The Individual Sale is coming up on Wednesday, for those who registered — you DID register right? Well, a lot of you certainly did. Around twice the number of tickets available, in fact. Yep, that’s right … the secret’s out about Burning Man, and the reality is that some of you aren’t going to be able to get a ticket in the Individual Sale.
The size of Black Rock City is relatively stable (peak population at this year’s event is expected to be very close to what it was in 2014) — so while demand for tickets is steadily increasing, the number of available tickets is not. However, if you don’t get a ticket in the Individual Sale, here’s why you shouldn’t despair:
- You have a number of other opportunities to get tickets, including through the Secure Ticket Exchange Program (STEP), the OMG Sale in August and the Low Income Ticket Program (which is reserved for those who are in, and can demonstrate, actual financial need).
- Historically, many tickets exchange hands among Burners during the summer as people’s plans change. Be patient, get the word out there, stay connected to your Burner community, and one could very well make its way to you.
Some things to consider when purchasing tickets in the open market:
- Don’t buy a ticket from someone you don’t know unless you’re certain they aren’t ripping you off (with this much demand, the predators will be out there).
- If you purchase a ticket from a stranger, be absolutely sure it’s not a counterfeit before you buy it. (Stay tuned for a post about how to recognize a counterfeit.)
- Buying a ticket above face value perpetuates the scalping system. Don’t be part of the problem. Use STEP, or buy from people you know and only pay face value plus fees.
And remember, making it to Black Rock City is not the only way to get your burn fix. There are many official Regional Burns throughout the year, including Nowhere in Spain, AfrikaBurn in South Africa, Israel’s Midburn, Flipside in Austin — there are over 60 Burns happening around the world. Heck, there’s even one in Korea! And these Burns, like the one in Black Rock City, are as amazing as you make ’em.
Best of luck in the sale, and we hope to see you on playa.
We offer tickets that are $800 face value, and we offer tickets that are $390 face value. The higher priced tickets help subsidize the lower priced tickets, so we’re not forced to raise ALL ticket prices for everybody.
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The independent scalpers offer resale tickets at the face value they set. Those tickets help subsidize their children’s education. Why can’t you think of the children?
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I think scalp was referring to the admitted fact that the Org has held fundraisers with higher priced tickets outside of all announced public sales as recently as this past year. Whether or not that behind the curtain crap is actually going to stop as was alluded in Larry’s last blog post is yet to be seen.
So the Org could sell tickets for over a thousand dollars at VIP parties and it wasn’t scalping or abuse. That’s the point he was making.
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Will,
What is the “breakeven” price that a ticket needs to bring, in order to pay the BMOrg, BLM, Pershing and Washoe Counties, NVDOT, Nevada State Patrol, provide for the infrastructure and cleanup? Sounds like that price should be a function of the number of VIP tickets sold and the number of low-income tickets sold. How high would ticket prices for everyone have to be raised, if there were no subsidy?
Sounds like an excuse, and not a valid one at that.
– JK
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What happens if I missed out on registration? Is there another chance to register?
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Registration has closed for this sale. But you can register for the OMG Sale during its registration period.
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what about vehicle passes?
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How do i register?
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Kitty, My comment is above. My husband & I have had art car, we have volunteered but still missed out. Regarding the theme camps. Pay closer attention this year seeing as how you’re going. There are a lot of “theme camps” that are far from that. One yr there was a roped off section with 1 trampoline in in the center with all the peoples car’s and rope taking a full corner plus. Their camp was called “tramp camp” Another taking up a lot of space had a stripper pole, that’s it!! If these are considered “theme camps” & they get special treatment then BM needs to look closer at this. BM used to be special, now they are just BIG.
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Okay, I registered for the OMG Sale last year and I was on the dot with buying at the time they went on sale, but did not get a ticket…Is there a trick to the system??????? I mean there has to be otherwise I would have gotten a ticket right? So what’s the trick stop time so that I can buy the ticket before everyone else? Please advise and thank you! :-P
Oh and it’s on my 30th Birthday this year so I really want to go!!!
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Yes there has to be a trick, or else how would all those scalpers get their hands on tickets.
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Not very many scalpers running around with tickets, maybe 500 tickets showing up now on scalp.. which is a usual percentage….. The telling stat isn’t whether or not scalpers have tickets, but rather how many registered users out of the 80k who were registered , and who participated (maybe 70k people, who knows) … actually got tickets… It seems more likely at this point that there were some people who were using mules to get the tickets, and will likely use them or sell them later in the season.
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Last year I logged into the sale at 12:00:03 and apparently was one of the last to get a ticket. Hope 12:00:01 works this year.
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Nope, that was me this year – I didn’t get a ticket despite having clicked at 12.00.01 (I checked, that’s exactly when I clicked.)
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I did the same and still didn’t get a ticket. There has to be a trick to the system I am just not getting. I have tried three years in a row and still haven’t gotten a ticket yet. :(
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By calling it “pre-registration”, that implies (to me) there is also a “registration” period.
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Absolutely right. That is why I didn’t register
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I’m a HUGE fan of the Burner Express.
The problem is the roads, right? If more people took the bus, more people could come.
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The roads are a problem but not the reason their is a limited number of tickets. The tickets are limited because the BLM limits the number of people on the playa due to the impact on the environment (moop).
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From a very practical standpoint the roads ARE a problem, esp. if you’ve ever had to get into the event… the wait in line is very, VERY long…
I agree, however, that the key thing for the event would be if the BLM lets BRC get bigger or not.
My concern with last year’s burn is that there are these plug-n-play camps that really left a very, very bad impact on the environment and that it will play into whether or not the BLM will consider upping the number as it has done in the past.
The BLM, however, should be able to see that after 15 years or more of this event, and having had almost zero impact on the land – that an increase in BRC population might be allowable.
Plug and Play and certain other types of Asshat campers that don’t actually camp but just sort of show up and skip out on fundamental principles.. are the danger element in this. Not sure if what is called for is a separate parallel burn.
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That means at exactly noon pst tomorrow You have a 50% chance of getting a ticket.
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Everybody calm the fuck down. This happens every year and for those who truly want to go, will be able to get tickets even if they don’t get them in the individual sale. You just have to be on the ball and make connections and find them through your fellow burners. Every year I’ve gone, the same crises arises and everything works out, so keep planning, keep looking for tickets and keep working hard as you do to make it happen.
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Sounds like a good idea. So I should continue to build my art car and put thousands of dollars into it because a ticket will just happen if I know enough burners?
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YES! It’s all about intention. No risk, no reward. Many folks spend thousands before getting their ticket.
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I would continue to build the art car, because that’s what I’ve done for nearly 12 years and I love it. Planning to attend is, on the other hand -something else.
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Calm the fuck down… how about criticize a crappy system.
The OMG sale does not ‘guarantee’ anything, and if one wants to do an art work, that means planing, paying for materials, working on the art work, and all that with no ‘guarantee’ that one will be able to actually show up and display the work.
This current system is the worst. I thought the lottery was bad but this one really takes the cake.
And what’s the point of ‘registering’ if there it just as much of a free for all to get to the ticket sales page…
John Clark.
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I’ve never NOT gotten a ticket, no matter when I’ve looked for one. I got a ticket at face value last year half-way through the burn when I decided I simply cant NOT go.
The key is to make friends, stay on top of your burner community, and look on craigslist, forums, facebook groups, etc. Most people who buy tickets get the max of 2, so there are always a large number of tix that float around, you just have to get the word out and work on getting one.
I HAVE heard of horror stories of people being scammed by scalpers and scammers, but BMorg does a good job explaining how to protect yourself and there’s many forums out there with tips on how to not get ripped off.
Just be smart about it, and persistent and you will get a ticket. I’ve seen people get tickets while standing in line to get into BM. Never give up!
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The absolute worst possible thing anyone can do is travel to the desert without a ticket. There are very few success stories, compared to the number of people escorted away. It’s dangerous and stupid, please don’t do it.
Also, there are hundreds of thousands of people that want to come to Burning Man now. Telling people that if they just “keep the faith” or “never give up” is hippy woo, and nonsense. No, the odds are not in your favor, no there is not always going to be a ticket available, and the chances of getting one are slimmer every year. If you are not successful and don’t want to spend the next 6 months trying to smooth talk strangers, transparently burrowing your way into groups just to beg for a ticket, then give up. That’s the hard truth that most people won’t tell hopeful Burners, but it’s the reality we now have to live in.
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Well yeah, if you are “transparently burrowing” into groups just to try to get a ticket then you’re not likely to succeed.
But if you actually engage and contribute to your local burner community, your odds will be much much higher.
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Well if the answer for getting tickets outside of the individual sale, is to make friends and community, then of course all of us who are foreigners are just doomed
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Funny…I got my ticket thru someone who lived in London and I live in Seattle…I was a reverse foreigner.
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Tottles are you kidding? You sound proud about how much you made people beg and ‘suck cock’. Would be stoked to never meet you.
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“Then we, the organizers, went about dispensing our tickets to whomever could beg us for them the hardest – making them jump through hoops and write essays on why they deserve a ticket.”
This is why Burning man as an ‘event’ and ‘organization’ will never succeed. Your missing the point on the early ticket access/privileged you’ve been given. Then taking this privilege and make others ‘jump through hoops’ for them. Congrats you’ve entirely missed the point of Burning Man!
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I don’t think my cock sucking skills are up to snuff, so I won’t rely on them – but I do have a good grasp of Physics and combustion and it’s all a circus anyway so I’ll just do my best. I’m not very wealthy at all but I really love making things.
