Late August–early September · Black Rock Desert, Nevada
Burning Man
packing list
Water, dust protection, visibility, shade, repair supplies, and Leave No Trace planning come before optional comfort upgrades.
At a glance
- Venue
- Black Rock City, Black Rock Desert, Nevada
- Typical dates
- Last Sunday of August through Labor Day
- Base city
- Reno (2.5 hr)
- Fly into
- RNO (Reno-Tahoe)
- Crowd
- ~75,000 participants
- Running
- On playa since 1990
- Music
- Art and participation — not a music festival
- Format
- Camping festival
Plan at your pace
The starting list
0 of 26 packed
Use this list in four passes.
- Start with ID, ticket, payment, water, phone power, and medical basics.
- Add the festival-specific items, then adjust for camping, travel, and expected conditions.
- Use the linked official source shortly before departure to confirm bag, entry, and permitted-item policies.
- Save or print the final list after your last forecast and travel check.
The kit, checked weekly
Gear that earns its space
Every pick below is a real product we chose for Burning Man specifically — checked for price, rating, and availability, and re-checked weekly. Prices move; treat them as ballpark.
As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases. It never changes what we recommend.
Survive the playa
Black Rock City sells nothing but ice and coffee. Everything your body needs for a week in an alkaline desert — water, dust protection, skin repair — arrives in your vehicle or not at all.
Reliance Aqua-Tainer 7 gallon
The math is 1.5 gallons per person per day and nothing is sold on playa. Two of these per person is the standard answer, and the spigot makes camp life civilized.
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Base Camp M Plus dust mask
The step up from a bandana for whiteout days: sealed, breathable, and built with replaceable filters. Your lungs notice the difference on day three.
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DeWalt Concealer sealed goggles
Pure function, no styling. Worth carrying anyway as your clear-lens night pair — a tinted goggle is useless after dark, and most burners run one of each.
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Obacle dust bandanas
Breathable face cover for dust, wind, and sun. Works soaked in water as emergency AC.
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CamelBak Rogue Light 7 hydration pack
Two liters of water and about five liters of room for a layer, snacks, and a battery. Two liters is also the ceiling most majors put on hydration packs, so it clears the gate instead of arguing with it.
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Ultima electrolyte packets
One stick per bottle refill on hot days. Water alone stops being enough somewhere around hour six.
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Mario Badescu rose water spray
The gift burners rave about: a cool mist of rose water on a dusty face at 4pm is a small religious experience. Carry one, gift the rest.
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Surviveware biodegradable body wipes
The closest thing to a shower at a campground. Thick, unscented, and biodegradable so you're not hauling out guilt.
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Protect Life mini first aid kit
100 pieces in a pouch smaller than a paperback. The med tent is for emergencies; this is for everything else.
Check price on AmazonCamp infrastructure
Playa wind flattens casual camps. Shade that reflects instead of absorbs, anchors that actually hold, and power that lasts the week are what separate a camp from a debris field.
Aluminet reflective shade cloth
The playa shade standard: reflects heat instead of absorbing it like a tarp, breathes in the wind, and drops your camp's temperature by real degrees.
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Phopich screw-in ground anchors
Playa wind treats regular stakes as suggestions. Screw-in anchors hold shade structures through the storms that flatten unprepared camps — the community moved past rebar for good reasons.
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Rhino USA ratchet straps (4-pack)
Everything at your camp that can catch wind needs to be strapped to something that cannot. 20,000 reviews of exactly that.
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TICONN heavy-duty tarp
Under the tent it stops ground moisture; over the canopy it doubles the shade; over gear in a storm it saves the weekend. Ten dollars of insurance veterans never skip.
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Jackery Explorer 300 power station
A week off-grid is a power problem: this runs the fan, charges the crew's phones, and powers the lights without a generator's noise or fumes.
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Marchway folding camp cot
Off the ground means away from the heat the playa radiates all night and the dust that creeps under the door. Sleep is infrastructure here.
