Burn Guide - dust

Review by eFreeware

If you are heading to Burning Man or a regional burn, the problem is rarely a shortage of things to do. It is deciding which of the hundreds of events, camps and installations deserve your limited time, and doing that without a reliable signal in the desert. Burn Guide - dust is built for exactly that: a free offline guide that gathers events, art, theme camps and DJ sets in one place so you can work out a plan before you go and keep it with you once you are out there.

The app is made by WebNative LLC and is an unofficial guide, with information taken from innovate.burningman.org and rockstarlibrarian.com. It has been downloaded more than 10,000 times and holds a 4.9 average from 311 ratings, which suggests the people using it are finding what they came for. What appeals to me most is the shape of the thing: it does not try to be a social network or a ticket wallet, it just organizes the schedule and the map.

Who tends to get the most from it

The clearest fit is someone who likes to plan a burn rather than wander into it. If you want to know which theme camps are worth the walk, which art pieces you have not seen yet, and when a set you care about is starting, this is the kind of tool that pays off. It also suits people attending a regional burn, since the app covers those alongside the main event.

It is equally useful for the person in a camp or group who ends up holding the schedule for everyone else. Favorites and reminders make it easy to keep a short list of things that matter and stop losing track of them. Anyone who prefers to decide everything on the fly, with no list at all, will find less here to lean on.

Finding events, art and camps

Events can be browsed by day, by category, by theme camp, or through a search box. That mix covers both moods: the structured approach when you want to see everything happening on a given afternoon, and the targeted one when you have heard about something specific and want to confirm it. Art and theme camps are handled through search or a straight listing, so you can look something up by name or simply scroll the catalog.

Favorites work across all three types, which is the feature I would expect to use most. Marking an event, an installation or a camp saves it for later reference instead of making you remember a name in a dust storm. The developer also includes DJ sets sourced from Rock Star Librarian, which sit alongside the rest of the schedule rather than in a separate world.

The map is the other half of this. Art and theme camps both have locations marked, so the listings connect to where you actually have to walk. One detail worth knowing before you arrive: location information stays hidden until the event starts on Sunday.

Reminders and the offline promise

Notifications are tied to favorites. When an event you have saved is about to begin, the app is meant to let you know, and the same applies to DJ sets. That is a sensible design choice, because it keeps alerts limited to the things you deliberately flagged rather than turning your phone into a stream of everything on the playa.

The offline claim is the part that matters most for a burn. A guide that needs a connection is of little use once you are past the edge of reliable coverage, and the developer's pitch is that the app works without one. Whether you are checking the day's lineup at camp or confirming where a piece of art sits, the information is meant to be there when you open it.

It was first released on August 2, 2023, and its most recent update, from August 23, 2026, is described only as a map fix. That tells you the map is treated as a living part of the product rather than something finished once and forgotten.

What it costs to use

Burn Guide - dust is free to download. There are no ads, and there are no in-app purchases, so nothing inside the app is gated behind a payment. For a guide you will use for a week or two a year, that is about as straightforward as it gets.

The app carries a Teen content rating. Since it is free and carries no advertising or purchases, the main investment is the time you spend building a list of favorites before you leave.

Where a dedicated burn app fits

The obvious alternatives are the general-purpose tools you already carry: a notes app holding a copied schedule, a spreadsheet, or a messaging thread where your camp dumps links. Those can work, but they depend on you assembling everything yourself and keeping it current, and they tend to fall apart the moment you want to search or see something on a map.

The other direction is a broad event or festival app that covers many gatherings. Those are built for a wide audience and rarely go deep on theme camps, art locations or a specific burn's schedule quirks. What this app offers instead is narrowness: everything in it is aimed at Burning Man and regional burns, from the camp listings to the DJ sets to the Sunday reveal of locations.

A free planner for burners who like a list

Burn Guide - dust is worth installing if you are going to a burn and you would rather arrive with a plan than improvise one in the heat. It bundles events, art, theme camps, DJ sets, maps and reminders into a single free app that is designed to keep working when your connection does not. The 4.9 average across 311 ratings suggests it has landed well with the people using it.

The trade-offs are mostly about scope rather than quality. If your idea of a good burn is a printed schedule you never look at, this will not change your mind. If you want the week organized in your pocket, it looks like an easy yes.

What's new in version 2.137

Map fix.