What 'worked' and what didn't make the cut.

[Ratty]

As I pack away my dust covered outfits I'm sorting out the pieces that didn't get used. Of course we all brought too much of just about everything. Next year.....

All my daytime wear will be geared towards very warm weather.

2 Tutu's, 2 bustles, 2 fur skirt/cape thingies, 2 perfect pair of shorts, 6 light weight tops. All the rest can be gifted before the burn.

I end up wearing my favorite heavy pants and the rest were in the tent getting dusty.

A couple of theme outfits.

One fur vest.

One fur coat.

Two bananas.

Several furry hat/wigs.

Several comfortable sport bras as well as the pretty under-wire ones.

More thong panties instead of the full cut.

In other words...I ended up wearing the functional, stylish items that I always wear. All the 'new' additions either got gifted after a few days or they are still in their bags.

My utility outfit for setting up and breaking camp was cargo shorts and t-shirt. THAT is a must!

Everything I bring will be bike friendly.

Things that I won't bring again are...Heavy fur shorts, tops that are too tight and therefore too hot, heavy leather pants, hats without a chin strap or ones that interfere with my goggles, anything that's too hard to put on, anything that restricts dancing, anything I can trip over.

I know I'm fooling myself at this point. I'll have 4 large bins of necessary costume clothing but by-God I'll wear it. (Yeah, right.)

[danibel]

Now my fourth burn, I have finally learned that bringing "comfy" clothes is more important than "fashionable." I wish I was a steampunk girl. They always manage to look hot in smallest of outfits and the warmest too!

What I need to focus on this year is a pair of knee high sexy comfy boots. They must go with everything.

I wore my bee outfit when I worked ice on Friday. I wore my school girl outfit for my sweetie's lap dance (and thankfully that evening was warm so it worked in the dark time too). The rest was a mix of shorts and tanks for day, and dark jeans with a fleece shirt at night under my faux fur coat. Oh. And my el wire tux tails with my red heart hat was perfect for burn night.

I still have a bin full of costume clothes that I didn't wear. There is always next year

[skippy3k]

I learned to bring an equal mix of thin and thick socks. Either my feet got bigger our my shoes got smaller, but on Day 2 I couldn't fit my feet into either of my boots. The insoles of one pair shriveled up and I had to toss them. Luckily I had barely enough thinner socks to get by, but had to wear them multiple days. (Ewww....)

Forget T-shirts. Instead no shirt during the day, or if I want some sun protection, a button up shirt unbuttoned. A T-shirt was way to confining....and boring.

Multiple nighttime costume jackets. It gets boring wearing the same thing going out.

Water bottle good. Needing to dig water bottle out of bottom of bag each time I want a drink, bad. I will be making a bottle holder for my handlebars next.

Bring backup camera. Our camera began failing on the playa, and the stress of wondering which great shot I will lose was too much. (Turns out I was lucky and only lost a few shots, nothing that made me shed tears.)

[VultureChow]

Buffs in, bandannas out - Had the one buff I wore all week. My first day with my hair in a bandanna, it was so ratted, I nearly cried brushing it out. Horrible flashbacks of being held down as a kid while my mom worked out the knots. I don't care what I look like, I'll do anything to prevent that hair debacle.

More long sleeve fishing shirts - Brought three, but would love to have one clean every day.

More tanks, less tees - way more comfortable

Better night coat/warm clothing. My warm coat was too warm. My cool coat too cool.

New hat with slightly smaller brim. With the lack of sweat and constant sunscreen application, I could use less of a sun hat.

Better, thicker socks.

New insoles in my boots

[stinkyfoot]

Anyone got any recommendations for playa boots that are friendly to a no-shoes type of foot? About halfway through the event I started realizing how much I hate wearing normal shoes but didn't want to throw caution to the wind and risk the dreaded playa foot, either. Need something boot-like, with a wide toe and a very flexible sole.

[AntiM]

Anyone got any recommendations for playa boots that are friendly to a no-shoes type of foot? About halfway through the event I started realizing how much I hate wearing normal shoes but didn't want to throw caution to the wind and risk the dreaded playa foot, either. Need something boot-like, with a wide toe and a very flexible sole.

High top canvas sneakers. I have some very stylish ones buried in my boot box.

