About Page.
Going to Burning Man? Cool. Super cool. The coolest. Buying a lot of stuff for it? Not cool. The opposite of cool. A bummer.
Sure, one of Burning Man’s eleven principles* is decommodification. But that only applies to when you’re there. Burning Man may be decommodified, but getting to Burning Man sure as heck isn’t. It requires months of excessive commodification.
Every year brings thousands of virgin burners to the playa. And every year, thousands of veteran burners decide to sit this one out. The Playa Provides wants to make it easier for the latter to lend their gear to the former, to make a modification to decommodification.
Because everything you need is already in a bin or garage or storage unit somewhere. So why give Amazon or Walmart or Target your money when you can borrow from other burners?
Because even though you’re not going doesn’t mean your stuff can’t. So why let it gather dust in storage when it could be gathering it on playa?
Because sharing is caring. So while caring can feel daring these days, who doesn’t love a good dare?
While it’s damn near-impossible to decommodify the prep for Burning Man entirely, we can engage in the pursuit of decommodification. The Playa Provides is for anyone who cares about this pursuit, tries to live more sustainably, hates buying new things from big corporations, and wants to take the circular economy for a spin. Or frankly doesn’t have the dough to pay full retail.
*The ten official principles + the one they should make official
We know that there’s some risk involved with lending items out—they may break, they may get lost, they may come back covered in stickers, they may come back incessantly chatting about all the craaaaazy things that happened to them at the Burn. Dude, you’re a spork, chill out.
Yet what would going to Burning Man—or not going to Burning Man—be without a little risk? You’re brave, you’ve climbed to the top of scaffold towers and made out with strangers in the cargo holds of art cars; what’s a little lending of gear if it means others can climb the same towers and make out with the same strangers?
The terms and the exchange happen directly between lender and lendee. When listing an item, you set your terms right up front: “If item is returned broken, you agree to x; if item not returned, you agree to y.” It’s up to the lendee to accept your terms, or counter; this happens via email, so there’s a written record of whatever’s agreed upon between you.
But maybe you have an aversion to strangers and would rather make items only available to people you know. We get it — you can choose an item’s visibility: to your followers, your campmates, both, or anyone.
Who what?
Who built this site?
Me. I’m Alex.
“I’m”? Then what’s with all that “we” business?
It sounds better. Like it might make you think that this site was built by Coursera’s finest software engineering graduates. But nope, it’s just me. Well, me and my boy Claude here.
Ugh, another vibe coded website?
I know, I know. Such a cliche. But rest assured: while I built this site using Claude Code, I did all the writing and designing myself. Besides, if it wasn’t for vibe coding, the site wouldn’t have been built at all, and you wouldn’t be saving money on lag bolts and air mattresses and unicorn onesies.
Anyway, I’m Alex, and I feel strongly that there’s too much stuff. If you have an event coming up, consider hiring The S’mores Lab. Or if you’re looking for a communications manager or copywriter, consider hiring me!
Love that burnery spirit. You can help in so many ways:
Use the site! Add items to your inventory, make them available for borrowing, give something away, request items from others.
Share it! With your friends and campmates, in your WhatsApp groups and planning meetings, and everywhere burners gather and scheme.
Improve it! If you have feature ideas, discover bugs, want to help with design or social media, or contribute in some other way, please reach out to hello@theplayaprovides.com.
Fund it! Running a website isn’t free. If you find value in our site or believe in our mission and feel like kicking in a few bucks, email me and we’ll figure out the best way to do that.