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We have been dealing with our event selling out for yrs. A lot of it is caused by scarcity fear . If you want to go to Burning Man , make your plans . Right before the event , tickets will come out of the woodwork , No one likes a $400 souvenir ticket . Burning Man works because of social capital and authenticity , I can’t imagine anyone active in their local community whether state side or over seas not finding a ticket .
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With twice the number of registrations as tickets available, try to imagine.
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Fahk Imagination. What about those of us who have been going for a decade+ losing out on ticket sales to silicon valley and hollywood fahx?! *WE* made this cool. Now, as such, *WE* miss out. BULLSH!T!! The system is garbage! FIX IT!!
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Every year I didn’t get a ticket in the sale, I have ended up going. Since the first sellout, I have only gotten on in the general sale once. The problem is, it costs so much time and energy finding an ever increasingly scarce ticket. Hoping for the best tomorrow.
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Can we move the ticket buying to a weekend next year? It kinda sucks to both lose my lunch break, have to tell my boss I probably won’t be in at 1pm.
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..and for no reason because you didn’t get a ticket anyway because silicon valley bought them all up.
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Took all morning off work. Cliked on green button within 1 second. Still waiting after 1 hour 10 ten minutes. All vehicle passes sold out. Way to fuck it all up Borg. Only one member of our twelve person camp got a pass. How the fuck are we going to bring in all the stuff to set up the gallery we have been doing for the last four years. Dumb Bastards
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So…. I finally got tickets to Burning Man, but no vehicle passes were available.
How can I get a vehicle pass? If I cannot get a pass can I drive to the gate and leave the van there and walk in?
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Simply be happy you got a ticket.
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Gratz. You are the exception rather than the rule. I would guess the best way to play this game, is to look in your local forums and burn groups in your area (they organize on FB sometimes, but everywhere along the line – keep looking until you find them, they are there.) …. Once you are connected to your local burn community – just post to that community group that you’ve got tickets and want to go and maybe you can either carpool with someone who has a pass or find an extra pass. …
Passes will be easier to come by than tickets.
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If you don’t want scalping to occur, prohibit transfers outside of STEP.
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EXACTLY this. Prohibiting transfers outside of STEP instantly solves the scalping problem and will also ensure the people buying during the sale are SERIOUS about going to the playa.
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I’m pretty sure people will find a way to use a ticket mule. Once the ticket is purchased, it’s possible to hand it to someone else….
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I was able to purchase 2 tickets but all the vehicle passes were sold out. How else can I go about getting one?
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I bought a single ticket today on the ticketfly website but I was not given the opportunity to buy a vehicle pass. Any remedy to this?
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Had a universal clock open, I was very prepared, and on a fast connection. Clicked immediately when they went on sale and I’m STILL in queue. I don’t understand what I did wrong. I understand demand is huge and not everyone gets one, life isn’t fair. I am just amazed they were all grabbed within a second. Much love, burners.
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My best calculation shows the entire inventory of “spaces in line” that were used to buy tickets, probably disappeared within the first few seconds, but that a surplus inventory of them might have hit the site at or around 10 minutes into the sale, and people re-queued at about a 10 minute or maybe an 8 minute mark.
I would offer that I am also , at this point, inclined to believe that of the total available spaces in line that were active – right at the outset of the sale – that in fact some of them had already been taken, due to a URL exploit in the code they put on site.
Not sure. Still looking into it. He’s ..Unemployed. And his folks are overjoyed..
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Wow that ticket sale was horrible. I logged in, was told 48 minute wait (at 12:00PM exactly), then 10 minute later told 58 minute wait, then 5 minutes later told over an hour wait. I ended up waiting 1hr and 35 minutes until the sell out. Why would I keep getting bumped the entire way through?
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What a big fuck up. I clicked the button at exactly 12 and friend that certainly joined the line later have gotten their tickets.
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The great random ticket waiting room!
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Agreed! This is the worst experience ever.
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Ever?
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that’s interesting they got in even when they logged in after…very strange.
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I literally got in line to buy 5 seconds after it turned green, and all the tickets have sold after waiting an hour and a half? Is this a joke?
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Well done BMorg, the tech process was smooth as silk. Today must be the toughest day in your pre-burn calendar. Hats off to you, I’ve heard there were tech glitches in the past, but not today, well done.
I really like the registration idea. Seems to make everything simpler. It would be great if there was a way that the registration folk somehow went into a lottery for the tickets. Then for folks who didn’t get tickets, they wouldn’t have to be online at the sale time, waiting in line, and so on. No doubt such a system would create its own headaches and come with its own issues. If it could work, would be nice, if there was a way to save half the people who want to go from waiting in line only to not get tickets.
Personally, I didn’t get tickets this year, but I already felt the community on Twitter as we were all waiting in line. I have every confidence the playa will provide if I decide to come over. :-)
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No glitches? Are you kidding?! People who logged in as the line was “paused” we’re bumped ahead in the queue, in front of all the people who actually logged into the sale at 12:00 PST. Not to mention the system favors those on the west coast over the east coast. Most of my friends in the west coast got tickets, but NONE that I know of on the east, myself included.
Not to mention the scalping: tickets were possible on stub hub $300-400 above face value almost instantly…while I was still in line.
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Stub hub, or any other site claiming to sell tix , do not have the tix they say they do, look at their delivery dates ,well after July . They charge $1000-(vital seats.com is trying to sell them for$1700) and then buy and resell them on the secondary market. If they can’t fill the order they simply refund the poor sap who bit.
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Don’t bite ! They don’t actually have the tix,they just charge you $1000-$1700 and then THEY buy and sell tix on the secondary market, if they can’t fill ur order they just reimburse you… Their delivery dates are well into July to give them time to flip tix..
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BM Individual Sale just declared “Sold Out”
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I feel like crying– I’m currently working in Ghana for a few months, I started the process exactly at 8pm here– noon in California. I originally had a 1 minute wait, then 59 minutes, then 34, then over an hour, then the wait time finally dropped back down. And when I finally got in, all the tickets were already sold out. . . I cannot imagine anything I could have done differently from here to have improved my odds or ability to get a ticket, due to the internet connection speeds here. . .
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your connection speed doesn’t matter. the fact that you are in ghana doesn’t matter. a lot of us are from overseas and we’re all in the same boat. stop whining, its unbecoming and pathetic…
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Your 8pm was my 4am. And it sold out for me as well.
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That process sucked. I was on before my boss, whom I had to purchase tickets for, and her queue went through but mine did not. I originally had a shorter wait time, then hers got the green light and my went to stalled. Back and forth from 58 minutes to 28 for 1 1/2 hours, then the sold out notice. LAME!!!!!!!!!
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I logged into the ticket sale exactly at 12 pst and was immediately shown a 2 minute wait time. Shortly thereafter, it moved to “over an hour.” Now, at over 1 and a half hours in, I was just informed that there are no more tickets for sale. What gives? How did the 2 min wait turn into me getting screwed? Where is the fairness in being on time and following all these silly rules? I need to get a sufficient answer or I will make it my personal mission to take this way up the chain
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I could have chosen my words more carefully/diplomaically, but it’s purely out of frustration. If you go on stubhub, you will see around 400 tickets available STARTING at $1,000 and going up to $10k…and that’s just immediately after the sale. I’m sure you will see more pop up as time goes on. This flawed process has clearly benefited scalpers, and it’s an injustice to those who followed the rules, jumped through all the hoops, and simply wanted to take part in BM. Someone needs to speak up for those who got screwed by people and businesses that are able to take advantage of the system. If taking it up the chain can benefit a handful of people who got pushed aside for scalpers, then I am more than happy to be that guy
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i logged on in time, waited for 1 hour and 37 min to get the “sold out” message. And that was after doing the early registration!
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I think this ticket-selling method is just terrible, although I don’t know how it could be improved. Hubby took the day off work, has been patiently logged in, registered, and waiting for tickets since the second he could log in (2:00 p.m. CST)–not a second later. He waited–first for 30 min, then 28, then an hour (the clock kept resetting), and now it’s sold out. He feels utterly jerked around, and I feel that way for him, too.
boo.
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I am in the exact same boat. I think for starters, those who can prove have been there in the past should have first priority. That method would at least keep a priority for veterans vs silicon valley/hollywood/18-year-old -types who are just there because its now cool…
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Thats super unfair.
Because, as a young Australian, I’ve never had the opportunity to go before, so I should be relegated to the back of the line?
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Wow. What Burning Man have you been going to? As I understand it BM’s not about anyone group over another, it’s a home for all.
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Same as SharingSmiles : I logged in exactly at 12:00:08 (website was down at 12:00:01) and just received a message that “all tickets in the Individual Sale have sold”. Unbelievable. TicketFly must have gotten hammered with programmed requests. Super bummed.
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I can hardly imagine that 40,000 tickets sold out when I clicked at exactly 12pm today. The line paused for a while, then would get down to 40 then jump back to say over an hour. Then after 1 hour and 15 secs I get through to the next step to find no tickets left. Somethings not right. Frustrating!
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this is just like Coachella…so annoying. Scalpers paradise.
