The Future Turtles Camp

People, teams, and spirit of the Future Turtles

Work Requirements to Camp With the Future Turtles

Camping for a week in the harsh Black Rock Desert is tough. We try to make it easier by collaborating to build a beautiful camp, organizing delicious shared meals together, and providing communal gifts to the Burning Man community.

The magic of Burning Man is the collaboration. Not only will you be collaborating to build something really awesome that you can be proud of, but you will test your own limits, learn many new skills, and make incredible friends for life. Burning Man is a transformative experience and the people you go through it with make all the difference.

This all takes a ton of work, both in the months leading up to the event getting everything ready, and during the week of Burning Man itself. To camp with us, you can expect to put in several days of work before you even get to the event, and several hours of shifts every day once we’re there.

Off-Playa Contribution

Each turtle is required to contributed meaningfully to the preparation for Burning Man in one of the following ways:

  1. Participate in a work weekend in Reno, NV in the spring to help prepare our gear
  2. Join the early build team, arriving on playa a week before everyone else to build the camp
  3. Join the post-strike team, staying behind on playa a day and helping put away gear in Reno after the event
  4. As a part of the food and beverages team, prepare food and the food truck in Reno before the burn
  5. Meaningfully contribute to a camp art project and/or bring your own form of art

On Playa Work Teams

Every turtle will also be a part of a work team on playa. The teams may change a bit from year to year, but in 2024 we had the following work teams:

  1. Food (preparing two hot meals a day)
  2. Dining Room (serving meals and cleaning the dining room afterwards; maintaining snack stations)
  3. Drinks (including drinks served at parties, water and electrolyte drinks available to campers, and ice)
  4. LNT (cleaning the public areas of the camp)
  5. Gayflower (cleaning the private shower area)
  6. Infrastructure (maintaining the generator and water infrastructure)

These teams organize their own shifts throughout the event week, with a goal that each turtle contribute approximately 12 hours of work during the week as a part of their particular team.

Other Teams

We have a variety of teams, large and small, that take care of some of the other things that keep our camp working. These teams often meet in advance of Burning Man to prepare and their work during the event may vary depending on the team. This work is all in addition to the work shifts mentioned above, and almost every turtle contributes to at least one of these teams. Your contribution may be to one of these existing projects, or you might have an idea to start your own project!

Team
Typical pre-playa work
Typical on-playa work
Typical post-playa work
Parties
Choose themes for parties, prepare decor and accessories, line up DJs and entertainment, produce publicity and submit events to Playa Events, coordinate with drinks team
Run the parties, make sure there are volunteers to staff parties as greeters, monitors, consent monitors, bike parking, lighting directors, DJs, and bartenders

Guardians
Plan for orientation activities, schedule training for new turtles and pre-playa meeting sessions
Deal with personal, emotional, health issues, and conflict that may come up; coach campers whose behavior puts them at risk of not getting invited back
Produce programming for re-integration and "decompression" from playa; make sure unresolved issues during the week are addressed
Bikes Inventory bikes and order new parts
Check bikes out and in

Turtle Truck
Reserve a rental truck and pick it up; coordinate load-in and drive to playa

Coordinate load-in, drive from playa, take camp trash to the dump, wash truck and return it
Turtle Bus Coordinate the charter bus and make sure the right people are on it and it goes to the right places; communicate with riders

Coordinate the charter bus and make sure the right people are on it and it goes to the right places; communicate with riders
Camp Decor and Design
Plan camp layout and decor
Set up decor and lights

Art Projects
Build art for the playa
Work on an art car
Set up art, maintain art lighting, maintain art car, etc.
Take down art 
Pillow Fort Plan pillow fort layout and decor
Coordinate on-playa pillow fort activities

Workshops and Events
Prepare some kind of on-playa workshop or event
Example events: Tarot Reading, Turkish Coffee Fortunetelling, HIIT training, Yoga, workshops and small classes, etc.

How Building Camp Works

A typical year for the Build Team, assuming all goes well and there is no weather emergency or space alien invasion or global pandemic or plague of locusts, looks like this:

We meet in Reno, NV on Monday the week before Burning Man. In Reno, we do some last minute preparations, and get the Build Team RV ready to go. In 2024 the biggest thing was just buying food for the build team itself.

