So, to back this up - here is the official word....
(common question)When can I arrive to set up my camp?
Our gates are not officially open until Monday, August 26th. All non-esplanade theme camps should arrive then. Any theme camp placed in Center Camp or the Esplanade is expected to be present, accounted for and ideally functional on Monday. Your earliest arrival date is the Saturday before, August 24th. Any arrivals before this date tax our infrastructure, increase our safety risks and costs the event money. We will not have porta-potties or sufficient medical facilities before this date. Hey! We are still making our city roads and infra-structure and cranking at high gear to prepare for that Monday! ANY extra bodies not working toward this effort are in the way.
The Bureau of Land Management charges us $4.00 per person per day beginning August 26th. If too many people are on site pre-event they may want to amend their dates. We run the risk of being charged our numbers are too large pre-event. Any change to the BLM fee structure will cause serious financial hardship and will require drastic measures. Please do not add to this threat. (If you wonder where are money goes, please check out the After Burn Report:
I DO understand that a few of you have very large projects that require set up time. I appreciate that your contribution to our city is significant and recognize that you will need flexibility with these arrival dates. We will handle these on a case by case basis. Please have the contact person for your camp email us at thememcamps@burningman.com. Write "EARLY ARRIVAL REQUEST" in the subject line. Give us the name of your camp, when you would like to arrive and what your project needs are and we will get back to you as quickly as possible.
On site pre-event anyone that is not on a DPW team helping to build the city or is not on my approved list of theme camps will be asked to leave the event until our gates open.