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Interesting experience today. I’ve been to Burning Man ten times and have blogged regularly about the experience. Like all Burners, I was excited to get tickets. I made sure I had jumped through all of Burning Man’s hoops: profile, registration, ticket fly. I set my clock to atomic clock time, counted down the seconds, and hit the buy button at 12:00 sharp. Okay give me a hundredth of a second to hit the button. The cue came up and said I had two minutes. It then jumped up to 30 and counted down to 19. It then put me on hold. And then jumped to over an hour. After about 10 minutes it came back on and said I had an hour. It ten jumped to 30 minutes and more or less counted down, back skipping on occasion. Finally, it told me I was in and that I was being transferred to the site. It was on that message for 10 minutes. Finally, it let me in. I filled out my info, hit order. And it told me all the tickets were gone. What the heck is going on? What do I say in my blog about the Burning Man ticket process. Why was I bumped out and bumped back? What do I tell the thousands of people worldwide who read my Burning Man stories about Burning Man’s ticket buying process? That it is screwed… One very pissed off ten year veteran, Curtis Mekemson
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yep, same boat (would of been a decade), except the blog bragging…
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Yep, something similar happened to me. I got in at 12 and actually got verified and then ticketfly reported having problems processing and they were working on it. Needless to say I got bumped back to the wait queue after about 10 min or so. No ticket and a lot of frustration. It wasn’t this bad last year. I would think BM would insure the ticket agency has the resources available to handle huge numbers of requests and maintain the integrity of one’s entry time into the queue.
Oh well, I’ve done STEP before.
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Entitled much? So you’ve been going for 10 years and run a blog, and that means you’re special and deserve a ticket more than anyone else? The system seems to be a random lottery, why don’t you be grateful you’ve gotten to go for a decade and keep looking for a ticket rather than post this entitled crap.
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I really wanted to take my 17 yo son who is brilliant, eccentric and lonely… He is a true Builder and innovator and needs to meet his people!!!!!! He needs to know he HAS people. I ht the green button right at noon and waited and waited and 80 minutes later there were no tickets left :( This is my first year and i thought I did everything right. Am terribly dismayed…….. sob!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Quit whining. Imagine those of us who have been going for a decade not getting tickets.
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B is just a douche, ain’t he? Chill out, asshat.
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At least you had the chance to be there…
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You sound like a great mum Eliza. Hope ur son gets to go. Its my first time seeking and I was so late (12.01pm). What was I thinking?
Next year if I want to go, it may mean I need to spend big $$$ for the double price ticket. I am hoping that doesnt sell out immediately like the Individual Sale…Go Money!
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Is there a way to just purchase a car pass? We have tickets, but a car pass is all we need now.
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In line for an hour and 34 minutes……and did not get a ticket.
: (
Booooooo!
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I clicked right at noon Pacific time but didn’t get a ticket, so I guess I’m probably never going to Burning Man. I’m going to start eating meat and voting Republican.
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Ive always eat meat and voted republican.. AND Neither My wife nor I got tickets and we clicked before a second was over… Thank goodness, my son got two but NO VP.. now all I need is One VP and two more tickets……. BM Virgin but 68 yrs old..
A lot of the People that registered were NOT real people. My wife, myself, my son, my daughter tried thru 6 registrations/credit cards to get FOUR tickets.. SO, 4 of our Eight people were not real, just trying to increase the odds.. figured IF we got too many, we could pass them on to someone in our adopted camp..
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Correction, we were attempting to buy 12 tickets so EIGHT of them Had we batted 1000 would have been for redistribution…
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Also, we were in constant contact so would NOT have bought 12 tickets .. maybe 6 but my point is MANY people were trying to increase their chances by having multiple email/credit card accounts so SOME OF THESE ALLEGED Potential Buyers ARE NOT REAL…
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I was there with my registration at 12 noon sharp and got “in line”; after 1 and a half hours it was over for me – no tickets! Do I have to really believe that 40k+ people where there at exactly 12 noon? I did my homework and still didn’t get tickets… I don’t understand? :(
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registered, clicked on the green button immediately. Got in line with 40 minutes to go. Time clicking and suddenly i have over an hour to go….then down to 45 minutes. Again back to over an hour and then clicking down again. 18 minutes to go….sold out!!!
That’s it for me…no ticket in 2013 2014 now 2015.
yes, i would pay a scalper. Somehow that seems more just. This is not supposed to be a lottery.
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This happen to me too. Two seconds in the sale I was 45mins waiting than 30…and bOOm it became an Hour and half wait later. By then they were sold out.
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Actually I had to experience almost exactly the same thing, little different numbers on the waiting minutes though. Why does the system keep us fixed on the screen for almost two hours when it’s obvious that tix are long gone before? A “real” lottery would at least be straight.
I’m disgusted.
Not for the first time with BM, at least with the org, I must say. Some member of the BOD has stated that “we didn’t say we’re not capitalists”.
Surprise…?
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My husband & I have been long time burners but over the years it has grown so much that it’s lost a lot of what made it so special to begin with. We too have missed out because we have been unable to get tickets these last few years. I clicked on the email link & got in line within seconds too, then line was paused for awhile then on again. over 1 1/2 hours later I see sold out!!. I long for the days gone where we just went to our local head shop and purchased our tickets. BM has become a big ugly conglomerate with all the problems that brings. Bye Bye BM it was fun while it lasted.
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Yey, year number 3 of of ticket despite all efforts.
As long as all the RV cities filled with worthless NYC finance ‘bags will have their tickets.
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nailed it. don’t forget silicon valley and hollywood!
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What if you bought a ticket but the vehicles passes were sold out? Can you purchase a pass later on in the step program?
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Please explain how I was less than a minute to go in line and then sent back to the beginning of the line. I didn’t touch my screen and this had to be a website error. I’m so upset on how this has turned out. I also heard vehicle passes sold out quickly and not sure how one is suppose to get there that brings a lot of gear to help out with crews.
Someone please help me not have this bad felling on another big mess up on how this process is done
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I was in line, kept getting updates that showed I was moving forward, and when I was redirected to the ticket site, it said that either my code was invalid (which it wasn’t) or that Ticket Fly was down and they were working on a correction. Nothing was happening so I looked at the top of the page and it said “Ticket Fly login” which I clicked on, was asked for my code, told my code was valid and directed to the purchasing site which indicated tickets were no longer available.
I very unsatisfying first attempt at getting tickets!
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When did the tickets actually get sold out? If they were sold out and I kept waiting, I am going to freakin’ pissed.
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Waited for over an hour and half and did not get a ticket. COME ON MAN!!!!
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I pre-registered, had a code, clicked on the website link at exactly 12:00 noon and 16 seconds. The response came up to wait for two minutes to get tickets “if they were still available”. I waited an hour, at work, watching that slowpoke icon move across the bottom of the page until it finally got to the end and a message came up telling me that tickets were sold out!!!
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I clicked the link right at noon, and I mean right at noon, it put me in a line, said the wait was over an hour, and it stayed like that until just now when it said all tickets are sold. Seriously? I couldn’t have clicked the link any sooner. What did I need to do differently? This is ridiculous.
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How much more broke can you break a system? Just a few years ago, tickets simply went on sale with no hype or pre-registration fuss, stayed on sale until a day before gates opened. This system creates artificial scarcity and creates a market for scalping.
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Is the Burning Man ticket selling process actually a scam?
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yes
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If I apply for a low income ticket, can I still regisSTEPtoe buy a ticket through STEP? My mother and two aunts are going to BM2015, but one of my aunts as well as me and my husband didn’t get tickets before it was sold out.
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Same problem here in Germany. Sorry guys but it’s very disappointing that after it was my turn I was turned back to the end of line. Very unfair that buggy technology is holding me back from family.
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We have considered going for years and decided this would be the year. Clicked on the link a minute into it… clearly too late.
This is too much work. Based on reading the messages above, it won’t get any easier as we get closer. :(
Time to make plans to do something else.
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Just checked StubHub and there aer 352 tickets priced at $949.44 each, and 127 Vehicle Passes priced at $200.00. Great job on keeping out the scalpers, BMorg :(
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That doesn’t mean they actually have tickets. There were a bunch listed on stubhub before the sale too.
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Thank you for helping pass this info along, these places are pre-selling tix , then buying them up on the secondary market only to jack up the price.
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I was able to buy 4 tickets, no problem. But I also know a few people.
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Yeah way I feel now I,d sleep with Mickey Mouse if you could FED EX him for my tickets – Fed up in Ireland – Dream .. ? … Plan “B C and D if Mickey can,t make “Magic happen for the Irish
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The Individual sales sold out within ‘minutes’ of 12 noon. The Wife was on the waiting list at 12:00-12:01 within the resolution of connecting and getting a HTTP response, and after an hour wait, she finally got to the sales page, with the message of ‘none available’ (or some such).
This is crap. If last year 66K people attended, and only 40K tickets were sold today, where’s the other 26K tickets. Surely the $800 tickets didn’t sell 20K, leaving 6K for the the various ‘special’ guests.
This promotes scalping, well, for people who want to pay, because someone who has bought their 2 tickets + car fee… where the hell did that come from… can now make 1000s from their ability to to hit ‘refresh’ and the speed of their connection to the ticket server.
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I completely agree that BM Org doesn’t really know how to deal with any real issues when it comes to allocating tickets…good job again guys (not)…I am a 13 year 2000-2013 guest who has troubling understanding why the people who came don’t at least get some sort of love for being there early in BM’s development. I always told everyone i know that BM was a special place. Now it’s just a PLACE that will eventually be consumed by the greed of not SHARING with the one’s who love you most. Good luck to all the other great people who will be missed because they didn’t login at 12:00.0001pm.