On Tuesday morning as early as possible, we drive from Reno to Black Rock City.

Once we arrive in Black Rock City, we wait for Placement to show us where our camp will be located. Once we find it, we do the first MOOP sweep and start surveying and measuring and putting little flags in the ground where things will go.

IMG_4761.jpg

As soon as we have established exactly where everything goes, we call the trucking services to bring us all our stuff, the generator rental company to bring the generator, the water company to bring their tanks, etc. Then we start preparing for the first night, putting down enough shade structures for our own team to sleep in.

IMG_4814.jpg

If all has gone well, we have managed to build six shiftpods for the first night with protective tarps above and below by the time we go to sleep on Tuesday.

Over the course of the rest of the week, we get as much built as possible. That includes all of our public and private shade structures, tents, electrical grid, water system, and as much of the camp decor as we can get done. Hopefully around Thursday night or Friday the food team rolls in and starts feeding us and setting up the kitchen and dining room. A lot of campers arrive Saturday before the gates officially open and help finish anything we didn't get done. And that's about it!

PXL_20240826_021415108.jpg

Build Week is one of the best parts of Burning Man. It's amazing to arrive in a giant empty desert and transform it to a city.

Here's the Build Team Movie!

Build 2025

Build 2025

Build Plan 2025

Early Build Team

We have 12 tuesday SAPs:


builder arriving Reno Transport Reno -> Playa
1 Joel Mon Aug 18 1pm flight from NY Turtle RV
2 Beam Mon Aug 18 1pm flight from NY Turtle RV
3 Basil Mon Aug 18 1pm flight from NY Turtle RV
4 Madame Vivien V Mon Aug 18 1pm flight from NY Turtle RV
5 Dat Mon Aug 18 1pm flight from NY Turtle RV
6 Gary Mon Aug 18 1pm flight from NY Turtle RV
7 Klajdi
Jeremy's car (from SF - there from July 24)
8 Jeremy
Jeremy's car (from SF )
9 Alex H
Jeremy's car (from SF - SFO flight Mon Aug 18 2:15pm)
10 Ed
Jeremy's car (from SF - SFO flight Mon Aug 18 2:15pm)
11 Neptune
own van
12 PB
own van

Here's the tentative calendar for 2025.

Date / Time Early Build Team Food Team

Mon Aug 18

1:00p 

Meet in Reno

 

  • Pick up RV
  • Shop for build team food
  • Get RV ready
    • Fill up diesel
    • Buy DEF if needed for generator 
    • Overnight at GSR
    • Fill water
  • Last minute shopping and prep

Jeremy's car will arrive in Reno 6-7 pm

  • Transfer excess luggage to RV

Tue Aug 19

6:00 am

Entry

  • Drive from Reno
  • Enter playa
  • Call placement
  • Get placed
  • Measure positions for delivered vehicles
  • Call:
    • Peik Construction
    • Empire Storage 
    • Generator
    • Water
  • Prepare first night shiftpods

Wed Aug 20

General Build

 

Team A: Shade Structure

Team B: Interactive Pavilion

Team C: Utilities (petrol, music while working, water, power)


Thu Aug 21

General Build continues


Fri Aug 22

General Build continues

Enter playa

Sat Aug 22

Furnishings and decor

Turtles arrive


Build 2025

Early Build Team - Sequence - 2025

We have a big build team this year so we're going to split into three groups!


Leonardos Donatellos Michaelangelos
Arrival Park RV temporarily where the food fort will eventually go

Wait for placement
Wait for placement Make breakfast
After Placement

Survey for Peik Deliveries


Measure and flag for Tool Fort, Bike Fort, Pillow Fort

 

Call Peik 775-674-9207

Survey for Empire Deliveries

 

Measure and mark fire lane. Then flag locations for Empire Fort, Moving Truck, Water, Shower, and Generator.


Call Empire 828-406-5099

Sierra Site Svcs 888-458-8777 

Generator World 916-668-0605


After Deliveries 

First tarps

 

Lay down six tarps as numbered on schematic (enough for the initial outpost and Shiftpods for build team)

First EMT structure ("sticks")

 

Follow Leonardos building sticks for initial outpost: the Kink Fort, and, time permitting, enough to protect six shiftpods for the build team.

