“I just moved here, I don’t know anybody and I have nothing to do, so do you guys need any help?” Those were the words of Renee Green a year before she became Director of Operations for Love Potion Collective, a Burning Man camp turned non-profit company.

In August 2014 Renee had moved to Oakland, California for a relationship that ended not long after she arrived. She found herself biking around one day, exploring the neighborhood, not expecting to stumble upon a whole new source of passion and purpose for her life.

As she passed the American Steel Studios warehouse, several members of the Love Potion camp were outside working on their art car, The Amphora. With less than a week before they had to leave for Burning Man, they welcomed an extra pair of hands.

“For the next five days I helped prep them to go, and then they all left. And then I looked for a ticket for a week, I found a ticket halfway through Burning Man, I got ready in six hours, and I was on playa at 3 a.m. on Thursday. Nobody knew I was coming.”

Almost exactly one year later, Renee has become a key leader for the camp as it transforms into a non-profit organization. “I’m a community builder,” she said, “I always have been, and so it was just kind of natural for me to start building a community.”

Renee works closely with Bill Fuller, the company’s Creative Director, and one of the camp’s original members. Back in 2007, before they had 3,000 square feet of space at American Steel Studios, the group created artwork at Bill’s house. Relocating to American Steel was a game-changer, and Bill commented: “That was like my whole dream of getting a big warehouse where I could make things and have a meeting space.”

But even before they had a warehouse to call their own, before Bill became involved, and long before Renee showed up, Love Potion was a camp. They had been part of Burning Man since 1998, and they evolved as you might imagine such a group would: from the polygamous union of several diverse collections of people, with Burning Man as their unifying force.

Bill is one of the few original members left. “In 2003, I was part of another camp called Rabbit Hole that was parked across the street from Love Potion camp,” he recounted. “The next year we went through this whole thing about who we were going to be: were we going to be Love Potion or Rabbit Hole? We were actually four camps that all parked across from each other and we all became Love Potion because everybody loved the whole idea of the potion.”

Years later, Love Potion is still a tight-knit camp, but they’ve also become much more. Renee explained what sets Love Potion apart from other Burner camps: “We have the space that lends itself to building year round community. People come in and become part of the group and part of the family all year long.”

Not all camps can sustain this level of consistency beyond the Burn. When Renee had to pinpoint how they had achieved it, she stated confidently: “Me.” She went on to comment: “That’s only based on the feedback that other people have given me. There really wasn’t anybody besides Bill who had the time and the geographic proximity—and also the rapport with Bill—to pull this off. He and I are super similar. We can communicate—even when tensions are high—we still can get along.”

Bill is heavily involved in managing the equipment and tools, including the 24/7 power grid for their camp at Burning Man. A Burner since ’98, Bill is also an IT contractor, an Eagle Scout, and in Renee’s words, “he’s just one of those people who’s mechanically inclined and handy.”

With nearly 100 Burners in their camp this year, Love Potion has a hefty menu of installations and activities planned. There’s the “Love Beacon”, a 24-foot tall observation tower, complete with a couch at the top, a DJ booth and musical instruments (for spontaneous jam sessions) at the bottom, plus a shaded dance area.

Other amusements and amenities include an 18-foot aerial arts performance cube, a “Castle of Love” (aka, a bouncy house), and a geodesic dome for indoor, dust-free comforts like “cuddle pools” and a dance pole. Their “New Modern Café” offers a full-service bar (plus potions), wifi for all, and most importantly, spanking sessions. There’s also a flame effects area and “The Red Tent” for feminine necessities. A few of the activities they’re hosting are acro-yoga classes, a costume swap, gel fire painting, and live jam sessions between DJs and musicians.

Their beloved art car, The Amphora, has made a name for itself on the playa since its first appearance in 2012. The Amphora is a vase-shaped structure decorated with LED panels designed to pulsate in multicolor lights while mounted on top of a bus (and there’s plenty of room to climb inside). It’s a sight to behold, especially in motion. No one would ever guess that this mesmerizing vessel of love was once just a Christian World Ministries van.

Of course, they’re also bringing 4,000 handcrafted bottles (0.125oz) of their famous love potion. Gift-giving is part of the Burning Man tradition, and the camp has been sharing love potions since they joined the festival in the late 90s. “Even back then, that was their gift to the playa, and that’s all they did,” Bill commented. “They just brought love potions and had a very modest camp.”

The potion recipe changes every year, and for 2015, cacao is one of the main ingredients. It’s an aphrodisiac-infusion, and everything comes from the kitchen (like jasmine and vanilla), plus a splash of vodka for added spice.

Even the potion recipe has a history, as Bill explained: “It had always been done, until the last year, by the same girl who was part of the crew from 1998—she had always been the one who came up with the recipes. One year she had a recipe for loving yourself, a recipe for loving other people, and a recipe for loving the universe.”

What’s more important than the potion itself is the gifting process. It’s like a ritual. “There’s agreements on how it should be done,” Renee explained, “but the common thread between all potion gifting is that the actual giving of the potion should be an experience. We’ll explain what’s in them and who made it and what it means and tie it around the person’s neck and give them a big hug and people love it.” There is no set script, but Renee has created her own catchphrase for gifting; she tells recipients the potion is “meant to be consumed with a special person in a special place at a special time.”

When they’re not in Burning Man crunch-time, Love Potion hosts a weekly event at their warehouse space called Thursday Open Work Night. They started this gathering in October 2014 as a time for anyone to join them in exploring the wonders of technology, art, and science. Some of the previous workshops have covered photography, LED programming, leather working, welding, visual processing, preparing for in-house fundraisers and community events, and renovations to the space itself.

Despite all the art and experiences Love Potion camp has created over the years, Renee pointed out that becoming a non-profit company feels like their most ambitious undertaking yet. Community building requires great responsibility, especially at a warehouse full of power tools. “Because it’s open to the public,” Renee explained, “we have to worry about insurance, and safety, and security, and following rules and things like that, which is not a thing that Burners are really used to.”

Trained as an engineer, Renee also has a strong affinity for managing people. “There are many and varied personalities who are part of this group,” she said, “so to get everybody to communicate and work together is also really challenging, so that’s the whole year instead of just really working for only one month. It’s really hard to get anything done when not everybody has direction.”

Providing that sense of direction is a huge part of Renee’s role. One of her favorite Love Potion moments was hosting their first successful fundraiser as a non-profit in April 2015. It was an Alice in Wonderland themed event called “Down the Rabbit Hole” that involved weeks of preparation and many people coming together to help set the stage, literally. Running these types of community events allows the group to maintain their space and keep up with rent, but creativity isn’t the only key to their success. Renee, Bill, and the entire group have demonstrated that the most important ingredient for concocting a potent, lasting love potion is commitment, pure and simple.