Respect
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John, if you had read the ticketing page, you would know this answer and the breakdown of ticket sales.
Presale $800 (4,000). Direct to groups $390 (20,000). Direct sales $390 (40,000). Low Income $190 (4,000) OMG sale $390 (1000). As you can see here, that’s NOT 26,000 tickets at $800 a piece. Educated yourself.
I have no faith in humanity now.
http://tickets.burningman.org
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The other 20k tickets went to Directed Group Sales which are for the people who build all those theme camps you enjoy at The Burn. 4000 at $800 and 4000 low income. Adds up to 68000 not including the OMG sale”
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Well, Shannon… maybe being a “guest” is the problem. The PARTICIPANTS I know, who work to build the city… the ones who have theme camps, art cars and art projects… and those who have volunteered for years… had a shot at directed sale tickets. Most everyone I know got one.
I’m just sayin….
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The comment above misses out on some recent history. A few years ago when BM had an actual lottery a lot of Burners told them ahead of time it would be a total disaster because many theme camps would not be able to function without a minimum number of participants getting tickets. BM wanted to be fair an went ahead with the lottery and sure enough the event was put in danger because the camps that made the art at BMs core would be unable to attend. Fortunately there were 10,000 reserved for a later sale that were distributed to core camps and the impact wasn’t what it could be. Bottom line, everyone thought the lottery was a disaster so BM went back to first come first served and kept the Directed Ticket Sale for core camps that keep BM running and provide much of the art. That takes up about 10k to 12k tickets. It comes down to, there is no great system that is going to be completely fair. It’s tragic that people can’t go home when they want to, but the venue has limitations. 80,000 people registered for 40,000 tickets. Each of those people could buy 2 tickets. That means you had a 25% chance of getting a ticket.
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Yes, like many of you I clicked at 12:00:01 (by official online US government clock), waited an hour and half, and was told they were sold out. Something rotten in Denmark I think, likely another colossal screw up by BMORG. Reminds me of the old anti Bell Telephone bumpersticker for years past: “We don’t care, we don’t have too.”
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I agree with Off White, what about a public audit of the process? I still have my queue UUID. I don’t think I did anything wrong, I was within a second of the correct time. Frankly, it looks more like the rich boys are handing out tickets to their buddies to me. An open audit of the process would be be best way to prove me wrong.
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I thought Department of Motor Vehicle Was bad! Time to find a plan b ticket
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Second year in a row that I log in at 12:00:01 and am left to scramble for a ticket. And about 10 seconds after I get the message that all individual sale tickets have sold, StubHub is filling up with tickets. Total BS.
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totally agree. maybe ONE ticket per person???
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I got in line at 12, then waited one and a half an hour to get the Sorry message. Second year in a row! Unlike last year I’ll planning on coming and as a backup plan reserve a camping spot somewhere else. I’m going to be burning something!!!
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After updating my Burner profile, registering for the sale, setting up an account at the ticketer’s and getting all my ducks in a row for noon sharp, I clicked on the Enter The Sale link at 20 SECONDS past noon (can’t risk doing it too soon! I only have one chance to follow the link!) and waited for an hour and a half to get 15 minutes closer in line (from 58 minutes left to 40) and then getting turned away (though the wait panel did helpfully say “You’re on the way to purchase” before delivering the bad news).
Did everything right and still failed miserably to get one of 40,000 tickets. I know you guys are good of heart, but from out here it sure is hard not to feel jerked around.
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I registered on 2/13/15 for the Individual Sale (I already had a Burner Profile). I knew it would be pricey, but I did it anyway because I really wanted a ticket. I made a TicketFly account before today. At 11:50 PST (13:50 my time) I had 2 computers booted up and ready to go in case the 1st one crashed. My email account was open and set up, and at 14:00:02 PM CST, I clicked the link in my email address to get tickets. I got kicked out once, but tried again and was in line within 2-5 seconds. I got a message saying that my wait time was “52 min”, then “more than an hour”, then “49 min”. Overall, I waited 92 minutes before I was told that tickets were gone.
What is going on? The only chink in my chain I can think of is my internet connection. It’s probably not THE fastest connection on the market, but it’s powerful enough to stream hi-def video so I can’t imagine the time it takes for my compy to talk to Burningman’s servers is that long.
Do I need spice to see the future and predict the exact second to click my email link? Do I need super-internet from Skynet? Damn.
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I clicked at 12:03 with my code, even had a ticket fly account set up. After almost two hours it was my turn, but tickets sold out…. So much for my first burn…
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Serious question about vehicle passes…which appeared to have sold out immediately. I was able to get a ticket and some members of my camp also got tickets – but nobody was able to get a vehicle pass.
What are you supposed to do if you can’t find sanctified transport? If three of you show up in a minivan with almost $1200 worth tickets on them, but no vehicle pass, WTF is supposed to happen?
I get the desire to reduce vehicles. It had gotten insane, getting in and out (especially out). But you can’t just tell ticket holders that they’re not allowed into an event they paid for along with the supplies they need to SURVIVE IN THE DESERT FOR A WEEK.
How about a big ass parking lot 1/4 mile away from the playa with shuttles running in and out constantly, for burners who have some stuff but don’t need to pull up to their camps with their vehicles?
Oh, and widen the road to 4 lanes in both directions :-)
PROBLEM SOLVED!
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hi,
so basically this is our first time ever to try and go to burning man. myself and my companions are from the uk and 7 of us tried and failed to get tickets. we ARE all still coming to burning man! how do we do this???? i understand that the burning man website/forum has its own ticket selling and buying system for people that missed out on tickets. obviously we can’t buy tickets on eBay or something as each ticket is synced to someones burner profile… i also don’t feel comfortable buying tickets from the low income ticket group as most/all of us do not fit this bracket and this is for people who really would struggle to go to the festival without this system in place… any help would be greatly appreciated as we are all new to burning man. we’ve done lots of festivals in the uk so we are used to the hustle and bustle of buying tickets for a festival that has sold out (i.e Glastonbury)
your humble virgin burner,
max
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No each ticket is not linked to anything in terms of getting you in the door. Tickets can be bought and sold or traded or gifted at will. As long as its a valid ticket it will be scanned by a bar code reader at the gate. Then you get in. Some people claim that the entry staff at the gate can be bribed to let people in. That might cost more then buying a resale ticket in the secondary market.
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There are already 358 tickets available! on stubhub WTF! All tickets are priced from $941.25!!!!!
Thats just one ticket scalper site, imagine how many are going for sale in total elsewhere.
There should be a system in place to prevent this.
It should be like this. You get in line for the tickets, when it says they are sold out, your position in line is then pushed through to the reserve next ticket system.
The only way to sell a ticket would be to then pass it back to BM and it goes to the next person in the reserve line. You should not be able to buy it and give it to a friend etc… or make people do stupid competitions for them.
BM should be a shining example to the rest of the world the Scalping IS NOT OK and this is how to deal with it. Instead it helps to facilitate a disgusting industry. For such a group of free thinkers its really not well thought out is it!
That being said, I did get my ticket despite your merchant services being TERRIBLE! You have set the parameters to high and as such I had to use another credit card to make my purchase. Your exact match system meant that I had to put “Unit” instead of “Appt” and needed “ST” instead of “STREET”. This was BM merchant services not my bank as I asked them specifically. I have now found out that many of my friends each experienced similar issues. tut tut that is a very poor schoolboy error which frustrates the hell out of many people.
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Remember that the official legit presale tickets were $800 plus $100 in shipping and price gouging fees. Thats $900 from Burning Man itself. Some people claim that ticket prices drop to face value the week before the burn. I didn’t see that last year. Take your chances.
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Should have bought the BMorg early scalp price at $800. Now we’re all going to pay nearly a grand at StubHub.
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Good news though! There are 353 tickets available on Stubhub for $1000 each. How does that work exactly?
Sustainability never became a Principle :) Thanks to all building up regionals and other BRC inspired experiences!
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I AM DEVASTATED – SITTING HERE IN IRELAND WAITING ON THE BUTTON – REGISTERED THE LOT – BIG BIRTHDAY PRESENT AFTER ESCAPING FROM A VILE MARRIAGE OF MANY YEARS – I AM NUMB – THERE IS SOMETHING VERY FLAWED WITH A SYSTEM THAT LETS ONE CLICK ON ON THE DOT – QUE FOR 75 MINS – ONLY TO TELL YOU WHEN REDIRECTED “SOLD OUT” – AND THEN I SEE “TOUTS SELLING 1-8 TICKETS ON EBAY TWO MINUTES LATER – THE “IRISH LONG TIME DREAM HERE – IS UP IN “FLAMES – GUTTED TRULY – CANNOT BELIEVE SOMETHING SO BEAUTIFUL HAS GONE THIS WAY FOR US AND MANY MORE – IN FAVOR OF WHAT I CAN ONLY SURMISE “TOUTS AND CORPORATE BIG BOYS – BURNED BUT NOT AS DREAMED OF
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Really, just have a lottery. Don’t keep people away from their work, midweek, frustrated with incorrect “only 1 more hour to go” messages, only to find out there are no tickets. Any way this can be less painful?
Dot
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Lottery was tried a few years ago and was the worst mistake they ever made. To many people who are part of the construction of many art structures were unable to attend that year! BM lost many long time burners because of that.
The future of tickets will soon depend on participation and that in turn will result in deserved tickets. Then at that point you could consider a lottery or some other kind of system.
I do hope manage to get a ticket.