Air conditioners for Kink Fort

Turtle event sign

 

Build and light the sign listing our events at the street corner

First Shade

Follow Donatellos adding side and roof tarps to sticks. Kink fort first, then, time permitting, enough to protect six shiftpods.

  First Shiftpods

Follow Michaelangelos to setup first six shiftpods
Make dinner

Personal setup and dinner -- 

done for the night.

Personal setup and dinner --

done for the night.

Personal setup and dinner --

done for the night.





Wednesday

Remaining Tarps

Continue laying down tarps

Remaining sticks

 

Follow Leonardos building sticks

Pavillion

Measure and survey.

 

Assemble mast on ground. Include sails, guylines, Turtle sign and its power cord along guyline, and two paracord pulleys on each face (allowing things to be pulled up to the top later).

 

When mast is assembled, all hands gather to raise it and secure guylines.


Remaining Shade

 

Follow Donatellos adding tarps to sticks

Remaining Shiftpods

 

Follow Leonardos setting up Shiftpods

Pavilion

 

Anchor all the sails and perfect


dinner and done for the night

dinner and done for the night

dinner and done for the night





Thursday

Electrical grid

 

Generator, all banded cables, distribution boxes, and spider boxes

 

Initial power up and test 

Amenities

 

Light whips in bike parking area

Bike parking signs

Lotus Belle Tent and its Furnishings (including ACs)


Lounge furnishings and lights


Kink Fort furnishings and lights

Observation Decks

Set up and anchor ladders for observation decks

 

Build pipe structure on observation decks

 

Connect wire guardrails

 

Connect final pavilion sails to observation decks


Dining Room Setup

 

Tables, chairs, camper cubbies, signs and whiteboards, snack area

Utility Lighting

 

String lights for dining area and camper shiftpod area

DJ and Audio Gear

 

Setup and wire all speakers

Get DJ gear working (booth may not have arrived)

 


dinner and done for the night

dinner and done for the night

dinner and done for the night





Friday

DMX Lights

 

Connect and test everything on the ground

Then mount it in final locations

Water setup 

 

SSS water connection for food fort

SSS grey water connection for food fort

Water filling station in dining room

Set up backup pumping mechanisms (fresh / grey between Food and Gayflower)

Pillow Fort Setup

 

Empty remaining items in Pillow Fort
Set it up



 


 

Teams and Leadership - 2025

Food

The food team is responsible for preparing healthy and delightful food for campers. We aim to provide two hot meals daily. Lunch is served at noon which is also the daily camp meeting and mandatory for everyone. Dinner is served at 6pm. This year we are going to put more emphasis on making it easy to find something healthy to heat up and eat at any hour.

Lead: Christophe

Subteam: Healthy Snacks

Mess Tent

This team serves the food, maintains the snack area, cleans up after meals in the dining room and keeps that area clean and tidy.

Lead: Scott 

Guardians

The guardians team is responsible for camper's emotional well being, camp cohesion, new camper acculturation, and other "soft skills." They are responsible for noticing campers in crisis and other difficult situations and either helping out or arranging professional help.

Lead: Jihoon

Finances

Keeps the books for the camp, collects camp dues, files camp tax returns (990s), and arranges reimbursement for campers who purchased things on behalf of the camp. Going forward, this team will also create a budget for each department.

Lead: Ben W
Team: Alejandro

Tools, Supplies, and Procurement

Camp storage, tools, equipment, and supplies. Maintains inventory spreadsheets, figures out what we need for camp and how to get it to playa. Leads the project during Reno Work Weekend to prepare the Tool Fort for playa making sure we arrive with everything we need. Publishes the "where is it" sheet so that campers, and especially the build team, can find things quickly and figure out where to put things away.

Lead: Spacemaster

Parties and Events

Plans all the camp parties. Publishes events to PlayaEvents, including any smaller events put on by campers. Publicizes all the events on- and off-playa

Co-leads: Grant, Peter

Music / Audio

Manages all audio gear and also the DJ program for our events. 

