Burning Man 2023: What ACTUALLY Happened This Year

Just like the tiniest , tiniest , tiniest little drizzle . You're listening to the Freedom Lifestyle podcast series . I'm sharing relatable stories of freedom seekers who ditched conventional office life and courageously asked for more . The energy just completely shifted . My entire being just felt so free . My business was still generating income while I was on the beach .

I decided to quit and just stay at home . I really can't work for anyone but me . It's literally just doing whatever the hell you want to do . As for me , I'm your host , sam , and I've spent the last four years creating a business that allows me to work from anywhere . The Freedom Lifestyle looks different for everyone . What's your free ?

Thank you for tuning into this episode of the Freedom Lifestyle podcast . I'm guessing that some of you might be maybe tuning into this podcast for the very first time , and that is so okay .

I welcome you , I get the Freedom Lifestyle and my typical content might not be for everybody , but I did notice that Burning man this year in general seemed to be of interest to a lot more people than usual .

I think it had a lot to do with the viral news coverage and the drama that was being shared to the world while we were actually there quote unquote , stuck in the desert , and when I came back I had so many friends reach out to me and just ask me like oh my goodness , what happened at Burning man ? Tell me what happened at Burning man .

How was Burning man ? And when you've just been in an experience like that basically in the desert for longer than you thought you were going to be seeing a ton of weird shit and doing a lot of weird things and just having such an alternate reality experience it's really hard to answer the question how was Burning man ?

And it's no shade to the people asking that question If you've never been , you don't even really know what to ask about or what to even picture , and so I thought that I would create this episode to answer some of the most common questions that I get asked about going to Burning man . I'll also do a bit of news coverage versus reality .

So what actually happened when the viral rainstorm came . Through Spoiler I did not see any cannibalism , so I will not be reporting on that . But I will be reporting on a particularly explicit and sexual experience that Jared and I had this year . That ended very badly .

Okay , so that's how I'm going to end the episode and at that point we're going to kindly ask our families and colleagues to just , you know , stop listening . That was the commitment I made with Jared . But let's start with the biggest question . Is Burning man a music festival ?

And burners often have a bad rap because when people say like , oh , how is the festival ? Or I've always wanted to go to that festival , sometimes people can just be like it's not a music festival .

So Burning man started in 1986 and it started as a beach bonfire party in San Francisco and very quickly the demand to go to this party and this event and this experience increased and they outgrew that space .

So now it takes place in Black Rock Desert , which is in northern Nevada , and sadly it seems like we might be outgrowing that space again because the conditions are just getting so extreme .

I know that last year my friends who went didn't even want to go back this year because of how intense the dust storms were and just how many days there was just complete whiteouts that you couldn't even do anything .

This year , of course , we experienced the rainstorm and encountered what that was like for the first time , and so there is some discussion that you know . Maybe we need to move somewhere else , which is quite sad because I think it's a pretty incredible place . It's a week long , very large scale desert event that is focused on community art and self expression .

Self reliance is another big part of it . So there are 10 principles and I'll touch on some of them . But it's a temporary city , realistically , that is created for this event and it typically lasts about a week . But the week prior is build week and thousands of people go early and volunteer to essentially create the city , to create the infrastructure .

But the other 50 weeks of the year like I'm not kidding , it's literally nothing . It's just endless desert , it's just complete abyss and nothing exists . Ideally , there's no garbage left behind or any glitter or any feathers or costumes or wrappers or any of this stuff that you might find on the festival ground .

One of the principles is about leave no trace , so I'll come to that in a second . But it's nothing the other 50 weeks of the year . So this city literally gets created and the stigma around that it's becoming more of a music festival and now it's just for rich people and celebrities and trust fund people .

I mean , I hear that there's actually a term called sparkle pony and it's what they call people who you run into . I mean , I definitely saw them .

I guess , if we're calling people out which are essentially people who look like they are super clean , they've just shown up to the desert and rented some expensive camping experience where everything was set up there for them .

They're wearing very expensive outfits that they're likely wearing for the first time and they're strutting around at sunset taking amazing photos and influencer type vibes . So people would call that a sparkle pony . These people typically aren't prepared to survive any of the conditions out there .

The joke is that they never have water on them and I think those types of people really struggled this year because we had to expect the unexpected and we had to really survive . And that's where you heard about celebrities escaping Burning man and people freaking out in the airport closed , because even an airport gets created for the week .

So on the actual grounds they create a runway so that private planes can land so that you can just literally fly in and fly out and not come for the full week and not do the whole survivalist experience that most of us have and I've mixed feelings about it , I really do .

I think that one of the principles is radical acceptance , and so anybody is meant to be welcome at Burning man . Whether you are a baby or a two year old child or an elderly person Doesn't matter your sexual orientation , it doesn't matter your race , everybody is welcome there .

And so it seems to me kind of unfair to say that rich people or wealthy people or people who only want to experience Burning man and with their particular comforts that they're used to , are not invited .

I would also say there's like 60,000 people that go , so if that vibe the sparkle pony convenience camping person isn't your vibe , you do not have to spend time with them . There is still absolutely OG hippie burners who have been going for decades and I talked to them , I chatted with them .

They're still having a great time , so you can still absolutely enjoy yourself and have whatever experience you want . You really are responsible for creating your experience there . Another big stigma is that it's just all about like sex and drugs , and absolutely sex is a big part of Burning man culture .

When you arrive , you essentially get a book and it's a very thick book of all the different events that are taking place each day , like there's literally thousands , and it is very common to see all different types of orgies on the event list . There are happy ending massage parlors on the schedule . So , yes , that is a component of Burning man .

