Five-forty in the morning, and the wind has chosen a direction. You're pedaling straight into it across the open playa, toward a sculpture that was a rumor at midnight and is now a black silhouette against a sky turning from ink to cobalt. Behind you, the city still hums. Ahead lies nothing but flat, pale ground all the way to the mountains.
Your hood is cinched tight. The hem snaps behind you like a flag on a ship. A zippered pocket against your ribs holds lip balm, a spare light and the bandana you'll want when the afternoon dust rolls in.
Out here a cloak is a costume, a hood against the wind, a seat cushion at sunrise and a tote bag with sleeves. Ours add visionary art for the night and pockets for everything you'd rather not lose in the dust. Below: what the desert asks of a cloak, a cloak for each hour from the art-car ride to first coffee at camp, and how Burning Man's principles shape a wardrobe.
Why do people wear cloaks at Burning Man?
People wear cloaks at Burning Man because the Black Rock Desert swings from 100°F afternoons to cold nights, with wind and dust at any hour. A hooded cloak is a Burning Man coat and a costume in one: a warm layer against the wind, a hood over your hair. Magus Fawn designs faux-fur-lined cloaks covered in visionary art.
Burning Man's own Survival Guide says temperatures can drop 50 degrees after sunset. Our guide to how cold Burning Man gets at night follows that drop hour by hour. The short version: the people grinning at 4 a.m. are wrapped in something warm.
The other reason is pure delight. The Event FAQ invites everyone to "bring toys or costumes with which you can express your creative spirit," and a cloak is the rare costume that still earns its keep before dawn. The same FAQ remembers 1999, when a full week of high winds and low temperatures caught many longtime participants unprepared. Pack for a week like that one, and every calm night becomes a bonus.
What do wind and dust ask of a playa cloak?
Wind and dust ask a playa cloak for a hood that stays up, a front that closes completely and pockets that keep things on your body. Burning Man's FAQ puts normal winds at 20–30 mph and storm winds at 40–70 mph. A Magus Fawn cloak meets those gusts with a heavy-drawstring hood, a double front zipper and four pockets.
The ground sets the stage. The Survival Guide describes the Black Rock Desert as a prehistoric lakebed of "hardpan alkali," the dry playa left by Pleistocene Lake Lahontan, according to Wikipedia. Burning Man's MOOP guide calls it one of the flattest stretches of land on Earth. It's flat enough that a car went supersonic there in 1997, at Mach 1.02, the same Wikipedia entry notes. On that open ground, dust-storm wind can top 75 mph in an instant, the Survival Guide adds, and the fine alkali rides along.
Here's how each part of the cloak meets the playa:
- The hood. Heavy drawstrings cinch it around your face, so it stays up on a bike and keeps the dust out of your hair.
- The double front zipper. Zip to the collar for a whiteout, open it wide for the dance floor.
- Four pockets. Two deep side pockets hold goggles and a bandana. Two interior stash pockets, one of them zippered, keep your phone and keys on your body, the same idea behind the phone straps on the Survival Guide's packing list.
- The shell and lining. A micro-mink poly outer (listed fabric weight 200 g/m²) over ultra-soft microfiber fleece, with the faux fur in black or white.
Every cloak in this guide is $250, made to order, in a unisex fit from XS to 5XL, and our men's and women's cloaks share the same build.
Which Burning Man cloak should you wear after dark?
After dark, choose a cloak whose art answers light: gold linework, glowing color, a back worth reading when an art car's beams sweep across the crowd. Magus Fawn's Mystical Egypt and Liquid Fire cloaks fill that role, one a temple of gold glyphs and chakra lights, the other molten color from hood to hem.
The spellcaster: Mystical Egypt. Black Rock City 2027 runs August 29 to September 6, and its theme is Spellbound, and the official 2027 page promises the city will be "a bazaar of enchantments, a midway of magical delights." For a year like that, we'd reach for the Women's Festival Cloak | Mystical Egypt ($250). Gold glyphs run in columns down both front edges, so the open zipper reads like a doorway into a temple. Turn around and seven chakra lights stack up the spine, red at the small of the back and violet near the hood, rising toward a pharaoh beneath a winged sun. The design comes as a men's cloak too.
The art-car rider: Liquid Fire. The art cars licensed to drive on the playa are called Mutant Vehicles, motorized creations that can look like "a pirate ship or space ship on the desert." The top deck of one at 2 a.m. is a breezy place to dance, and that's where the Liquid Fire Men's Festival Cloak ($250) belongs, zipped up with the hood raised, as in the photo. It's magma in motion: violet and plum marbled through with orange, scarlet and gold, plus a few cobalt currents, like heat shimmer over a flame. It comes in a women's cloak as well.
Which cloak is best for a Burning Man sunrise?
For a Burning Man sunrise, pick a cloak in dawn colors you can sit in on cold ground: gold, amber, copper and rust. Magus Fawn's Golden Scarab, Sacred Grounds and Dream Weaver Orange cloaks carry the rising sun, the first cup at camp and an amber glow, and all three zip up for the chill before the light arrives.
The sunrise ride: Golden Scarab. Ancient Egyptians gave the morning sun its own god. Khepri, a scarab-faced figure, stood for the rising sun, and because young scarabs seemed to emerge from nothing, Egyptians tied the beetle to creation and rebirth. The Golden Scarab Men's Festival Cloak ($250) sets that beetle across your shoulder blades, wings fanned wide in gold and deep violet-blue, a rose-red sun balanced above its head. Gold specks drift over the black like dust catching first light, and gold glyphs climb the upper sleeves. Ride out to deep playa before dawn, sit with your back to the wind, and wear the god of sunrise while the real one climbs over the mountains. A women's version carries the same scarab.