Lead: Ben W
Team: Shuai

Architecture and Layout

Designs the camp frontage and major structures to be built by the build team. Produces schematic plans and drawings required by Placement, Build, Infrastructure, and other teams.

Lead: Gary

Transport

Organizes a truck from San Francisco to bring bulky items to and from playa. Drops off the camp MOOP at a dump. (No personal moop!)

Lead: Alex Sartel

Bikes

Manages and maintains our fleet of 50 bicycles.

Lead: Alex Sartel

Build

Arrives early on playa to build the camp.

* = new york

Infrastructure

Manages the electrical grid and the water system, including fresh water, grey water, and black water and the Gayflower.

Jetpack, Ben Wild, Beam, Space Master, Kyle

Strike

Plans the strike of camp at the end of burn week. Coordinates all campers on playa to help take everything down easily and quickly and leave it in good condition for next year.

Lead: Efendi

Volunteer Coordinator

Insures that there are volunteers lined up for every shift on playa. Prepares those big charts telling everyone where to show up for their shifts.

Romain

Drinks

Plans and purchases any drinks that we gift at our bar, whether alcoholic or not. Organizes a steady supply of ice, ice water, and electrolyte drink for campers 24/7 and coffee for campers in the morning.

Alex Holman?

Camp Tickets Coordinator

Helps campers secure tickets to Burning Man. Manages the Stewards Sale program that insures our camp can receive a certain number of tickets.

Lead: Jeremy

Pillow Fort

Designs and plans the pillow fort / cuddle fort areas of camp

Lead: Tristan

Recruiting & Acculturation

Finds great new Turtles and prepares them for Burning Man

Lead: Jorge 

Moop Squad

Organizes LNT efforts on playa. Keeps the camp clean throughout the week, especially public areas.

Lead: -

Camp Design and Architecture

What our camp looks like!

Camp Design and Architecture

2025 Camp Plan

This PDF shows the camp plan for the Future Turtles 2025.

Future Turtles.pdf

Camp Design and Architecture

2025 Pavillion

We are considering a major redesign of the main interactive area of the camp for 2025. The concept would be to have a single, strong central pole supporting multiple shade triangles.

Inspiration pictures

Screenshot 2025-02-02 at 5.45.14 PM.png

Screenshot 2025-02-02 at 5.46.21 PM.png

Schematic

Screenshot 2025-02-02 at 5.47.21 PM.png

Screenshot 2025-02-02 at 5.47.54 PM.png

Aesthetic (Tomorrow Today!)

The theme of our public areas, Tomorrow Today, pulls elements from:

Reference images:

 

Screenshot 2025-02-02 at 5.52.14 PM.png

DSC_1980.jpg

il_800x800.5213630019_cevt.webp

Burning Man 2025 Tickets

https://tickets.burningman.org/

Important dates:

Date Thing Details
Monday 2/3/2025 12:00 pm PST Today Sale Registration Opens
Tuesday 2/11/2025 12:00 pm PST Today Sale Registration Closes
  • You must register for today sale in order to participate in it (this registration is not linked to your burner profile)
Wednesday 2/12/2025 12:00 pm PST Today Sale Commences
  • Requires prior registration (see above)
  • Tickets in the ‘Today Sale’ will be $550, $650, $750, $950, $1,500, and $3,000.
  • There will be very few $550 tickets available. There may be a fair number of $650 tickets, which will likely be what you'll pay if you'd pick them up in the Stewards sale. So, if you'd like to guarantee a ticket, and one is offered to you at $650, you may want to just purchase one here.
Wednesday 2/19/2025 12:00 pm PST Ticket Aid Program Opens
  • For participants on a limited income, submit an application for $225 tickets. The earlier, the better! You cannot apply for or purchase any other ticket types with your account linked to the application
TBD Future Turtles Ticket Survey
  • Respond to survey on your ticket needs
  • If available and needed, Steward's sale codes will be shared with you (or another Turtle responsible for purchasing your ticket)
Wednesday 3/5/2025 12:00 pm PST Stewards Sale Commences
  • You are guaranteed at least a $650 ticket any time in the 4-day ticket window.
  • There may also be limited $550 tickets available, early in the sale
Saturday 3/8/2025 12:00 pm PST Stewards Sale Closes
  • If assigned to, you must have purchased a pair of tickets by then!

