Burners Gear Up Outside the Gates of Burning Man

Thousands of burners from all over the globe are making the journey to the Black Rock Desert for the 30th year of the Burning Man festival. Channel 2 News visited the town of Gerlach to see how the local businesses and burners are getting ready for the week long event. 

With only two gas stations outside the gates to Burning Man, business is good.

"We ran out of gas today. We pumped approximately four thousand gallons in the last 24 hours. So we'll be getting a truck load everyday," said Dick Hurstak, with the Veterans of Foreign Wars in Fallon. They'll be pumping gas for the next weeks just outside of Gerlach. 

After burners fuel up, they head into the town of Gerlach, where a new coffee shop is seeing the burners come through their doors already. 

"We are exited, but terrified because when the gates open, it's going to be insane," said Lacey Holle and Heidi Hogan, the owners of the Coffee Shop.  

Burners are making sure they have everything they need for the playa. 

"'Definitely need some kind of face mask. Goggles are super important because that dust gets whipped up from the high winds and at night time it's really cold so definitely a fur coat or layers," said Barbara Laukat, a burner from Lake Tahoe. 

But if they happen to forget something, Friends of Black Rock High Rock has some items for sale like clothing and toiletries. The manager, Rosa Prasser says they want to ensure people are not just taking care of themselves, but the land too.  

"We want to make sure they leave no trace, so when they come off the playa, there's not a whole bunch of garbage, they haven't left any scars on the playa," said Prasser. 

Friends of Black Rock High Rock have partnered up with Travel Nevada, a tourist company trying to bring awareness to everything this state has to offer.

"We really just want burners to know they're welcome in Nevada and to definitely come back," said Kaitlyn Godbey, Travel Nevada Communications Specialist.

They're offering free and useful gear like trash bags, wet wipes, and bags to burners, because they realize how much of an impact all 60,000 of them are to Nevada. 

"We have talked to people from France, from Seattle. People are coming from all over. So us as Travel Nevada see the value in tourism. And behind just tourism, the economic impact," said Godbey. 

The gates officially open this Monday.