We arrived on playa Thursday August 27th and we’re met with a gentle breeze that eventually grew into a steady gust blowing dust all around making it challenging to setup our camp at C & 5:45.
As you can see from the photos we were met by a line of RVs and vehicles waiting to enter Burning Man 2026 – Axis Mundi. It took about 2-1/2 hours waiting in line to be granted access to the event and reach our location.
While driving up 6:00 toward the man to our camp location we passed people setting up their camps with some camps that had shipping containers that were probably housed with the infrastructure needed to construct their camps.
After reaching our camp location we waited for some time for the chance to connect with our placement liaison to have him sign off on the paperwork so we could begin setup. Once done we went right to work. Justin was our lead for camp layout and he used the camp layout map he made earlier in the year to direct RVs and tow vehicles into position where they would rest for the remainder of our stay on playa.
You can see from the photos our camp was coming together. We still had camp mates arriving which included another RV and more tents to complete the camp. Soon our camp will take shape and Sozo Experience will blossom into an amazing refuge for those seeking Truth, Love and Purpose.
If you are not familiar with Burning Man addresses here is a quick break down of what all those numbers and letters mean.
Burning Man is laid out like an analog clock with clock face radials starting from 2:00 and ending at 10:00 (see Ref A). The streets are made up of two types.
Radial Streets
These are the streets starting from 2:00 to 10:00 clock radiating as a straight line out and away from the center of the layout where the man is placed.
Concentric or Ring Streets
These are the streets that are the “C” shaped streets that start from Esplanade in the center of the layout and expand out from A to K. The streets A to K are named differently each year based on the theme and will start with the corresponding letter. So this year A street was called Ararat and C which we were on was named Ceiba. In Ref. A and Ref. B you can see where we were located at C & 5:45, in between 5:30 and 6:00 on the C ring street.
Using this analog clock layout that is how you navigate throughout the city. Once you get the feel for the layout it is quite easy to navigate the city but can be a little disorienting at first if you loose the direction of the man. If you get lost you can simply go to the nearest Radial Street and look down the street to find the man. Once located and facing the man going left takes you toward 10:00 and going right takes you toward 2:00. It gets a little tricky to navigate after they burn the man because he can no longer be used as a frame of reference.
As the afternoon moved along the wind picked up blowing the playa dust that was becoming more and more disturbed as people from all over the world began showing up to the event to construct their camp during build week. White outs started to increase and we decided it was time to rest and continue the build the next day Friday the 28th of August. Stay tuned for our next update as we progress through the days of the event.
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