Monday

4/21/2025 12:00 pm PDT

Tomorrow Sale Registration Opens

Tuesday 

4/29/2025 12:00 pm PDT

Tomorrow Sale Registration Closes
Wednesday 4/30/2025 12:00 pm PDT Tomorrow Sale Commences
  • Requires prior registration. (No need to create a Burner Profile.)
  • There is a payment plan option that lets you pay for your ticket in three installments over three months, interest free.
  • Ticket prices will include $550, $650, $750, $950, $1,500, and $3,000
Wednesday 4/30/2025 12:00 pm PST STEP Sale Registration Opens
  • Face-value, verified ticket resale
Wednesday 7/30/2025 12:00 pm PST OMG sale Commences
  • No registration needed (just burner profile)
  • Based on availability following earlier sale(s), ticket prices may or may not include $550, $650, $750, $950, $1,500, and $3,000.

The Future Turtles Charter Bus

Starting in 2024, we chartered a whole bus from Burner Express Bus (BxB) to bring our campers directly to our camp on playa and home. This is a huge win for so many reasons!

  1. Super convenient. Direct drop off and pick up right in our camp
  2. Nobody has to drive their personal cars to playa 
  3. Nobody has to wait in line for gate or exodus - the bus skips the line!
  4. Ensures that its easy for our campers to stick around until the last minute of strike.
The Future Turtles Charter Bus

2025 Future Turtles Bus FAQ

DALL·E 2024-04-29 16.26.32 - A psychedelic and groovy panoramic image of a bus full of turtles driving through a hot, dry lake bed. The bus is vibrantly decorated in a style remin.6630028d66a

Purchase your ticket here

Just like the Burner Bus Express, the Future Turtles Bus skips the line to enter and exit playa -- which can save ten hours some years! It is operated by Burning Man, but it is chartered by the Future Turtles and goes directly to our camp at 7:00 and E, in the heart of the queerborhood.

WHY THE BUS IS AWESOME

  1. Your personal car does not get trashed from being on playa!
  2. You don't have to rent a car and explain to the rental agency that you are absolutely not going to Burning Man and then pay a huge cleaning fee!
  3. You SKIP THE LINE to enter and exit Black Rock City. The line can be ten hours each way!
  4. You are riding with TURTLES!
  5. You can SLEEP all the way home because you're going to be TIRED!

ABOUT THE FUTURE TURTLES BUS

Our bus is similar to the Burner Bus Express, in fact, it is operated by Burning Man, but this one goes right to and from our camp on Playa, so you don't have to take the on-playa shuttle, or drag your gear for miles through the dirt!

NO SAP IS NEEDED to enter Black Rock City on Saturday with the bus!

Due to the unpredictable nature of the road leading to Burning Man, the possibility of inclement weather or accidents causing that road to be closed, and other difficulties operating in a remote environment, it is impossible to predict when the bus might depart or arrive, so all times must be taken with a grain of salt.

RULES

  • You must have a physical ticket to the Burning Man event in hand to board the inbound bus. The bus cannot stop at will-call to pick up tickets--sorry!
    • If you have a Ticket Aid ticket or some other kind of ticket that can only be picked up at will-call, you will have to go to the Burning Man Express Bus stop in San Francisco or Reno in advance of your bus ride to pick up your ticket.
  • Priority will be given to Turtles but we will also open up remaining spaces to other burners in our neighborhood to help defray our costs.

LUGGAGE

  • The luggage allowance is up to two (2) items, and one carry-on item. Each piece of luggage may not exceed 62 linear inches (length + width + depth) or weigh more than 50lbs.
  • We do not have room for extra luggage or bicycles. There may be room to send extra cargo or bikes with the Turtle Truck. This travels separately from the bus and you will need to make a reservation for that separately.

Your share of the cost of operating the Future Turtles Bus depends on how soon you buy your ticket:

Month One Way
(SF)
One Way
(Reno)
June $180 $140
July $190 $150
August $200 $160

Purchase your ticket here

Strike 2025

Strike 2025

Strike Plan 2025