I need better "sloppy camp" slip-ons. Mine bruised the tops of my feet. Got playa heel badly, although I already had a headstart on that here at home (dry, dry Utah).

Cotton gloves, the hand sanitizer ate up my fingers.

[danibel]

Buffs in, bandannas out - Had the one buff I wore all week. My first day with my hair in a bandanna, it was so ratted, I nearly cried brushing it out. Horrible flashbacks of being held down as a kid while my mom worked out the knots. I don't care what I look like, I'll do anything to prevent that hair debacle.

Corn rows! Or braids of some kind. My first year my hair was much shorter and it was still a nightmare to deal with on and after the playa. True that by the time we got to reno I was going a bit stir crazy wanting to scratch and rub my head, but it's so much easier than cutting off 3 inches just to get a comb through.

[CarrieSnarf]

Sadly my 50s themed outfits didnt work out. Too hot, too cold and by the end too small ( stupid tasty burritos).

I need more coats- i only brought one, and that was dumb.

I need better light up stuff for night, ive been using light up bracelets and what not, but they kept dying or i kept feeling the need to give them to darkwads.

On the upside playa dust makes an excellent styling gel for all you beehive, victory roll hairdo needs.

[FlyingMonkey]

Success:
I tried using a dry ice cooler filled with frozen 2 liter soda jugs & transferred a jug to the food cooler each day. I used 30 pounds of dry ice, 7 jugs, & still had frozen soda jugs on Friday. I did pre cool my coolers with ice 2 days before use & only opened them when necessary. The bonus of this method is when the jugs thaw you have nice cold drinking water.

Fail:
We attempted to hush our generator but had very limited success. (Please excuse our asshattery). We did however make a point to only run it for a few hours each day at a reasonable time. I hope we made up for this by smoking bacon each time the gen was running.

Success:
I placed tarps under our bus everywhere I thought a leak may occur. This was a good thing since we did have liquid leaks that only ended up on our tarps.

Success:
I brought 4 cans of SPF 100+ spray on sunscreen. I only used 1 1/2 cans & didn't get as much as a tan.

Partial failure:
We failed to consider the potential MOOP produced by our smoker & ended up scraping & taking home a little Playa with us.

Success:
Not to endorse a specific product but my camelback mule worked great. It held all my necessary gear & provided 3 liters of water for the day.

Lessons learned:
Take multiple garbage containers for sorting recyclables & trash.
Small cool packs would be great to wear under my hat during the heat of the day.
My fingernails got destroyed de-mooping the playa. I have heard that finger nail polish prevents this. Next year I am going to give this a try.
My biggest failure was thinking I had enough time to get everything done only to have Aug 24 arrive before I knew it. My last 3 days before leaving for the playa were very sleep deprived & stressful. I have already started working on things for next year. Lesson learned!

[Ugly Dougly]

... hats without a chin strap...

They have a way of disposing of themselves. Available free at the Trash Fence!

[SquirrelHead]

Adjustments:
More coat options for night fun. I had one but it was so hot until about 4am and then it was perfect.
More fun costume clothes (I am continuing with my sewing education so I plan to add to my collection throughout the year)
More long sleeve shirts for layers
I need to have more bins or some way to organize my clothes during the week. I felt like I couldn't find what I needed when I needed it.
Kilts!
Too much food. I am going to simplify things next year.
Write down who I want to see and where they are so that I make a better attempt at it. The week flew by.


Success:
I loved my tutu and think I will add another one (shorter) to the mix
Doc Marten boots worked fantastic
My sun hat worked well but it wasn't fun so I need to enhance it somehow
My dry ice setup worked great! 100 lbs of dry ice with a block of regular ice kept everything frozen all week.
I did not burn my lily white Irish hide.
Hydration was great thanks to my Camelbak (plus it held everything I needed and then some)

[Zhust]

Biggest win was the dishdasha (e.g. ... well, actually this exact one) for daytime. Sunblock on my shoulders along with a bandana around back and a shading hat meant no sunburn.

I also did a fair amount of time barefoot. I have a theory now that there are some cases of Playa foot, but almost all the time it's more like "drug-induced leprosy" where one fails to address discomfort until it's too late.

Sobriety was amazing (and the Playa provided me with astonishingly little temptation).

