Tickets have started shipping – did you get yours yet? STEP is apparently still open, but anyone lucky enough to be selected from now on will have to join the 4000+ people in the Will Call line.
No big deal, right? Well, check this out. AJ Jennings has posted some drone footage taken last year at the gate on the way in. This will help explain to the 30,000+ n00bz Burgins Year One Burners why yesterday’s announcement about extending gate times is so significant.
When you arrive at Burning Man after your long pilgrimage to the middle of nowhere, be prepared for as much as 8 hours of waiting in line before you finally get in. Even once you get past the Greeters’ Station, ring the bell, kiss a hippy and make a Dust Angel, you could still be hours away from your camp. The speed limit is 5 MPH:
There were also citations for speeding, although the incidents reveal there seemed to be confusion about the current speed limit in Black Rock City. Burning Man staff (via the event stipulations) have agreed on a pre-event limit of 10 mph, but it’s possible the citations were given for exceeding 5 mph
BRC 2013; photo by Duncan Rawlinson
Black Rock City takes up almost 1000 acres. It is laid out in an arc, with a radius of 3250 feet. This means a diameter of 1.25 miles. The city takes up two thirds of the circle. This means the length of Lapis Lazuli, the outermost road, is 2.6 miles from 2 o’clock to 10 o’clock. These numbers are from the 2012 Environmental Impact Assessment on the BLM web site. According to Wikipedia, the circle diameter is now 1.5 miles. This would make the L road length 3.14 miles.
If anyone has any information about the length of the journey from the Greeters’ station to the L road, please share. I estimate it to be about half a mile. These distances don’t sound huge, until you try to drive them at 5 MPH with near-zero visibility.
Go faster if you want the cops to come to your vehicle with a sniffer dog.
The distance from the Greeter gate to the L road is not far at all, as the Burner flies, but you can’t go directly to it. More important is the distance from the Greeter gate to the Y that separates those heading to the 9-ish side of town from those heading 3-ish. It’s very close, so that there’s an instant tangle of all the lanes of vehicles, half of which are trying to get to the side they are not on. A bit more distance there might help.
I need 2 tickets I’ll do anything!
This isn’t totally accurate. We went in 2013, and the drive time from Gate to Greeter was maybe 10-15 min driving slow. Of course, we spent a lot of time reading all the funny signs posted on the right side of the traffic lanes. Once we were greeted and we drive to our camp (4:15 and B), it really didn’t take that long. The big distance is from Gate to Greeters, not from Greeters to the city. We know people who volunteered for greeter shifts would would easily ride their bikes, or even walk to the greeter area. As for the exact distance from the greeters to the L road, I do not know. Even if you look at the picture of the city above, the L street is actually closer to the greeter station than it is to Center Camp, and certainly the Man. But I would guess that once we were greeted, we got to our camp in another 10-15 min. One key is how you drive to get to your camp. You have to be smart on distances in the circle. If you stay on L all the way till you get to your clock address, it might take longer. If you go up several streets, then cut over, you drastically reduce the distance. Also, when we went in, it was perfect visibility, no problems at all. This may be a problem sometimes, if there is a dust storm, but its certainly not all the time.
Thanks DaveC, that is indeed a good Burning Man navigation tip for newbies – head closer to the center and cut across, don’t go around the outside.
The video attached to this post is the clearest I’ve ever seen it at the entrance. The last 2 times I’ve been it was so dusty you could barely see the cars in front of you or next to you. Both those times we had early access passes so not sure if that makes a difference, I would have thought not.
And what is the best route to the shark? http://1drv.ms/1lpMM6Q
cool! Have not seen those before, the photo says 2008. I kind of feel like 2007-2008 was BM’s peak, between Crude Awakening and the Bummer Hummer. Maybe someone actually did jump over this art installation, thus beginning the curse…
“Admit Traveler” printed on the ticket? This has gone too far. I admit NOTHING!!
lol Nomad.