Summits Through the Years

“This is the power of gathering: it inspires us, delightfully, to be more hopeful, more joyful, more thoughtful: in a word, more alive.” - Alice Waters

⛰️ What is a BWB Summit?

BWB’s work at Fly Ranch began humbly in 2018. Twelve volunteers gathered for the first Fly Work Weekend, with little more than a few benches, a folding table, and a burn barrel. Since then, the community has hosted more than a dozen work weekends on the land. In 2019, we began convening BWB Summits: small, in-person gatherings designed to connect our global network off-playa.

The partnership between Fly Ranch and Burners Without Borders is an ongoing experiment in collective stewardship. Because the land and infrastructure can only support a limited number of participants at a time we grow slowly and intentionally. Each summit widens the circle just a bit more, while working to ensure the lightest possible footprint on the land.

Our summits are structured around three guiding practices that shape the experience: Serve, Learn, and Celebrate.

SERVE

Service is how we root the summit in place. Participants work together on stewardship projects that support the land and evolving infrastructure of Fly Ranch.

These projects might include natural building, habitat restoration, regenerative land practices, or small infrastructure improvements. Working side-by-side creates space for collaboration, learning, and shared responsibility for the place that hosts us.

Service reminds us that gathering is not separate from care for the land—it is part of it.

LEARN

Learning at the summit is rooted in participatory knowledge sharing. Rather than formal presentations, the programming invites participants to bring their questions, experiences, and ideas into conversation.

Sessions are designed using a human-centered approach that allows people to move in and out of discussions as curiosity leads.

The goal is not to arrive at answers, but to plant seeds of inquiry that participants carry back into their communities.

CELEBRATE

Celebration is how we remember why the work matters. Inspired by the BWB value: “If it’s not fun, it’s not sustainable,” the summit creates space for joy, reflection, and connection.

Participants cook together, wander the land, share stories, sing, dance, and interact with art. These moments of play and presence are not separate from the work- they sustain it.

Celebration reminds us that resilience grows from our shared experiences.

A look back through the years 2019 - 2025

Spring 2019: BWB Family Campout

The first BWB Summit brought together leaders from across the Burners Without Borders network. The gathering explored what could emerge when civic leaders working in different regions came together in person.

Participants supported early stewardship efforts on the land while sharing stories from their communities and projects. The summit established the foundation for future gatherings rooted in service, learning, and celebration. Read the full report back on the BWB website.

2019: Sustainability Summit

The Fall 2019 summit focused on the Burning Man Sustainability Roadmap 2030 and the role BWB leaders could play in advancing regenerative culture. The gathering sparked deep conversation and generated practical resources, including project one-pagers and unconference notes.

2020: Virtual Summit (Interbeing)

The 2020 virtual summit was part think tank, part community gathering, and part family hangout during collective lockdown. Plenary sessions, breakout conversations, wellness programming, music, and social time created space to stay connected while exploring resilience, placemaking, regenerative design, and community care.
Watch the summit here!

2020: Green Theme Camp Summit

The Green Theme Camp Summit convened theme camp organizers, leads, and infrastructure teams working toward a greener Burn. The gathering served as a connection point for shared values, spotlighted existing projects and practices, and invited participants to imagine future steps around shelter, power, water, food, air, and sustainability goals.
Report Back Here

2021: Re-entering Togetherness

Gathering in person again in 2021 was an important moment of reconnection. Participants reflected on Burning Man’s cultural influence and responsibility while processing the continuing pandemic, climate change, and disparities in equity and access—and recognizing the fertile soil for new seeds to be planted.
Read the full report back on the BWB website.

2022: Time & Place

The 2022 summit marked a significant return to Hualapi Flat (the site of BRC 1997). Participants supported infrastructure and stewardship projects, joined peer-led sessions on resilience and sustainable building, and shared rituals that included the first community effigy burn since 1997.
More details are available: 2022 Slide Deck or full report back.

2023: Listening to the Land

The 2023 summit, themed Listening to the Land, invited participants to deepen their relationship with place through shared stories, Indigenous knowledge, and off-grid community living. Hands-on projects, peer-led learning, and rituals on the land created a gathering rooted in stewardship, regeneration, and connection.
Read the full report back on the BWB website.

2024: Participating in the Parable

The 2024 summit explored Participating in the Parable, examining the relationship between stories, landscapes, and cultural narratives. With members of the Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe present, the gathering wove together biochar, soil, solar, storytelling, Indigenous wisdom, ritual, and shared celebration.
Read the full report back on the BWB website.

2025: What Future Now?

Our theme asked: What does the future hold—for our communities, our environment, our civic institutions, and our relationships with the natural and technological worlds?

Our answer: It’s not about predicting the future, but practicing how to notice it as it unfolds. We can learn to “track emergence”.

Read the full report back on the BWB website.

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