With just a dishdasha for day and some combination of layers and my purple fur LED coat for night, I think I'd like to have just a couple more options for more variety.

The attitude — even though only meant in jest — of "I'm going to win Burning Man" somehow paid off awesomely. More self-confidence would help. Maybe next year I'll do something where I act as a liaison for introductions ... hmm.

[CornMan]

Worked:
Putting down a Harbor Freight 20x30 camouflage tarp with 12" nails at each grommet worked awesome for the pub floor. Having a double layer canopy with black mesh on top and silver tarps below really kept the temps down in the pub. The black mesh walls were great. Using a regular yellow bug light in addition to some colored bulbs brought our pub a friendly glow. Welding big iron nuts to the ends of the rebar and pounding them all the way in kept the ankle injuries down. When a keg would get frothy, filling gallon water containers with beer and pouring from them worked great. Having a 30'x60' flat roofed canopy over the tents with mesh walls at each end made things much more comfortable. The EU3000 was an awesome machine. Nearly had to feel the side of it to see if it was running or not. We went through over 120 gallons of shower water, and there was only 2-1/2 gallons left to take home.

Didn't work so well:
Trying to use guitar amplifiers as a makeshift sound system didn't work as well as even a junky old stereo would. Blew out the speaker on one of them. Trying to share a 3000 watt generator with an RV had its challenges. We could probably buy a decent used EU3000 with all the money spent on ice to keep the kegs cold in the kegerator fridge. Bringing home and setting up the kegerator with the keg of Amber Ale left over presents problems of its own.

[dragonpilot]

One word: Neti Pot!

First year using one and my nose and nasal passages now know what has been missing for the previous 7 Burns...so nice to take a twice daily application of saline solution to moisten those tortured membranes and actually be able to blow the ol' schnoz clean. Get one...they're easier to use than you may think.

Concerned about bare arm exposure to the sun. Went to BRC Boutique and scored a white long-sleeved shirt (thanks to the help from one of the lovely "dressers")...perfect for the job!

[CornMan]

We had more than one discussion in our camp about the need to bring neti-pots with us this year. It will be one my list next year.

[EmilyD]

My full list is coming soon (thumb is in a huge bandage so typing is super slow) but most difficult part we need to remedy is getting a custom bike rack welded on our trailer's odd-sized rear bumper. Both pack up and pack out were extended by several hours of fucking around with trying to fit our full-size folding bikes into van and trailer.

More to come!

[Savannah]

What Worked & What Didn't - [Clothing Edition]

Awesome sauce:

* 16 new pairs of gold toe cotton socks (with a few percent spandex). Washed just once before packing. I wore all 16 pairs (+ 1 interloper) in 10 days.

* Beloved knee-high tan leather riding boots. They were not cheap, but they have lasted 4 years! Matching two-pocket camera belt (and slightly unnecessary but additional belt with clipped on stuff) celebrated year 2, and makes me feel like a rockin' bandito!

* Judicious use of cheap, loose flip-flops for a few hours at a time, maximum. Inspected the backs of my toes daily & washed with lemoned-drenched baby wipes and moisturized. No playa foot. (Last year I started to get playa foot on 1 toe, because my flip-flops were too fashionably snug). Victory is mine.

* Earned my ESD jacket. My golden fleece! I am in love with it. BRB, snuggling fleece . . .

Needs work:

* Forgot footie pajamas at home. The footie pajamas are part of my stupid Burn weekend animal costumes for nighttime, & I really missed their humor value. Fuck sexy, I can do that on my own time. I need to dress like a fat goddamned rabbit and skedaddle sideways like James Brown!

* Need to buy or sew (preferably sew) a proper middle-weight playa coat with lights sewn on. I almost did it this year but ran out of time, and brought a ski jacket, & a hoodie (purchased on the way, and the only outerwear I actually wore). This is shameful behavior for someone like me. A proper playa coat has so much utility and a creativity showcase--as far as wearables go. Where's the @#$% self-expression?! It's in the goddamn rag-bag at home, that's where. My costume design professors are rolling in their graves. Or beds, more likely. And wondering about it, no doubt. Why this rolling? It's as if someone somewhere who once held great promise has squandered it. I wish she would let me sleep.

