What the FAQ?

To begin, you must complete the camper application form and pay your camp dues with a flourish. Come June/July, we will be delivering an email of enchantment to all registered campers, inviting you to sign up for shifts on playa. We've designed a iVolunteer sign-up that showcases shifts by area - whether it's the Hot Mess Hall, Housekeeping, IceQueens, WaterWerqs, etc. You're asked to sign up for 8h of a variety of shifts - across all the types of work our fabulously queer camp needs to accomplish. So, while it's tempting to sign up exclusively for bartending (which is indeed one of the sparkliest roles on the playa), we also need your energy for less glamorous tasks - but remember, any job can become a spectacle when we do it together. If you're making your grand entrance later in the week, you're still expected to sign up for the required 8 volunteer hours. Plus, all campers are required to do their 4h of the Dazzling Strike.

What is this Dazzling Strike, and is it mandatory?

Absolutely! We need all hands on deck for our camp strike starting on Saturday. Imagine us creating C&J Village in a week, then the grand encore of taking it all down in three days. And, naturally, part of the strike involves MOOPing to ensure the playa is in even better shape than when we arrived. After the day's work, we all head out to the Temple Burn that evening, a sight to behold. If you plan to strut off the playa on Monday, remember to account for potentially long Exodus lines. Consider spending some time in Reno or Tahoe to decompress. And, of course, don't forget to shower!

What about Matter Out Of Place (MOOP)?

Last year, we received a disappointing Yellow/Red rating from BMOrg for our camp, and we simply must pull up our fishnet stockings and improve this year, or we won't have a placed camp in 2024! Our village spans a considerable area and has a lot of people visiting throughout the burn week. We'll need MOOP teams to conduct morning patrols across our public spaces and, naturally, after the dazzling Strike. You are responsible for ensuring your personal camp space is clean and packing out ALL of your personal trash. In 2023 we will have a daily collective dance ritual, “I Like To MOOP It”, where all campers gather to clean up our village and prevent any trash or MOOP from blowing away or getting buried. This will ensure that our camp remains clean and tidy throughout the event.

What's the deal with personal trash?

Due to outside service restrictions, we won’t have a dumpster on the playa this year! So it's crucial to pack out ALL of your personal trash. Campers who use Burner Express can take their own trash to the bus and drop it off at the recycling station!

What do my camp dues pay for? How is our budget planned for C&J?

C&J is a prominent camp in the BRC Queerborhood. C&J is also a registered non-profit organization composed of volunteers; members of Madam’s Den (formerly known as Mayor’s Council) are not paid for work year-round or pre-playa. C&J raises funds in three ways: fundraisers, donations, and campers’ cost-share. These funds support Comfort & Joy activities in Black Rock City, where our mission is the queerification of the playa and the creation of the Queerdom - a Temporary Autonomous Zone where only queers’ rules, values, and norms apply. Also, these funds help the underprivileged to experience Burning Man and help our mission of spreading queer values in a city that suffers from wealthy, privileged members of default society. Every camper’s cost-share is heavily subsidized (>50%) by the C&J fundraisers.

Our budget covers:

year-long storage and delivery of our two 53’ long trailers where we keep all our playa infrastructure and art
rental and delivery of the third trailer that takes your personal bins (2 black and yellow 27-gallon bins per camper), dry food, and other stuff from San Francisco to BRC
yearly renewal of infrastructure on the playa (e.g., in 2023, all water infrastructure is renewed)
meals for the C&J Erection crew during the build week and delicious ~2500 meals throughout the burn week (brunch and dinners for all campers. Please bring your own reusable plates/mugs/silverware)
fresh fruit every day
snacks and special treats courtesy of your Hot Mess Hall (Kitchen)
freshwater and Gatorade for all campers
3 min long showers once a day
gray water
generator & fuel

How does the kitchen work out in the desert?

The Hot Mess Hall, the pulsating heart of Comfort & Joy, is more than a kitchen — it's our camp's lifeblood. Each meal we serve is a testament to our labor of love and a critical component of our camp's survival. Each day on the playa, we craft wholesome, homemade meals. Meal times are spirited affairs, offering warm welcomes and fostering connections amongst our campers. Life around our table is spiced by announcements, sharing news of camp activities, tidying tasks, and the latest happenings both within our borders and beyond. We hold your health in high esteem, desiring not only to fill your belly, but to nourish you fully. We must comply with the Nevada Department of Public Health; thus we meticulously ensure food safety, proper preparation, and cleanliness.

How many meals will be served each day?

We serve three meals a day during build week and two meals each day during burn week. During the burn week, coffee is served around 8:00 am for early risers. Brunch is flexible, available from 10:00 am to 12:00 noon while dinner is served at 6:30 pm, or earlier on burn days. Brunch will promptly end at noon, and the dinner service will end at 7:30 pm. We announce the opening of each meal, banging our gong around camp.

What types of food are served?

