Our goals were simple: make it to playa, setup, run, and make it back home with relatively little downtime. The aim was no major system malfunctions, no issues that would take the Gecko our for several days, and getting our Day and Night licenses without a hitch. To some this may sound easy. But, in Black Rock City where the trek to get there is through the daunting Donners Pass, once on playa the conditions are some of the harshest with winds, heat, and limited supplies — it is something of a feat.
But, everyone came together and made that dream a reality. We arrived and didn’t need to have the second crew bring more parts because everything was assembled and there, all the systems worked, and by Sunday we were licensed for day and night despite nearly getting stuck in a sand trap on the way to the DMV.
We celebrated.
That night, Sunday, the same day the gates opened — we took the Gecko out. Everyone from camp came. And the rest of the playa was out, it felt like a bumping Friday so many people were out. The energy was high. You could feel the energy of all the veteran and new burners that have been cooped up for a few years ready to be connected to this unique community once again. They were basking in the kindness, novelty, childlike wonder, and the world of waking dreams that is created for 10 days once a year.
Other vehicles were licensed and out too but not that many. The party came to us early in the week and followed us around. It was magical. People eagerly jumped aboard, danced on the poles, played music, and danced for hours.
It’s the joy that TechnoGecko brings to other burners in moments like those that make all the hard work all year round worth it. Our happiness on playa comes from bringing joy to others.
But, as is always true, we did had a few technical difficulties throughout the week. Nothing we didn’t manage but still things that will inspire another round of engineering upgrades and redundancy planning but — that’s part of the fun. We’re dreamers, builders, and enjoy problem solving.
Having a mutant vehicle on playa isn’t easy. This year alone we had:
Sliced charging cable
Wifi connector for the music finally started to degrade — caused issues with the sound cutting out between vehicles unless the vehicles were wired together (dangerous) or were VERY closed (<10 feet)
Batteries were not calibrated, we ran out of juice at 5am in deep playa. We say that the Gecko passed out.
The cooling unit for the generator also broke, need more redundancies
The cooling unit for the speakers also broke, always more redundancies
The fluffy sand required walks ahead of the vehicle to make sure it would avoid those and we wouldn’t get stuck
The TechnoGecko sign mounts broke and it’s aluminum (no welders on playa could help)
But in the grand scheme of things, we were able to engineer around it on playa with the things we brought and tools we had.
We had some awesome firsts and milestones:
We hosted a twerk class that made it in the book AND a chair dancing class
TechnoGecko was out every night
We adopted another camp that took the Gecko out one night and offered the playa some food gifting
Our in-camp green and sheen party had amazing food
An art installation featured DiscoFish
We met some really awesome people, grew closer to our campmates, gave lots of hugs, burned lots of calories dancing, and were left feeling accomplished, renewed, and ready to go back with bigger and better plans for TechnoGecko next year!
We build in Sunnyvale, reach out if you’re interested in helping out! It truly takes a village!