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I had to wait until 13:32 PST until you told me it was a sell out!? And apparently the vehicle passes were gone well before then.
Now if I do get an OMG ticket [like sitting and staring at the screen is a real joy] I will lose a day waiting at ‘will call.’
At least your mail worked – some systems, often yours, block outgoing traffic to my email which happens to contain the diminutive of Richard. This is a big brother package to keep your employees from browsing inappropriate stuff on company time – never a problem on the input stream. These big brother tools may also record keypunch stats.
By the way, I synchronized my system clock with the time….com before waiting for noon. Should have hit the button within a second after the second hand passed noon. I settled down to a 38 minute wait which was reset to more than an hour after about 10 minutes. Was that hiccup due to you bundling gmail and/or other favorite ids and inserting them at the front of the line?
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As a way to reduce the burden on the will call window, people who purchase OMG tickets will have the option of shipping if they live in the US.
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This process stinks, but I think everybody here knows that already.
What I don’t understand though is that BM is saying that they know people want to come and be part of this supposedly open community, but then in the same breath, says that the number of tickets is not increasing despite increased demand.
It seems really contradictory. Is there a reason why? I feel like people would be less annoyed that they can’t come join the community if they knew why.
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The number of attendees is limited by BLM – Bureau of Land Management that is responsible for the Playa. They decide what the limit is, not BM
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Thanks James. That makes total sense and I appreciate knowing why. I definitely understand we have to respect the land and what it can accommodate.
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It’s a bummer for people who didn’t get tickets, but the simple reality is that was certain to happen, since there were not enough to satisfy the demand for the number of people who registered, and considering that nearly everyone who registered and got in would buy two tickets whether they needed them both or not.
So the purchasing demand was guaranteed to leave 50 – 75% of the people who registered with no opportunity to buy a ticket.
That’s the math.
As for the reason they don’t sell more tickets – the population of the event is regulated by the Bureau of Land Management. They can’t make the event any bigger than it now is, as a stipulation of their permit.
Getting a ticket will be hard, but not impossible if you are truly determined to go. If you just kinda wanted to go, you may want to think about something else to do with your vacation time. It will never be “easier” to get one than today was…
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Horrible experience. Just horrible. #FAIL #FUCKBURNINGMAN
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I just realized that BM llc is actually a for profit limited liability corporation. It makes sense why there has been no effort to prevent scalping. It’s obvious that someone is profiting. StubHub has hundreds of tickets for 3 times face value? Names on tickets would stop the scalping. But, BM has steadfastly refused to stop the after market mark-up. Does anyone know how this corporation functions? Do they have ethical guidelines preventing self dealing?
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Well I just wasted the afternoon. I was in line for 1:45 minutes. I pushed the button right at 12. I could not have reacted any faster. We had four computers on line and no tickets. This smells of a scam. What of all these people getting tickets with no vehical passes. How are they supposed to get to the event. I say take your turn key camps and all the rich folks and shove it.
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Ten minutes before the sale opened I tested my browser by connecting to the site, and got a welcome page saying I was early but could wait and a green button would appear for me to use to enter when the sale started.
So I waited, when the green button appeared I clicked on it. Was told it would be over an hour before I moved to the next step.
Over an hour later it still said it would be over an hour. Then I got the message tickets had sold out.
Definitely *not* a FIFO queue, from all I could see.
Guess it’s time to pony up and join the one per centers. K Street here I come.
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So many butthurt burners, my favorite kind of butthurt! This will be a day long remembered.
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Only 6 out of 20 in our (hopefully approved), new themed camp got tickets. I am hoping for the best for us and everyone else that plans to help build the community! I also did donate $40 to the cause! It does confirm with a sad response – “Looking forward to seeing you in BLACK ROCK CITY!” ….”Have a good time”. I hope it doesn’t affect me registering for STEP! 14 STEPS HERE WE GO!
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Can’t be in STEP if you got a ticket in the sale
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I had a similar experience to many others here. Logged in right at noon, was given an “in line” wait time, then a few minutes later was suddenly put on hold, only to come back with “more than an hour.” Wait time started counting down again, and then went back up. Waiting 90 minutes to buy a ticket and not getting one sucks, waiting six months to try and get a ticket when some “other burner’s plans change” sucks even more. I find it very hard to plan projects or start preparing with such uncertainty. Oh, yea, some more deserving burners that did get tickets are already selling them on StubHub for $650+. Guess their plans changed since they bought their tickets two hours ago. Good luck everyone. I’ll see you on the playa, maybe.
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I have been going to BurningMan for about 6 years. I logged on at about 2 minutes past 12 noon, PST. I waited in “line” for almost 2 hours, and then was told it was “Sold Out”. BurningMan is an amazing event, and as news of it grows, more and more people are eager to join in. I totally get this. So I am thinking way over 40,000 people all logged in at basically 12 noon SHARP, give a few minutes here and there, and we all got sorted somehow into lines—–how does that sorting actually work? Is it literally by the millisecond?—-and crashed and/or confused the system. Knowing how special it is, and just how many people must have been FLOODING every possible channel—-I can accept my defeat given that I logged on 2 minutes late. But what I REALLY REALLY NEED to hear is that the following things did not happen: Somehow, some asshole Hacker-Scalpers got into the mix and coordinated some kind of mass buyout from all sides. Or that the super powerful TECH companies did not somehow monopolize the system by electronically strong-arming the entire process. PLEASE tell me that did not happen. :(
UGH!! Greedy parasites.
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I clicked on the link at 11:55 and got “Well you’re a little early but just hold on and you will be automatically redirected.” I was redirected eventually and everything went fine up until the end when I got to the “no tickets available page” at about 1:00.
So basically, the tickets went on sale some time before 11:55 and if you did what you were told and clicked at 12:00 you had 0% chance of getting a ticket. Classic BM process, if you follow the rules you lose.
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My theory……. those at BMorg looked at the list of people who registered and first looked to see if you are someone. If so, your random ticket line guaranteed that your login would get tickets. My boss is the CEO of our company. She got the tickets and me, who logged in to buy for her and also buy for me, got none. I used her login for her tickets. Her account got in within 10 minutes, me, got in after everything was sold out. I wonder if Zuckerberg, Brin or Page were denied??
If already brought up, sorry, I have not read all the posts
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:(
RINGING TRUE IN IRELAND – SHATTERED DREAMS IN “FAIRYLAND – CAN,T BELIEVE IT – WAITING SO LONG and HOLDING THE DREAM
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ACTUALLY TO ADD TO THAT – JUST GIVEN ME AN IDEA – GOING TO UPDATE MY BURNER PROFILE TO SAY …. ” I OWN THE ISLAND OF IRELAND FOR THE NEXT ROUND OF SWEATING :) … PUT YOUR THEORY TO THE TEST – I,LL SEE YOU ON THE PLAYA AND TELL YOU PERSONALLY DREE – IF THAT DOESN,T FLY – HAVE A BALL FOR IRELAND TOO LOVE xxx
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Based on what I’ve seen, this was NOT a real lineup system. Here’s why: there obviously wasn’t 1 single queue, but many. Proof, the browser displayed my Queue ID: “Queue ID: e9462c1e-1494-4681-8c7c-ad1a0b013db3”.
Did anyone else make note of their queue ID? Is it different from the one above.
Note that my own queue was paused for a while, starting at 12:07 (I took a screenshot). Even though I was in line from 12:00:24, 80 mins later I got there too late. How is that possible?
In software terms, these was similar to a messaging systems, where several parallel queues operate concurrently. Although this helps for response times, IT DOES NOT GARANTEE the 1st come 1st served / FIFO experience that we would expct.
My queue was paused for several minutes for some reason, I assume other queues kept working. That’s just 1 issue with this system.
In the end, your likelihood of getting a ticket depended NOT on the time you entered the queue, but on your luck of ending-up in a faster queue.
And if the above is wrong, then please explain how the tickets were all sold-out while I joined at 12:00:24… Did everybody who got a ticket really join earlier than me???
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People who went direct to the ticket fly site got their tickets immediately.
Those who followed Burning Man instructions waited and got nothing.
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WISH I WAS A “HIPSTER F CK – THEN I,D HAVE GOT MY TICKETS HAHAHA!! LAUGHING THROUGH MY IRISH TEARS NOW – CHEERS FOR THE “LIGHT IN THE DARKNESS FOR A FEW MINUTES ANYWAY :)
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If this true about going directly to Ticket Fly and getting tickets ahead of everyone who followed the BMORG instructions, then this is truly a fuckup on the part of BMORG. By chance getting stuck in a slow queue is hardly fair. Not providing vehicle passes with the tickets is crazy, you need a lot of stuff to survive a week in the desert. My ticket experience was like most of the rest of the folks who posted. Click very close to 12:00, wait in queue for 90 minutes, no tickets available and only to have the option to donate $40. Didn’t feel like donating at this time. Should at least insure a ticket for next year, but it won’t.
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This is the worst possible news. I didn’t think to jump the line like that. The fact that it is (was) possible destroys my faith in this process.
Kinda like seeing a bunch of people going in and out another door while I’m in the slow line way out of the building.
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Not true.
But the post above about it being 1st come first served is true.
And the “don’t press refresh, wait for the green button” thing was f-in BS because it didn’t change until I refreshed.
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OMG you ruined my burn!!! Oh wait, it hasn’t happened yet. *Somethings wrong when you regret, things that haven’t happened yet…
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Tom is right. Even if you only bring food, water, and minimum shelter, you are looking at 150 lb of stuff minimum per person for 8 days – you need some kind of vehicle for that. Carpooling is great, but expecting an overall average of 3.3 people per vehicle is totally unrealistic.
