
Camping Together
Details of Camping at The Assless Chapel

Weddings
Our gift to Black Rock City is the gift of marriage. You can learn more about what we do here and, if you want more details about Playa weddings, you can download my guide to Playa weddings!
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What Should You Expect to Contribute to Weddings?
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In general, we need a lot of warm bodies to make the weddings happen. We expect everyone to attend all weddings at the Chapel that are planned in advance, though we do make plenty of exceptions, when possible. Last year, this meant 3 events of 1, 2 and 3 hours.
We also do weddings out on the Playa, which require a photographer, The Assless Chaplain and The Assistant Chaplain. Other campers are encouraged to attend. Sometimes we do impromptu weddings, too, which require The Assless Chaplain and The Assistant Chaplain. Anyone else who can attend is much appreciated.
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We do have some specific responsibilities, though, listed below:
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The Assless Chaplain gets to know the couples and helps them plan their weddings, in addition to officiating and coordinating the ceremony. He is present at all weddings.
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The Assistant Chaplain, Red, takes care of the many logistics that arise in the moment and, along with Stupid, keeps The Assless Chaplain properly fueled for optimal wedding officiation. He is present at all weddings.
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We need graphic designers and creatives to create the marriage certificates.
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We need two bartenders throughout the weddings.
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We have a wedding clothes boutique. It's best if The Assless Chaplain and 2-3 other people put out and organize the clothes. The 2-3 people doing this are then in charge of helping guests with their clothes for the rest of the week.
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We need a photographer at every wedding. Peaches takes care of this, but we could sorely use another photographer, so she doesn't have to do every wedding (she'll still take care of all the off-Playa work associated with this.)
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We need a couple of ushers and greeters to welcome guests, show them where to park their bikes and get them situated. This is a more involved job than one might expect.
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Most ceremonies include a ringbearer and/or flower girl. Some couples bring their own. Ringbearer is an easy task to figure out on the spot, but due to MOOP issues, it's a good thing to have a creative flower girl who can come up with a MOOPless method of "throwing flowers" before getting to the Playa. There is no gender requirement for either role.
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Camp Infrastructure, Layout and HUBS
We provide a limited amount of shade (we hope to use the BMC shade, too, this year). We have a shower and a method of dealing with grey water (see below). We have a small, simple kitchen that we share; we may need to expand it this year, which we can do no problem. We have plenty of tools (though it's always nice to have more, especially impact drivers).
The Assless Chaplain brings a well-supplied first aid kit, extra personal care items of all sorts and safety equipment. We do, however, expect everyone to have some level of personal first aid and personal care supplies. If you end up using the Chaplain's supplies, please ask if he would like for you to re-supply his kit after the Burn. He also brings trash cans, but we can always use trash bags (since we always seem to have trouble finding them.)
We have solar panels and batteries, mostly thanks to Curtis. This year we will set up stations for them. One will be for charging phones, another for charging the shower and the Chapel's neon sign and another for the e-trike and neon sign. It would be great for people to bring their own phone chargers or even some for sharing with t
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We have The Dusty Altar Bar, signs and everything we need for the chapel, including decorations, but can always use more lighting. We also have a setup for community space and camp gear storage. We also have a way to play music, but could benefit greatly from an upgrade.
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Water
We have a very particular way of managing drinking water, grey water and our shower.
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Drinking Water
We strongly encourage you to join us in using "The Curtis Method" of drinking water. Bring two handled, plastic jugs of water for yourself (milk jug-type). This should be enough water for the drive to the Playa and your first day in Black Rock City. One jug will be for urine and the other for other grey water, like post-tooth brushing spit water. The Assless Chaplain will bring 15-20 gallons of drinking water for the camp, stored in water coolers. This is not to be used for anything other than as camp drinking water.
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Instead of filling your cooler with loose ice, bring sturdy, wide-mouthed plastic containers that have been filled with water and frozen. These will take 2-3 days to melt, keeping your cooler chilled in the meantime. (This is why the Chaplain brings communal water.)
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When this water melts, we use it to refill the water coolers. Whenever someone makes an ice run, we can refill our containers with ice and, when that ice melts, it refills the water coolers. Repeat as needed. You can use this method for a beverage cooler or just use loose ice, which can go into the shower water after it melts.
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If you fill your food cooler with loose ice, it will become tainted with organic matter, no matter what you do. It will smell bad. It will also increase the chance that your food goes bad. If you choose not to use the Curtis method, have a plan for rotten food and tainted water. What should that plan be?
For the tainted water, make sure you have a bottle – marked GROSS WATER – or something of the sort. Empty the tainted water into this bottle and you can spray it on the Playa, which, in theory, will also keep down dust.
