Overview
Hello and welcome to Houston’s largest and longest-running Burning Man theme camp! Our community-supported camp specializes in introducing new burners to the playa and regional burns each year. We also 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
Houpla and Houlie 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.
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.
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.
You’re currently looking at the information for our Houpla camp. If you’d like to learn more about Houlie, please visit the Houlie information page. You can apply to either camp using our joint application in the callout box above.
2024 Camp Amenities
Houpla is our home on the playa and is designed to be comfortable and convenient, while also staying budget-friendly.
The camp is sized for up to 50 campers and plans to offer the following amenities for 2024:
- Shade – large, flat-panel shade structure (8′ ceiling) protecting our common area, interactivity areas, tent camping, kitchen, and shower from the strong desert sun
- Water – as much fresh water as you can drink. (Drink more water please!). We also offer ice-cold water and iced, flavored electrolyte water for those who want it.
- Meals – breakfast pastries/coffee and a gifted hot meal each evening
- Power – camp generator access for charging your battery-powered electrical devices (particularly phones). Other electrical devices (particularly A/C’s) will need to be supported by your own generator and fuel.
- Lounge – large common area with lighting, decorations, playatech couch, sound system, fire pit, coffee table, camp beer cooler, and rug
- Camp Bar – we ask each member to contribute to our community beer cooler and hard alcohol/mixer stash that is open to all and is also used to supply our Texas Nooner happy hour on Wednesday
- Kitchen – stocked with propane-powered stoves, prep areas/tables, and a selection of cooking gear
- Dish Washing – three-sink sanitary dish washing station provided, along with drying racks for your cups, plates, and utensils
- Shower – private, Navy-style. (You wet yourself, soap off, then rinse yourself vs using continually-running water. We have to evaporate and/or take all used water back off the playa with us. So, we take reducing the creation of grey water seriously.)
- Ice – daily runs (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 sunglasses replacement, repair, and beautification to the playa in the afternoons
- The 5th annual running of the Texas Nooner Happy Hour on Wednesday at noon
- Nightly firepit and lounge area
- Our large, hand-painted photo wall art project
- A mutant vehicle “Houston, We Have a Problem”
- 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, Houlie.
2024 Dues/Deposit and Participation Requirements
After experimenting with some more complicated dues/deposit structures last year, Houpla is returning to a more simplified structure in 2024. Dues/deposit for Houpla are $495 in dues and a $250 deposit. Each camper is required to:
- Work a full setup or teardown (through MOOP sweep),
- Volunteer 8 total hours in the camp during the burn (to flex depending on size of camp),
- Join a team and help with their pre-playa, post-playa, and on-playa work,
- Help load and unload camp gear from the Community Truck, both in Houston and 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
Houpla was founded in 2016 and first attended Burning Man in 2017 as a placed camp. Since then, the camp has attended Burning Man four additional times, as well as Burning Flipside, Heartburn, and Unbroken Spring regional burns.
Next Steps
If you’d like to camp with Houpla 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 Houplans and Houlieans 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.