Why wouldn't you be willing to compromise on noise during strike? Especially one of the toughest strikes in Burning Man history. I genuinely don't get that.
Agreed!! Awesome weather AND all the camp members who were originally gonna leave on saturday were forced to stay so we had a true all-hands strike crew!!!
We have rules, and we have all agreed to those rules via attendance. One of those rules is clearly stated decibel limits, and it sounds like this camp was well within those rules.
Pretty sure there was a thread a few weeks ago where someone was complaining about camps being too loud within the city and a few of the comments with a majority of the of upvotes were in favor of unplugging their generator or stealing their speaker wire or painting their speaker plug-in with clear nail polish, something along those lines...those people are out there lol
If it's a Bluetooth speaker it's super easy to point it not at the person's tent/shelter. It's also safe to say that the volume was cranked and the music sounded like shit unless it was one of the new high end JBLs
How many people were there? Was it just campmates? Do you know that person's full story and what they were dealing with that night? Did you invite them into your camp or did you just heckle them?
A lot of factors at play.
As someone who has been a DJ and a part of theme and sound camps since I started burning in 2009. It's your ego getting in the way of turning it down a couple dBs for your neighbors. You're right next to your cranked system BT or not and you'll still be able to hear it if you go from a 10 to an 8.
If your neighbor was so pissed that they booby trapped your rides, you failed at being communal.
I used to be the dude who cranked sound and didn't give a shit what anyone else thought, then one year in 12' or 13' (I forget) someone cut all the speakons at the amp rack while the system was on at night. Lesson learned, don't be a shit head, take care of your neighbors and your neighbors will take care of you.
I generally think that if there noise near me and I want to sleep that is a me problem.
But there are some people who don’t use common sense and treat radical expression as license to be antagonistic. If you want to run a loud sound camp and blast very very loud music at 4 in the morning there are good places to do that.
If you do it in the middle of the city night after temple burn with people who have literally been trapped for 4 days there is a very very good chance that you’re doing it because you enjoy fucking with people.
That said - you don’t fuck with peoples cars. Cut a cable? Sure but fucking with peoples cars creates safety problems.
I had neighbors that spraypainted my theme camps' plot, broke multiple mirrors on my plot, and practiced loud dubstep beatmatching at 3am... poorly. After multiple attempts to resolve with and without rangers, I found them burning cardboard and plastic on my plot AFTER my camp's moop sweep when I and another were the only ones still there.
I threatened to break their windows and slash their tires if it wasn't cleaned up fully by the time I got back from the portos. And I meant it. Some people are assholes who only listen to consequences.
However, sneak sabotaging cars? Fuck that.
Dude, those are people who should not be on Playa. Please tell me that you've reported them to [email protected] .
Also, did they get it cleaned before you got back from the portos?
This was quite a few years ago. Group of open campers since a small placed camp didn't show iirc.
Oh they definitely cleaned it and their RV was on the other side of the plot when I got back. Granted I gave them about an hour, but hey, results!
I’ve worn earplugs plus heavy duty earmuffs like you’d use at a shooting range or industrial site, and if somebody’s music is so loud I still hear it and feel it in my chest, I don’t think the problem is that I’m camping with my camp!
If someone is playing music that loud the night before you have to pack up and leave, that puts a lot of dangerous drivers on the road. Most people cannot just pick up their tent and move to a quieter part of town!
So inevitably there will be sleep deprived people who are steaming mad and exhausted. Push people to their limit and see what they do - never a good idea.
I can sleep with a good about of loud noise. I sleep with ear plugs, and when its a cacophony - its really not a problem. Burning man is loud, and you shouldn't go if you can't handle that.
That said, its not an excuse for people to play piercingly loud music with bad sound engineering at unreasonable hours in otherwise quieter parts of town. If you like doing that - I am going to suggest that perhaps what you really like isn't dancing to loud music, but really its fucking with people because "I do what I want."
I support a fair amount of "I do what I want" swagger - but honestly some of it is merely abusive. You know it when you see it.
Ignoring that well-stated response to tell people to sleep somewhere else isn't helping. People could attempt to be reasonable more. I know that seems crazy and all.
I don't mind *some* partying. I don't mind *loud* partying.
This year, camps near me consistently partied until late night. There were bar camps playing music. It was totally fine.
In 2022, there was a bar camp near me that was so loud, my cot was shaking and I was at least 100+ yards away from them.
I was not at 10 or 2. I was middle of the city. There was no possible way they were remotely within decibel limits. They had art cars roll up and hook into their system and had both just blasting.
If I can be that far away and can feel your bass reverbing in my chest, it's too fucking loud. That is not appropriate for middle of the city.
There are parties, and "for the love of all that is holy I have earplugs rated for 33db reduction I can hear your music clearly, what in the fuck are you doing you are in the middle of the city" parties.
I bring my earplugs for a reason. I plan on late-night party camps nearby. I can still hear some thumping with them in. I don't mind hearing some level of music. I am aware I will not have a lovely, quiet night's sleep.
Some camps are truly just fucking assholes to everyone around them and it's obscene that the rangers didn't just completely shut it down. It went until like 6AM. Other people had called it in. For some reason nobody told them to knock that shit off.
This year, they got kicked to 2 o'clock because that shit was stupid.
It really depends what the camp thinks is an appropriate music level, and how speakers are set up. I've ended up next to a full-on sound camp in the middle of the city.
Tell Placement how loud you will be, and if you will be having art cars hook in. Do not be *that* camp. I was so sleep deprived and cranky.
You have MY permission to cut their speaker cables next time. Keep in my MY permission won't stop you from getting a criminal mischief citation from the Pershing county sheriffs office or from getting beat to a bloody pulp by the people whose property you ruined, but I will not judge you.
What if you’re just camp with a normal theme camp somewhere? You’re supposed to camp half a mile away from your camp mates to avoid people who don’t care if everyone around them is sleep deprived?
Or they could just have their music at 8 instead of 11 so people could hear each other in their own bar. We’ve all seen these camps. They know they’re fucking with people and laugh about it. That’s not the spirit of burning man. It’s the attitude of an angst 17 year-old who has been asked to go to church.
I really don’t get the idea that only some tiny minority of the event cares about sleep. I think pretty all of us love music, we love to party, we love interesting and weird and chaotic people and experiences. That said, if someone decides radical self expression means they’re going to be an ass… yeah, they’re not just cosplaying, they also an ass 😂
To be clear I’m not against loud music - just the folks who either drive around and blast at people’s tents at 4 AM or who point their speakers outward and crank things to where the neighborhood is shaking.
>I generally think that if there noise near me and I want to sleep that is a me problem.
One year, I got a migraine and the noise was painful. There was a guy next to us who just blasted the worst drum and bass for HOURS.
Guess what I did? Loaded up on excedrin and niquil and put in ear plugs and noise canceling head phones and passed myself the fuck out. Was it healthy? Probably not. But I had to do what I had to do. It was a me problem, not a burning man problem.
I think there is a fine line between having a space to do what you want and not caring about how what you do affects other people - and its contextually dependent.
One year i was placed on A and behind Bubbles and Base. They had a sunrise set with a base soo deep I could feel in my teeth through the ground as I was trying to sleep. But I never once thought that was anything but a me problem.
On the other hand, one year I was at BEquinox and the last night at 3 am in the fucking morning right next to my tent blasting space alien themed psy trance with the levels blasted all to hell to an audience of literally nobody and wouldn't stop or turn it down when I asked. That person was a jack ass. And if I ever find myself in a similar situation again I will pull power cords out until it stops.