* I continue to resist bagging (most of) my clothes by outfit because I am striving for flexibility, which is dumb, because I always end up choosing clothes hurriedly, not finding what I want in the huge pile, and then not picking something as wonderful as I could if I'd spent more time sorting at home. It would be easier to combine two outfits than to put one together from the black hole of costumes . . .

[BBadger]

Success:

- Magnesium supplements. Whenever I felt sore, had cramps from biking too much or it becoming cold, I could pop one of those (250mg) and it went away very quickly. Good sleeping too, and it kept me regular. I will ALWAYS bring those.
- Monkey Huts. Perfect sleeping, food kept shaded, easy to set up. We were the envy of the camp with our sleeping arrangements.
- Igloo Maxcold 7-day 165qt cooler. Kept shit cool all week despite moving shit around at times. Only needed to get ice twice or so because of other coolers we had.
- Inflatable air mattress. So nice having a twin-sized mattress instead of a single-person camping mat.
- LED necklaces for lighting up bikes and other stuff. Those things were so nice and easy to use. Much better than LED sticks or other crap.
- Sports-type sunblock or spray-on type. Kroger brand SPF-50 sports sunblock worked great. So much easier to apply than that thick shit.
- Motorcycle transitional goggles worked great. They did fog up at times, but usually did the job.
- Gloves. Kept me warm, helped my hands when working with shit, etc.
- Canon S95 worked just fine in all conditions without need to bag it or have some container, and did not break just like my old S90. I love Canon compact cameras.
- Coconut water. Never had it before, but it was great.
- Neosporin (or equivalent). Helped me with a deep cut on my finger. By the end of the week it was nearly healed. On another note, bring some nail clippers.
- Fresh fruit and melons. Awesomely refreshing and stayed good even until the end of the week.
- Shredded dry pork (meat floss)! Damn tasty snack when watching burns!

Sucked:

- Bike problems: bike chain kept falling off gears; kickstand was complete shit and had to be zip-tied to the body. Will overall just use a different and better bike next time.
- Shoelaces. What a pain in the ass. Next time I'll bring some cord to hold them down, or try to rely more on velcro.
- Dry ice freezing our eggs. We need to remember to pack that dry ice so that the only thing it keeps cold is other ice.
- Strawberries got wet, then moldy. Never wash or get strawberries wet. Had to toss 4-5 trays of them

Not much effect:

- Keffiyeh. It worked, but I didn't much like having my whole head covered. It did help as a scarf or ear covering to keep me warm, but I found my hat and bandana were sufficient for the daytime.

Future Improvements:

- More ratchet straps. 4x was not enough and I shouldn't depend on others to bring theirs.
- Velcro bandana-respirator. Then I can use that for breathing; the other for keeping my neck warm/cool.
- More warm clothing for the night. Fortunately, a friend gave me a robe to use and it kept me toasty.
- Bring mini-tripod. Setting the camera on a rock or cord worked, but an little tripod would've been nice.
- Shorter rebar stakes. Pounding in 20" of 5/8" rebar takes forever and is probably unnecessary.
- More shade cloth for the sides of the carport to prevent the evening sun from roasting us. Maybe a second carport would work.
- Blanket and sheet instead of sleeping bag to sleep in.

[pink]

Cotton socklets for gooping up my feet at night. Knee socks for my rubber boots-crew socks were too short and the boots rubbed my calves.

Participating by being a foot wash volunteer in our camp. Massaging vinegar and then cocoa butter into lots of feet made the owners of the feet happy and kept my hands from drying out; in fact some days my hands looked better than they do at home.

Another sarong. Worked as skirt, dress, or sun cape for my shoulders. Easy to wet for the evaporative cooling effect.

[Janet Planet]

Curlers!
Wash hair.
Roll up tight in foam curlers.
Cover with chiffon scarf.
Wear for 2 or 3 days.
Enjoy your clean hair with fab curls for one day.
Repeat.

[jkisha]

Doesn't your head sweat for those two or three days?

[Elorrum]

More long sleeve fishing shirts - Brought three, but would love to have one clean every day.

same here. I was very surprised with how comfortable they were with the sleeves down even at noontime. I've developed a sensitivity to sunscreen, seem to get a rash within a day or two on my ankles and hands.