There are naked pub crawls . You will see people without garments cruising around on their bike . You will see people with different skin , all different body types , all different ages , and that's how they want to express themselves and that is totally normal and totally fine . You don't have to .

I didn't get naked in a public setting anywhere during this week at Burning man and that's also totally okay . But I would say that's fair that people would have that connotation , but that doesn't have to be your experience . I would say that's fair that people would have that connotation , but that's fair that people would have that connotation .

I thought it was really awesome this year that I saw a number of a meetings and sober meetings on the event calendar , so specifically meetups for people who are choosing not to participate in substances and that were there for different reasons and just to support each other and create that encouragement and safe space , like a music festival that you would go to in

BC , where I'm from , or California , where it's very common to see people just consuming drugs in open areas Black Rock City , which is the city that we essentially create during that week . It's technically on federal land and so all of the laws regarding drugs marijuana even that's decriminalized in other parts of Nevada none of those state laws exist .

It is on federal land and so it is very common to see uniformed officers walking around and unfortunately , many undercover officers are at Burning man and are proactively trying to get you to do something illegal , and I've heard so many stories about this . Our group in particular had some run-ins with undercover cops , one with myself actually . I think that sucks .

I think it's one of the worst parts of going to Burning man is that there are officers there who are going out of their way to kind of trick you into putting yourself in an illegal situation . I definitely respect that .

There are officers there doing their job and I know it's a hard job , but I think the trickery of it is pretty lame , and if my kid grew up saying that that's what they wanted to do . I don't even know what I would do with that kid , but I would have a big problem with that . Honestly , there are people who get arrested and their lives change after that .

You do not want to have an issue with the law force in America absolutely not . And another big part of the experience is that there are 10 guiding principles to Burning man , so I'm not going to name all of them . You should look up the other principles if you are interested in going to Burning man . One of them is leave no trace .

So , as I mentioned , this city is temporarily created and when you leave , you are not allowed to leave anything behind . There are no communal garbages , there's no dumpsters , there's no recycling area that you would see at a normal festival or a normal event . It's not like that .

We are volunteering to create a city and one of the principles that you agree to by participating in it is you take everything that you bring in . Okay , every cigarette butt . You're a smoker , you've got to have a little .

It's called a moop bag , so moop is matter out of place and it stands for anything that you find on the ground that was not originally there . It's not meant to be there . So a small piece of wrapper , a piece of garbage , a sequence from an outfit which , on that note , they do really encourage you to think through any costumes that you want to wear .

Things like feather boas , sequins , glitter are generally frowned upon . So you'll have like a fanny pack or purse or hip purse , whatever you want to call it , and in it you'll have like a little small garbage bag that you always carry around . Jared kept getting blisters , so we'd have to take his nasty band-aid and throw it in our little moot bag .

Another principle is immediacy , so it's the idea of maybe in the real world you don't have the chance to just kind of act on those impulses and those indulgences and those urges to just do something now and not overthink it and do what you want to do and have your own experience and not live in that type of obligation we often have in the default world .

That they say . But for the most part it's about like what do you just stumble upon ? There's huge art pieces everywhere .

You'll just be biking around in the middle of the night and you just see something glowing in the distance and you can be like , oh , let's go check that out , and if that's what you want to do and that's what your urges are pulling you to do . You're supposed to go . Just do that and that's one of the principles .

On the note of biking , you absolutely need to have a bike . People are typically on cruiser bikes , those beach bikes with a basket . This year we saw a lot more electric bikes and those , like I don't know , hoverboard electric things that people are on , because it is huge .

I'm actually going to link in the show notes this really cool tool where you can see the map of Burning man and you can put in your town or your city and you can see the scope of it compared to your city , because it's easier to kind of envision that way . It's very common for you to be like , oh , what should we do next ?

Maybe you heard of a yoga class happening or something was going on it in this particular bar , this area that you heard of , and so you look up the coordinates of it and it could be a 20 or 30 minute bike right away . You literally cannot do it all and that is also really hard to accept .

There's so much going on at all times that you're inevitably just going to miss out on stuff . You're going to hear about cool things that happen that you didn't get to go do , because it's not a music festival where things are taking care of for you .

There aren't like bars or restaurants or food trucks in the same way , where I can show up at the time I want with my credit card and pay for this thing . There's nothing for sale . The only things you can buy at Burning man are coffee and ice .

That doesn't mean there's not a ton of alcohol and ton of food that's being given out for free , but it just means that , rather than paying for it or like what people often think of like a barter system , it's actually a gifting principle , so it's trying to remove the idea that everything in the default world is a transaction .

I give you this , I expect this in return . You give me this , I give you that and that was actually really hard for me to just accept and get used to . The first time I was there . I went for the first time in 2018 . I distinctly remember just going up to a bar for the first time and just , you have to have your own personal mug on you .

Whatever they're serving is what you're drinking , or whatever food they're giving out is what you're receiving , and that is just all stuff that people have paid for and that they're just bringing there and gifting to the playa is what they say the playa provides .

And one of the options you can do is join a camp so you can just totally show up at Burning man with , like , your tent or your yurt which are very common or your RV and just be like , okay , I'm going to show up and this is going to be my area and I'm going to set up my own camp and bring my own shade structure and have my own food and do my

own little kitchen . There are communal bathrooms that everyone is able to use , porta-potties throughout the Burning man grounds , so you could just show up and just make it work . Or you can join a camp . They're called theme camps and there's tons of them throughout the grounds and some are small , some are quite large .