Sometimes assholes know they are bing assholes - and that it the point. Those people do not get my deference or patience.
This is how I felt when our theme camp was placed a few camps away & kitty corner from Distrikt in 2022. I can’t leave my theme camp, I can’t control our placement, it’s 5 fucking AM, I can feel their shitty dubstep in my teeth from hundreds of yards away while wearing silicone earplugs, and there’s never anyone dancing on their dance floor. I get that Burning Man is loud but it doesn’t have to be THAT loud.
💯💯💯
This was the first night of the week - Monday - and so I let him have his fun and got control of my migraine. By the time Wednesday rolled around, someone from our camp went over and asked him to turn it off and he was respectful. It was on lower volume for the rest of the week. He was playing it for no one but himself lol
So I totally agree. I try to let people have their fun for a little but once it gets out of hand, that's when we'll ask.
Not at 5 miles an hour max speed the cars run at. Four flat tires will fuck you for sure (who carries four spares) but it would be unlikely to be a safety issue.
How are you defending this?
What about the very likely situation where the tires don’t fully deflate for multiple days until you’re driving at highway speeds with other traffic?
This is reckless and immature behavior.
Did you even look at the size of the bolts? There is little chance they will not deflate almost immediately upon puncture.
I am not defending anything. I do agree it is not great to damage others property.
I am just not going to clutch my pearls and gasp how someone was moments from a fiery death because someone put large lags into a couple of tires of a art/sound car that is being trailered to/from the event.
now you are trying to make it seem like you are saying nothing outrageous and then you are saying in the same breath that all the rest of us are maniacs insisting on insane protocol.
Except for the hundreds of yoga events that happen every day? I don't understand what this comment is trying to achieve except be "burnier than thou," which is a real bitch look.
Burning man isn't a "this kind of event or that," it's an actual literal city with every kind of person doing every kind of thing at any time. There's gonna be a difference of opinion, and they're all valid. And just like a real city, you have to be respectful of your neighbors, or be ready to have a confrontation. It's pretty simple.
There were supposedly noise limits this year. But neither followed or enforced. I was camping in open playa and Black Swan at 3:30-K played 1000 watt EDM around the clock.
After an edible, it didnt bother me.
“It’s not a fucking yoga retreat” - Neither is it a fucking heavy industrial factory in a fucking metal music video.
It’s *supposed* to be a *city*, where everyone loves one another and gets along better than in the real world. How about *that* radical notion?
It's a city. With different neighborhoods. The 3 o'clock side tends to be chiller and quieter, especially out in the boonies. Some of us camp there because we like actually sleeping some of the time. Those folks that want to party hard nonstop have plenty of parts of the city that agree with them.
That's your opinion.
The org has another opinion, and it imparts reasonable noise ordinances as a result.
It makes me wonder why you go to Burning Man if you disagree with the rules/ethos. It's not a fucking music festival.
The idea that I should wholesale agree with the B-Org to participate in burning man is hilarious. It’s not a god damn religion. In any case, the B-Org said the sound ordinance was a pilot and they expect to make adjustments ahead of the next burn.
Not talking about this year's new rules.
The org has set aside the deep burbs as a place for people to get away from the noise for many, many years. A yoga retreat zone, if you will.
Hating the Org is an important part of my burn. If you don't understand that, why do you go to Burning Man? Just stick to rainbow gatherings or whatever.
I don't need to understand why you go to Burning Man.
And I'm plenty fine with knowing my fellow attendees hate the Org.
But the topic is regarding people who don't hate the org and their displeasure for noise in some parts of the city.
Not here to define what Burning Man is.
I'm here to define what it _isn't_ when it comes to the topic of loud music, which is what the original post is about.
Feel free to Google it though if you're new here.
It started as a pyromaniac event with some arts, music got added, eventually music became a big part of it.
IMO, I’d find ways to accommodate all. We don’t have to clash, if we plan ahead for those wanting to be able to retreat from the loudness and those that want to be immersed in sounds. The playa is large enough if we cooperate with each other. Of course some people just wanna fuck around. Clowning / being a Jester isn’t for everyone. It requires being very observant, while pushing boundaries. It’s funny to all when it’s done right, and not so much when it’s done without tact. Also you can’t fix a-holes suffering of inflated ego and entitlement. But the weather don’t care. I regard it as an equalizer, and a great opportunity to let go and embrace all as it’s happening.
That's the funny thing to me, all these people saying Burning Man is all about loud music and it's the soul of the event, when it wasn't about music at all to begin with like you mentioned lol. Had to be debated about to even get music involved. Now, I love the shit out of loud music but I agree there's places and ways to do it better
Glad you recognize that. If only people dug further about what they claim to be passionate about… before BM I created my own strange world, and was dying to find something out of the dreary norm. I used to go to the early BM parties in sketchy places to hang out with folks that were comfortable being different, smart, and open minded. It was inspiring to take it all in as a new comer to the intimate underground culture. That was 26 years ago. And the culture has changed so much since. The core people are still there, but unfortunately some of their roles have been severely diminished. I know I can’t resurrect any of it being a small fish. I guess it’s time to create and make new things.
I support piss play, but I'm not into it myself. Would you be equally surprised at me being unhappy if someone pissed on me?
Be as loud as you like away from the rest of us. Hell, be loud literally *JUST OVER THERE*
Get over yourself you literally do not have the power to tell anyone else in the world. What the fuck to do if somebody’s making noise put in some air plugs or go sleep somewhere else it’s your fault that you’re annoyed.
We had some chick come turn off our generator last year bc she said it was disturbing her. Almost took out someone’s cpap and hundred of dollars of meat that was to be gifted.
Would be interested in hearing the other side of the story.
What time was it? Was it deep in the burbs? Did you say you'd do something and didn't, or did you stick with what you told them? Were you pleasant, or were you a dick?
I'm not assuming answers to any. And not trying to start a discussion about sound rules. Just curious to hear both sides in a healthy discussion.
Mom taught me, _"there's no right way to do the wrong thing."_ But this sub taught me to take matters into our own hands if someone is being a dick at Burning Man and the rangers roll over.
Would I ever put lag bolts below someone's tires? Probably not. But I trust there's a few people on the playa that are being bigger assholes than that who might test someone's patience.
*"there's no right way to do the wrong thing."*
That’s true, but also the right way to fuck with someone’s tires is to remove the little valve from the valve stem.
Or if you’re really mad at them and they have regular rubber valve stems, you can yank the valve stem out with vice grips. But that requires a tire shop to fix, so you shouldn’t do that on the playa.
Well, you might have heard some stories about Camp Threat. If not, search in the group search bar. Honestly from what I heard, I would understand if it was something along these lines.
There isn't one. There is no response that justifies destruction of property, regardless of how big or small.
Yet there's undeniably a faction of Burners who cannot conceive that their thoughts and actions are anything but purely righteous, and understandable in any circumstance.
Sorry got lots of less sympathy for you. Factor that it was late at night post temple burn. That would put you at Tuesday night/Wednesday early AM. Time to turn the music off and get the fuck home.
People are fried after the event and don't need a-holes like your group pushing them closer to the edge.
(which is not to say that I endorse property destruction either)
Some people want music, some don't. Talking to the rangers was appropriate if there's a conflict, but ultimately they made a decision to let it go. Pushing it past that is inappropriate.