[motskyroonmatick]

What worked- Wearing a cape fashioned out of a dirt rag really kept the sun off my neck and shoulders.
The trailer and AC was AWESOME!!!!!!
The pull start on the generator.

What didn't work- Carrying too little water and having to return to camp to stock up. I should know by now.
The battery start on the generator.

[delle]

Two bananas.

Plastic or real?


Either way, I really want a picture of this.

[trilobyte]

Being this is a clothing & playawear thread, I'll stick to just that…

Successful again this year, my Docs worked as my primary (well, only) playa footwear. Cheers to those who like rocking a lot of different shoes and boots, but I'm good with a single piece of comfortable boots. Took me years to figure that one out as well as find that right pair of boots, and the Rigger boots fit the bill perfectly. They slip on (no laces to fumble with), are strong enough for building/construction/teardown and the style worked with anything from jeans to piratewear to steampunk attire. Pro tip, when you get back home scrub those boots with water and vinegar to get the playa out and dust neutralized. Then use their Wonder Balsam (or some other brand of leather goods care). After two burns my boots still look like new (save for a scrape from some nasty chunk of metal that gashed the steel toe instead of my foot).

Kilty goodness - after years of coveting them I finally got a utilikilt this year and loved it even more than I thought I would. Great for daytime and on some of the warmer evenings. Made really well, it was a very solid investment.

Piratey and steampunky things - I already had lots of things, but added some more this year, it all worked well. Closest I had to a fail was that I had a few pair of pants with buttons for suspenders and only had a brown pair of suspenders. I could have sworn I had a black pair too, but while I'd eyed them on a website I'd never added them to the cart apparently. Not that big a deal, and easily remedied for future. For future I'll probably get (or make) another cravat or two, those were fun to wear. Same with vests/waistcoats - we had planned to make two over the summer, but I pushed them back to next year. The piratey stuff worked extremely well, the frilly shirts were comfy and warm at night. We'd re-cast new buttons for the ones that were lost on my space pirate coat at last year's burn, and everything was re-stitched for extra strength. I've been into both for years, the clothes are fun stuff that are easy to wear and easy to layer - I'll continue to make and pick up pirate/steampunk pieces for both off and on the playa.

Things that didn't work… I forgot to pack a couple pairs of shorts for daytime wear, but managed to get by with what I had. I had also meant to either make or buy some kind of utility belt so I could keep tools and other accessories handy and easy to take on/off without the usual process of emptying and reloading pockets, but never got around to it. I had silk-screened some shirts for myself and my campmates that were a fun alternative to wearing regular default-logo'd tees during setup/teardown/downtime, but being new at silk-screening I could have done a much better job with them (and will do for next time).

All in all, I'm happy with how things worked and excited for the things I hope to get done for next year.

[vapor]

"Anyone got any recommendations for playa boots that are friendly to a no-shoes type of foot? About halfway through the event I started realizing how much I hate wearing normal shoes but didn't want to throw caution to the wind and risk the dreaded playa foot, either. Need something boot-like, with a wide toe and a very flexible sole"

Tabi work great for me, http://www.jika-tabi.com/. In particular these, http://www.leathertabi.net/regularleathertabi.html, feel like walking completely barefoot, basically a second skin. The manufacturer doesn't recommend wearing outside, but the playa doesn't seem to harsh on the soles.

[AntiM]

A tip from MyLarry: tall soccer socks with the utilikilt at night. Right up over the knee to keep things warm.

[Ratty]

I'm lovin all the tips here. I'm getting a neti pot for next year. I'm in love with kilts too. I bought one at a garage sale to make a pattern. a 36 inch waist takes 15 running feet of fabric. I'm going to make myself one out of some wild patterned fabric. (The drab colors are the only thing I don't like).

My playa neighbor 'cooked' his pouches of dinner between his windshield and the silver thing he stuck in there to protect the dash. Very, very hot meals in his make-shift solar oven.

My scaled down shade structure worked great but wasn't big enough for company. I'm searching for a square sail cut on the bias and 2 poles. I really love those camo nets so I'm making my own out of various nets and bright fabrics. Just in case I have to camo a gaggle of clowns.

I definitely need more net bags for drying wet garbage.

[delle]

But.... but..... what about the 2 bananas???


...Still trying to figure where they fit in.

[vapor]

Bananas keep the dreaded playa trout out of camp . . .