It’s not a rich person’s kind of event but it does cost. If you’ve never gone and have to gear up completely, figure on about $3000 in expenses. Adding a second person will cost about half again more. A lot of people link up with a camp in order to keep the cost down a bit.
As for who goes? I’ve never seen a pattern. I’ve camped with lawyers and a guy that was verging on homeless in the same camp. Weirdly enough, the homeless guy was the one in charge. Go figure.
KittenBlue
Nobody gives the tiniest little shit out there if you’re boring, introverted or feel you’re unattractive. Imagine the anonymity of a crowd. Now add in the fact that nearly everybody in that crowd has decided the following: 1. I’m going to have a great time. 2. I’m going to make sure you do too.
It’s a situation where you may surprise yourself and find that there’s a part of you that isn’t any of those things you think you are.
Extensions in City
Not sure. The design is slightly different every year and I wasn’t there. There are usually a couple of performance spaces way out on the wings that I didn’t see on the map. Maybe they moved them in?
Very cool. My two thoughts:
They must go through a shitload of sunscreen.
Not enough boobies.
Yes on the sunscreen, although there’s a huge chunk of the population that sleeps during the day.
Boobs
A good rule of thumb is that about 10% of the population is unclothed in some fashion. Figure around 5000 people until it gets cold at night. It’s enough that at given place during daylight you’ll probably see someone no matter which direction you turn. However:
In short, a random sighting of nudity out there is likely to be a 35 year-old gay man’s dong.
Bathing
Most people who do set up a shower tend to use it on alternate days and do sink baths in between. Water is very scarce at the event and you only have what you can carry in. You also have to get rid of it. It’s zero impact camping, so you have to build or get access to an evaporation pond for your waste water. Nothing gets dumped on the ground.
Where you do see people showing an unusually high level of hygiene is their feet. Playa dust (“Ply’-uh”, not “Play’-uh”) is amazingly hostile stuff. It’s alkaline and will burn your feet in less than a day if you don’t take precautions. Your morning wakeup involves gooping up your feet with lotion and putting socks on while it’s still wet. At night, you soak them in a vinegar or lemon juice and water bath to neutralize the dust. You’ll actually see bubbles in the water form off of this if you hold still enough. More lotion and new socks. Repeat tomorrow.
I skipped this for two days on my second year out there and the had heels cracks for years after. Only the most clueless noobs walk on the playa barefoot. The cracks and burns can be quite literally crippling until they heal.
Do they warn people about this in the brochure and outline the process, or are you just supposed to be “in the know” about these details to prove you are a regular?
If you’re new, someone will tell you. Some 10 will tell you, before noon of your first day.
And you’ll ignore them and your feet will hurt.
And the next year, you’ll tell the new kids, and they’ll ignore you.
It’s the Ciiiiiiiircle of Ow. 
ETA: Oh, okay, it’s also on the website. In the “required reading” that no one reads. Playa Foot | Burning Man
One need not jump fully into the burning man costume pool immediately. I’m not a costume guy, but I am a huge Halloween guy. I’ve typically gone rather non-descript, but I’m a 5 time burner, so I’ve stuck a toe into the shallow end.
That said, we do all bag on “tourists”, lookyloos who do not participate.
Actually, I’m kind of embracing the whole thing. My campmate commented that I’ve come of age. I guess the turning point was when I rocked the tutu that my super hot neighbor gave me (I was idly commenting that I wondered where one buys a man sized tutu.) along side my garish Costco girl leggings and Hello Kitty Vans shoes. I pick up stupid shit at thrift stores. I’ve got a marching band uniform, two 1970’s polyester tuxedos, a pink housewife’s coat, a couple of middle eastern dishdasha type robes, Chinese silk smoking robe, Spongebob Squarepants pajamas, and a trenchcoat that I’m appliqueing. In other words, now, if I see something weird, I usually think, “Hey, that’ll work for Burning Man.”
I was shopping for prom dresses last Halloween. I now know what it’s like for a girl to shop for a prom dress. Women’s sizing is just stupid.
There are body types of all kinds. I saw an elderly woman shuffling along with a walker complete with tennis balls on the feet. Right on, that was probably the most impressive person I saw. That said, there are bunches of half naked pretty close to 10 chicks all over the place. Most of them are super friendly, so it’s a really great place to raise your optimism for humanity.
I think the extensions at 5:30 and 6:30 were staging points for the DPW, the Department of Public Works. The DPW is a BM organization that runs the construction equipment and builds the infrastructure. You could drop off your excess booze at those points upon exodus.