Prepare to Have a Bright, Glowing Burning Man

Glowing is a key part to the preparation of Burning Man. For those of you who have not been to the see the man burn yet, here are a couple of tips. During the day, less is more. Sure, we are talking about clothes. Do you have to skip around naked? No. But if you walk around in your street clothes, prepare to have some burners explain the principles of the playa. At night nonetheless, make it glow. Anyone who already has their ticket to the fireworks, make sure you plan ahead early this year, as a crazy speed of people never plan ahead for their costumes and are left out in the playa dust without anything to enlighten themselves up. The First phase is finding out the theme of Burning Man and see how you can tie yourself into that theme. 2010’s theme is Metropolis. This year’s installation paves the way for a great variety of costuming ideas. Personally, I would love to see people build their costumes Vertically this year, as it would seem appropriate. Below, you will find a brief checklist to get your glow-self to Black Rock. 1. Package your theme beforehand. Regardless if you are going more fresh or decked out this year, make sure you have your general thought in mind early. There is nothing worse than getting to the playa and realizing you don’t have any idea what you are doing with the one hundred feet of Electroluminescent Wire you just got. 2. Make sure you know how much Electroluminescent Wire each battery pack will accommodate. A precisely considered EL layout is actually less important than making sure you have enough juice to power your wire. Most inverters will power between 1 and 30 feet of wire. That being said, if you have a costume with 200 feet or more of wire, make sure you have enough places to store all your el wire inverters. Many AA-9v battery packs come with belt clips so it is much easier to store them in pockets or belt. Generally sound activated units are not as easy to store and are bulkier. Recharge – Recharge. This is the most well known pack-in pack-out group in the world. Bear in mind that each battery you use up will end up in a landfill eventually. Reusable batteries are becoming very inexpensive and are a great alternative to spending 50+ batteries on the playa. Solar panels are also affordable enough to justify providing your own portable EL Wire charging station nowadays. Charge your batteries with the power of the sun. Order more wire than you think you will need, before it is too late. Almost every costume has more wire on it than originally predicted. When preparing out the design make sure you have more than enough wire to accomplish your mission. Absolutely nothing is more annoying than having to cut your project short because you didn’t order enough. Not to mention, it is much easier to have one long strand of wire, than many short strands that are tied together with solder. Each and every time you try to link the wire, it becomes increasingly more frail. Do not settle on a partially glowing project because you used too many connections. A helpful hint to hide wire is with electrical tape, or dark heat shrink tubing. This will enable you to jump a gap easily without having to break the connection. Another thing to think of is making sure you don’t use the wire on places that bend typically like elbows or knee area. Even if this is your first Burn or 7th, suitable planning, like with anything is the key to having the best burn possible. As you are thinking about your costume design for this year, use the above hints to help make this the brightest burning man festival you can think of.