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For the food, the only option is to truck it out – which is why you want to really think through your food situation and reduce the amount of food that will go bad (preferably to zero.) I will have a 5-gallon bucket for organic waste (including, ladies, emptying your diva cups). It will have holes in it, so the sun desiccates the contents to reduce volume. I’ll take this home to my compost pile. But you should be ready to truck out your own organic waste. Five gallons is not a lot. Don’t be the buttmunch who fills up the bucket and fucks up the rest of the camp. It’s really meant only for the incidental small piece of waste. If your whole cooler goes bad, your plan becomes to spray out as much of that water as you can and then take that cooler home.
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Shower & Bathing Water
We have a pretty great, communal shower. Please be quick with the showers and frugal with the water. After using the shower, please replenish the water. You must be holding the shower head for it to work, which makes it easier to shower with a partner. This water can be refilled with excess drinking water or melted ice from beverage coolers.
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The Chaplain will bring black, plastic bins to gather used shower water. In this way, they will slowly evaporate off. They will not evaporate fast enough this way. To speed evaporation, I will place hand towels along the sides of the bins partially in the water, partially out. This creates a wicking effect that speeds up evaporation. In a really hot year, this may be enough; it likely won’t be enough.
The main solution is to drop a full-size bath towel in the bin and throw it onto the bed of the truck next to the truck. This pulls a lot of water out, which evaporates quickly. IF YOU PLAN TO USE THE SHOWER, BRING A TOWEL SPECIFICALLY FOR EVAPORATING WATER!!! This is not the towel you dry off with. It will be gross – it is only for evaporating away water after you shower – you should do this every time you shower.
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Nothing else goes into these black bins! Don’t wash dishes into them; don’t brush your teeth into them; don’t puke into them. If we have a rainy or cool year and have leftover, used bathing water, we can use the towels to lightly apply the water to the Playa, without causing any puddling or we can pack it out.
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Spray Water
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Everyone should bring at least 2 spray bottles: one to take with them when they leave camp and one to keep in camp. Here are a few types of sprayer (with the exception of the Chapin, it's best to buy these from a hardware store or other actual store, instead of shitty Amazon gear):
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Small bottle for a backpack;
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Larger bottle for camp or backpack;
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Handheld sprayer for camp;
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Big sprayer for camp.
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These sprayers can be filled with melted, loose ice from beverage coolers and then sprayed on people. If someone does not use the Curtis method in their food cooler, but there are no bits of food in the water, they can go in larger sprayers and sprayed on the Playa. Such water is too icky to apply to the Playa in significant amounts, but is fine for keeping dust down. Just make sure to clearly mark the bottle 'DIRTY WATER' with an X in tape, or something like that.
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Packing Out Dirty Water​
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If water has visible detritus in it, it must be packed out! Do not dump it in the Portas or on the Playa! That’s what campers from Sacbe do. Where do you spit out the water you used to wash toothpaste out of your mouth? In a bottle of some sort. Where do you wash your dishes into? That’s your problem. I’d recommend you not eat food that requires dishes or that you not eat anything you can’t clean up with a wet nap. Otherwise, you’ll need some sort of bin you can wash water into and truck out.
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OK, I’ll give you a plan, if you really want to wash dishes. Use a black oil drain pan – something like this – and wide-mouthed liquid containers of some sort (like empty one gallon water jugs.) You can wash dishes into the drain pan, put it out into the sun to reduce the volume of water and then pour it out through the built-in spout into one or more containers to truck out the wastewater.
All right, that’s the deal with wastewater. Please be on top of this!
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For the food, the only option is to truck it out – which is why you want to really think through your food situation and reduce the amount of food that will go bad (preferably to zero.) I will have a 5-gallon bucket for organic waste (including, ladies, emptying your diva cups). It will have holes in it, so the sun desiccates the contents to reduce volume. I’ll take this home to my compost pile. But you should be ready to truck out your own organic waste. Five gallons is not a lot. Don’t be the buttmunch who fills up the bucket and fucks up the rest of the camp. It’s really meant only for the incidental small piece of waste. If your whole cooler goes bad, your plan becomes to spray out as much of that water as you can and then take that cooler home.
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Food & Kitchen​
As I wrote above, you're responsible for your own food waste other than the occasional bit thrown into the camp compost bucket. We usually bring a camping stove and a kettle that we share. Depending on camp size, we can bring a second stove and/or kettle.
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Strike
Nobody likes strike. That's why we all have to do it together. We start taking some stuff down on the day of the Burn and finish up the day after. If you are leaving before or right after the Man Burn, you must make sure you're contributing as much as possible on that first day of strike. If you're leaving before then, work something out with The Chaplain to see how you can contribute. Everyone is expected to help with strike.
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