Burning Man ticket fiasco...

[jbark]

NY Times article


Bad news for burners...

 

[onethousandk]

Wow, I knew Black Rock City was big, but I didn't realize they had made it up to 56,000 people. That's insane. Hopefully they're able to get this sorted out.

 

[a1pha]

Wow, I knew Black Rock City was big, but I didn't realize they had made it up to 56,000 people.

There were over 100k tickets requested at the lottery. Incredible given you could buy tickets at the gate in 2010.

One big clusterduck this year. It's going to be interesting.

 

[semios]

I have been following this a bit obsessively and I that the data are VERY hard to decipher, even for the BM organization (BMORG). Everyone in my camp of 40 people at LEAST double or triple-ordered. We probably ordered 150 tickets between us. (And we got about 35!) I ordered 3 tickets and got zero (but a friend came through for me - see you on the playa!). I know several other camps that got 20-30% of the tickets they need. But it's not at all clear that lots of tickets went to newbies, or scalpers, or where. It's a bit of a mystery.

I do think that ticketing was totally mishandled, and I hope in the final round of 10K tickets they have to sell, there will be a mechanism to distribute tickets to theme camps and other key parts of the community that got shut out in the lottery. There will be an announcement Wednesday from BMORG.

The most provocative thing I have read is this article about making BM tickets free - it's good food for thought.

 

[proto-pax]

But it's not at all clear that lots of tickets went to newbies, or scalpers, or where. It's a bit of a mystery.

Well, it was random, so it's really not known who got what. That said I highly doubt 100'000 people that ordered planned on going to burning man. Most likely in an attempt to get tickets burners asked their friends and families to get tickets, thereby driving up the amount of folks who participated in the raffle.

Not to say that their aren't problems with this system, obviously there are, but I have faith that it will all work out.

 

[Ice House]

The burn will happen, its gonna be an interesting year. Lets not forget that we have allot of influence on our burn regardless of what happened with the tickets. I believe it will all be sorted out in the end. The show must go on!

 

[dreamer042]

I won a ticket in the lottery

Only put in one entry for one first tier ticket, answered all the questions honestly, and left it up to the fates; who apparently saw fit to reward my practical act of magical faith.

This whole lottery fiasco is certainly going to make it an interesting burn this year. I must admit, I am overjoyed to be able to sit here with my golden ticket in hand and see how everything plays out. I do know that this fiasco has caused a lot of the community to start changing their focus to creating bigger and better regional events which have always been the logical evolution of the burning man project anyway.

I would highly urge everyone to look into what events may be happening near you, whether you get a ticket for the big burn this year or not.

Regionals | Welcome home!

regionals.burningman.com

 

[jamie]

I am quite sure I will never ever bother to go to burning man. I just have literally no interest in being there at all. I have gone to the local burning man events here and will continue to do that in the future..this is what makes sense as it is obvious that the origional burning man is not really sustainable anymore. More local events means more people have more access to the community anyway, which is a good thing.

I kinda prefer the word of mouth festivals anyway that you have to drive 2 hours down some logging road they tell you about the day before in the mountains following the cardboard signs. Those are the best.

I am sure after last year, enough people will have put forth the effort this year to make some really great alternative events.

 

[antrocles]

and of course i wound up getting a ticket for this year..... after the sh*tshow that happened to me and a handful of other nexians last year, you can only imagine how STOKED i was to actually get a ticket a few weeks back...

...and now THIS!!

i REALLY hope they figure something out.. if my nexian brothers and siSTARs aren't there this year, i ain't goin!

L&G!!

 

[Dante]

I hope I'll manage to get one, Im planning to fly to California at the end of august and then travel down to South America. BM would be a good way of starting the trip!

 

[onethousandk]

I would highly urge everyone to look into what events may be happening near you, whether you get a ticket for the big burn this year or not.

Regionals | Welcome home!

Thank you! I had no idea about these. Though I'd like to get around to making it to Burning Man proper, this seems infinitely more feasible.

 

[onethousandk]

If I may also add: I'm a bit surprised to see there isn't more talk of a Nexian meet up at Burning Man. Do not that many attend or do those that attend already know each other enough to not warrant a thread?

 

[dreamer042]

Update:

We have made the difficult decision to take the 10,000 tickets that were slated to be sold via the Secondary Open Sale and manually redirect them to some of the vital groups and collaborations that make up Black Rock City: volunteers, theme camps, mutant vehicles, art installations and performance groups. These groups already have a relationship and contact points within the organization. We’re in the process of proactively identifying and reaching out to the established groups that fall into each of these categories, and offering organizers access to purchase enough tickets to provide for essential crew members.

Only registrants who did not get tickets in the Main Sale will be eligible to register for tickets through STEP … if you fall into this category, you will receive an email inviting you to register. Registration will place you in a first-come first-served queue, and you will be offered a ticket when one becomes available through the system. You may only purchase one ticket through STEP; this ticket is non-transferable and can only be held at Will Call. A STEP ticket is only for you.

Our Low Income Ticket Program will launch on February 29th, and will offer 4,000 tickets at $160, as was originally planned. These tickets are intended for people who can provide documented proof of financial hardship through an online application process.

http://blog.burningman.com/2012/02/news/ticket-update-rebuilding-black-rock-city-2012/