You’re not gonna believe what’s inside Burning Man’s bathrooms

BLACK ROCK CITY, Nev. — It’s a sunny Monday morning in Black Rock City, and a Burning Man attendee in a bright pink tank top is taking a video of the inside of a portable toilet. “Are you worried about not being in a good bathroom?” Roddy Smith, playa name Zippy, narrates in the video he’s making for a non-Burner friend. “Well look at this. It even has music.”

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He pans up and down, capturing the cherry blossom wallpaper on the door, the bamboo lined with pink plastic flowers covering the walls, the pink parasol suspended from the ceiling. A hidden speaker plays a calming song. Fake potted plants line newly created shelves. A guest book hangs in the corner.

Then, something amazing happens. Another Burner walks up, and he turns out to be Erick Schultz (playa name: Otter), who has decorated this very bathroom. Schultz calls it “the Japanese Pee House,” and it’s one of three “porta-sanctuaries” hidden within the bathrooms on the southern outskirts of the event (at the cross streets of 4:30 and I within the clock-shaped city). There’s a library-themed one, which was done by Schultz’s campmate, and a “Philoso-Potty” that plays Alan Watts lectures.

Schultz doesn’t know who decorated that one, but this much is clear: Turning Burning Man’s toilets into art has become a tradition.

That isn’t to say it’s new. Guys like Schultz — and also Craig Martin (playa name: Clem), whom SFGATE interviewed in 2024 — have been beautifying the event bathrooms for decades. Each year, they choose new themes, the best of which have included disco, Tiki, Mexico, “2001: A Space Odyssey,” “Purple Rain,” “Love Boat,” “I Dream of Jeannie,” and Leonardo DiCaprio (which had a speaker blasting Celine Dion’s “My Heart Will Go On”).

But this year, porta-sanctuaries created by new artists have popped up all over the playa. Coincidentally, as Smith and Schultz were beholding the porta-sanctuaries at 4:30 and I, a group of three Burners rolled up to create yet another one.

The three, who identified themselves only as Lars, Jacob and Beaver Queen, had brought all the supplies to transform a portable toilet into what felt like an underwater oasis. There was an ocean tapestry to hang on the walls, a treasure chest, shells, some blue fringe and a special light that gives the impression of rippling water. They also had decorative jellyfish and bubbles to hang from the ceiling, as well as a speaker to make crashing wave sounds.

When Schultz saw the group scoping out the scene, he approached. “Can I give you some pointers?” he asked. “Sure,” they said, eager to learn from the master they had seen creating Japanese Pee House earlier that day.  

He advised them to spray on Gorilla glue and then screw the adornments into the walls of the porto. “I’ve already talked to the head of porta-potties at Burning Man — the most dubious title of all time — and he’s like, ‘Listen, these are pieces of s—t. So do whatever you want,’” Schultz said. “So I recommend it.”

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The group had a staple gun, they said, and were hopeful it would penetrate the plastic. Schultz also emphasized that they should secure the speaker and the fan. “You have to lock it down because otherwise some jackass is going to take it, guaranteed,” he said.

Duct tape might do the trick, Schultz explained, because people don’t want to spend all that long in a bathroom. Even when it’s a porta-sanctuary.

He deeply enjoys conversations with first-timers about the art form, he said, and also soaking up the love from Burners who’ve stumbled on his work. When I ask him about his background, he reveals yet another benefit of this unusual pursuit: It was part of what helped Schultz start thinking of himself as an artist.

When he first came to Burning Man back in 2003, he worked in television production, on the technical side of things. But he liked the idea of doing creative projects, and after meeting a man who built a spectacular art piece despite being an accountant, Schultz realized: “I could do it, too.”

Back at home, he began painting and building furniture. Then at Burning Man in 2008, he saw that someone from a nearby camp had hung lights in a portable toilet, and he marveled at what a difference it made in his experience. He’s been paying it forward, one Burning Man porta-sanctuary at a time, ever since.

“It’s a great way to start making art, and just such a gift to the community,” he said.