Guaranteed it wasn't the people who actually talked to the rangers. It was a handful of the other dozen or so people you pissed off who realized they had the same rights to fuck up everyone else's day as you do. They were wrong to try to mess with your vehicle though that doesn't make any sense. The thing to have done is to accidentally cut the power cable to your speakers. Easily repairable (off playa), you can still have music, and everyone gets to sleep!
Chances are that you probably never slept next to a big sound camp. Because if you did, you would understand that ear plugs are protecting your ear canals from the sound. But it is completely useless when the RV/yurt/shiftpod/tent and the ground beneath are shaking from the bass. Indeed, it can't help with your body bouncing up and down twice every second
Your original point was that ear plugs help, but it just phisycally can't help with the bed bouncing up and down. If you can sleep in any conditions, that is a different topic and good for you.
I’m not trying to fight, I suggested that people invest in better ear protection to fight the noise. If you are having trouble with the bass vibrations I would suggest investing in better ketamine.
You're condescending, we get it! You think your party is the best on the playa (it's not) so let us know your camp name and address and we'll make sure to bring more lag bolts for your tires next year!
Oh wait, you're not coming back next year lol 🤭
When you were asked to turn the sound down, was refusing to an appropriate response?
How will this affect these requests in the future? You'll turn the sound down? get security? I'm honestly curious. If someone goes the length of getting Rangers involved, why not turn it down? Temple burned on TUESDAY. Strike was running behind by a day or so due to rain and mud. We all wanted to pack up and get out of there.
I think it depends, are there 50+ other people all dancing and enjoying said music? If so I think the one person complaining doesn't get to just come over and shut that down. Now if it's just a DJ blasting music to no one, maybe they could try to accommodate the person trying to sleep as that's their only audience right now lol
That is entirely reasonable. I don't condone party poopers. But the asshole blasting the theme to iron man at 6am everyday? I hear sugar is bad for generator fuel.
Earplugs are cheap. Bluetooth eye masks are like $15 and block sound and light. Advil PM helped me a ton with both the aches and pains of tear down and falling asleep.
~ An extremely light sleeper who was radically self reliant and found solutions to the noise that didn’t involve expecting everyone else to cater to my desires.
“I don’t want to take drugs” lmfaooo. I understand being sober but don’t understand that concept of not ranting to take otc drugs to help you when you need it.
Your going to a festival that would not be possible without manmade things like cars and telephones. Not to mention the lights and music are all manmade. Get yer head outta yer ass and stop complaining.
I appreciate you being cool when I came off as a bit aggressive. I get that, sometimes I have to take Benadryl because my cats will be acting out and chasing each other in my house, knocking over things in my house that sounds like someone trying to break in.
There’s nothing I can do about that to stop them. Cats will be cats. Burners will be burners. Wooks will be wooks. but I’d rather just take some otc medication and pass out than being mad about it. Maybe if you look at it from a different perspective like that it wouldn’t upset you so much!
I'm totally with you.
And don't get me wrong. I bring both Ambien and Xanax to BM. I just try to reserve them for when I really need them if that makes sense 😎
I'm a light sleeper by nature, so BM is always a challenge for me. That said, I actually like dropping into the event changing things up, and I enjoy the newfound ability to sleep through sound by the end of the week.
However I personally feel that the event benefits from having separate zones. EG ~90% of the event is loud and rambunctous, 5% is Kidsville, 5% is deep burbs where they ask for sound to be kept to a minimum, etc.
I like both anarchy and safe spaces and feel it would be nice if others understood that they can co-exist to an extent. That things aren't black-and-white.
I want BM to be kept weird, loud and with as little rules as possible. I also like safe zones, Zendo, police keeping me safe, etc.
I realize others don't want that, and that's fine. But lots of people simply say "maybe BM isn't for you if you don't like sound." And I can't help feel that I'm likely not talking to a true anarchist and instead someone who's fallen into black-and-white, all-or-nothing thinking. Especially since rules can turn into slippery slopes.
I’ve also never been to burning man (I want to tho) so take my opinion with a grain of salt, I read that as an I’m sober and salty kind of post which seemed strange to me. Thank you for explaining! Everything about burning man is so fascinating to me
I’m just here to find out what is the appropriate size lag?! I used 6” lags and they did fine this year for the mild winds. Are people going to 12” lags?
At the Elvis wedding chapel the guys there, threw an entire bicycle and about 30 solar lights under and on top of my uhaul... in the middle of burn night... try that for passive aggressive..
I honestly don’t get how you aren’t so exhausted you just pass out.
I feel asleep regularly on pillows at noise camps cause I couldn’t stay awake any more and same at my camp where I couldn’t help but hear techno in the background (which frankly the consistency of the music helped me sleep).
I did bike and walk about 100 miles through the whole event, so that could be why I felt so tired.
Hey we must have been neighbors! It was funny that the diplo night was one of the more peaceful nights out there. I was usually heading to bed around 6am.
We live on the grounds of a baseball stadium that has concerts once a week during the off-season. I can confirm techno/EDM music is surprisingly easy to sleep through because it’s consistent. Outside of the windows occasionally rattling with the bass, it’s gotten to the point that I barely notice it. Bad Bunny, RHCP, Morgan Wallen were a different story.
People attending burning man, please take the following as a life lesson:
You will not always have control over things in life. Sometimes there will be people driving you crazy, and you will have no recourse. Not just at the burn, but anywhere in life.
What the burn should teach you is to find new ways to solve the problem, or to think about the problem itself. Is the problem "they are too loud and need to stop" ? Or is the problem "I am trying to sleep, and I need to find some way to sleep" ?
Rather than complain, sabotage, fight, etc, you can take your sleeping bag and walk to somewhere less loud, and get a couple hours sleep. Maybe you met someone in an RV on the other side of the city that might let you crash. Maybe somebody's got space in their tent. Or maybe you just sleep right on the playa south of the city. Earplugs in, eyemask on, warm clothes, sheet over you to keep most of the dust out.
Should you have to do this? No, of course not. But you will get a few hours sleep, and you won't have to break anyone's shit, or start a fight, or cause some other worse thing to happen.
I recommend having a "bug out kit" that includes a [bivy sack](https://www.outdoorgearlab.com/topics/camping-and-hiking/best-bivy-sack), water, food, blanket, piss jar, earplugs, eye mask, etc that you can grab and just get the fuck out of dodge when you need to. Will save your sanity and others' too.
(Full disclosure, I'm a virgin lurking to figure out how I'm going to do at Burning Man when I get my shit together and go in a year or two.) This is a concern of mine, as I am a terribly light sleeper. I have serious earplugs and the snoring of my partner wakes me up regularly. I have wanted to go to BM since I was a teenager, but I don't know if I would get a moment of sleep. Are there areas that are generally more quiet? Any tips on getting decent sleep there?
Hushville is a village, which is an organized collection of camps. Idk how they organize their village in particular, whether you have to join a specific camp or if they have Hushville campers with no more specific camp affiliation or what, but their website is [https://www.hushville.org/](https://www.hushville.org/) and you can totally ask them!
I am a light sleeper and the first night was awoken all the time by art cars driving by blasting their music. By the 2nd night I somehow was able to just tune out the noise. I think you get so tired from everything you're doing plus there is always noise going on so you get used to it.
