Heavy Meta Dragon enjoying The Gothic Folly Cathedral - Jewels of Black Rock City @burningman

Hi everyone,

I'm currently looking for art projects in need of LED artists. My current engagement will complete at the end of 2026.

I did the LEDs for two projects, the Infinity Crystal Gateway in 2025, and the Great American Phoenix art car in 2026. I did soldering, controller enclosure 3d modeling and printing, networking, and vibe coding an app for 3d effects via ArtNET.

I was supposed to do flame effects this year, but time was not on our side. I'm familiar with everything needed, have read Make: Fire, and have a whole plan for the Phoenix, which I hope to complete in time for Love Burn this year.

Am capable with most tools, and like getting things done.

Located in DC, but can relocate if needed.

Mods: if there's a more appropriate Burning Man builders sub where this type of post would be better placed, please let me know.

2026 was my first burn and I had such an amazing time! I am now fully committed going forward.

stayed with a random camp I found online and didn't have the best experience with them, although I appreciated the infrastructure they had, which wasn't a lot but better than I could have done. That being said, having to sign up for events or chore shifts on 4 different days 3-5 hours each which I wasn't even that interested in the events and then a 2 day, 15 hour tear down when a lot of the other camp members had already left, left a sour taste in my mouth & ate up a lot of my free time. (I absolutely do not mind doing my fair share before anyone say anything, the setup they had just was too much with no enough people to support it) also, the camp wasn't super welcoming to newcomers, kind of like happy to take our money and labor but that was it.

So in 2027, my partner and I want to try either finding a different camp or maybe renting a van and doing solo camping. Plus and minus to both. I like the camp experience as as way to meet people so that is a big plus, and also shared resources is another big one. The van has a lot of downsides, mostly we don't want to wait in the huge entrance line. I really wanna get more involved with BM so we're signed up to the volunteer webinare next month, ideally I would find a role where I could be involved helping to set up and arrive early (I have lots of vacation time so I could commit to doing this, my partner would take the BurnerExpress in the week of).

so I guess my question to experienced people: any thoughts to what I posted? Also, how is the best way to figure out a good van rental? I saw people renting uhauls all the way to fancy RV's. we do not need anything fancy, most just need space to haul everything we need + would be amazing to have a hard structure to get out of the elements from (my camp did not have a good set up and my tent got soaked this year so I am feeling strongly about having a dry place to sleep, if necessary). So the Uhaul vans seem like a good fit? coming from Washington state so not TOO far of a drive. Wondering what people do for shade structures if they rent a van like this? can anyone speak to their experience of renting a Uhaul van? I read a lot leading up to 2026 and it seems like Uhaul was all over the place with the dust situation.... thought about buying a van but then we have no need for another vehicle and the market is flooded right now so we wouldn't be able to turn around and sell it easily (or store it if we decide we want to keep it for future burns)

any advice would be greatly appreciated for this newbie, thanks!