- Background and Instructions
- We were unable to split our village up in 2024. What should we do?
- We want to form a hub, but we’re concerned about how the camps will be placed in relation to each other.
- Why did this transition happen? Why are you forcing us to divide our community?
1. Preamble
While villages have been an important part of Burning Man’s growth and history, we are adapting to meet today’s operational needs as an event. Placement and other Burning Man departments require a stronger relationship and understanding of each of the camps within a village, and as such, we are removing villages as a placed camp type in 2024.
All current camps within villages will need to establish a direct relationship with Placement by following all parts of the Placement process. In anticipation that this change will require time to sort out within the village's communities we are offering options that are sensitive to the impacts of transitioning listed below.
- Villages may retain their existing name and merge with any number of camps within the village. Former villages can choose to be considered a single theme camp (with subgroups within them) or a HUB as a collection of stand-alone theme camps placed together to share resources. .
- Each new stand-alone theme camp will have a camp lead responsible for completing the forms in the Placement process: Placement’s Statement of Intent (SOI), Placed Camp Questionnaire, and Post-playa Report.
- Each qualifying stand-alone theme camp will receive their own ticket allocation in the SOI process for the camp lead to distribute. If former villages have chosen to become one single theme camp, tickets will be provided to their camp lead (likely their former village mayor). Setup Access Passes will also be provided to the camp lead to distribute, and any changes to the camp must be made by the camp lead to the Placement team.
- Humans Uniting for Better Sustainability (HUBS) allows camps to stay adjacent. See details below for more information.
In 2024, Placement removed the village category from the Placed Camp Questionnaire. Existing villages had to convert to become a single large theme camp, or form a HUB as multiple separate camps. Our timeline for completing the transition process is…
- 2025: If your former village is now a single, merged theme camp, you may remain so and complete the SOI as such. If there are still groups within your former village that are not ready to split or you all need more time to sort things out about your future, you can remain intact as one entity (theme camp). Please remember to include their interactivity, population, and ticket allocations in describing your theme camp as a whole. If your former village has already divided up into separate theme camps, each theme camp is responsible for completing the SOI (and Placed Camp Questionnaire) for their own camp and tickets will be allocated directly to the camp lead.
- 2026: All camps that were once part of your former village must determine if they are still part of one united theme camp or wish to be treated independently. Each stand-alone theme camp must fill out a SOI in 2026, and can remain physically adjacent by forming a HUB with any other camps including those formerly with your village.
- 2027: Any camp from 2027 on that wishes to split from your former village will be considered a new theme camp and subject to limiting their size to no more than 100’x100’ in their first year. HUBS are encouraged to maintain physical adjacency.
How villages camps can stay connected: HUBS
In 2022, we introduced a new system called Humans Uniting for Better Sustainability (HUBS), which also accomplishes the ability to connect camps physically to help achieve Burning Man’s 2030 Sustainability Goals. In the past 2 years, this has been a successful way for camps to be mapped together and focus on sharing resources.
Placement has historically worked directly with village mayors to determine the resources to support the village including overall dimensions, Stewards Sale ticket access, and Setup Access Passes. By discontinuing villages as a camp type, we are seeking a direct relationship with camps in villages as stand-alone camps. We believe most villages will be able to transition to a hub if your collection of camps wish to remain adjacent to one another.
2. We were unable to split our village up in 2024. What should we do?
You have a couple options if you want to stay intact:
Option A: You can join together as one large theme camp with whoever was in your previous village. You can still function as you always have, but we’re going to classify that as a “theme camp” in the Placed Camp Questionnaire. Only one person (perhaps your village mayor) will fill out the Statement of Intent and Placed Camp Questionnaire on behalf of the entire camp and subcamps (camps in villages) do not need to fill out their own questionnaire. You can even still have the word “village” in your name. This scenario keeps everything running as it always has, with the change being largely administrative so that we consider your former village a single theme camp. Many camps designated as theme camps already function the same way with subgroups within them.
Option B: While all camps may not be able to split, those that can should each complete a Statement of Intent and Placed Camp Questionnaire as their own theme camp. As long as the camps have previously submitted a camp within a village or village Placed Camp Questionnaire within the last three events, they will be considered returning camps. The collection of camps that have completed their own questionnaires (even if it’s just 2) can also apply as being a part of the HUBS Program. One HUBS Liaison should be picked from the camps in your hub and should submit a layout showing the preferred adjacencies of all camps within the hub. Any camps that are not able to split can remain together and should fill out a questionnaire as their own entity similar to what’s stated in Option A above.
3. We want to form a hub, but we’re concerned about how the camps will be placed in relation to each other.
The HUBS Liaison will submit a hub layout that will be reviewed by Placement’s Mapping Support team. If there are issues with the layout, they’ll reach out to you well before we begin mapping the city. We highly encourage camp shapes that are as rectangular as possible and in 50’ increments.
As long as you indicate the preferred adjacencies on your hub layout, the Placers will map your hub in as closely as they can to your submitted hub layout. Please understand that some adjustments may need to be made to better fit other camps in the block. If there is wiggle room in how your hub is mapped, we’ll assume this if adjacencies have not been indicated in the hub layout.
Please be aware that every placed camp must have at least 50’ of border along a street or avenue. We will not place a camp buried in the middle of a hub with no access to a street. If an existing camp in a village wants to be independent but is not able to have their own street frontage, that camp should be absorbed into another camp.
4. Why did this transition happen? Why are you forcing us to divide our community?
Villages in BRC have always been defined as multiple unique but united groups of people under one umbrella identity as a “village”. You do not need to arbitrarily divide up your community if there aren’t clear and obvious ways to do so. We want to understand and have direct engagement with the different groups (if they exist) and see this as mostly an administrative change.
If your village truly is one entity that cannot be divided, we have provided options for you to stay intact (see option Option A mentioned above) which would functionally keep your existing campers whole. If your village is one entity that cannot be divided, it would be considered by Placement to be a single theme camp rather than a collection of camps within a village umbrella.
Villages have been an administrative challenge for Placement and instituting this change allows us to better administer the Placement process in Black Rock City. By having direct relationships with camps in villages, we will be able to better understand their offerings and interactivity, better assess their experience, and be better able to provide support where needed. Logistically, campers and camps in villages have been difficult to find by important services like Rangers, Emergency Services, and the BRC Fuel Program. Maps are not readily available to locate them and often individual campers from one camp in a village are not familiar with the other camps in villages or the campers within them when approached on playa.
Having direct relationships and allocation of space, tickets, and Setup Access Passes allows us to better serve camps. By treating camps in villages on par with other theme camps, we can map them in, find them easily, know their interactivity, and build a direct relationship with that group rather than working through the village mayor who in some cases attempts to represent over 400 people.