When a two-hour commute and an in-office rotation ended her remote job, Koi Reid crossed the country, started working at Burning Man, and turned van life into a steady string of conservation, festival, and mobile beauty gigs—scheduling by location, planning fi
In 2020, after college, Koi Reid believed she’d found stability: a remote program manager role at an environmental nonprofit. Then the company told the team it would begin rotating days in the office.
For Reid, it didn’t just mean a new routine. It meant a two-hour commute and an elderly dog waiting at home—time she couldn’t get back. And after her beloved pet died, the grief sharpened the regret. She began to look at the hours she’d spent in traffic and at the office through a different lens: those months of her dog’s life were already gone.
Fully disillusioned, she crossed the country to move back in with her mother. But grieving and unable to land a new full-time job, she decided to change course again—hard. During the summer of 2024, she worked for Burning Man. After that. she began living in a van and work camping. doing seasonal and gig jobs instead of pursuing one traditional job with a set place to go.
Her journey didn’t start with a van from a brochure. She began van life in a mini school bus, then switched to a Chevy Astro. With fewer expenses, she found she could make the lifestyle work with just about any job. The key was that her skills and interests—especially her focus on the environment—could be turned into work across many locations.
So she built her summer work around conservation. Every summer. she works at state and national parks. teaching young adults how to cut dead trees. dig paths. build rock walls. and keep trails enjoyable. It’s physical. in-person work that puts her in the communities she travels through. and it also keeps her tied to the subject that pulled her into her first job in the first place.
Between park work, she leans into another passion: music. When she isn’t working in the woods. she travels to festivals and takes on customer-service positions—manning lost-and-found tents or directing cars in parking lots. She describes these gigs as some of the best service work she’s ever done. and they come with a perk: they get her into music festivals for free so she can dance and explore on her own time.
She also operates her own business. Like many nomads, Reid has a mobile service built for life on the move. She works as a mobile loctician, meeting clients in their homes or elsewhere to do their dreadlocks. Her client base has grown from one city to multiple states as she learns to navigate what it means to run a fully mobile service.
Reid’s approach to van life is shaped by the tension she experienced when work and life were no longer in balance. She has learned to balance planning and going with the flow. She’s meticulous about scheduling her travel: she accepts jobs based on their location and the time of year. driving from one gig to another without backtracking. But if there’s an opportunity she’s particularly passionate about, she parks the van and flies to it.
For her, that passion has a calendar. Every year, she finds a way to work at Electric Daisy Carnival in Las Vegas—her favorite music festival—and it lands right after her birthday.
Van life, though, carries its own financial strain. The lifestyle encourages living in the moment. but Reid warns it’s easy to lose track of finances if you aren’t planning ahead. Because the jobs aren’t continuous, she often starts hunting for next summer’s position before the current one ends. Networking matters too—each fellow gig worker isn’t just a friend, but a potential work connection.
Work camping can also sound limiting to people who imagine van life as always escaping the moment you’re tired of a place or weather. Reid can’t simply leave when she wants. Unlike some other van lifers. she can’t stay extra days at a music festival on impulse. or join spontaneous trips with friends. because her in-person jobs require her to be where—and when—the work is.
Despite those drawbacks, she says she wouldn’t trade her setup for a traditional office job like the one she had before. She values the on-the-ground nature of her work, the communities she becomes part of while traveling, and the people who seek the same freedom.
Every day, Reid says she’s excited for her next adventure. The challenges are real—grief, logistics, and constant job searching—but she frames the trade as something she chose on purpose: a way to keep moving while building a livelihood around the life she actually wants.
van life work camping gig economy conservation work music festivals mobile loctician Electric Daisy Carnival Burning Man seasonal jobs