Building a Burning Man Theme Camp

I'm helping to build a theme camp at burning man this year. We've decided to have a birthday theme since one of the campers going this year is turning 30 while we're out on the playa. We couldn't think of a better way to celebrate than to have a birthday party every night (complete with 7-foot inflatable cakes) and to build a theme camp around that.


Gooferville - Karaoke Crazed Camp at Burning Man 2004

Building a camp isn't trivial, especailly if no one in our camp has really done it before. (We've all been part of a theme camp at some time or another, but this is the first year that we actually have the fortitude to create one ourselves). There's a lot of infrastructure to invest in, and collecting the necessary items (like a $20 used couch) involves a lot of creativity and combing thru the used crap listings on craigslist.

Here are some of the things we're trying to figure out for our "It's Your Birthday" camp as Burning Man 2005 approaches:

• Shade structure - The desert is hot, and every camp needs to have a shade structure. We've discussed everything from building our own parachute-covered-geodesic-domes to renting a yurt. In the end, we're leaning towards buying our own festive candy-striped color canopy.
  
  
• Something fun for visitors to do - Burning man is participatory, so every theme camp should have something that visitors can do. We're going to have several birthday parties at random times during our camp, as well as random birthday-party activities (like birthday spankings--I kid you not) that we'll try to keep up and running throughout the day.
  
  
• Decorations & lighting - 7 feet inflatable birthday cakes, rope lights, EL wire, and a really cool sign. Not to mention party favors and birthday party hats for camp visitors joining in the celebration.
  
  
• Booze - cheap vodka, kool-aid mix, fruit, water, and water coolers for mixing. Need I say more?
  
  
• Power and Gas - renting a generator is key. And they're super-loud, so you want to figure out the total wattage (we're planning on drawing no more than 1000 watts peak) and get the lowest you plan to draw. You'll need gas to power the generator (about 1 gallon per hr at 1000 watts) and containers to store the gas in (the most expensive part if you don't own this already)
  
  
• Furniture - cheap used couches, chairs, and carpets, found on craiglist keep everyone happy and comfortable on the playa.
  
  
• Music - every camp needs something to blast some tunes on. A 250W+ stereo would be ideal, but given that there is a high likelihood that it may get ruined, this isn't an easy item to rent or otherwise obtain cheaply. We're still trying to figure this out.
  
  
• Food and something to cook with - every camp needs a grill and a stove that everyone can share to grill a steak or to cook that box of mac and cheese. We're still scouring the web for a cheap bbq grill, and we're
  
  
• Shower - the official burning man prep site recommends:
  
  Bring a shallow crate (like a painting would be shipped in) about three feet square. Line it with slit open garbage bags so it will hold water and used it as a pan/pad under the solar shower. It caught the shower water that then evaporated during the day. No muddy spot in camp. No soapy water (gray water) dumped on the playa. The crate somehow later caught fire.
  
  To save on camp costs, we're requiring that everyone bring their own water for showring, drinking, etc. Hauling a ton of water for the camp is painful and expensive, so distributing this function seems to make the most sense.