I would say we had a decent size camp that we joined . It was 100 people , most of them were from San Francisco . I came with a crew there was 15 of us , all from Vancouver , canada , who drove down together and we joined this camp . And all different theme camps come with different types of resources and perks and the idea is you essentially share resources .

So you pay to join a camp . Our camp dues were 600 US dollars . I am going to do a breakdown of what it actually costs to go to Burning man in a second . But our camp ? They provided us food , two meals a day breakfast and dinner . We had showers every second day , which don't get excited .

The shower was basically a bag filled with water that you attached to like some kind of frame above you and after five minutes , when the water ran out , your shower was done . So that was the shower , but our meals were amazing . So , to be part of our camp , yes , you paid your dues , but you got to participate . We are creating Burning man for you .

No one is getting paid . Everybody's a volunteer , everybody's paying their ticket , so everybody's

contributing . So , part of our camp , you had to join one of I think there were seven teams . The team I joined was the events team , but you could also join the kitchen team , and our kitchen team was amazing . It was run by a couple vegans , so the food was so good .

Sometimes , when you go somewhere and the food is made for you , if you're vegan or vegetarian , you know it . The vegetarian option is like such an afterthought . It's basically just the meal without the meat ? Uh-uh , not here . They had vegan cheese , they had impossible meat , they had Beyond Burger , they had tofu .

We had like the full experience that everyone was having and the food was so good , so that was awesome . Like I said , I was on the events team so that's how I contributed . Our camp had our own art car . That's another big part of the Burning man experience is art cars . You will see hundreds of them around the playa when you're biking around .

They're so cool . They're essentially a mutant vehicle , and so I had to look up the definition of mutant vehicle because I didn't really know how to explain it .

You see all different types , like you would literally just see a huge dragon on wheels moving around through the playa that would , just every couple minutes , have real fire come out of its mouth and people were on the dragon , partying and moving , and it would have like a hundred people on it .

And then you would see this like tiny little UFO thing with one guy inside driving it . And so a mutant vehicle is a unique motorized creation that either shows little or no resemblance to its original form or any other standard street vehicle .

So , for example , it could be a pirate ship or a spaceship on the desert and they can either be built from scratch or they can be radically , stunningly and safely modified from their base vehicle . So our art car originally was a school bus , so that is the origins of it . It does not look like a school bus .

If you follow me on Instagram , you will see some of the photos that I posted at Burning man and one as of our art car . Our car was a huge sheep , so it was a bus that completely transformed to a sheep and our camp was called Baz three as and I think I'm going to get this right it stood for big as amazing , awesome homosexual sheep .

You got the tone . You know we had a very homosexual forward camp . I am identifying as a heterosexual person . We were a bit of an outlier at the camp . That was totally fine and totally okay . I would say we're allies . We were super loud and proud to be part of that camp . Amazing people .

Most of the group was from San Francisco , as I said , and so I was kind of jealous . Leading up to Burning man , the group did multiple mini events , fundraisers in San Francisco . On the events team which I was on , I would help with the promotions for that and help them think through the event plan .

And they even did cookouts where you could volunteer ahead of time to prepare all of the meals ahead of time for Burning man to feed 100 of us twice a day for a couple weeks . And so how much did that cost ? Well , like I said , our camp dues were $600 . And this is all going to be in US dollars .

So $600 just to join our camp , which got us our meals , our showers , we got access to hook up our RVs to electricity and various things like that . We had shade structures , little lounge areas . We had a bar on site which we could enjoy ourselves . We had different events Then . I thought it was an amazing exchange .

I would absolutely camp with buzz again and get back on that sheep . So 600 for that . We rented an RV , an RV we had five of us sleeping in there . I think it would work out to like 700 US dollars per person for the RV . The parking pass to actually park the RV at Burning man was $275 . Again , us dollars .

For all these figures split up between all the people we were with the gas to get there , I honestly don't even want to look or want to know . Thankfully , we had a very big and complicated split wise going with our group of 15 friends who all traveled together , and we agreed to split a lot of these things evenly .

But it was a 15 hour drive from Vancouver in our big RV that we rented . In this economy you can just imagine how much gas we went through . So that was really tough , both like from environmental standpoint and also the cost to go there . Additional snacks and alcohol something we didn't track .

Outfits I have a large collection of festival clothes and funky outfits and ways to radically express myself , but I always want more . Jared is so good at re-wearing his old stuff and at the time I find it so annoying . When I'm on a website I'm like , oh my gosh , look how cool this is , we could be matching this , we could be matching that .

And he's just like I have enough stuff , I'm good , I don't need any more things . I just such a party pooper . But when I see my overflowing costume bin , I do really admire it and I wish I had more self control . So that was a big expense . Survival gear so survival gear is a big one Again . Radical self reliance you need to be prepared for anything .

So something you have to actually have a lot of is vinegar . Random fun fact vinegar yeah , the dust at Burning man and then the desert is very , very , very fine like tiny little dust crystals and it just can really penetrate your skin and dry out your skin and mess with your skin and your hair throughout the week .

So the best practice is , as soon as you're about to get back in the RV , you take your shoes out outside of the RV and you wipe your feet with vinegar . We had these spray bottles . We would spray our whole bodies down before bed every night .

We would have to take baby wipes and vinegar and just clean off our whole body so that you didn't get the dust not only in the sheets and all over the RV but also ruining your skin and all of that which you don't want . So we had to buy a lot of those types of things , and then our tickets were about 500 US dollars as well with all of that .

