Going to Kiwiburn alone?

Does that thought fill you with a tiny, horrible sense of dread?

Not because you don’t want to go.

You really want to go.


It’s just the people bit.


The thought of arriving to the Paddock full of people who already have people.
While you stand there clutching your tent like a Victorian street urchin.

So.

Have you considered being adopted by strangers?

No?

Really?

Wonderful.

Put your hand up.

And submit yourself for adoption at your earliest convenience.

Adopt a Burner

The idea is simple. If you’re coming to Kiwiburn solo, without a camp, or simply keen to meet some new people beforehand, put your hand up to be connected with other Burners on our discord channel: Kiwiburn Discord.

It is a small piece of social infrastructure designed to prevent the ancient human fear of Standing Around Somewhere Knowing Nobody.

• First Burn? Come say hi.
• New to the country? Come say hi.
• No obvious reason whatsoever, but possess an almost eldritch yearning to be taken in by a group of strangers?

You know what to do.

Come say hi. 

Or even… SOS. I DON’T KNOW ANYBODY. AND WE’RE THREE DAYS OUT FROM THE BURN!

Have you always wanted to adopt a Burner?

Maybe someone took you under their wing when you were new, and you’ve been meaning to pay it forward.

Or maybe you simply look around at your camp and think:

It’s awfully spacious in here.

Sometimes it is nice to know one person.

Or three.

Or A Person Who Has A Car In Your Town.

These people are worth cultivating.

There’s also already a channel for Burners specifically looking to join a theme camp, so if your needs are more along the lines of “I need somewhere to live but also want to be a part of something bigger and possibly be painted green,” jump onto the official Kiwiburn Discord and look for Join a Theme Camp.

But also…

You can just go alone.

You really can.

Just turn up and see what happens. Or volunteer!
Volunteering is a great way to also make friends on the Paddock.


I need you to know you definitely don’t need somebody else in order to have a brilliant time at Kiwiburn.

You are a perfectly valid party of one.

A Me Party, in the words of Miss Piggy. 

If you’re reading this shaking your head

Saying Princess! (That’s me dear Burner.) That’s TOO SCARY. I could never.

Once upon a time I thought I could never either.

When I first went to Taniwha’s Den, I knew absolutely no one.


My friends didn’t want to go. I didn’t even have a tent.

I do have raging social anxiety, so this was already in my head a Big Thing.

But when I got there, rather than attempting to play it cool like a normal person, I went up to a group around my age with very cool scarves.

I said I liked their very cool scarves.

Then something came out of my mouth that, to this day, I remain fairly certain would never have emerged in any other setting:

“Hi! I know absolutely no one here. Will you adopt me?”

They did.

They were so generous and so welcoming. That group became some of my best friends outside of the festival.

It’s inspired me to be so much more generous in my life.



Consider reaching out.

What’s crazy is you already have something in common.

You both want to go to Kiwiburn.

Note – If you don’t currently have a Discord account, you’ll need to create one first. You can do so by creating an account here: https://discord.com/login.

Once you have joined the server, please follow the instructions in the ‘Get Started’ channel to get access to the rest of the channels. They will not show up otherwise.

For more information, check out our News post about the Discord.