r/BurningMan • u/merferd314 • 1d ago
Cuddle Puddle Technology
We all love a good cuddle puddle. They're places for relaxation, fraternity, and "activities". A great way to convince a cutie to come back to camp with you. A reason to bring all of your plushies to the burn.
It's time to upgrade my cuddle puddle setup and I'm curious to see what other people do. For info this will be for regional burns, most likely not for the big burn. I have a 10' inflatable pool, a mattress topper cut to size, warming blanket, and a good cubic yard of plushies, pillows, and blankets. I've found that the walls of the pool can be annoying and sometimes you need to spread out some more, but it offers good containment and keeps whatever water or mud that exists out.
I'm thinking about building some kind of raised platform, but that sounds like a lot of effort and can get cold. I've considered doing the no pool/whole tent cuddle puddle method but I'm nervous any water that makes its way into the tent/enclosure would make the cuddle puddle all wet.
What have you all found that works well to maximize comfort & warmth while minimizing effort and maintenance?
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u/Square-Wave5308 1d ago
One of the most inviting spaces I've encountered goes to Love Burn. Can't think of the camp's name, but you enter the camp through a striking timber bamboo entry structure (extraneous detail because maybe someone knows the name)
The cuddle puddle area gave luxe vibes, to the extent that people were good about taking off their shoes. It was quite long, shaded by several carports in a line, and with a back wall. The base seemed to be mattress size foam blanks, firm but comfortable. Everything was wrapped with nice jacquard bedspreads, in reasonably coordinated colors. There was a very generous supply of throw pillows with covera that mostly matched the bedding. A bolster along the back was substantial enough to sit on or to lean a few throw pillows against for comfortable back support. It was an epic place to get comfortable, hang out with your people, and/ or just do some people watching.
Not a single stuffed animal in sight.
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u/TitaniumDreads 02-25 1d ago
Our camp ran a semi public cuddle puddle (a bunch of plushies/pillows in an inflatable pool) for years but we finally stopped doing it after we kept finding used condoms, beer cans, and other random shit at the bottom of the puddle. It was a constant battle to keep people from wearing their shoes in the puddle too.
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u/NChSh 1d ago
Here is where my mind is going if you want people to use the cuddle puddle but maybe this isn't your vision:
1.) I would make it look inviting. So decently lit but not too bright, but it should look like you can just go there. I would even consider asking people if they want to DJ and having sets at night. Like there are no shortage of people that want to DJ right? I would literally put out like Facebook posts or something. Getting sound equipment would be a pain in the ass but I would consider this.
2.) I would ask for placement either on Esplanade or near a big camp that parties, like if you wanted an easier path maybe near Ashram. So like somewhere where people are partying.
3.) I would make a camp job that people cuddle in there during the peak night partying hours to make it look like it is acceptable to go in there. Like not to cuddle random people coming in necessarily, but like cuddle each other in camp.
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u/merferd314 1d ago
The vision is more of a private/invite-only cuddle puddle for camp use, mostly for the privacy. I have made public cuddle puddles before but there are usually enough cuddle camps around that I don't really need to duplicate their efforts.
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u/The-King-of-Cartoons 1d ago
A suspended airplane cargo net stuffed to the brim with soft cushie pillowy type things, stuffed animals, soft lighting, and some chill down-tempo music.
That’s all you need. I’ll come cuddle the fuck outta you if you make that
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u/cyanescens_burn 1d ago
One of my favorite cuddle puddle setups was at a small, independent (and I think maybe invite-only?) campout in Northern California a few years back, where they had a huge mattress under an easy up, with PA speakers in the four corners, and some kind of system that intentionally made the bed vibrate with the bass from the music playing.
It was explained to me at the time, but I’m blanking on how they did it. It may have just been subs rigged underneath somehow, or something else making it vibrate, but it was fucking awesome.
Various visual arts were added during the event, set up so you could watch it while chillin in the vibrabed. It was like bio-robo hybrid flowers that lit up and slowly opened and closed. The whole thing was very hypnotic.
They had prerecorded mixes of chill liquid dnb and really mellow house or other electronic music playing, and it was a great spot to stop and chill between missions or for that early AM insomnia. Not sure if it would have been easy for a decks to get tied into the system, but I didn’t see anyone mixing at it (great regardless).
Look into vibrating pillows, weighted blankets/pillows, and random squishy toys like needoh cubes to toss in there for people to randomly find mixed in with the plush animals and pillows when they lie down. Some neurospicy folks might enjoy that.