So I'm going to talk about how we actually got tickets , but overall I'm thinking it was about 5,000 Canadian experience . So I would love to make Burning man be more sustainable and a lower cost investment in the future so that I can go more often , because I just got so much out of it and I really love going .

It's just quite premium and how do you get tickets ? So this is kind of where the rich people actually come in quite handy , and so there is a guaranteed ticket sale that happens first .

It happens like probably a month before the main sale , which is the lottery ticket sale , they call it , and so in the rich people sale , you can guarantee your spot at Burning man by buying a ticket that works out to be about 1500 US dollars , so that's like three times the price of the tickets that everybody else pays , and they subsidize the cost for everyone

else . So if you want to guarantee your way to go , you want to find a way to give back . Maybe you have more resources . This is something that you can pay a bit more and you can guarantee your spot . Get one of these rich people tickets and then it subsidizes the cost for everyone else .

The next option is through the lottery , and I've been very lucky where both years when I went in 2018 and when I went this year in 2023 , I was the only one in my group who got through in the lottery and scored tickets . You're only allowed to get two in the lottery plus a parking pass . So I was super lucky .

I got in the lottery , got the tickets right away , I knew I was going , I knew it was meant to be again , but then our camp also came with tickets . So another perk of joining a camp is they typically get tickets to distribute to members and so you can get tickets that way . This year they actually sold more tickets than people ended up going .

There were some big things that happened . One of the iconic art cars , mayan Warrior actually like blew up and burnt down on their way to one of their fundraisers . That group of people has been around at Burning man for a while and they draw a big crowd .

So rumor has it that when they were not going anymore , a lot of people decided not to go to Burning man . So a lot of tickets were available for sale this year in the last minute and we're actually going for undervalue , which is the first time we've seen that there's a rule where you're not allowed to sell tickets for more than the face value .

So that's pretty nice and it's like socially acceptable to shame somebody publicly if they are not following that rule . So that gives you hopefully a bit more picture of what Burning man is and what to expect , you're not going to find the common luxuries at home .

There's no street lights , so at night you're cruising around on your bike and pitch black you have to have lights all over your bike , all over your body . If you literally are biking and you just turn away for one second , you can like lose your friends and lose everybody , and it's actually quite stressful .

There's no internet access or cellular range there , so it can be kind of hectic at night and a little bit unsafe if you're not lit up . I had fun with finding some fun accessories that lit up , like flower crowns that had built-in lights . One of our friends had devil horns , which kind of sounds cheesy , but it was so helpful to see him in the distance .

You would just follow the devil horns and then just like literally knowing there's something for everybody , like what I'm saying , that a vet book that they give you , with all of those things , there's just hundreds and hundreds of events happening every day , like I really , really mean it .

I went to a Taylor Swift Tea Party where it was four Swifties who love Taylor Swift and they were serving tea and they had all these materials to do friendship bracelets and , of course , taylor Swift music exclusively playing . I went slacklining so there was a camp for like slackliners and highliners . They were setting up the highline .

I didn't get a chance to go on it . It was pretty far from where I was camping Again . Things were like 20 , 30 minute bikes away so I never actually went on the highline but I did go slacklining . I went to a few workshops . One was actually a workshop for couples . Jared and I went and it was really beautiful .

I went to a camp that was just giving out hair washes , so we had to stay in line for over an hour , but by Thursday my hair needed it . A lot of the girls get the professional hair braiding with the colored extensions in for the week as a way to not only look super cool but to also not have one more thing to manage .

I just let my hair free wilds , let her go , and so by Thursday she really could use some conditioning love . And yeah , you just waited in line . You showed up , you put your name down , they called your name and you went to a proper chair and a volunteer just like literally washed your hair for you . So that was really fun .

One of my favorite experience from the week was when Jared and I decided to create our own gift to the Playa . So , as I've mentioned , it's a big gift in culture and Jared and I we like to call ourselves jam , and so we had an idea to give out free peanut butter and jam sandwiches and we didn't really know when we were going to do it .

We had a folding table and we had a leopard print claw and we had two different types of peanut butter crunchy and smooth , three different types of jam , two different types of bread and we had a whole vision with , like a big sign , free PB and J . We had no idea how it was going to go .

I was nervous that basically , we would set up this table and no one would show up and it would be super awkward .

But one of our friends was playing in the orchestra , so there was an orchestra band that had a performance on the Friday morning and it was around 9am and all of our friends were going and it was at the temple and we thought this could be the perfect time and before we were even done setting up our tablecloth , we already had a queue of people who were so

excited and just showed up and just were so grateful that we were giving away this PB and Jam experience . You had people who were like I've been up all night , I haven't eaten . This is saving me . You'd had people who were like this is my favorite , so nostalgic . So it literally went so well for the entire hour that the performance was happening .

We had a queue . We went until supplies lasted . We ended up giving out 100 sandwiches . If we had more bread we would have kept serving . We would 100% do it again . We had such a great time . So everything I've shared with you so far is before the rain storm , before Burning man went viral and before the whole world knew we were stuck at Burning man .

So let me paint a picture of that time of the week . So we arrived Sunday . This entire week the weather's going great . We're having these experiences . Our event goes so well . We've seen Diplo now a couple of times . We're getting along well with our campmates . We're sleeping well . I have my custom earplugs now .

I have my sleeping pills If things ever get really rough . We're eating really well . Everything's going

great . And then towards the end of the week , on Thursday , there starts to be rumors that a rainstorm is coming in . So all day on Thursday when we're out , we're prepared for this .