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Rechargeable camping fan + lantern
The community's most-repeated tent upgrade: clips to the ceiling, runs all night, and the built-in lantern covers your camp light. A tent with moving air is ten degrees more sleepable.
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Rechargeable camping lanterns (2-pack)
One for the tent, one for the camp kitchen. Doubles as a site marker so your row of identical tents is findable.
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oaskys 3-season sleeping bag
Light, packable, and warm enough for desert nights that drop 40 degrees after sunset.
Check price on AmazonThe bike & the night
The city is five square miles and the night is the show. A cruiser you can dust-proof, a basket for everything, and enough light that art cars see you coming.
Weize 26-inch beach cruiser
Black Rock City is five square miles; a bike is not optional. A basic cruiser you can dust-proof and donate-or-store beats ruining a nice one.
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Retrospec front bike basket
Water, layers, gifts, goggles — everything rides in front where you can grab it at a stop. The most-installed upgrade on any playa bike.
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Brightz LED wheel lights (2 wheels)
Unlit bikes cause more playa collisions than anything else. Wheel lights make you visible from every angle — and look spectacular at 2am, which is the point.
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MaxLax EL wire (5-pack)
The classic burner glow: sew it to a coat, wrap the bike frame, outline the camp. Five colors, battery packs included, infinitely reusable.
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LED light-up shoelaces
Cheap, silly, and genuinely useful: being visible at night is a safety feature that happens to look great.
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LHKNL rechargeable headlamp (2-pack)
Finding your tent at 2am is a hands-free job. USB-rechargeable, with a red mode that won't blind your neighbors.
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INIU 10,000 mAh power bank
Two full phone charges, flight-safe, and small enough for a fanny pack. The value pick if you already carry your own cable.
Check price on AmazonPlaya wardrobe
Costumes here are survival gear in drag: fur because deep night hits 40 degrees, sealed boots because the dust is alkaline, shine because the night deserves it. Dryer-test everything — if it sheds, it MOOPs.
Toponsky faux fur coat
The playa cliché that became a cliché because it works: warm at 4am, unmistakable in a crowd, and dust just adds character.
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Tanming faux fur vest
The lighter-weight fur for the 9pm-to-midnight window before deep night demands the full coat. Layers over everything you own.
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Sequin kimono duster
Catches golden hour, sunset, and every art car's lights afterward. The throw-over layer that turns basics into a playa outfit.
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Allegra K holographic jacket
Iridescent by day, reflective by night — the jacket does both shifts. Windproof enough to matter when the dust picks up.
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Tscoyuki platform boots
Height, ankle coverage against alkaline dust, and stomp-factor. Break them in for two weeks first — the playa forgives no new boots.
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Captain's hat
A playa institution for reasons nobody remembers and everybody honors. Survives being sat on, traded, and returned two camps later.
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Metallic rave bra top
The bikini-top-as-shirt move, in metallic. Base layer under mesh by day, the whole top by night.
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XEPST fluffy leg warmers
The rave staple: fluffies over sneakers. Zero practical arguments, complete photographic ones, and your calves stay warm at 4am.
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Thinsulate lightweight gloves
For the festivals where 4am means 40 degrees. Touchscreen fingertips so the sunrise photo still happens.
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Top Level knit beanie
Weighs nothing, packs anywhere, and turns a cold 2am walk back to camp into a non-event.
Check price on AmazonThe gifting economy
Gifting is the culture — not barter, no strings. The community's own rule: useful beats trinkets, because trinkets become MOOP in a week. Bulk practical gifts (SPF balm, wrapped earplugs, cold pickles) make you legendary; glitter confetti makes you a cleanup story.
LED finger lights (100-pack)
The classic bulk gift: a hundred tiny lights that make a hundred strangers grin at 1am. Batteries included; hand out generously, MOOP-brief every recipient.
