Village Infrastructure

The Showers
Our camp shower system keeps improving each year.  Last year's quirks have been worked
out and we will, once again, have one of the best showers on the playa this year.  But,
rumors of beautiful teenage shower assistants are NOT true!

Grey water will be collected in a large "kiddie pool" under the shower deck.  The pool will be
emptied daily by the port-o-potty service.

Generators and Personal Power Use
We will be renting a 70kw diesel, extra-quiet generator again this year (also known as
a BFG... Big F**kin Gennie) .  It will be delivered to the playa by the vendor and
picked-up (on time!) by the vendor also.  Also, Dr. Painjoy will have his 5kw gennie with
him as a back up (for emergency bar use only in the event the main gennie fails)

Village members are allowed to take advantage of the power to a reasonable degree.
You can plug in lights, small appliances, radios, chargers, fans, etc. - Even your RV (with
certain restrictions)

Power Grid
The village has a "power grid".  This is a service panel (connected to the generator) and a
network of power distribution cables with "plug boxes" at the end of each cable.  The plug
boxes are also referred to as "power drops".  Everybody in the village should be no further
than 100 feet away from a power drop.  Bring your own extension cords and splitters if
you want power for your personal use.  If you are plugging in an RV, you need a 10 gauge
(or lower/thicker) extension cord.

If you are planning on plugging in your RV, please note the following.  You should not
plug more than one RV into a circuit.  There are two circuits on each quad outlet box.  You
should not run your AC and microwave at the same time (or anything else that draws a lot
of power), because this will definitely trip the circuit breakers.  Or even better... just use
your on-board gennie if you have one!  The rental companies usually charge around $1-3/hr
for gennie use which runs off your gas tank (so be sure to fill up before you get to Bman).  
If you don't know whether you have an "automatic transfer switch" for the power, just
unplug from the grid when you use your on-board gennie.


Do not touch the generator or service panels... find Dr. Painjoy and he will help you.


The Bar and Bar Supplies
It takes a lot to run a bar on the playa!  Ice, sound system, lighting, rags, cleaning supplies,
paper towels, cups, cups, more cups, coolers, trash cans, trash bags, game supplies, bar
stools, and so on.  Especially when you are serving 10s of thousands of patrons!

Lighting and Sound
One of our biggest needs in past years has been quality sound and lighting.  We are making
great efforts to fulfill these needs this year.  We want the bar to have a much stronger
"playa-club" feel this year at night.  We are hoping to invest some money into DJ quality
sound and lighting.  This will give us better sounding music and will allow us to properly
light all of our attractions... maybe even have some trick lighting effects synchronized to
the music!

Building Supplies and Maintenance
Every year, things need to be built and/or maintained.  The desert is not a forgiving
environment... it eats everything.

Administrative Costs
While your Admiral is a nice and generous guy, who doesn't mind donating upwards of
1000 hours of his time into creating the village, he is not wealthy (unless you count his
friendships with all of you!).  Costs such as website fees, office supplies, paypal fees,
welcome packs, etc are all part of your camp dues.

Trucking
We are currently in need of a person to tow a large flat-bed trailer full of camp stuff from
Sacramento to the playa this year.  This will require a 3/4 ton pick-up truck.  Let Painjoy
know if you can help us!

LNT, Trash and Disposal
At the end of the event, there is a ton (no make that tons!) of trash that needs to be
properly disposed of.  Each member of the village is asked to take a case of empty wine
bottles and a couple bags of trash out of Bman and properly dispose of it.  We do it this
way, primarily due to space restrictions.  Trash always takes up more space after the event
than the original products took up when we brought them to the playa... roughtly five
times as much space!  It is much easier and cheaper when we spread the burden over the
masses.  

But, this doesn't account for large items like carpets, sofas, tables, structures, etc. that may
need to be disposed of after the event.  

We also pay the port-a-pottie guys to drain our shower (grey) water from the holding pools
daily.
                       Spanky's Wine Bar
                                     "We won't do anything to you that you won't beg for again tomorrow"