BMOrg, you need to open up a bunch more vehicle passes, otherwise you are going to see the STEP program flooded with a ton of people trying to dump their “worthless” entry tickets and nobody willing to buy them.
There are lots of ways of making vehicle traffic more efficient, you just need to show a bit more imagination than just restricting the number of vehicles. (Restricted hours for certain types of traffic? Odd days and Even days depending on licence plate? Other?)
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(rant on)
My first click, within the first second or so, I got a “web page not available”. Reloading took about 15-20 seconds. That was too late for the queue apparently. Didn’t get tickets.
I guess that happens with scarcity, or perceived scarcity.
My worry is that the scarcity is increasingly not becoming just perceived but real. Meaning there will be increasingly less STEP tickets being sold every year, or available on the market. So far, i.e. in the last years, tickets have always still been eventually available for people who planned ahead and looked around. But BM has been becoming much more popular over the last years, and the demand has been going up a lot.
So I’m not sure whether “everyone who wants a ticket will eventually get one” will still hold this year, maybe, but we may be just at the threshold. If it does not hold, then I’ll be curious to see how long the no-scalping ethos will hold up… once the offers become high enough, more sellers will take the money, whether it’s frowned upon or not. (There exist partial solutions to that of course like non-transferable tickets, but none are great, and they won’t be implemented right away.)
And to think that a few years ago I had to sell my tickets at half price because nobody wanted them otherwise! The sell-and-buy-at-face-value rule already broke down then.
Ok, rant over. Sorry.
I guess for the future I’d prefer a “register, then later get an email on whether you won the ticket lottery or not”, rather than the first come – first serve mayhem.
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Completely agree with most. I myself clicked the green button as soon as it went live at 12 and waited an hour and 30 minutes before getting the sold out. I was planning on bringing a bus load of people again. This dampens the spirit a bit, but I will keep looking. I thought I did everything right in order to get a ticket. Crazy. Cheers to all that did get a ticket, and boo to all the scalpers. I just hope I don’t have to pay 1000 dollar scalper ticket again like 2013. -Shepherd
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From our group of 8 only 1 vehicle pass was available, the other 6 people declined to purchase tickets, we would have brought 4 vehicles to Burning Man.
I read all the suggestions on your web-site to avoid driving a vehicle to Burning Man this year, none of them are practical for our little community of friends who come to Burning man from different parts of the state, none of us are rich, we can’t afford to rent a vehicle large enough to carry everyone’s supplies and how can it possibly be expected from anybody to impose such a burden on their friends?!?!. You can hardly practice “radical-self-reliance” if you don’t bring food and shelter to the desert. We enjoyed the times we were at Burning Man, but on top of the sizable expense it is becoming too much of a burden and a chore. I expect the festival will eventually be only accessible to people who can afford to pay for the plug-and-play “experience”.
I looked into the Burner Express bus service:
Burner Express bus service to the playa is back by popular demand. Launched in 2013 to make it easier for travelers to get to and from Burning Man, and to help reduce the number of vehicles on Highway 447, we’re expanding service this year to include pickups in San Francisco, Reno Airport and group sales for communities or Theme Camps interested in bus-pooling to the desert.
As always, Burner Express offers faster arrival, speedier entrance, Will Call ticket pick up, reserved camping and quicker departures.
Thank you for your interest. Burner Express tickets are no longer being sold for Burning Man 2014.
As you might imagine, this was not much help. We will not “see you at the playa”.
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A little advice for next year guys: Round up everyone you know and have them all sit with you during the sale. If you have multiple people clicking on time you are way more likely to get the tickets. We had 5 people on 5 computers and were able to secure 8 tickets total.
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A recovered Burnaholic, I did this sitting-in-front-of-computer-with-desperate-hopes-in-hand thing for 10 years in a row so I know the up/down adrenalin rush that has been built into this part of the merchandising. Keep the consumers feeling that oh-so-special buzz. Of course there are real and fair ticket distributing solutions but ya gotta keep selling the Burning-Man-culture mystique with all the logos and slogans (“gifting” indeed!) intact.
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I SAY WE START AN ANTI BURNING MAN MOVEMENT AND HAVE THE THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE WHO DIDN’T GET A TICKET SET UP CAMP JUST OUTSIDE OF THE BURNING MAN FENCE AND HAVE A FREE PARTY OF OUR OWN. IT’S JUST RIDICULOUS THAT IT HAS COME TO THIS.
SIGN UP, THEN REGISTER AND THEN AFTER NEARLY TWO HOURS OF WAITING TO BE TOLD THAT TICKETS HAVE SOLD OUT?!?! WHO SAYS WE NEED BURNINGMAN TO HAVE A BURNINGMAN?!
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I finally got in after the wait time changed randomly between a few minutes and an hour. The system wouldn’t take any of three different credit cards I tried though. So frustrated.
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This was because of their merchant services being to strict on their site.
It would not allow my Canadian card, so I used my UK card.
After I called my bank and they said that the reason was because of BM merchant services being set too strong on security. Mine failed because “Street” needed to be “ST” and “Apt” needed to be “UNIT”. Exactly as shown on my bank records. I have never had to be this strict before to buy ANYTHING. I also write software and have connected multiple merchant services etc.. This level of settings was stupidly high.
As a result it has cost me a bunch more money in conversion rate and fees.
Burning Man needs to apologize to people for this and even think about refunding the fees to people like me.
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Will Chase – Are you listening or reading the above messages.
We deserve an answer…
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I really hate to post negative things but this process was a horrible experience and with all the organizing and money brought in from ticket sales, you would think they could solve issues like a few have experienced. I read most comments and its a shame to see burning man has change to something it has become today. What happens to all those that had confirmation to purchase a ticket and then a glitch happens and they end up with nothing?
I also think the limited vehicle passes needs to be re looked at. I understand the concept but those travelling with gear that contribute to the burning man experience are now out of luck and even if I did get a ticket, this would create such a problem that I don’t see how I could’ve resolve the problem……you just created a huge problem this year with the vehicle pass limitation. You are now going to have more taking from Burning man, than giving. I know walking in allows people to still volunteer to help but it’s hard to work on a gift giving process that way
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Hey, I agree. Lets set up a camp some where else for those of us that did not get tickets. Can we bring our art and art cars? Clicked on at noon and got messed around in line and like others ended up with a wait of over an hour. Not only does Stub Hub have tickets already but so does Vividseats.
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Welcome to the ANTI-Burn.
How close can we camp?
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not Burning: I wonder what the BLM restrictions actually are. I know that BRC has specific sets of coordinates delineating the permit boundary, but do not know what the BLM policy is regarding the “buffer zone” between BRC and The Black Rock Desert – High Rock Canyon Emigrant Trails National Conservation Area. The playa stretches out a long, long way, but I believe most, if not all, access points/roads are blocked during the event (which folks are now calling a festival)
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Occupy BRC?
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What did you guys honestly expect? Here in Vancouver, I personally know ~100 people that were sitting in front of their computers all ready to hit the button as soon as it popped up. That’s up from about 20 five years ago. Everyone was sitting in front of the button ready to press it right at 12:00, because everyone knows that’s the only way to even get a shot at getting a ticket. There were easily four times as many people ready to hit that button right at noon than tickets available, considering that each person can buy 2 tickets.
Our camp of around 20 managed to get all the tickets we need, but the reality is that there aren’t even close to enough tickets for everyone who wants to go. No ticket system will fix this.
The only way to fix it, is for them to find a way to allow a larger amount of people to go, or split it up into two separate burns. They really need to do that though, because demand will only continue to grow and the problem will only get worse.
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What are you all whining about.
Things have gotten a lot better!
it used to be you had to wait 8 or 9 hours or more to see the “tickets sold out” message, now you get to see it in less than 2 hours!
that’s quite an improvement indeed!
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Not about waiting. It’s about saying you are confirmed to have a ticket and then don’t and then sent back to waiting line.
I also think preventing people to bring stuff to burning man(no vehicle pass) in the middle of a desert is pretty foolish. The biggest complaint from real burners is that more and more are taking from burning man and not giving.
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The vehicle passes will be sorted out. There was a ton of wailing and gnashing of teeth last year when they announced the passes. Some people are sure to have too many VPs, some don’t have any. And last year a virgin did prove you can bring all you need in including water & shade on the burner bus. Solo. And posted how he did it on eplaya. Search for the thread.
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I don’t understand why BMorg doesn’t stop moralizing and hand-wringing and get an economist to help design the sale of the tickets. There’s enough talent in the Bay Area to get it right. Alvin Roth at Stanford got the Nobel Prize for solving the stable matching problem for donated organ allocation, much trickier. The information is out there. I think we can design a matching algorithm to maximize value for both parties (BMorg and participants).
I still think there should be an allocation of tickets for low-income participants, but it has to be ‘owned’ as a deliberate allotment of tickets for the purposes of diversity.
If one is prepared to spend hundreds of hours and thousands of dollars working on a project for an art installation, or other exhibit or vehicle, then why wouldn’t one apportion some more of those hours and/or dollars to communicating how much they value a ticket? It’s all just money or time or both.
Our society has come up with no better way to assign value than in the amount of dollars someone will spend on something. Embrace it, it’s the best system we’ve got.
