheduled time during the week, and one cooking shift. Tasks are mostly cleanup and maintenance duties that take an hour or less, such as going to get ice for camp, or cleaning up the kitchen after a meal. There are also some camp service or public interactivity shifts that last from two to four hours, depending on the shift. You are expected to keep an eye out in camp during the shift. The good tasks fill up early so be sure to sign up ASAP!!

• • Camp Sweep Task: Pick up all the MOOPs and keep the living room space under the shade clean and organized! It is important to keep the camp clean and tidy – for some reason the more mess people see around the camp, the more mess they make around the camp! So keep it clean!!
  • Kitchen Cleanup Task : Clean up the kitchen tools used for cooking meal plan. Empty Kitchen Trash. Set up kitchen for next meal. Individual containers should be cleaned by the owners and they are not included.
  • Trash/Recycling Task : Take care of the sorted trash bins and bring bags of trash and non-aluminium recyclables to the designated area in the camp. Also bring aluminum cans to Recycle camp, which is very cool how they smash tons of cans.
  • Ice – Task : Get Ice at the closest Ice station. 

• Water Depot – Task: Organize and clean the water depot area so it doesn’t get too muddy. Double check all bus riders have turned in their water tickets. On Tuesday and Wednesday, go to to the Bus Water Depot (part of the official burning man org) and collect bus rider water with our empty reusable containers. 

• Camp Host / Bartender / BMI Games (Shift): this is our big camp interactive shift! You are the public face of our camp for a few hours. Making drinks, serving miso, or coffee, or electrolytes, calling people in from the street to try out the Twisthanger or trampolines or whatever else we have set up 

 

• Cooking Task : Cook a meal for your campmates. Food will be purchased by the kitchen leads and either a volunteer camp chef or the kitchen lead will have directions for your meal. Budget 3/4 hours for this Task, additionally it is very important you get to this task on time so people can eat!

 

-Build and Strike-

Build takes place at the beginning of the week, and strike takes place at the end. Everyone is required to do one build or strike shift, so please plan to help the camp build or strike before you leave. The signup list will include date ranges at both the beginning and end of the event to allow people to chip in, in a way that fits with their schedule. If, for any reason, you cannot do a build or strike task, you have the option to compensate by paying the non build/strike dues rate.

Meal Plan

-History-

Our camp meal plan developed out of necessity and over a few trials and errors. In 2011 so many people tried to cook camp meals, that there were conflicts about which night people would cook their camp meal. So in 2013, we put together a sign-up sheet, which gave everyone an opportunity to share their cooking with the camp. But this resulted in loads and loads of unused rotten food after the burn. So in 2014, we started the first official meal plan and collected money from people interested in receiving 2 meals a day, and shopped collectively, which collectively saved us thousands of dollars and dramatically reduced our food waste. It was a great success (Thank you Annabel, for managing our kitchen!!). Since then everyone interested in the meal plan has chipped in and gotten fed!!

-2025 Meal Plan-

This year the meal plan be $90 per person. You’ll get 2 meals a day – brunch and dinner. Signups are (Here). Each meal plan member will get a sealed bowl and a spot on a shelf. You’ll be responsible for keeping your bowl clean and on the shelf. If your bowl isn’t there at dinner time, it won’t get filled. Party too hard and miss dinner? No problem. It’s on the shelf, waiting for you! Miss too many meals? Mondays’s dinner might not taste very good on Friday. Eww! Got too high and now you can’t manage to clean your bowl? Sorry you couldn’t maintain but no bowl, no food. :p

Bicycles

Not everyone swears by them, but if in doubt, bring or rent a bike. There’s a limited number of camp bikes available for rental. BRC is huge! Bicycles are great!! Here are some guidelines on the type of bicycle to buy.

We have limited storage for bicycles, and each year we’ll be taking back the bikes in the worst shape to keep from storing trash. So the biggest piece of advice is to keep em simple. Beach cruisers work the best (playa=beach, right)? They have fat tires but aren’t overly heavy, and they have sealed bearings and coaster breaks (that is the pedal backwards brakes) so they hold up better and require minimal maintenance. Multi speed bikes have gears and derailleurs, which attract dust and have extra parts that tend to fail on the playa. You only need one speed on flat ground, so all of those extra parts are useless anyway. Annnd the new “Fat Bikes” typically have disk brakes with pistons and calipers and gears with derailleurs, so while they look cool and might last a year or two, they need to be taken home each year for maintenance. They also tend to get “accidentally borrowed.” So we highly recommend *not* bringing a fat bike.

We have one or two kid bikes and one adult trike if you’re really big or really small.