Scott Van de Vyver

I went to Burning Man exactly once, in 2013, and came home to Michigan thoroughly ruined for normal life. Naturally, I Googled “Michigan Burning Man” to find other people who had visited that strange land, and that’s how I learned Regionals existed. I had no idea. I went to my first Lakes of Fire in 2014 and have not been the same since.

The next year, I started a theme camp, because apparently I just dive into things. It has since grown into one of the biggest camps at the event, though I eventually had to step away from it over internal conflicts. You know how things go sometimes. I served on the Lakes of Fire Board of Directors from 2018 to 2021, then in 2025 they dragged me back in and made me President, which, in hindsight, was a questionable choice. I’m the only person dumb enough to do a second term, which ends January 1, 2028. I have the date circled.

In my day job, I’m a realtor, which means I spend my weekdays convincing people to buy property and my weekends chauffeuring them to houses they’ll never buy, only to hear “I think the market’s going to crash any day now” right before they ghost me forever. This past year, I helped broker the deal to purchase land for Lakes of Fire. Turns out “Leave No Trace” gets a lot more interesting when you own the trace. I’m here to share what we learned with any Regional thinking about getting its own piece of dirt.