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SPF 30 lip balm (32-pack)
Playa air destroys lips by day two, which makes SPF balm the most gratefully received gift on the esplanade. Practical beats trinkets — the community says so, loudly.
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Banana Boat SPF 30 travel packets
Single-serve sunscreen for the friend who is visibly cooking. A gift that gets used on the spot instead of pocketed.
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Foam earplugs, 100 pairs wrapped
Individually wrapped pairs — hand them out at 3am near the sound camps and watch people fall in love with you. Sleep is the scarcest resource in Black Rock City.
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Hair ties (200-pack)
Two hundred of the item everyone loses daily. Wear twenty on a wrist and gift them all week — zero MOOP if they leave on wrists.
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Paisley bandanas (12-pack)
A dozen dust masks, sweat bands, and instant costume pieces. The gift that gets worn immediately and used all week.
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Van Holten's pickles-in-a-pouch (12)
Salt, crunch, and cold brine in the desert — a legendary playa gift for good electrolyte reasons. Chill them in the cooler first.
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Blank can koozies (30-pack)
Keeps drinks cold and doubles as a canvas: decorate them at camp and gift art instead of trash. Also solves the whose-can-is-whose problem forever.
Check price on AmazonThe full kit runs about $1360 — and most of it follows you to every festival after this one. Start with survival before sparkle.
Pack for this place.
The playa swings hard: expect roughly 100°F at midday and the 40s after midnight, plus dust storms locals call whiteouts that can cut visibility to nothing inside a minute. Rain is rare, but when it lands the alkaline clay turns to sticky mud that can strand vehicles for days, so pack as if the gate could close without warning.
Read the survival guide early and build a water and waste plan before anything else goes in the car. If it's your first year, expect the gate greeters to invite you into the roll-in-the-dust-and-ring-the-bell ritual that welcomes new burners; you're getting dusty within the hour anyway, so lean into it.
Rules are the final word.
Preparation requirements and safety guidance are extensive and change with conditions. Use the official preparation materials as the source of truth. Read the rules-check guide.
Dress for it.
Sun-blocking coverage beats skin: light long sleeves, ventilated layers, and colors that hide playa dust (everything ends up beige eventually). Costumes are the culture, but the ones that survive are the ones you can move, bike, and sweat in. The full what-to-wear guide covers night layers, footwear, and the extras.
Quick answers
Burning Man, asked and answered
How much water do I need at Burning Man?
The survival guide baseline is 1.5 gallons per person per day, covering drinking, cooking, and washing. Nothing is sold on playa except ice and coffee — you haul in every drop.
Will sunglasses work in a dust storm?
No. Whiteouts require sealed goggles; sunglasses let fine playa dust straight into your eyes. Bring two pairs — tinted for day, clear for night.
What is the most dangerous thing to skip?
Lights on your body and bike. Unlit people at night are invisible to art cars and cyclists. Pack more LEDs and spare batteries than feels reasonable.
Do I need to bring a bike to Burning Man?
A bike is not required, but Burning Man's own preparation guide calls one "crucial, if not essential" once you're inside Black Rock City, since camp-to-camp and camp-to-center distances add up fast on foot. Bring something old or secondhand: alkaline dust chews through gears and chains within days, and an expensive bike just becomes an expensive rust bucket. Lock it every time you stop, and plan to ride it home or donate it after — leaving a bike on playa is exactly the kind of trace Leave No Trace exists to prevent.
What happens if it rains at Burning Man?
Rain is rare on the playa, but the alkaline clay turns to sticky mud within seconds when it does, and official guidance says to stop driving immediately since spinning tires just destroy the road system for everyone. If you have to walk, duct-taped trash bags over your shoes beat losing them to the mud. The event's own weather team broadcasts road and weather updates on BMIR 94.5 FM, so a battery-powered radio earns its space — the 2023 storm alone stranded tens of thousands of vehicles for days.
Can this replace the official rules?
No. This is planning guidance; the official policy linked above controls what is permitted at your edition.