We have umbrellas with us we aren't going too far from our camp , just in case we don't want to get stuck anywhere and every once in a while there'd be like a very , very tiny drizzle , like you'd be like oh , I think I just felt something and someone would be like yeah , I think it's a little bit of rain , but literally nothing , just like the tiniest ,

tiniest , tiniest little drizzle . So by Friday it's been 24 hours of people talking about this rainstorm . At this point I don't take it that seriously . I'm just like , okay , well , if that's all it is , it's really not that bad . I'm not going to let that stop me . The weekend is here . I'm super excited .

The man is going to be burned on Saturday night , literally a wooden man that goes up in flames and gets burned .

And so it's Friday afternoon and Jared saw that one of his favorite DJs , desert Dwellers , is performing and they're pretty far away from our camp , like I'm talking like a 30 minute bike ride away from our camp , which our camp is where our RV is , our camp is where our water is , our camp is where our food is , our camp is where our shelter is , our camp

is where our dinner is taking place , but Jared's really excited to go see this DJ . So we go . We know that night is Shabbat dinner . So Friday night in Jewish culture there's a Shabbat dinner and so one of the camps is putting on a Shabbat dinner . That happens throughout the week . That's quite popular .

We're planning to go there that night with some friends and then we're actually splitting up the boys and the girls and we're doing a ladies night . So I have a big night and adventure ahead of me . I'm not even considering rain . I'm not even considering these plans not happening , so little do I know what's ahead of me .

We bike over to this place where Desert Dwellers is happening and it's in a sheltered area with no walls , carpets on the ground , really cool vibe . People are hanging out , some really nice drinks that are being served and all of a sudden the rainstorm comes in and it is nothing like a drizzle , it is a full out rainstorm .

We are looking outside and it's wild Mud is going everywhere . People are walking around carrying their bikes and it's just coming down really hard and we're , at this point , still kind of like giggling , being like oh , wow , oh my , what are we gonna do ? Again , not really thinking of the repercussions that are about to happen .

But , like an hour later , the rain seems to stop . So we're like , okay , this is our chance , we need to go get our bikes and try to go home . So we go out and it's complete mud like every single step . You are like sinking into the ground .

Your shoes are getting so heavy because it's not the type of mud that's like I don't know , the opposite of viscous it's thick , it's chunky , it's like clay , instant clay . So you're stepping , your boots are just feeling so , so , so heavy . It's such a weird feeling . And we get to the bikes and there's no way these bikes can bike .

It gives you bike or if you move any type of vehicle a car , a mutant vehicle , a bus , a bike you are just immediately going to get stuck . So that was evident . So Jared's like okay , ladies , it was me , jared , and our friend Anna we need to carry our bikes the six kilometer walk home . We're like Jared , absolutely not , but we did try .

We tried to lift them . I had just gotten a new cruiser bike that had gears , so it was particularly heavy . And Jared's like okay , let me try to carry both of them . I have a video I posted . If you go to my Instagram , I have a highlight reel saved of Burning man , you'll see him attempt to carry both bikes .

He got like two steps in and had to give up . So we're like , okay , we're abandoning the bikes . Well , we are an hour and a half probably , walk away from home . Dinner isn't an hour . Are we doing it ? The rain has returned or we just embracing this and going on an adventure ? So we decide to go on an adventure .

We like are down to explore , we're going to change it up . We've been at this one place and in the distance we see this like big kind of like sphere dome looking thing and we're talking to people and we're asking people hey , are there any like good parties or events happening near here ? And they're like , oh yeah , go check out the dome .

It was called Agave Lounge and there was just one small door to get in and then when you got in , it was a beautifully carpeted room with a proper DJ stand where I guess a few hundred people can be there at once . It was quite large and they were like , we're going to go all night .

We got you , this can be your shelter , come in , come , have fun , but no shoes . So they made everybody take their boots out at the door , which is totally fine . So everyone's in their barefoot or in their socks . We're soaked . So at the back of the DJ booth , everyone just has like their jackets and things sprawled around trying to drive .

They've got a bar serving food . They're being so generous , they're totally taking care of us . We ended up being there for like three and a half hours .

Every like 45 minutes or so , jared would poke his head outside to see if the rain had stopped , to see if it is going to get any better , because remember when I said we were an hour and a half walk home , well , we went even further . So now we are very far away .

It's not like two or three in the morning , it's pitch black , and Jared at this point is like this could get dangerous . I think we need to make it back home .

We've skipped dinner , we've survived off the granola bars that we have on us , the free food that's being given away , and we've made it work , but it's it's time to call out ladies like we need to go home and go to bed . So we're like fine , fine , dad , and we go outside and my boots are not there . Someone we don't know .

I'm assuming someone mistaken them for their boots , but my black boots are now not there , so I have to walk the entire over an hour and a half walk home barefoot and the way the shape of Burning man is you should look it up if you've never actually seen the scope of Burning man or how the layout is . It's kind of like a clock .

So at midnight is basically where the abyss starts , so it's like complete desert where the art typically is those big sculptures and things that you might see on social media , and down at six is where the semicircle , like the loop , kind of starts , and so our camp was over at four and we're now at ten .

So it would take a very long time for us to walk ten , nine , eight , seven , six around the clock . So naturally you just go directly across the clock . You want to go from like ten straight across to two . So now we are just walking in the abyss . You can't see anything , you can't hear anything and it's just us barefoot making our way home to the end .

I was so grateful that I'd been going at f45 like five days a week leading up to Burning man . I was in such good shape . I did not think that I was preparing myself for that type of endurance . But I was and I totally could handle it and it was fine .

