Burning Man camp lights

Camp after dark is a headlamp, a lantern, and a string you can take down. The bicycle is a different light. A front beam on the ground and a red flash behind you are Burning Man bike lights and a lock. This page is everything that stays at camp, plus the costume line that has to come home. The Survival Guide says to light your bike and yourself. Glow sticks do not count, and they become moop.

We are an independent outfitter. We are not affiliated with, endorsed by, or connected to Burning Man Project. The event name is used so you know which week this gear is for.

Hands full

You cook, you hunt a stake, and you walk to the porto with both hands full. A headlamp does that. The one we pack has a red mode so the tent is not a lighthouse. The listing we opened includes three AAA cells. Bring a spare set anyway. One lamp is a single point of failure, so a second lives in one box by the tent door. White light through a nylon wall is how you become the neighbor.

A lamp for staying

A headlamp is for walking. A lantern is for the table. The small rechargeable one we list dims, which is the feature that matters at 1 a.m. The battery is built in. The port on the one we opened is micro-USB, so the cable has to live in the same bag or the lantern is a brick. Hang it. A lantern on the floor becomes a dust puck. It is a poor headlight, and it does not belong on the handlebars.

A solar lantern can sit on a crate and charge from the sun, and from a cable when the panel is a film of dust. Wipe it. A whiteout makes the solar face a rumor. Do not plan the night on a panel you have not wiped.

The string on the frame

Fairy lights are the thin warm line inside the tent, from the battery bank, with a switch. The shade wants a heavier 12-volt string, clipped so a gust does not yank the plug, short enough to outline the lounge. Eight to twenty feet is the length we mean. Longer than that is a tangle. It runs from the station, not from a coin cell and not from a panel glued to the wire. Take it down before a wind event. Pocket every zip-tie tail. A broken strand on the ground is moop.

Costume light

EL wire is a line people can see without a flashlight in the face. The kit we opened is five 1-meter strands. The AA cells are not in the box. It is a jacket hem or a basket, not a headlight. Tape the pack where you can reach the button. Pocket every offcut. A clip-on body light is the point you can move to a collar or a bag. Charge it with the phones. A light that falls off in a crowd is gone, and a battery in the dust is your problem.

Lights on a stake mark the metal you would otherwise walk into. They are not anchors, and they are not a bike light. If one falls off, find it. Cap the rebar anyway.

Power for a quiet camp's lights

A 20,000 mAh bank covers a phone and the small lights if it starts full. The string on the frame and a fan are how you end up on the small station instead. Charge every cell before the gate. Eneloops for the headlamp, already charged, plus a few alkalines, because a dead cell and a fresh cell look the same at 2 a.m. None of this is a reason to skip the bike's own batteries. Those lights leave with you when you lock up.

The watt-hours are camp power. Finding people, once the lights have made you visible and not told you which way to ride, is finding your people after dark. The play lights kit is the costume and the string. The night bike kit is the beam and the lock. We don't ship either as one box.