Overview
Hello and welcome to our new Burning Man theme camp! Founded in 2023, our community-supported camp specializes in introducing new burners to the playa each year, particularly those who don’t have a lot of time to be active in the burner community year-round and/or who do not live in the Houston area. We place careful emphasis on introducing new burners to burner culture, particularly the Burning Man Ten Principles. We’re always interested in meeting new people and helping them have an excellent first burn. That said, veteran burners are also most welcome.
Now Accepting Apps for 2024 Campers
Houlie and Houpla are putting together their 2024 rosters now! Prospective new campers and returning camp veterans are both encouraged to apply by filling out our Joint Camp Application: https://forms.gle/2v3Ew2z7LVb9uZY86
Houpla vs Houlie
Our community supports two Burning Man theme camps, Houpla and Houlie. Both are part of the Burner Network HUBS and camp alongside/adjacent to each other.
Houlie is a good fit for folks that are less able to be a part of our year-round Houston community because of time-availability or because they don’t live in the Houston-area. It’s a camp intended for people who want to seek out the party outside of camp more often than they throw the party/create community inside the camp. Houlie is infrastructure-light and primarily designed for R/V campers. It has a different dues/deposit structure and amenities than Houpla and provides extra financial support for our transport and year-round storage/warehouse efforts.
Houpla is Houston-centric and a good fit for new and experienced burners interested in being an active part of our year-round Burning Man Houston community. It’s a camp intended for people who want to throw the party/create community inside or with the camp more often than they seek out the party outside of camp. Houpla is infrastructure-heavy while still budget-friendly and is well-suited for tent, shiftpod, and yurt campers. That said, R/V campers are also welcome.
You’re currently looking at the information for our Houlie camp. If you’d like to learn more about Houpla, please visit the Houpla information page. You can apply to either camp using our joint application in the callout box above.
2024 Camp Amenities
Houlie is our home on the playa and is designed to be friendly to R/V’s and be as efficient as possible with people’s time in camp.
The camp is sized for up to 50 campers and plans to offer the following amenities for 2024:
- Meals – breakfast pastries/coffee each morning
- Lounge – small common area with lighting, fire pit, coffee table, and camp beer cooler
- R/V-Friendly Spacing – enough space for R/V’s to open their slideouts and canopies and to create small lounges as they’d like
- R/V Power – access to a 24/7 power grid that supports both 30A and 50A hookups (for an additional charge).
- R/V Grey and Black Water Dumps – access to servicing to empty tanks on a periodic basis (for an additional charge).
- R/V Water Refills – fresh water refills on a periodic basis (for an additional charge)
- R/V Gasoline and Diesel Refills – for people who like to run their generators, we will facilitate you refilling on fuel in 5 gallon increments (for an additional charge)
- Gear Transport – priority access to putting your gear in our Burning Man Houston Transport Program (for an additional charge)
- Mutant Vehicle Rides – we take group trips out on our camp mutant vehicle to visit art, deep playa music performances, and other camps around the city
2024 Camp Interactivity
This year’s camp will again focus on bringing some Texas flavor to the playa. Our interactivity offerings will include:
- Daily breakfast pastries/coffee in the mornings
- Daily poker and other card games
- The 5th annual running of the Texas Nooner Happy Hour on Wednesday at noon
- Nightly firepit and lounge area
- Our community gear transport service between Houston and BRC and back
2024 Camp Location
TBD. We typically request placement in the 9 o’clock sector alongside our sister camp, Houpla.
2024 Dues/Deposit and Participation Requirements
After experimenting with some more complicated dues/deposit structures last year, Houlie is returning to a more simplified structure in 2024. Dues/deposit for Houlie are $995 in dues and a $500 deposit. Each camper is required to:
- Work a full setup or teardown (through MOOP sweep),
- Volunteer 4 total hours in the camp during the burn (to flex depending on size of camp),
- Join a team and help with their on-playa work,
- Help load and unload camp gear from the Community Truck on playa,
- Sign a liability waiver, and
- Generally be a friendly/helpful/active part of the camp.
Deposits are returned post-Burning Man if these requirements above are met.
Please note, camp expenses are always a moving target. We carefully budget and plan, but in this highly inflationary environment, there is always a chance our camp expenses are higher than planned. To ensure the camp remains at least breakeven on its finances, the camp reserves the right to reduce deposit returns on a pro-rata basis as needed in the unlikely event expenses exceed dues/revenues.
History
Houlie was founded in 2023 and first attended Burning Man that same year as a placed camp. This will be the second year at Burning Man for the camp.
Next Steps
If you’d like to camp with Houlie in 2024, please follow these steps:
- Please fill out our Houpla and Houlie Joint Camp Application providing us with information about your anticipated plans and contributions to the camp
- Be interviewed by camp leadership
- If selected to join, you’ll receive an emailed invitation to join the camp and be asked both to sign our liability waiver and to pay your dues/refundable deposit to lock in your spot
- Once a confirmed part of the camp, we’ll assign you to a team based on your preferences and get you involved in our planning efforts for Burning Man 2024
Tickets
The camp has a large amount of tickets and vehicle passes allocated by Burning Man and available for purchase in the upcoming Directed Group Sale in mid-March. If you’re sure you’re going to Burning Man in 2024 and ready to pay your dues/deposit, let us know in the Camp Application!
Tickets/vehicle passes are sold at-cost are priced at $575 per ticket at $150 per vehicle pass, plus various Burning Man fees and Nevada taxes.
Refunds
Not sure you can go to Burning Man yet? Don’t worry. We offer full dues/deposit refunds to anyone who requests them prior to July 4th. We’ll also assist you in reselling your tickets/vehicle passes on a best-efforts basis.
Questions?
We’re happy to answer them! Check out our lovingly-prepared Burning Man Guide as a first stop, and feel free to Contact Us with any additional questions.
If you’d like to meet Houlieans anf Houplans in person, anyone and everyone is always welcome at our Thermal Thursday weekly gatherings. You can also keep up with our activities by joining the Burning Man Houston Discussion group on Facebook and/or by following our Burning Man Houston community page on Facebook.