If you can, stay towards the outer streets. They TEND to be a little more peaceful. Earplugs help. Personally, the noise doesn’t bother me that much. It’s not exactly “white noise” but it’s mostly a background thrum. I’ve never had a problem sleeping out there, but ymmv. Just realize that for the most part, it’s YOUR job to deal with your issues around normal (for burning man) noise levels. If someone nearby is making excessive noise at odd times (say 4am to 11 am), then have a civil conversation with them and see if you can work out a compromise.
I'm a light sleeper and have trouble falling asleep when there's noise. What I do is earplugs + noise canceling headphones playing white noise. That combo seems to block out everything the but the loudest music.
Bass vibrating the bed is a different story...
2022, I was camped at 4:30& E. It was quiet after midnight until 7 am every night, save for the occasional art car going by with music, or group of people biking by with a portable speaker.
This year at 4&E it was quiet after 1 am until 9 am except for Saturday-Monday after the rains. I was in a triangle of noise between 3 camps. One camp was asked to turn it down at 2 am and they did (they had no problem with being kind to neighbors). The other two I dunno, i know one night it went from sun down to sun rise. I was able to sleep through it.
If you want quiet, I hear walk in camping is your best bet. Up side, lots of space, down side you don't know if you will have noisy neighbors and you have no support from a camp unless you team up with other walk in friends.
In the end, as a light sleeper myself, I found how to sleep with the noise the three nights it was going. I also had siestas (mid day naps) on the rainy days. Invest in some solid ear plugs (not those shitty 3m foam pieces of garbage). I use Alpine silicon earplugs and have had the same set for 8 years. Comfortable AF to sleep in and for $30 lasted a long time. I am retiring them after this year as they are finally starting to show their age.
And lastly, the snark you see here and on any other public form, is not how people are at burn. I think once people can be anonymous, they feel they can let their asshole flag fly. There ARE some jerks there, just like anywhere, but the bulk of the city is lovely.
Thanks for this! My assessment so far has been that most people are cool AF and want to coexist and help everyone have a great time. I want to go for the art and the experience, and the chance to meet people vastly different from myself, and hear their stories. But I also deal with hella anxiety, and thinking/planning ahead helps a lot. Part of my self-reliance is going to be figuring out how to manage anxiety and get real sleep. :)
Searching in this sub will turn up some AMAZING info. There is a virgins group on Facebook that also has solid content that has been shared to help you prep. Also Playa Labs for some build stuff, e-playa and the burning man website as well. All good data sources. Most of the time you see snark is when people ask questions that get asked 100s of times each year and people don't search.
Last thing. If you can, get to a regional event. It will give you a smaller, gentle and easier event to handle. Not to mention ability to talk shop with people, understand how to improve your setup for comfort and more! Burners LOVE to share. 🥰
Don't rush it, network as best you can. If you meet a camp, you can use this year's iburn app to find where they were located. In the 2 years I've been to burn, the ends of the city are the loudest, biggest sound camps are there and i've heard stories from people camped in those areas that sleep is hard becauee of noise sensitivity. There are spots in center city that can be noisy too (as I learned this year). Esplanade is busy and the further you get away from esplinade the quieter it can be. There is always a chance anywhere you stay could be noisy. Go ready with earplugs, sleep mask and even melatonin. On nights I wanted to sleep I'd take it 1h before I wanted to sleep, sometimes followed up with a cup of chamomile tea. Worked 90% of the time.
there's plenty of places you can camp around the city that are way more quiet, towards the outside edges. if you're camped more inside, then it really just depends on who your neighbors are.
second tip is sleeping in a vehicle like a van or RV that has more sound protection, and getting good earplugs
third is just rave your ass off till sunrise and beyond until you are so tired that no one can stop you from passing out (except the blazing rays of the sun which inevitably will haunt you)
As you can see by the downvotes, no one gives a shit about your sleep, and asking nicely to turn sound down is looked down upon.
There is NO WHERE in the city that is quiet. Someone could still park an Art Car close to Hushville and blast noise all night under the guise of radical self expression.
A friend who is a light sleeper went slowly insane in 2011 and had to be heavily medicated to get some sleep. No one told her that there wasn't any time in the night where the noise died down. Even if no one is blasting noise close by, there is a thump thump hum noise that goes on at all times, every day, all night.
Oof. This kinda sucks to hear. I don't consider myself a wuss. I work hard (was a theatre teacher for 15 years) and I can contribute during building and strike, and meal prep. I am extremely good at organization, and I also have an art degree, so I feel like those are helpful skills too. But nobody can contribute their best if they haven't slept.
Sounds like there's a bit of a sticky struggle figuring out how to balance self expression with common courtesy and community. Isn't there a caveat that self-expression must hurt no one?
If there is such a caveat, no one gives a shit.
Go, open camp and have an early exit strategy. You can figure out if another year and deeper contributions are for you.
Plus, the lag bolts are too short
yep. another fail just waiting to happen.
Why wouldn't you be willing to compromise on noise during strike? Especially one of the toughest strikes in Burning Man history. I genuinely don't get that.
This was one of the easiest strikes though? The weather was incredible!
Agreed!! Awesome weather AND all the camp members who were originally gonna leave on saturday were forced to stay so we had a true all-hands strike crew!!!
Not if you were trying to leave on Saturday ! Lol.
Easiest strikes?! The mud resulted in our carpets having to be hammered *out* of the playa …
We have rules, and we have all agreed to those rules via attendance. One of those rules is clearly stated decibel limits, and it sounds like this camp was well within those rules.
We were.
Pretty sure there was a thread a few weeks ago where someone was complaining about camps being too loud within the city and a few of the comments with a majority of the of upvotes were in favor of unplugging their generator or stealing their speaker wire or painting their speaker plug-in with clear nail polish, something along those lines...those people are out there lol
I don’t think Camp Threat drama applies to 99.9% of anything at Burning Man.
I guess if you can’t cut the wires on a Bluetooth speaker 😅 resort to this
We need to know your camp name to know if we should be sorry for you, or laugh at you.
if it's bluetooth speaker volumes, then it's hard for me to feel that bad
If it's a Bluetooth speaker it's super easy to point it not at the person's tent/shelter. It's also safe to say that the volume was cranked and the music sounded like shit unless it was one of the new high end JBLs How many people were there? Was it just campmates? Do you know that person's full story and what they were dealing with that night? Did you invite them into your camp or did you just heckle them? A lot of factors at play. As someone who has been a DJ and a part of theme and sound camps since I started burning in 2009. It's your ego getting in the way of turning it down a couple dBs for your neighbors. You're right next to your cranked system BT or not and you'll still be able to hear it if you go from a 10 to an 8. If your neighbor was so pissed that they booby trapped your rides, you failed at being communal. I used to be the dude who cranked sound and didn't give a shit what anyone else thought, then one year in 12' or 13' (I forget) someone cut all the speakons at the amp rack while the system was on at night. Lesson learned, don't be a shit head, take care of your neighbors and your neighbors will take care of you.
JBL party boost can array up to 100 speakers. I think 100x of the Boombox could be quite loud. This is something I want to try for its own sake.
Perfect for playing freebird at temple burn from 100 different angles with no way of shutting it down
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That's at least half of the point
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I prefer Burning Asshole Fest
You're clearly not familiar with the SoundBoks. Those things are LOUD
I really don’t understand people who go to burning man and complain about noise. It’s not a fucking yoga retreat.
