Go with someone that has been...and you trust them.
Not a place to be stranded or in distress. Sure, there’s staff to help with medical issues, but you’re essentially on your own.
I found it interesting that people gave away booze, but when I asked for water they hemmed/hawed. We brought plenty, but at that time my personal bottle was empty.
Getting a ticket will be extremely difficult. The group I went with usually has 6 people. This year only 2 of them and me, the noob, got tickets. My ticket, face value was $425, but after all the fees it was $520.
I brought an N95 mask as well as a 3M professional respirator and goggles in case it got really bad. I used the N95 while sleeping two times.
There’s only porto potties, and you can guess how they were. There were teams cleaning them out every couple days or so, but still.
If you want to shower, you’ll have to bring your own. We have a stand-alone setup but with all the wind and dust, and the water is cold, not much point. So I only showered 1.5 times. The .5 was super quick to get the big stuff.
Everything was a chore. Eating, cleaning, going to the head, er, restroom, all of it.
We were on the second to last ring road and it was loud 24/7. I slept with earplugs in every night.
I had very little relief from the dust. That makes for a hard week when trying to explore and check out the art.
If I go again, I think I’d take an RV, but even that’s no guarantee there will be relief.
The dust will, and does, get EVERYWHERE.
Leaving took us 11 hours to go 120 miles to Fallon Nv. Bumper to bumper stop and go for the first 8 miles, then accidents blocked the 2 way road 34 and 447.
That’s why we planned on leaving Tuesday, that’s historically a much faster exit.
Go here and read up on ALL OF IT. If you’re serious, and really intend on going, you’ll be surprised at just how difficult getting tickets are. Btw, there’s no scalping of tickets. If Burning Man finds out, they’ll void the ticket. Search the web, there’s plenty of discussion about that.
https://help.burningman.org/hc/en-us/articles/360024830531-2019-Ticket-Information
Good luck.