General Advice
First, wear whatever the hell you want. If you want to walk around as a giant sentient carrot with a fanged penis, go for it. If you want to wear jeans and a t-shirt, go for it. Avoid things with visible logos on them, however, and the one thing you must not do if you're a man is walk around with no pants while wearing a shirt. That's called shirtcocking and it is not ok. Take off the fucking shirt too for god's sake - you look ridiculous. Personally, I like to dress differently on the playa than I do in the default world. It's just more fun for me and helps accentuate the feeling that Burning Man gives me of having a fun adventure in a wonderful foreign land.
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- Camelbaks are just about the best thing ever for carrying water. You need to carry water, and you need to carry a lot of it if you're going to out and about. A little water bottle doesn't cut it, especially during the day. Either bling it out, hide it under your costume, or just say fuck it and wear it out in the open (I do). It's handy to have lights (El wire or glowsticks) on your Camelbak too, so people can see you from behind.
Three pieces of things you never want to leave camp without with are:
- Goggles. Dust storms can kick up quickly and it's very painful/impossible to navigate with dust covering your eyeballs. Try to get ones that seal reasonably well around your eyes.
- Dustmask. Breathing the dust is not really fun either. My preferred dust mask is simply a bandana tied around my neck and put over my mouth. It works pretty well. Other people will buy higher quality masks used for things like offroad ATVing.
- Water. It's hot and it's dry and you should be drinking water a lot.
Daytime Clothing
It's going to be somewhere from cool (not very often) to blazing hot during the day, and of course the only shade is whatever you and other participants bring. Dress accordingly! I often go shirtless during the day, but frequently put on sun lotion to avoid nasty sunburns. This year, I just blanked on it the first day while setting up and spent the rest of the week wearing a blue silk robe during the days to protect my fried back and shoulders.
Think clothing that lets air flow around you. For men, utilikilts can be popular, as are simple shorts. For women, short skirts and booty shorts work well. Loose capri pants can also be a winner for both men and women.
Remember sunglasses too! I personally tend to bring cheap ones (really cheap ones) so I don't have to care about losing them or breaking them out there.
It's going to be somewhere from cool (not very often) to blazing hot during the day, and of course the only shade is whatever you and other participants bring. Dress accordingly! I often go shirtless during the day, but frequently put on sun lotion to avoid nasty sunburns. This year, I just blanked on it the first day while setting up and spent the rest of the week wearing a blue silk robe during the days to protect my fried back and shoulders.
Think clothing that lets air flow around you. For men, utilikilts can be popular, as are simple shorts. For women, short skirts and booty shorts work well. Loose capri pants can also be a winner for both men and women.
Remember sunglasses too! I personally tend to bring cheap ones (really cheap ones) so I don't have to care about losing them or breaking them out there.
Nighttime Clothing
Nighttime temps range from warm to, rarely, as low as a bit below freezing. Regardless, by 3 am, it's almost always pretty chilly at best, so make sure you bring warm things with you too, particularly a warm coat. Don't underestimate this. Many years it's almost balmy at night, while other years it can be really really cold. The temperature often drops quite a bit between, say, 10 pm and 4 am, so you may want to layer it up before you go out for the night.
The other thing that's key to nighttime dressing at Burning Man is being lit up. You need to have some kind of lighting on you so that bikers and art cars don't hit you. It's important, so please don't be a darkwad. Easy options are taking glow sticks and attaching them to yourself/your clothing or doing the same with battery-powered el wire (see the glossary).
Nighttime temps range from warm to, rarely, as low as a bit below freezing. Regardless, by 3 am, it's almost always pretty chilly at best, so make sure you bring warm things with you too, particularly a warm coat. Don't underestimate this. Many years it's almost balmy at night, while other years it can be really really cold. The temperature often drops quite a bit between, say, 10 pm and 4 am, so you may want to layer it up before you go out for the night.
The other thing that's key to nighttime dressing at Burning Man is being lit up. You need to have some kind of lighting on you so that bikers and art cars don't hit you. It's important, so please don't be a darkwad. Easy options are taking glow sticks and attaching them to yourself/your clothing or doing the same with battery-powered el wire (see the glossary).