Let people decide how much they want tickets, and let them communicate it to the market. The secondary market (scalping) is the only ‘fair’ market involved in this achingly-misinformed moralistic process.
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I clicked at 12N as well.. first notice was 14 min, then 30, then 45 then over an hour. But I waited & waited & finally at 53 minutes I got my two tickets. YES !!! But….there were no Vehicle Passes (VP’s) available to purchase. Now how can you sell me a ticket but no VP’s. By BM rules, I MUST have a VP to get into BM. Will you be selling additional VP’s in the future or… will I have to pay 5X face value from a scalper ? Yes I’m very happy I got my tickets because I missed last years BM. But come on folks, what good are Tickets with out VP’s ???
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Perhaps it’s time we discuss starting A “Burn Too” project for the brokenhearted people like me that did exactly what you all did today.. dreaming of buying my tickets 30 feet in the air on my cell phone at work. Ya know, I don’t know whether we’d ever be able to talk the counties into another site for another burn, but after this disaster of a mess of ticket sales, I say, let the Man burn, but perhaps there’s another few acres of land somewhere in the same desert area that us ‘rejects’ who once were regular burners now deprived by your ‘system’ could occupy at a different time, in a nearby location, at a different time.. A lot of my joy was in the journey, well perhaps the black rock desert, has room for the Burn TOO!
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I am curious as to what the BLM restrictions actually state. I know that BRC has specific sets of coordinates delineating the permit boundary, but do not know what the BLM policy is regarding the “buffer zone” between BRC and The Black Rock Desert – High Rock Canyon Emigrant Trails National Conservation Area. The playa stretches out a long, long way, but I believe most, if not all, access points/roads are blocked during the event (which folks are now calling a festival)
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All of these ticket prices, shortages, vehicle pass shortages are a false scarcity imposed on the rest of us by Borg, the BLM, and other government bureaucrats! There’s no reason why that humongous playa couldn’t accommodate two or three times as many people. The layout of Blackrock City is modular & all the water, food, etc. is brought in while all the refuse, waste, etc. is hauled out. What do they mean by “environmental impact” on that place anyway?! It’s just a big huge bowl of dust where no one goes there when BM is not happening. I believe BM was permitted to locate there in the first place because that playa is relatively impervious compared to other areas. Sad thing is that 30 years ago no one ever went out on the playa or even cared about it. Now the thinly veiled excuse of “protecting the environment” is being used as an excuse to create this huge & unnecessary “scarcity economy /mentality” around Burning Man. I’ll bet the people who are responsible & who are making money off this event don’t believe it’s necessary to limit participation & vehicles the way they are. I’ll bet they’re laughing all the way to to bank & feeling smug that all their friends, cool kids, & other anointed ones get to attend whenever they feel like it while the cake-eating rabble has to fight for tickets that (like diamonds or paper money) are only worth something because people think they are. *end rant* In a nutshell, all the ticket shortages, vehicle pass problems, etc. are being created from nothing by people who enjoy doing this sort to thing to others.
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Bahb, have you been in the Gate and Exodus lines? Spending 8 hours getting from Reno to the Gate is not an uncommon experience. Declaring that vehicle passess are an example of artificial scarcity ignores the rather obvious problem of getting 68k people into an event on a 2 lane highway.
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Bahb, do you know any thing about how BM happened to be located on the playa, or what else happens there during the year? Thought now. Google is your friend in this matter.
While you are at it, brush up on the delicate nature of desert environments.
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Quick fix: Make the road one-way during certain hours & set up multiple entrances. If there was just one other lane going the same direction, traffic would flow much more quickly. Anyway, I was talking about the capacity of the playa to hold (a lot) more than 68k people, not about the roads, etc.
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@ Pink: I’m sure there’re all sorts of bug & birds & things out there on the playa, but it’s basically a wasteland, the sort that used to be used to atomic tests, etc. I’m sure it could easily accommodate 2x or 3x of 68k people. Maybe there are people who like to go out there to roll in the dust in the scorching heat or freezing cold when BM is not in session; but the larger point I was making is that 30 years ago no one would have cared or made such a fuss over all the enviro-crap. I’m not opposed to protecting the environment, but you have be aware that this has become an issue that people grab onto for political gain or to control others.
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A few things to think about:
1. The line this year was not based on when you logged in. I was in before a bunch of my other friends, but never got up the line further than 54 minutes.
2. As it’s ended up as a numbers game, this set up favors the big camps, who can spread the cost of the expensive early purchase and have the rest apply for 2x tickets. My DSG this year didn’t happen because the leader and art car owner got ill, which screwed all 10 of us up.
3. Because it’s now about the ‘getting’ of tickets, not going for the expression, every year, there is more and more taking and less and less gifting; and more and more PnP, hacker bros, sparkle ponies, and party children.
Might be getting time to sadly turn my back on all of it.
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They ought to charge everyone for a vehicle pass, and then offer a discount to anyone who doesn’t want one. That would encourage Burners to NOT drive.
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Rumors of a hack. Sounds very plausible, but also just what we’d all like to hear (confirmation bias). Certainly it was not a ‘first come first served’ sale.
Can anyone verify?
http://i.imgur.com/Ea9WUqx.jpg
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If you cant get the omg sale tickets is there any other ways? its my dirty 30 and ive been planning this for two years:( was on at 12 on the dot and no dice. is there any chance the org will bring out more tickets then the omg sale, it seems theres enough people that would happily pay.
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Get your DGS, low income and staff tickets. Then sell tickets at the gate only. No scalping, No counterfeits and those who are able, brave or stupid enough will get in.
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did everything as instructed, got two tickets and a car pass, went to check out and ticketfly’s site went down and said they were trying to fix problem, called ticket fly they said to paint the screen and copy it, then refresh… no more tickets available. kind of burning man experience, here for a short time and then gone. any one else have the same problem?
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Oh man! That must feel worse than just getting the ‘none available’ after 90 minutes…sympathies…
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I spent 90 minutes in an online queue today before finding out the event was sold out. Why not just sell all the tickets through a lottery system to registered folks? Having everyone sit around and wait for their browser to bring good news seems like a waste.
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The lottery was the 2012 wailing and gnashing of teeth. For what its worth, in 2012 I lost the lottery. Started putting it out there that I needed a ticket and had one within a week.
Face it, there were at least 40k people online at exactly 12pm trying to buy tickets. Because of the logistics, some of you didn’t get any. When I started going, no one I knew outside of CA & NV knew about Burning Man. Most people I knew IN CA & NV never heard of Burning Man. Did you know about the burn 10 years ago. Thought not. That’s why tickets are hard to come by. The secret is out.
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So……….now that Burning Man is played out by pretenders and rich kids why is everyone trying so hard to get in? You’re not going to unpickle the cucumber. Go start the next thing and take all the old timers with you.
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The website say’s tickets sold out in an hour but they really sold out in under 60 seconds. Me and two friends were in the queue immediately and neither one of us got a ticket. The fucked up part is that there were tickets on stubhub and ebay immediately after the tickets sold out for $1,500 plus.
How to fix the scalping problem?
When you purchase individual sale tickets your name is printed on the ticket. At the gate you need to show a photo ID matching your ticket or you can’t get use it. If someone buys two tickets than the person getting the second ticket needs to enter the playa with the purchaser. Tickets are for sale for people actually going, period. The only way a ticket can be renamed is through STEP.
It sucks to buy a ticket and not be able to make it and it’d be nice if you could give/sell the ticket to a friend but our control over tickets we’re not personally using needs to be sacrificed to fix the what’s not working. You know it’s gotten out of hand when tickets are being scalped for 4X face value within minutes of going on sale.
Way more burners will be able to get there if scalpers are removed. The people that are passionate enough to be at their computers at 12:00 need to be given precedence over those that aren’t but happen to have $1,600 of expendable income.
If I’m missing something let me know how this doesn’t solve the problem. If not there’s a link to this post below share it and maybe we can make change happen.
Posted from WordPress for Android
How to Fix Burning Man Ticket Sales
http://www.theregoesnothing.com/how-to-fix-burning-man-ticket-sales/
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Soloman says “When you purchase individual sale tickets your name is printed on the ticket. At the gate you need to show a photo ID matching your ticket or you can’t get use it. If someone buys two tickets than the person getting the second ticket needs to enter the playa with the purchaser. Tickets are for sale for people actually going, period. The only way a ticket can be renamed is through STEP.”
GREAT IDEA………..
AND have ticketfly, allow you to put your credit card in BEFORE the sale so it can be PRE CLEARED..
AND tie registration to a Name and address, not an Email address/credit card.. Keeping folks from registering Extra Times..
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I will be brutally honest in this open forum for opinion. Which I assure you is not in my nature. I was as angry as everyone of you, and perhaps writing this op-ed is a way of letting go with the fact I will never attend burning man. I hope we are reminded during this experience, the beauty of capitalism and the laws of supply and demand. I hope that the organizers of this event can dictate what they constitute as work for the rest of their lives. I hope they make enough through Stubhub to have choices through out the year. I commend them for having an idea and capitalizing on it. I hope you will focus on what you have gained from not gaining access to burning man. I for one have clocked 350 hours of overtime in the last two months with the goal of paying outright for the privilege of attending this festival. Now I will use that money on something else. Maybe Ill go to Moab, or the ocean or refurbish that 78 Westy I have been dreaming of owning. I have also worked out 5 days a week for the last 6 months, stopped smoking cigarettes and lost 20 pounds with the sole intention of looking good with my shirt off and being able to feel young just one more time. I suppose the point I am making is that I now have more choices I have come to the conclusion that I don’t need burning man in order to feel free. I have never felt more free than I do today, because I have the the power of making any decision. I wish you all the best. I truly hope that you all get exactly what you want.