All our meals are made from scratch with fresh, natural ingredients delivered to us during our stay on the playa by our food vendors. Your kitchen team prepares meals each day. Brunch consists of a continental-plus-style breakfast with a variety of breads, fruits, vegetables, and proteins. Dinners are made each day and include red meat, chicken, and fish dishes along with vegetables, starches, and plant-based proteins. We usually make more than enough food and seconds are typically available after everyone has been served.

Do you provide vegetarian and/or vegan options?

All the dinner meals provided are vegetable based, with a separate, optional meat offered as a side. We also provide plant-based proteins.

Are plates, cups, and utensils provided?

You must bring your own plates and silverware for each meal. Dishwashing stations are located outside the kitchen.

What if I get hungry between meals?

We provide packaged foods in the snack cabinet in the dining hall to nibble on and grab when you are heading out of camp for an adventure. These snacks consist of granola bars, chips, pretzels, nuts, etc.

What if I want to invite a friend to dinner?

We prepare enough food to feed our camp as well as about ten visitors at each meal. Please inform the kitchen staff at brunch if you would like to invite someone to dinner, and we will add their name to the guest list. If the guest list is full for a given dinner, then we encourage you to invite your friend to dinner the following day.

What is there to drink?

The kitchen crew provides cold water and Gatorade in two large dispensers near the kitchen. These beverages are available for you to enjoy at meals and to fill up your bottles before your playa adventures.

How can I get involved with the kitchen?

Working in the kitchen is one of the best volunteer opportunities in our camp. We are a fun, social group, happy to teach you how to feed our sparkling army of campers. We make these volunteer roles accessible to anyone with novice kitchen skills. If you happen to be a culinary wizard or have experience feeding large groups, then we would love to let your talents shine! Or are you aghast at the thought of holding a chef’s knife or spatula? We can still use your help with arranging supplies and tidying up! If you think you’d enjoy finding purpose and community through kitchen volunteer roles, please fill this form and Hot Mess Hall team will be in touch with you. We look forward to creating nourishment & family ties in the Hot Mess Hall together.

What size bin should I use for my personal items, if they're going on the camp trailer in the Bay Area?

These 27-gallon bins. Each camper is allowed two on the truck.

What’s Burner Express?

We encourage every camper to consider using Burner Express, a bus shuttle from San Francisco or Reno to Black Rock City, because your carbon footprint is lower than driving your car, and we all love Mother Earth. Also, you can take your luggage and, with an additional fee, your bike on Burner Express. Burner Express cuts the long waiting lines on your way into BRC and during the Exodus. Despite inflation and increased ticket costs, we encourage campers to organize themselves and take over the whole Burner Express, queerify it like in The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert

Read more about Burner Express.

Do we have an electrical grid to light up our RVs/ShiftPods/Yurts that campers can tap into?

Comfort & Joy will provide nearby outlets for our backstage camping areas. Our power grid is for essentials only: 1 or 2 LED strands of lights and a cellphone/flashlight battery recharging. Campers who require CPAP machines will be allowed to plug them into the grid. If you need to use a leaf blower or air mattress pump, you can use the grid for these tasks, just try to time them when other campers are not doing the same. If too many campers use too much power, it will overload the breaker, and the breaker will trip. This will be a huge nuisance, so please respect the power limitations. Large RVs and campers WILL NOT be able to plug into the grid. If you have a question during the burn regarding power, please ask anyone on the PowerVerse team. We will announce ourselves during the Brunch/Dinner announcements.

Will there be fabulous camp showers? What about potable water? Is that included in the camp cost-share?

Our WaterWerqs team is twerking it this year. Get ready for a sprinkling spectacle! Since water is a luxury in the desert, and conservation is important, our new water infrastructure is designed to minimize water consumption while maximizing the use of every drop. Each camper gets 3 minutes of showering daily. Your 2023 showers are golden, flamboyant, and spanking new. Equipped with four dynamic stations — two misting, one rain-head, one handheld — prepare to give every nook and cranny (excluding the unmentionable one!) a dazzling, twinkling cleanse. Beard-sporting or Rapunzel-esque folks, don't worry, we have DIY basins tailored just for you!

Hydration is your fabulous survival elixir. C&J provides fresh water to all campers. DIY drinking water stations for your all-important hydration sustenance - self-fill your Camelbacks and we will fill the sub-camp cubes for pick-up

I’d like to DJ at C&J! Or I’d like to do a drag number, stand-up, fire dance...

If you have any questions or proposals, please fill this form, and our Programming team will be in touch with you.

I want to camp with C&J, but I can’t make it to build prior to burn week. Or - I want to build!!

Just to clarify, build and time prior to when gates open is NOT required to be part of camp. We are only allowed to have a small number of approved campers on playa by BMOrg.

How do you choose the build team?

Erection, PoverVerse, Hot Mess Hall, WaterWerqs, and Operations teams form our build crew. We choose experienced campers based on their skills and ability to work as a team and how much effort they have contributed on and off playa in the prior year. The build week is a privilege and a gift, none of the volunteer hours of the build week count towards volunteer hours. The build is a work week, not an easy way to get passed the gates or time to party.

What the FAQ?

Frequently Asked Questions about C&J @ Burning Man

@ the Burn

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