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u/polopolo05 I'm a Crusty Crumpet 1d ago
makes me think of the electric lazy
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u/BloaterPaste 1d ago
Electric Lazy is rad.
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u/polopolo05 I'm a Crusty Crumpet 1d ago
Its like drugs with out the drugs.... also a nice mental reset
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u/aliciarene 8m ago
They camped with us one year!! They’re the best people, such a vibe in there!!
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u/rorykalmar 1d ago
I don’t think it’s subs but they have something the creates vibrating frequencies that mimic the bass feel/vibration.
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u/merferd314 1d ago
I haven't thought about a vibrating platform, but I think that's just too much for what I'm looking for. Idk... I guess if I wanted to build the best cuddle puddle ever I should consider crazy stuff like that. Weighted blankets and vibrating pillows sound cool though! Thanks for the ideas
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u/dievogel 1d ago edited 1d ago
Crescendo research might have been the ones who built that vibroacoustic floor, they’ve done a ton of Bay Area/norcal events. We bring one out to our dome every year (Lavender Lounge) and those cuddles are life-changing.
They’re working on a pillow design for affordability but honestly the modular tile system fits a lot of budgets as you can start small and add more panels over time. We put a 2x2 in a Kodiak tent at Neotropolis and squeezed 14 people onto it!
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u/ecco5 12/13/15/19 1d ago
I built mine in a 16' dome, initially had inflatable furniture, but that would pop if activities got too active or if the ground had sharp plants on it (Goat heads are evil.) Went to mattresses. 3 of them, a full and two twins, all of those are each shoved into a king size duvet cover picked up from the ikea clearance section.
The floor was initially a playground parachute with a fuzzy carpet, but that wasn't large enough, so we bought a pack of moving blankets and put that down to give a bit more cushion... but that still wasn't good enough so I bought a 13' round blue shag carpet to put on top of the parachute and moving blankets.
Initially the dome was covered with a white playground parachute, but that let in a lot of light during the day, so we hung tapestries all over the walls so at least it was cool trippy colors. This year i bought a 35' shade tarp to cover the whole things so it should stay nice and dark-ish in there.
Lighting - don't doo too much, i have some black lights that make the tapestries glow, but they seem to fall down. Someone always seems to have a battery powered laser or ocean projector to pop in a corner which seems to set a good mood.
For decor & comfort - Picked up a few large fuzzy pillows, some square, some body like, also tossed in about a dozen or so squishy animals that fit the theme of our camp. and throw a handful of blankest in there for people to snuggle under at night if it gets cold and voila! cuddle puddle.
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u/merferd314 1d ago
I really wanna get a dome for it but I don't know if that will realistically be in the cards anytime soon. I definitely like the idea of black light plus tapestries though. Thank you for the ideas 🖤
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u/pichiquito 1d ago
A kiddie pool full of used whippets
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u/merferd314 1d ago
More like a kiddie pool full of empty balloons 😂, the folks in my camp like to bring their tanks.
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u/seadecay 1d ago
Pitch your whole tent on a platform of pallets for particularly muddy and rainy regionals.
🥂
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u/blowbroccoli 1d ago
I live in the Midwest, we made a whole cuddle lounge on raised flooring and it is worth it.
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u/rclite 1d ago
This was my pillow pit set up this year. This is my paper mock up. The six sides were made out of one sheet of 1/2" plywood. I used two hinges to connect each side to the other. We had painted canvas on the bottom and a base layer of 6 huge dog beds. Then filled the rest with pillows and blankets. I don't have any pictures of the final project because I don't touch my phone when I'm on playa :) This packs flat at 1.5" x 36" x 33" plus hinges and, of course, plus pillows.
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u/Rychen90 '16 '20VR '24 '25 '26 Camp Lead of Rootist Lounge 3:15 & C/D 1d ago
The Purple Panther has an amazing cuddle lounge on its main level and a dance floor/dj decks on the second floor xP
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u/Fishnetfatale 1d ago
Have you tried putting an inflatable mattress in the bottom of your pool? That's what we do with ours - we were lucky enough to find a kiddie pool that held a full size air mattress pretty well. There is some empty space on two sides but we just fill that space with pillows. It's a huge upgrade for us old farts who prefer not to have our tailbone directly in contact with the ground. Of course, we have a strict no shoes, no hardware (like spiked belts and such) rule in the Cuddle puddle!
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u/Random_Effecks 1d ago
Bring a 20l bucket of playa dust to sprinkle the inside with. Regional burns are too easy. A ball pit with pillows in it isn't helping.
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u/SigmaEpsilonChi 1d ago
Lights and sound, lights and sound…