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Guys come on !! Those sites selling tix for $1000-$1750, had them for sale long before feb.18, they buy and then re-sell them on the secondary market, if they can’t fill the order they simply refund the poor guy who bit, look at all of their delivery dates well after July ..
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Dear )'( staff/operators/lovers,
Reading all the above comments I understand I am one of the many.. Therefore I will and shall not complain. It must be very difficult to handle ticketing and always there will remain loopholes. I will keep my hope up high for the 12th of March and wish all fellow burners over the world without tickets to have better luck during STEP.
The only question that I have: Will any clarification or actions be made on the ticketfly loopholes? I feel sorry for all burners that nicely queued up in line and I worry about hustlers that pushed the line will have a similar attitude at the burn. Too many people tricking the system could toxicate BM now and so on in future editions.
I hope you will find spirits and wisdom for a creative solution. As for now I wish you all a happy burn.
x from Amsterdam
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i want to buy a ticket ? thanks
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I would just like to add what I feel to be the correct solution to the problem: let the population of BRC rise / the 5 year permit comes up, in a year or so (2016 is, I think the year of public comment) — Specifically 1) make the goddamned highway that we idle off six gallons of gas, 20,000 cars and RVs / WIDER so that everyone can actually drive to the event and not idle to it. 2) expand the perimeter of event, and 3) look at some of the internals that an increased event attendance will cause , like the ever present moop problem, and so on – and then in the 2016 comment or permit – go for a higher number in the 2017 five year. …. My two cents.
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PS. That’s about all that I have. But hey, they’re shiny.
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Hello everyone,
i am one of those that clicked one minute 30 seconds into the sale and didn’t get any ticket.
I would like to thank all those working at BMorg who are making BM possible; Will Chase who is patiently answering the reasonable question.
I will not be there this year, but i made it 2013 and 2014 and i am just so thankful.
It has been a life changing experience…..truly…deeply…incredibly….life changing.
I will be back. Be sure.
Things happen for a reason…
Love to all
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Will or whoever…there is a rumor going around that people were able to jump the line by going straight to Ticketfly rather than use the link in their registration email. If true, I’m not sure what could be done about it at this point, but if just a rumor you might want to squash it.
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The rumors of various hacks look to be true. We all stood in line like the good burners we were asked to, while the organization just let people jump right in front.
http://www.reddit.com/r/BurningMan/comments/2wd0qx/you_didnt_get_a_ticket_because_people_exploited_a
“I did this and was able to purchase tickets for 2 accounts other than my own (which I got tickets through waiting in the line at 12:27). I had campmates giving me Ticketfly account, CC, and billing info over facebook/the phone.
Two “accounts” in my group accidentally got tickets this way after being booted from the line. I then was able to duplicate the circumstances and did the same.
I used a different internet browser to open the ticket link email that was sent to me.
input their code from the emails. then put straight from that page into the screen I could select 2 tickets and a vehicle pass. I select tickets.
Then would enter the ticketfly account info and then was put into the billing page where I entered there CC and Address. Then they had an email in their inbox with ticket confirmation”
People will skip lines if they can. Few things make me angrier than the people who allow it to happen. This is why our art car is almost certainly not coming the Playa this year.
SHAME ON THE ORGANIZATION FOR ALLOWING THIS.
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So I’m a bit bitter because I too wanted to experience BM for the first time. But I also understand demand > supply rules, and that not everyone gets what they want, so suck it up.
I’m mildly annoyed at the process though: wasting my and 80,000 other people’s time, 1.5h on average, that’s 120,000 man-hours, or around 60 years of full time work of an individual, wasted by a silly software glitch. That’s an entire lifetime of achievements. That time could have been spent curing cancer, getting a Nobel prize, directing Oscar-winning movies, or writing the Tolkien’s Lord Of The Rings trilogy 6 times. You get it, wasted a LOT of time.
How about next year:
– Reserve some tickets for presale for heaviest contributors (like this year)
– Take the majority of tickets (40k, like this year) and open a lottery registration for say an hour or a couple hours. Everyone enters lottery and is notified of the results later by email or by checking the website. Then winners have say 1 day or 2 days to purchase their tickets. If they fail to claim their tickets, round 2 of lottery redistributes remaining tickets, say 3 days later. Maybe organize round 3, if needed.
If this system works for millions of US immigrants and is considered fair, many more than go to Burning Man, it can also work for a 60k people event. It is also MUCH easier to have glitch-free software to do a lottery, as it is much simpler. If a glitch is still found, a lottery can be re-done quite easily, even a few days after the fact (immigration had to do it once when they found out the lottery wasn’t perfectly random). Much easier to make it fair than a real time queue that bumps people around due to glitches.
Majority of us will still not get the tickets, but at LEAST we won’t waste our time for nothing.
My 2 cents.
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Either there were some preferential codes out there, or the system had a glitch a few minutes into the wait time and kicked us to the end… I guess we might hear how that happened over the next few days… Condolences everyone. Hope you find a ticket later :(
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I visited this page to see if there was an explanation yet for how this cluster**** happened and what the next step is for those of us who’ve spent hours hoping to attend the event.
“If it’s meant to be…” is trite but doesn’t cut it in the real world. That’s actually saying “It was meant to be that BMO catered to scalpers instead of actual supporters of the event.” So was that really meant to be, BMO?
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i’m not understanding a lot of these complaints. if you think BM is corrupt , why are you trying to get tickets? obviously, this is an insanely elaborate and likely expensive endeavor, and I feel like BM is an experience worth an extra $50-100 beyond a wakarusa, bonnaroo or coachella ticket, regardless of whether or not someone is turning a profit like they would at any other event (if i devoted a good chunk of my year to putting this shit together, i’d like to take something home for my family). i think it’s beautiful how affluent people contribute above and beyond to the greater BM experience, by voluntarily buying double-priced tickets, erecting amazing installations or even just by bringing enough of something to share. that’s what it’s all about. anyway, my major point here is that if you want more headliners for your $$$, go to coachella, and if you want to go to the desert for free, you can do that any time (though the government may want to charge you a fee if you choose similarly sacred land to the playa). as a promoter and event coordinator i am always amazed by the community BM brings together each year, and by my calculation’s there’s no way i’d be selling tickets to an 8-day festival with all the bells and whistles of BM for under $400, even if every act and attraction paid to participate. renting the playa from the government is a bit more of an undertaking than renting a nightclub or a friend’s land. i’d just be sacrificing everything, which could be totally worth it for the many people that would enjoy themselves, but a little much to deal with the ungrateful brats that are always going to have something to complain about…
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Has anyone ever explained. or speculated, how the “scalpers” (VIVID link below) secure so many tickets and what can possibly be done to prevent this? http://www.vividseats.com/concerts/burning-man-tickets/burning-man-burning-man-black-rock-city-8-30-1692584.html?utm_source=criteo&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=SCA&utm_term=burning%20man
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I am so sad: -(( Now I have booked a flight and a pickup truck and if I still have no luck, I probably instead of the Burning Man visit the Highway No1.. hope hope Hang loose and Think pink:-)
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B.M. org should sell next years tickets and this years event…wouldn’t that stop the scalpers at least?
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I agree. Will BMOrg reveal how many tickets are allocated to Apple, Google, Yahoo etc ? The luxury, air-conditioned camping brigade, arriving in ones and twos on twin-turbo air taxis, are not real Burners….
As a long-time Burner and Burningsky camper, I’m very disappointed that BMOrg has sold out to the corporate world. BM, and all the good thing it stood for, is no longer. RIP BM
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There are so many scammers out there! So far I have had three people try and rip me off for tickets. Either they do not accept PayPal and want a money transfer, or claim to already have the tickets, etc. I know I should wait for STEP but I am so afraid to not get a ticket after being unable to get one clicking on the link at 12:00:05. I have never had the opportunity to attend BM and this year my friend and I were really hoping to be able to mark it off our bucket list. Fingers crossed. It really is too bad that tickets are so limited… I wish we could allow more burners into the Playa. Unfortunately, I think there are only a handful of people in this closed-minded Canadian city I live in that even know what BM is, and none of us got our tickets, therefore it is impossible to purchase off of someone I know. Any advice for getting tickets in the STEP? Thank you kindly :)
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So, a friend decided she wants to attend, but she wasn’t registered for individual sale. Can she buy through STEP?
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I am very upset about how vehicle passes were handled and I feel that the process that was offered is unfair and biased against me who was following the rules. Furthermore I feel that this process is pushing people towards selling their tickets via scalping rather then through STEP. Let me explain:
I purchased two tickets through regular sales. By the time I got to buy my tickets it would not offer me a vehicle pass saying they had sold out.
I am in a position that I cannot go without a vehicle pass for me and my partner.
Today I tried to purchase a vehicle pass via STEP and it rejected me saying that I could not purchase because I already purchased tickets.
Looking further into STEP I see the everyone who gets a ticket via STEP will be offered a vehicle pass.
This is infuriating because basically this system forces me to sell but it guarantees a vehicle pass to the person that buys my ticket… you’re offering an experience to my buyer that you’re denying me! Under these circumstances why would I feel a community driven to sell my ticket via STEP??
This is just so incredibly poorly thought out. I’m so frustrated right now.
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Is Burningman Burning?
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