We got home , we slept like babies in our RVs and then the next morning , of course our friends were like where the heck were you three ? What happened ? We were also worried about you . Where did you go ? Sounds like most of our friends were at camp when the rainstorm happened .

So everybody ended up just like hanging out in the bus , our sheep and just hanging out and surviving the rainstorm together . And we're worried about us , naturally . So at breakfast everybody's like oh my god , what happened ? What happened ? What happened ? The rain has continued , so the rain is still coming down .

And at breakfast , this is when our camp starts to make an announcement and they're like okay , everybody , there's some news . It isn't dire , but it could be dire At this point . They've shut the gate . No one is allowed to leave Burning man , no one is allowed to come to Burning man . They have closed the airport . No airplanes are flying out or flying in .

It doesn't matter how rich you are , it doesn't matter who you are , you are here . You can only leave by foot . Essentially , and good luck , because vehicles are going to immediately get stuck and people try not to listen . Everyone kind of made fun of them .

There was like 200 cars that just immediately panicked and tried to leave and just got stuck there and no towing was coming for like weeks after . So they really screwed themselves . But they let us know . The gates are now closed , no one is coming in , no one is coming out and we might be here for a while .

The porta potties are no longer being serviced , so you can only use the porta potties for a number two . Please start peeing in buckets and collect your buckets . We need to ration food . That means we are no longer offering any free food to anyone who isn't camping with us .

If you have extra food , please bring it to the kitchen so that we can start figuring out how much supplies we have . So that was a bit intense . And then they were like this whole time we had a Starlink internet that we didn't know that they had . They were just keeping it for an emergency situation . So they're like we turned on the Starlink .

Here's the Wi-Fi password Make plans , contact . You need to contact . You're going to be here for a while . So I was like , oh crap , this is pretty intense . The only person I really had to contact thankfully because I don't have a boss or anywhere I really had to be was our cat sitter , who she had already heard on the news about what was happening .

I turned on my phone and I had dozens of messages . Oh my god , I'm so worried about you . Are you guys okay ? This seems so intense Like , please , let us know you're safe . Let us know you're safe .

I was like I've just been literally out all night partying , having an amazing time at the Agave lounge with my husband and one of my best friends and yeah , it was a bit of an endurance trek to get home , but I'm in great shape and I had a bunch of granola bars and I have lots of water and I have a shit ton of food left .

I'm completely fine and also I have nowhere to be because I have the freedom lifestyle . So I was totally fine .

I thought it was comical how concerned people were , but I did give the updates , looked at some of the memes , looked at some of the news stories that were going around about Ebola , cannibalism , people are stuck there , they're going to run out of food , all of these things . Absolutely none of that happened .

There were definitely some panic from people who felt , I guess , really trapped there , like if you actually went to the airport on site , there was a big sign outside and it said I don't care how rich you are , there's nothing you can do , there's no flights leaving . I was very , very grateful to be in an RV .

I can't even imagine being in a tent so we were pretty comfortable and in the end we only ended up being stuck there for an extra 24 hours or so . The man didn't end up getting burned on Saturday night , as it was supposed to , so that was part of the announcements .

They're like we're not sure if it's ever getting burned or when it's getting burned , but that's canceled for now and we all just need to like stay near camp , stay close together , in case there's any more announcements . Meanwhile , there's two types of people .

There's people who are just accepting that Burning man is over and that this is terrible and have just stopped trying to have fun , started to pack up , have kind of just like given up on the experience , and then there's people like me and Jared who are just like no way this can be it .

And like I said before , burning man is a very large clock essentially , and since we were on the two o'clock side , we were in more of a quiet area when we had been the night before , where a Gave lounge was , is all of where the sound camps are . So a sound camp is essentially a camp that's designated to putting on big music related events .

So they typically have the biggest speakers , the loudest sound system , the best bass , they bring in some of the bigger DJs and they all have to be around the center ring so that their speakers have to be essentially facing out into the desert , into the abyss , so that it's not too disruptive for people who are trying to sleep or run different types of events

or workshops where you can't have really loud music going . And all of those were located on the other side . And it was Saturday night . It was meant to be the biggest night of the week . It keeps raining intermittently . People are walking around with plastic bags on their feet . I see all different types of concoctions .

Some people are just bare feet , have just given up . Some people have their socks on and are doing that . Some people are still rocking their still toe boots like Jared and just making it work . But there's people kind of just wandering around doing a little bit of adventuring and there's definitely some smaller parties happening in our neighborhood .

That's what a lot of our campmates were doing . They're like , okay , saturday night we're just going to hang out in the area and just kind of lay low . And Jared and I really wanted to just go out big . We had been there the night before and we had been talking to people about what's going to be happening and what the final events are for the week .

But because it was so far away , you couldn't actually see if any of these events were actually happening and there wasn't really a way to text people or go on the internet in the same sense that you might to look at like a social media page to see if something's happening .

You kind of just got to show up places and see if what is advertised actually goes on . I remember there was a couple times where I showed up for an early morning workshop or yoga class and we got there and there's like 12 people all just sitting around awkwardly waiting at the point that the class was supposed to be and the teacher didn't show up .

That kind of stuff is very common . At the end of the day , it's all volunteer run . So we were hoping that there was still these big parties going on , but you had no guarantee and in order to go find out . You had to be willing to walk over an hour each way in the middle of the night to essentially go find out .

And so there was like a pinnacle moment for Jared and I Saturday night where we just looked at each other and we're like this could go either two ways . We could either go back to the RV , take a sleeping pill and call it , or we go on a mission and just give her . And we tried to convince people , all of our friends we were with .