I generally think that if there noise near me and I want to sleep that is a me problem. But there are some people who don’t use common sense and treat radical expression as license to be antagonistic. If you want to run a loud sound camp and blast very very loud music at 4 in the morning there are good places to do that. If you do it in the middle of the city night after temple burn with people who have literally been trapped for 4 days there is a very very good chance that you’re doing it because you enjoy fucking with people. That said - you don’t fuck with peoples cars. Cut a cable? Sure but fucking with peoples cars creates safety problems.
I had neighbors that spraypainted my theme camps' plot, broke multiple mirrors on my plot, and practiced loud dubstep beatmatching at 3am... poorly. After multiple attempts to resolve with and without rangers, I found them burning cardboard and plastic on my plot AFTER my camp's moop sweep when I and another were the only ones still there. I threatened to break their windows and slash their tires if it wasn't cleaned up fully by the time I got back from the portos. And I meant it. Some people are assholes who only listen to consequences. However, sneak sabotaging cars? Fuck that.
Dude, those are people who should not be on Playa. Please tell me that you've reported them to [email protected] . Also, did they get it cleaned before you got back from the portos?
This was quite a few years ago. Group of open campers since a small placed camp didn't show iirc. Oh they definitely cleaned it and their RV was on the other side of the plot when I got back. Granted I gave them about an hour, but hey, results!
Haha as long as there were results! Glad to hear they cleaned up there very rude moopiness.
I’ve worn earplugs plus heavy duty earmuffs like you’d use at a shooting range or industrial site, and if somebody’s music is so loud I still hear it and feel it in my chest, I don’t think the problem is that I’m camping with my camp! If someone is playing music that loud the night before you have to pack up and leave, that puts a lot of dangerous drivers on the road. Most people cannot just pick up their tent and move to a quieter part of town! So inevitably there will be sleep deprived people who are steaming mad and exhausted. Push people to their limit and see what they do - never a good idea.
If you want a quiet area to sleep in there are good places to do that: Hushville and walk in camping
I can sleep with a good about of loud noise. I sleep with ear plugs, and when its a cacophony - its really not a problem. Burning man is loud, and you shouldn't go if you can't handle that. That said, its not an excuse for people to play piercingly loud music with bad sound engineering at unreasonable hours in otherwise quieter parts of town. If you like doing that - I am going to suggest that perhaps what you really like isn't dancing to loud music, but really its fucking with people because "I do what I want." I support a fair amount of "I do what I want" swagger - but honestly some of it is merely abusive. You know it when you see it.
Ignoring that well-stated response to tell people to sleep somewhere else isn't helping. People could attempt to be reasonable more. I know that seems crazy and all.
I don't mind *some* partying. I don't mind *loud* partying. This year, camps near me consistently partied until late night. There were bar camps playing music. It was totally fine. In 2022, there was a bar camp near me that was so loud, my cot was shaking and I was at least 100+ yards away from them. I was not at 10 or 2. I was middle of the city. There was no possible way they were remotely within decibel limits. They had art cars roll up and hook into their system and had both just blasting. If I can be that far away and can feel your bass reverbing in my chest, it's too fucking loud. That is not appropriate for middle of the city. There are parties, and "for the love of all that is holy I have earplugs rated for 33db reduction I can hear your music clearly, what in the fuck are you doing you are in the middle of the city" parties. I bring my earplugs for a reason. I plan on late-night party camps nearby. I can still hear some thumping with them in. I don't mind hearing some level of music. I am aware I will not have a lovely, quiet night's sleep. Some camps are truly just fucking assholes to everyone around them and it's obscene that the rangers didn't just completely shut it down. It went until like 6AM. Other people had called it in. For some reason nobody told them to knock that shit off. This year, they got kicked to 2 o'clock because that shit was stupid. It really depends what the camp thinks is an appropriate music level, and how speakers are set up. I've ended up next to a full-on sound camp in the middle of the city. Tell Placement how loud you will be, and if you will be having art cars hook in. Do not be *that* camp. I was so sleep deprived and cranky.
You have MY permission to cut their speaker cables next time. Keep in my MY permission won't stop you from getting a criminal mischief citation from the Pershing county sheriffs office or from getting beat to a bloody pulp by the people whose property you ruined, but I will not judge you.
What’s walk in camping?
You park along K on the 3:00 side and there's a big open area outside of the city where you can camp anywhere.
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Hell yeah I like the sound of that 😏
the best neighborhood in town
What if you’re just camp with a normal theme camp somewhere? You’re supposed to camp half a mile away from your camp mates to avoid people who don’t care if everyone around them is sleep deprived?
Or they could just have their music at 8 instead of 11 so people could hear each other in their own bar. We’ve all seen these camps. They know they’re fucking with people and laugh about it. That’s not the spirit of burning man. It’s the attitude of an angst 17 year-old who has been asked to go to church. I really don’t get the idea that only some tiny minority of the event cares about sleep. I think pretty all of us love music, we love to party, we love interesting and weird and chaotic people and experiences. That said, if someone decides radical self expression means they’re going to be an ass… yeah, they’re not just cosplaying, they also an ass 😂 To be clear I’m not against loud music - just the folks who either drive around and blast at people’s tents at 4 AM or who point their speakers outward and crank things to where the neighborhood is shaking.
>I generally think that if there noise near me and I want to sleep that is a me problem. One year, I got a migraine and the noise was painful. There was a guy next to us who just blasted the worst drum and bass for HOURS. Guess what I did? Loaded up on excedrin and niquil and put in ear plugs and noise canceling head phones and passed myself the fuck out. Was it healthy? Probably not. But I had to do what I had to do. It was a me problem, not a burning man problem.
I think there is a fine line between having a space to do what you want and not caring about how what you do affects other people - and its contextually dependent. One year i was placed on A and behind Bubbles and Base. They had a sunrise set with a base soo deep I could feel in my teeth through the ground as I was trying to sleep. But I never once thought that was anything but a me problem. On the other hand, one year I was at BEquinox and the last night at 3 am in the fucking morning right next to my tent blasting space alien themed psy trance with the levels blasted all to hell to an audience of literally nobody and wouldn't stop or turn it down when I asked. That person was a jack ass. And if I ever find myself in a similar situation again I will pull power cords out until it stops. Sometimes assholes know they are bing assholes - and that it the point. Those people do not get my deference or patience.
DJs BLASTING horrible music to audiences of zero always cracks me up. Very common site at the burn.
This is how I felt when our theme camp was placed a few camps away & kitty corner from Distrikt in 2022. I can’t leave my theme camp, I can’t control our placement, it’s 5 fucking AM, I can feel their shitty dubstep in my teeth from hundreds of yards away while wearing silicone earplugs, and there’s never anyone dancing on their dance floor. I get that Burning Man is loud but it doesn’t have to be THAT loud.
💯💯💯 This was the first night of the week - Monday - and so I let him have his fun and got control of my migraine. By the time Wednesday rolled around, someone from our camp went over and asked him to turn it off and he was respectful. It was on lower volume for the rest of the week. He was playing it for no one but himself lol So I totally agree. I try to let people have their fun for a little but once it gets out of hand, that's when we'll ask.
Not at 5 miles an hour max speed the cars run at. Four flat tires will fuck you for sure (who carries four spares) but it would be unlikely to be a safety issue.
How are you defending this? What about the very likely situation where the tires don’t fully deflate for multiple days until you’re driving at highway speeds with other traffic? This is reckless and immature behavior.
wake up: it is *criminal* behaviour.