The camp coffee: Sacred Grounds. Tucked into the Survival Guide's packing list, right between spare car keys and wet-playa footwear, sits a reusable travel coffee mug. The Sacred Grounds Women's Festival Cloak ($250) reads like a tribute to that mug. A golden meditator sits cross-legged inside a ring of light, a steaming cup resting just beneath, rust-colored wings opening across the shoulders, and a pair of espresso portafilters fanned out below like the crest of a very devoted coffee order. Nicholas, reviewing a Sacred Grounds cloak in December 2023, wrote: "Super comfortable and warm. Fell asleep with it on. Kept me warm all night." The design comes as a men's cloak too.
The amber hour: Dream Weaver Orange. Some mornings the dust hangs in the air and turns the whole sunrise amber. The Dream Weaver Orange Men's Festival Cloak ($250) is that light worked into a pattern: copper and amber filigree swirling over burgundy down both front panels, flashes of violet along the sleeves, and on the back a gold wolf keeping watch above a small pyramid. Worn open, as in the photo, the front panels look like stained glass with the sun behind them. A women's Dream Weaver Orange cloak carries the same art.
For the camp chair: Egyptian Atlantis. When the camp kitchen wakes up, trade your cloak for the Egyptian Atlantis hooded blanket with ears ($150). A gold tree shines in a medallion on the chest, guarded by a pair of seated jackals, with sphinxes lounging along the hem in bronze and gold on deep midnight blue. It's 300 g/m² poly fleece, cut as an oversized pullover with cat ears on the hood, a front quarter zip and an oversized front pocket, in one size (4XL).
How do the Ten Principles shape what you wear to Burning Man?
Burning Man's Ten Principles shape a wardrobe in four ways: Radical Self-expression invites the costume, Radical Self-reliance means you bring every layer, Gifting turns a spare hoodie into a present, and Leaving No Trace means packing out every feather and sequin you bring. A Magus Fawn cloak brings the costume and the warm layer in one printed piece.
Co-founder Larry Harvey wrote the 10 Principles in 2004 as guidelines for the newly formed Regional Network, which is why they travel to every regional burn too. Four of them speak straight to your closet:
- Radical Self-expression "is offered as a gift to others," the principles say. Your cloak's art becomes a present to the whole street.
- Radical Self-reliance. Black Rock City is decommodified, and the Event FAQ says ice is the only thing sold. Every warm layer comes in with you.
- Gifting. The principles describe a gift that expects no return. Pack one spare warm layer for the neighbor who packed light; our gifts for burners guide has more ideas.
- Leaving No Trace. The MOOP guide lists torn fragments of clothes and costumes among the debris crews pick up, and the FAQ puts boa feathers on the list of things you carry home. Our art is dye-sublimated into the fabric, so there are no sequins or feathers to lose to the wind.
Packing, sizing and shaking out the dust
Our FAQ suggests sizing up for outerwear, "sometimes even 2 sizes up to fit extra layers under," which on the playa means room for a hoodie on the coldest nights. Between sizes? Email your measurements to art@magusfawn.com; we typically reply within 1–2 business days. All sales are final, so that email is worth the minute.
Every cloak is made to order: production takes 7–11 business days, then delivery takes 6–14 business days. For Black Rock City 2027, ordering by July 15, 2027 puts even the slowest case in your hands by August 19. US shipping is free on orders of $70 and up.
When you get back to camp, shake the cloak out downwind. At home, machine wash cold with like colors, skip the bleach, and tumble dry low or hang dry, which is best; don't iron or dry clean. The art is dye-sublimated, so it won't crack or fade. Our cloak washing guide covers playa dust step by step.
Back into the wind
Picture that pre-dawn ride again: hood cinched, hem flying, a pocket full of small essentials, and art on your back for whoever rides behind you. Give the playa a hood worth cinching and a back worth following.
Then go find the sunrise.
Find your playa cloak: women's cloaks · men's cloaks · all festival cloaks · hooded blankets
More Burning Man reading: Burning Man outfits for men, from playa day to deep night
Frequently asked questions
How windy does it get at Burning Man?
Windy enough to plan around. Burning Man's Event FAQ describes normal-day winds of 20–30 mph and storm winds of 40–70 mph, and the Survival Guide notes dust-storm wind can pass 75 mph. Stake your camp well, keep goggles handy, and wear a hood with drawstrings you can cinch when the dust lifts.
Is a cloak too hot to wear at Burning Man during the day?
At midday, usually yes. The Survival Guide says Black Rock Desert days routinely pass 100°F with extremely low humidity, so the cloak usually waits at camp, or rides along, until sunset. Put it on as the sun drops, wear it open while the ground still gives off heat, then zip up after dark.
Why is the Burning Man desert called the playa?
Because it is one. Playa is the Spanish word for beach, and in the western United States it names a dry lake bed. The Black Rock Desert's playa is the dried-out bed of Lake Lahontan, a lake from the Pleistocene epoch, and the Survival Guide describes its surface as hardpan alkali.
How do you keep a cloak hood up in the wind?
Cinch it early. Pull the hood up before the gust arrives, tighten the drawstrings until the opening frames your face, and zip the front to the collar so the wind can't get underneath. On a Magus Fawn cloak the heavy drawstrings do the holding; tuck the loose ends inside the collar before you ride.
Written by Magus & Lylyth Fawn, the Los Angeles artists behind Magus Fawn. Magus makes VR and digital visionary art and produces Psy EDM. Lylyth makes fractal digital art and runs design and customer care. We've been selling wearable art since 2020 (4.8★ from 147 reviews as of October 2026), and every piece is made to order here at magusfawn.com. Come say hi on Instagram @magusfawn.
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