We're like come on , it's really fun over there , trust me . And they're like you guys are crazy , you're going to walk all the way over there and you don't even know if these events are happening . And we just said screw it , let's do it .

We packed a bag of all of our essentials , of things that we could need , and we went over there and probably 45 minutes into the walk we could just see it was going off . There was hundreds of people still out , still trying to seize what was left of Burning man , coming together for the final main night of the week and just making the most of it .

People were dirty . There were no sparkle ponies in sight . Everyone was muddy , like I said , plastic bags on your feet , it didn't even matter .

It was like we were all there for the right reasons of just being together , building community , sharing the good vibes , enjoying this amazing experience that we've all put so much effort into being here and not letting these inconveniences or these stepbacks ruin it . We ended up staying out all night and still sunrise .

We made a ton of friends , we had a lot of fun and we missioned home at maybe 9 am across the desert , again an hour walk home and again our friends were just like what the hell ? You guys , where were you ? And we tried not to make them feel too jealous , but we had had an amazing night .

Okay , this is the part of the podcast episode where we are going to ask families , moms , mother-in-laws to please stop listening , because I debated sharing this story , but I wanted to because it was so ridiculous and it speaks to a really unique experience that you can have at Burning man that we had that .

It's not like I'm embarrassed or shameful , it is just more provocative . So , as I mentioned , there are definitely some sexual encounters that can be had at Burning man and when you're a heterosexual monogamous , the range of things that you can do is fairly limited .

But there was a couple of things that we had heard about that we thought , okay , that could like kind of push us sexually and push us in a relationship , and we had lots of conscious conversations about it and boundaries and things we were comfortable with and things we weren't comfortable with .

And essentially there is an orgy dome at Burning man , which is what it sounds like . It's on the calendar , I think it's open 24 seven . I could be wrong . I could be wrong . I went to at night spoiler I went , but it's an orgy dome and they kind of call it like the orgy for beginners and so it's very facilitated experience .

When you go there , you probably have 30 minutes from the time you decide you want to go to the orgy dome , before you're actually ever entering the space , where there's multiple touch points , where people have conversations with you about consent .

They want to make sure you're sober , make sure you understand what to expect when you are in there , so much so that there's a 15 minute mandatory waiting lounge . So once you get past all of the checks they make you go into this , this one room , and there's a clock on the top and at a certain time you get to actually go in .

So that's just all the checks that they do to make sure you're sober , you are safe , you are choosing to be here , you understand what's happening and at any point , you are allowed to leave and you're allowed to say you're not comfortable .

This meeting area is also potentially an area for you to scope out some people that you might want to play with or have some fun with when you go in there . And now one thing to really note here is that when you go to the orgy dome , there are two rooms . So there's one room called just for us and the other room is called something more .

So the just for us room is for couples who do not want to have sexual experiences with anyone other than each other and they want to be in an environment where other people are having sexual experiences around them , but they want to stay together , okay .

And then the other room is a room for people who are open to people approaching them and asking if they can join and asking for their consent to participate in something sexually together , let's call playing . And so Jared and I are a just for us couple , and so we went into that room and you know I was super nervous .

I mean you're doing something kind of intense , at least for me , and so ahead of time I had like kind of thought of a few things to make the night special .

Jared has always been kind of into the like innocent school girl look , and so I'd went and purchased a kilt and a little blouse and did my hair braided and was trying to look all innocent and cute for that date night . And so even before we went out we kind of unveiled our looks and it was very like romantic .

There was definitely some sexual tension in the air and we had even kind of talked about you know which room are we going to go into . And definitely you want to have that conversation ahead of time . You don't want to show up and realize that one of you wants to do just for us and the other one wants to do something for more .

I think that would be super awkward and tense conversation that you'd have to have on site . So luckily we had researched it . We knew what we were comfortable with ahead of time . We bike over to the Orgy Dome and we're still kind of nervous .

It's also still early , so we get there and there's usually bike racks outside of main camps and bigger events that are happening . Because everywhere you have to bike can you lock up your bike , and there wasn't that many bikes attached to the bike rack . So we were like , oh no , did we come too early ?

That's going to be so awkward if we go to the Orgy and no one's there and then we're just , you know , playing alone . It's kind of misses the point . So right across there was a cat themed lounge bar I can't even make this up .

It had fireplaces and couches everywhere and when you went to the bar they had all of these different cat themed drinks and really high end cat stickers . So we were like this is for us , these are our people . Let's go get a drink and just kind of , you know , take some of the edge off of the experience .

So we go there , we're having a drink , we're sitting on the couch , we're kind of like canoodling , warming up , sitting by the fire , so like literally warming up , and we're like , okay , you know , we see the Orgy domes getting busier and busier and we're like it's time let's do it . So we get up , walk up to them .

We're like we'd like to go to the Orgy domes and they're like , okay , we need your physical IDs . We're like what are physical IDs ? What do you mean ?

So , as I mentioned , you always have to have your mug on you if you want to drink , and what people typically do is , before going to Burning man , you'll make a bunch of photocopies of your driver's license and you will essentially take your ID to your mug . That's what , like , most people are doing . Some people are smarter and actually like laminated them .

Definitely . That is what I would do next year . And they had it on a proper carabiner and everything attached to their mug so it could survive all the conditions . By like , day four , you couldn't even see my face on my mug . And they wanted physical IDs . And we were just like what a physical ID ? What do you mean ?