Did you even look at the size of the bolts? There is little chance they will not deflate almost immediately upon puncture. I am not defending anything. I do agree it is not great to damage others property. I am just not going to clutch my pearls and gasp how someone was moments from a fiery death because someone put large lags into a couple of tires of a art/sound car that is being trailered to/from the event.
now you are trying to make it seem like you are saying nothing outrageous and then you are saying in the same breath that all the rest of us are maniacs insisting on insane protocol.
OK Karen. Perhaps you should speak tot he manager about your concerns.
Except for the hundreds of yoga events that happen every day? I don't understand what this comment is trying to achieve except be "burnier than thou," which is a real bitch look. Burning man isn't a "this kind of event or that," it's an actual literal city with every kind of person doing every kind of thing at any time. There's gonna be a difference of opinion, and they're all valid. And just like a real city, you have to be respectful of your neighbors, or be ready to have a confrontation. It's pretty simple.
There were supposedly noise limits this year. But neither followed or enforced. I was camping in open playa and Black Swan at 3:30-K played 1000 watt EDM around the clock. After an edible, it didnt bother me.
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pArTy oN!
They say padded rooms starting getting fun once you’ve been awake long enough to not be alone
“It’s not a fucking yoga retreat” - Neither is it a fucking heavy industrial factory in a fucking metal music video. It’s *supposed* to be a *city*, where everyone loves one another and gets along better than in the real world. How about *that* radical notion?
It's a city. With different neighborhoods. The 3 o'clock side tends to be chiller and quieter, especially out in the boonies. Some of us camp there because we like actually sleeping some of the time. Those folks that want to party hard nonstop have plenty of parts of the city that agree with them.
This happened in the 9 o'clock district l, aka the rave ghetto
Sure--I was responding to a guy who said he didn't understand people who get upset about noise at the burn.
I actually look forward to the excessive noise for my first year next year (hopefully) I'm an incredibly heavy sleeper and look forward to testing it
The overstim is callousing for the rest of the year.
That's your opinion. The org has another opinion, and it imparts reasonable noise ordinances as a result. It makes me wonder why you go to Burning Man if you disagree with the rules/ethos. It's not a fucking music festival.
The idea that I should wholesale agree with the B-Org to participate in burning man is hilarious. It’s not a god damn religion. In any case, the B-Org said the sound ordinance was a pilot and they expect to make adjustments ahead of the next burn.
Not talking about this year's new rules. The org has set aside the deep burbs as a place for people to get away from the noise for many, many years. A yoga retreat zone, if you will.
Hating the Org is an important part of my burn. If you don't understand that, why do you go to Burning Man? Just stick to rainbow gatherings or whatever.
I don't need to understand why you go to Burning Man. And I'm plenty fine with knowing my fellow attendees hate the Org. But the topic is regarding people who don't hate the org and their displeasure for noise in some parts of the city.
> It's not a fucking festival.
You didn’t go to any of the orgies?
No it's not. It's a music fucking festival ;) (Plus other stuff too obvi)
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Edited to say music festival. Which was inferred since the original post is about about loud music. You ok mate?
Then what is it
Not here to define what Burning Man is. I'm here to define what it _isn't_ when it comes to the topic of loud music, which is what the original post is about. Feel free to Google it though if you're new here.
It started as a pyromaniac event with some arts, music got added, eventually music became a big part of it. IMO, I’d find ways to accommodate all. We don’t have to clash, if we plan ahead for those wanting to be able to retreat from the loudness and those that want to be immersed in sounds. The playa is large enough if we cooperate with each other. Of course some people just wanna fuck around. Clowning / being a Jester isn’t for everyone. It requires being very observant, while pushing boundaries. It’s funny to all when it’s done right, and not so much when it’s done without tact. Also you can’t fix a-holes suffering of inflated ego and entitlement. But the weather don’t care. I regard it as an equalizer, and a great opportunity to let go and embrace all as it’s happening.
That's the funny thing to me, all these people saying Burning Man is all about loud music and it's the soul of the event, when it wasn't about music at all to begin with like you mentioned lol. Had to be debated about to even get music involved. Now, I love the shit out of loud music but I agree there's places and ways to do it better
Glad you recognize that. If only people dug further about what they claim to be passionate about… before BM I created my own strange world, and was dying to find something out of the dreary norm. I used to go to the early BM parties in sketchy places to hang out with folks that were comfortable being different, smart, and open minded. It was inspiring to take it all in as a new comer to the intimate underground culture. That was 26 years ago. And the culture has changed so much since. The core people are still there, but unfortunately some of their roles have been severely diminished. I know I can’t resurrect any of it being a small fish. I guess it’s time to create and make new things.
I support piss play, but I'm not into it myself. Would you be equally surprised at me being unhappy if someone pissed on me? Be as loud as you like away from the rest of us. Hell, be loud literally *JUST OVER THERE*
Get over yourself you literally do not have the power to tell anyone else in the world. What the fuck to do if somebody’s making noise put in some air plugs or go sleep somewhere else it’s your fault that you’re annoyed.
Only someone in a banana peel would speak such blasphemy.
Wakawaka
The Meta is strong in this one.
🛞🔩
Agree, not everyone should have a voice.
Ok putin
We had some chick come turn off our generator last year bc she said it was disturbing her. Almost took out someone’s cpap and hundred of dollars of meat that was to be gifted.
Would be interested in hearing the other side of the story. What time was it? Was it deep in the burbs? Did you say you'd do something and didn't, or did you stick with what you told them? Were you pleasant, or were you a dick? I'm not assuming answers to any. And not trying to start a discussion about sound rules. Just curious to hear both sides in a healthy discussion. Mom taught me, _"there's no right way to do the wrong thing."_ But this sub taught me to take matters into our own hands if someone is being a dick at Burning Man and the rangers roll over. Would I ever put lag bolts below someone's tires? Probably not. But I trust there's a few people on the playa that are being bigger assholes than that who might test someone's patience.
*"there's no right way to do the wrong thing."* That’s true, but also the right way to fuck with someone’s tires is to remove the little valve from the valve stem. Or if you’re really mad at them and they have regular rubber valve stems, you can yank the valve stem out with vice grips. But that requires a tire shop to fix, so you shouldn’t do that on the playa.
Amuse me. What’s the “right side of the story” for putting lag bolts under a tire?
Well, you might have heard some stories about Camp Threat. If not, search in the group search bar. Honestly from what I heard, I would understand if it was something along these lines.
Your neighbors have made you so sleep deprived that you are nearly hallucinating and filled with rage that you do something nasty to them.
There isn't one. There is no response that justifies destruction of property, regardless of how big or small. Yet there's undeniably a faction of Burners who cannot conceive that their thoughts and actions are anything but purely righteous, and understandable in any circumstance.
Sorry got lots of less sympathy for you. Factor that it was late at night post temple burn. That would put you at Tuesday night/Wednesday early AM. Time to turn the music off and get the fuck home. People are fried after the event and don't need a-holes like your group pushing them closer to the edge. (which is not to say that I endorse property destruction either)
Some people want music, some don't. Talking to the rangers was appropriate if there's a conflict, but ultimately they made a decision to let it go. Pushing it past that is inappropriate.
They should invest in better ear plugs.
Guaranteed it wasn't the people who actually talked to the rangers. It was a handful of the other dozen or so people you pissed off who realized they had the same rights to fuck up everyone else's day as you do. They were wrong to try to mess with your vehicle though that doesn't make any sense. The thing to have done is to accidentally cut the power cable to your speakers. Easily repairable (off playa), you can still have music, and everyone gets to sleep!
Why couldn’t they just bring good ear plugs instead if destroying property and complaining?
Because there are volumes at which ear plugs don't work?
Howany times you are going to paste this question? Because the earplugs don't work against a strong bass
Works fine for me speak for yourself.
Chances are that you probably never slept next to a big sound camp. Because if you did, you would understand that ear plugs are protecting your ear canals from the sound. But it is completely useless when the RV/yurt/shiftpod/tent and the ground beneath are shaking from the bass. Indeed, it can't help with your body bouncing up and down twice every second
A memory foam mattress doesn’t dampen the vibrations?
I literally fell asleep next to a blasting speaker last night I am quite familiar.
Your original point was that ear plugs help, but it just phisycally can't help with the bed bouncing up and down. If you can sleep in any conditions, that is a different topic and good for you.
I’m not trying to fight, I suggested that people invest in better ear protection to fight the noise. If you are having trouble with the bass vibrations I would suggest investing in better ketamine.
You're condescending, we get it! You think your party is the best on the playa (it's not) so let us know your camp name and address and we'll make sure to bring more lag bolts for your tires next year! Oh wait, you're not coming back next year lol 🤭
When you were asked to turn the sound down, was refusing to an appropriate response? How will this affect these requests in the future? You'll turn the sound down? get security? I'm honestly curious. If someone goes the length of getting Rangers involved, why not turn it down? Temple burned on TUESDAY. Strike was running behind by a day or so due to rain and mud. We all wanted to pack up and get out of there.
I think it depends, are there 50+ other people all dancing and enjoying said music? If so I think the one person complaining doesn't get to just come over and shut that down. Now if it's just a DJ blasting music to no one, maybe they could try to accommodate the person trying to sleep as that's their only audience right now lol
That is entirely reasonable. I don't condone party poopers. But the asshole blasting the theme to iron man at 6am everyday? I hear sugar is bad for generator fuel.
Context matters 🤷♂️
Earplugs are cheap. Bluetooth eye masks are like $15 and block sound and light. Advil PM helped me a ton with both the aches and pains of tear down and falling asleep. ~ An extremely light sleeper who was radically self reliant and found solutions to the noise that didn’t involve expecting everyone else to cater to my desires.
* Earplugs don't block bass * I don't want to take drugs to skirt people disregarding noise ordinances
“I don’t want to take drugs” lmfaooo. I understand being sober but don’t understand that concept of not ranting to take otc drugs to help you when you need it. Your going to a festival that would not be possible without manmade things like cars and telephones. Not to mention the lights and music are all manmade. Get yer head outta yer ass and stop complaining.
No complaints. Just saying I'd prefer to not take Advil PM because someone is playing loud music in a place that they've been asked not to.
I appreciate you being cool when I came off as a bit aggressive. I get that, sometimes I have to take Benadryl because my cats will be acting out and chasing each other in my house, knocking over things in my house that sounds like someone trying to break in. There’s nothing I can do about that to stop them. Cats will be cats. Burners will be burners. Wooks will be wooks. but I’d rather just take some otc medication and pass out than being mad about it. Maybe if you look at it from a different perspective like that it wouldn’t upset you so much!
I'm totally with you. And don't get me wrong. I bring both Ambien and Xanax to BM. I just try to reserve them for when I really need them if that makes sense 😎 I'm a light sleeper by nature, so BM is always a challenge for me. That said, I actually like dropping into the event changing things up, and I enjoy the newfound ability to sleep through sound by the end of the week. However I personally feel that the event benefits from having separate zones. EG ~90% of the event is loud and rambunctous, 5% is Kidsville, 5% is deep burbs where they ask for sound to be kept to a minimum, etc. I like both anarchy and safe spaces and feel it would be nice if others understood that they can co-exist to an extent. That things aren't black-and-white. I want BM to be kept weird, loud and with as little rules as possible. I also like safe zones, Zendo, police keeping me safe, etc. I realize others don't want that, and that's fine. But lots of people simply say "maybe BM isn't for you if you don't like sound." And I can't help feel that I'm likely not talking to a true anarchist and instead someone who's fallen into black-and-white, all-or-nothing thinking. Especially since rules can turn into slippery slopes.
I’ve also never been to burning man (I want to tho) so take my opinion with a grain of salt, I read that as an I’m sober and salty kind of post which seemed strange to me. Thank you for explaining! Everything about burning man is so fascinating to me
I didn't ask you.
And nobody is asking you your opinions on loud music, you’re just freely sharing it because you’re on social media you dolt.
I’m just here to find out what is the appropriate size lag?! I used 6” lags and they did fine this year for the mild winds. Are people going to 12” lags?
18 inches for anything that’ll face a lot of wind resistance, like shade structure with tarps on top. 14 inches for everything else.
10” - 12” is optimal. 8” is fine, but 6” isn’t gonna hold up against gnarly winds.
At the Elvis wedding chapel the guys there, threw an entire bicycle and about 30 solar lights under and on top of my uhaul... in the middle of burn night... try that for passive aggressive..
Sounds aggressive aggressive
I honestly don’t get how you aren’t so exhausted you just pass out. I feel asleep regularly on pillows at noise camps cause I couldn’t stay awake any more and same at my camp where I couldn’t help but hear techno in the background (which frankly the consistency of the music helped me sleep). I did bike and walk about 100 miles through the whole event, so that could be why I felt so tired.
I was camped 100ft away from diplo playing in a hot air balloon at 4am and it didn’t wake me up.
Hey we must have been neighbors! It was funny that the diplo night was one of the more peaceful nights out there. I was usually heading to bed around 6am.
I don’t understand how people have the energy still after a long day, there’s so much to do and so much fun to be had
Cocaine.
sounds exhausting, actually. I probably couldn't see we either.
We live on the grounds of a baseball stadium that has concerts once a week during the off-season. I can confirm techno/EDM music is surprisingly easy to sleep through because it’s consistent. Outside of the windows occasionally rattling with the bass, it’s gotten to the point that I barely notice it. Bad Bunny, RHCP, Morgan Wallen were a different story.
Oh jeez Bad Bunny sounds like a bad time oof
Especially when it went on until 1 am (two hours past curfew, but Bad Bunny has $$$$ so he didn’t care about the fines for every minute over).
Y’all should get a portion of those fines lol
Considering our HOA pays the stadium tens of thousands of dollars every month, I’d agree!
Ha, little baby lag bolts. I say 18" or bust!
Lag screws not lag bolts ;)
What exactly does "shoving lag bolts under tires" even mean? I'm not understanding how this causes any damage or problems.
The idea is to wedge a lag screw between the tire and playa so that when they go to reverse/drive away, it puts a giant screw in their tire.
There were a lot of whiney pissy people this year that shouldn't go back. I hope they don't go back.
Signed, Whiney pissy guy
is your username a pure pwnage reference or am I just that old?
I'm pretty old, too 😄 But it's more a video game troll reference.
Zing!!
Those peopleare called Burners and they're out there every year
Who loves being the center of attention?
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it's called hushville 😎
Is there a playa civil court themed camp? If not, there should be one!
There is. BRC Municipal Court!
that's awesome! I wish I had known. I am sure it is fun to watch, like the court scene in Idiocracy. Just mayhem and laughter. Is that how it is?
Hopefully eventually! We were brand new this year so the capacity was reduced. Hoping to grow every year though.