We're in our thirties , we're a married couple , like we can send to go to the Orgy domes . They're like no , no , no , this is what we need . Hopefully you're not camping too far . Meanwhile , it's a 20 minute bike ride each way , complete buzzkill . We had finally worked up the liquid courage to go in there .

So we're like okay , well , I don't know , is this a sign ? Should we not do this ? I don't know . I don't know . Let's at least go back and get our IDs and I don't know . Maybe if we stumble upon a fun bar or a fun experience or we see some cool art , we'll stop and we'll just continue the night .

We had already decided it was date night and we were going to be hanging out just with each other that night . So we do that . We get the IDs . Our friends who were staying in the RV with us knew what we were doing and we came back to like , oh , are you guys already done ? And we told them what happened and they were just so sad for us .

They're like oh , that's so awkward , I'm sorry , I'm like I know . And they're like good luck , thanks . And so we bike back around and this time we're just leisurely making our way back there . We stumble upon a number of really cool experiences different music activations that are happening , cool little lounges , we check out some art .

At one point we played foosball . We're having a great time with each other , we're having fun and we're just not letting this setback ruin our night . But we had a bucket list and when Jared and I say we're going to do something , we're going to do it .

So we go back to the orgy dome and we have our physical IDs and we go through the process and we are ready to go in .

So how it works is they have little cubbies outside of the play area where you can put your shoes and your jackets and your purse or anything that you want to leave behind , and then they have a table of things you might want Condoms , baby wipes , lubricants , various things that you might want to use while you're in there , tissues , I'm not even sure .

We just grabbed some basic items and then you essentially walk in and then you get to choose between the two rooms and they are literally just thin little mattresses , like single mattresses on the ground , all next to each other .

I could touch both mattresses on beside me , on the mattress that we are on , and you walk in and there's just couples having sex everywhere and you just pick a mattress and I think there was a couple couches in the corner , but we just picked a simple mattress , not directly beside anybody , but kind of in the vicinity with people .

They also have a rule , because it's one of the only air conditioned places in all of Burning man , so they actually have people kind of walking around to make sure you're actually playing and not just hanging out there and not just trying to use the free air conditioning . So you got to be bang in or you're bounced out of there .

So we pick out our mattress , we do the thing . Let's just say that Okay , and we have an amazing experience . It was honestly super hot . This sounds the visuals of people around you doing it .

I mean , a lot of people watch porn , listen to porn while they're playing or having sexual experiences with their partners , so it makes sense that it would be so heightened and pretty erotic . So , needless to say , we absolutely loved it . We end this is going to get a bit visual with me on top of Jared .

So I'm basically straddling Jared and this whole time I have kept this sexy little kilt , this little like gray plaid skirt that I had bought for the experience , to try to be the little innocent , sexy schoolgirl look . And as I pull myself off of Jared , we look down and there's blood everywhere . Literally , I had got my period in the orgy dome .

Okay , thank God , all of the sheets in the orgy dome were white . We actually just picked one of the very few mattresses where the sheets were dark , gray or like green , I don't even know , but it was dark .

We both look at each other and we were like , oh my God , midway through us having our sexual experience , a couple shows up and decides they want to play right beside us . So they're literally on the mattress right beside us now . Well , I'm sitting on top of Jared , straddling , realizing that now there's blood all over his area .

And what the hell are we going to do ? This couple is beside us . They're still in mid-action . I don't think they need to know this . I don't think they need to see this . What the heck are we going to do ? And in that moment it was like fight or flight .

Nothing was awkward , I didn't care , but anything other than I need to get this situation dealt with or I'm going to humiliate myself . And so , like I said , there's people going around to make sure you're actually having sex or else you get kicked out , but they're also going around seeing if you need anything .

So they'll be like baby white , baby white lube condom . I'm actually serious . It's so ridiculous . So then I like basically call one of the guys over . I'm like come here for a second Picture . This I'm on a mattress that's on the floor Like a very thin little single mattress . I'm straddling Jared . So again , visual Jared's inside of me .

And thank God , I have this skirt on this skirt saved me .

I'm straddling Jared , I call this guy over , this man . He needs to like , duck down beside me to get to eye level to see what I want . And I'm like , oh , can we have some baby wipes ? He's like giving us multiple baby wipes , multiple napkins , multiple tissues . We're just like , hey , thank you , Thank you , don't tell them anything that's happened .

We just like do what we need to do . I had my fanny pack on me . Thank God , clean up the area , put everything in the fanny pack and get the hell out of there . Talk about such a high and then such a low .

Now it's a really , really , really funny story and I have no regrets going , and if I go to Burning man , I will absolutely be back in that orgy dome , but I will never forget my experience of getting my period that probably the worst place you could ever get it . Thanks for listening to this episode of the Freedom Lifestyle .

I know it was different than the rest , playing with different content , trying to see what resonates with people , what things that they're interested in listening to and learning about , and it's also pretty fun for me to just get to relive these cool experiences . I find the more I'm like telling people about different stories and sharing different experiences .

Those memories just stay closer and closer in my mind and I don't want them to leave . It was such an amazing experience and if you want to go to Burning man or you're interested in this lifestyle , please connect with me . You can find me on Instagram , sam La Liberty .

I'm often going to events and experiences like that Well , also running all my businesses that I can do from anywhere in the world . And hey , maybe we can meet up at Burning man or a music festival around the world . We have tickets to Envision Music Festival in March 2024 . That's in Costa Rica , definitely in BC , there's some cool festivals in the summer .

We'll be going to Shambhala base coast and maybe Burning man 2025 . Hit me up , I will follow you back and I hope to be dancing under a moonlit dance floor with you very soon .