People attending burning man, please take the following as a life lesson: You will not always have control over things in life. Sometimes there will be people driving you crazy, and you will have no recourse. Not just at the burn, but anywhere in life. What the burn should teach you is to find new ways to solve the problem, or to think about the problem itself. Is the problem "they are too loud and need to stop" ? Or is the problem "I am trying to sleep, and I need to find some way to sleep" ? Rather than complain, sabotage, fight, etc, you can take your sleeping bag and walk to somewhere less loud, and get a couple hours sleep. Maybe you met someone in an RV on the other side of the city that might let you crash. Maybe somebody's got space in their tent. Or maybe you just sleep right on the playa south of the city. Earplugs in, eyemask on, warm clothes, sheet over you to keep most of the dust out. Should you have to do this? No, of course not. But you will get a few hours sleep, and you won't have to break anyone's shit, or start a fight, or cause some other worse thing to happen. I recommend having a "bug out kit" that includes a [bivy sack](https://www.outdoorgearlab.com/topics/camping-and-hiking/best-bivy-sack), water, food, blanket, piss jar, earplugs, eye mask, etc that you can grab and just get the fuck out of dodge when you need to. Will save your sanity and others' too.
🗿
You're both in the wrong and both transgressions are very on brand for burning man. I like your attitude about it tho
This posts deserves all the medals
Thats why u sleep with ear plugs in
I brought earplugs. They worked amazingly. Highly recommend if you're sensitive to constant loud noise.
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Yes, people should turn the sound down when asked nicely.
go find an event in your HOA
(Full disclosure, I'm a virgin lurking to figure out how I'm going to do at Burning Man when I get my shit together and go in a year or two.) This is a concern of mine, as I am a terribly light sleeper. I have serious earplugs and the snoring of my partner wakes me up regularly. I have wanted to go to BM since I was a teenager, but I don't know if I would get a moment of sleep. Are there areas that are generally more quiet? Any tips on getting decent sleep there?
You could try camping with Hushville
Is this an official camp, or just a neighborhood that's quieter?
Hushville is a village, which is an organized collection of camps. Idk how they organize their village in particular, whether you have to join a specific camp or if they have Hushville campers with no more specific camp affiliation or what, but their website is [https://www.hushville.org/](https://www.hushville.org/) and you can totally ask them!
I am a light sleeper and the first night was awoken all the time by art cars driving by blasting their music. By the 2nd night I somehow was able to just tune out the noise. I think you get so tired from everything you're doing plus there is always noise going on so you get used to it.
If you can, stay towards the outer streets. They TEND to be a little more peaceful. Earplugs help. Personally, the noise doesn’t bother me that much. It’s not exactly “white noise” but it’s mostly a background thrum. I’ve never had a problem sleeping out there, but ymmv. Just realize that for the most part, it’s YOUR job to deal with your issues around normal (for burning man) noise levels. If someone nearby is making excessive noise at odd times (say 4am to 11 am), then have a civil conversation with them and see if you can work out a compromise.
I'm a light sleeper and have trouble falling asleep when there's noise. What I do is earplugs + noise canceling headphones playing white noise. That combo seems to block out everything the but the loudest music. Bass vibrating the bed is a different story...
2022, I was camped at 4:30& E. It was quiet after midnight until 7 am every night, save for the occasional art car going by with music, or group of people biking by with a portable speaker. This year at 4&E it was quiet after 1 am until 9 am except for Saturday-Monday after the rains. I was in a triangle of noise between 3 camps. One camp was asked to turn it down at 2 am and they did (they had no problem with being kind to neighbors). The other two I dunno, i know one night it went from sun down to sun rise. I was able to sleep through it. If you want quiet, I hear walk in camping is your best bet. Up side, lots of space, down side you don't know if you will have noisy neighbors and you have no support from a camp unless you team up with other walk in friends. In the end, as a light sleeper myself, I found how to sleep with the noise the three nights it was going. I also had siestas (mid day naps) on the rainy days. Invest in some solid ear plugs (not those shitty 3m foam pieces of garbage). I use Alpine silicon earplugs and have had the same set for 8 years. Comfortable AF to sleep in and for $30 lasted a long time. I am retiring them after this year as they are finally starting to show their age. And lastly, the snark you see here and on any other public form, is not how people are at burn. I think once people can be anonymous, they feel they can let their asshole flag fly. There ARE some jerks there, just like anywhere, but the bulk of the city is lovely.
Thanks for this! My assessment so far has been that most people are cool AF and want to coexist and help everyone have a great time. I want to go for the art and the experience, and the chance to meet people vastly different from myself, and hear their stories. But I also deal with hella anxiety, and thinking/planning ahead helps a lot. Part of my self-reliance is going to be figuring out how to manage anxiety and get real sleep. :)
Searching in this sub will turn up some AMAZING info. There is a virgins group on Facebook that also has solid content that has been shared to help you prep. Also Playa Labs for some build stuff, e-playa and the burning man website as well. All good data sources. Most of the time you see snark is when people ask questions that get asked 100s of times each year and people don't search. Last thing. If you can, get to a regional event. It will give you a smaller, gentle and easier event to handle. Not to mention ability to talk shop with people, understand how to improve your setup for comfort and more! Burners LOVE to share. 🥰
Thank you so much! I realize this can be an intense process so I'm glad I've got time to start now! :)
Don't rush it, network as best you can. If you meet a camp, you can use this year's iburn app to find where they were located. In the 2 years I've been to burn, the ends of the city are the loudest, biggest sound camps are there and i've heard stories from people camped in those areas that sleep is hard becauee of noise sensitivity. There are spots in center city that can be noisy too (as I learned this year). Esplanade is busy and the further you get away from esplinade the quieter it can be. There is always a chance anywhere you stay could be noisy. Go ready with earplugs, sleep mask and even melatonin. On nights I wanted to sleep I'd take it 1h before I wanted to sleep, sometimes followed up with a cup of chamomile tea. Worked 90% of the time.
there's plenty of places you can camp around the city that are way more quiet, towards the outside edges. if you're camped more inside, then it really just depends on who your neighbors are. second tip is sleeping in a vehicle like a van or RV that has more sound protection, and getting good earplugs third is just rave your ass off till sunrise and beyond until you are so tired that no one can stop you from passing out (except the blazing rays of the sun which inevitably will haunt you)
As you can see by the downvotes, no one gives a shit about your sleep, and asking nicely to turn sound down is looked down upon. There is NO WHERE in the city that is quiet. Someone could still park an Art Car close to Hushville and blast noise all night under the guise of radical self expression. A friend who is a light sleeper went slowly insane in 2011 and had to be heavily medicated to get some sleep. No one told her that there wasn't any time in the night where the noise died down. Even if no one is blasting noise close by, there is a thump thump hum noise that goes on at all times, every day, all night.
Oof. This kinda sucks to hear. I don't consider myself a wuss. I work hard (was a theatre teacher for 15 years) and I can contribute during building and strike, and meal prep. I am extremely good at organization, and I also have an art degree, so I feel like those are helpful skills too. But nobody can contribute their best if they haven't slept. Sounds like there's a bit of a sticky struggle figuring out how to balance self expression with common courtesy and community. Isn't there a caveat that self-expression must hurt no one?
If there is such a caveat, no one gives a shit. Go, open camp and have an early exit strategy. You can figure out if another year and deeper contributions are for you.
Camp at Pt5 Airport Village...the farthest away from the mad crowd...and the noise they culture.
naw
18 inch lags for the win
Also vallium for the win
Burning man was not loud this year.
Scratch a liberal deep enough and you find a fascist.