Earlier today, our cacophonous instigator and Director of the Philosophical Center, Stuart Mangrum emailed a call to action for the Burning Man community. We’ve shared it here in its entirety. Please give it a read and help us keep Burning Man sponsorship-free!
Friends — apologies for the subject line, but it begs the question: why not? Wouldn’t a cushy co-branding deal solve Burning Man’s money problems in a hot minute?
After all, it’s standard practice in the festival business to make a big percentage of your revenue from corporate sponsorships. Along with additional income streams such as merchandise sales, food and drink vending, and premium VIP services, it’s how festivals stay profitable despite rising production costs.
But here’s the thing: we’re not a festival. And we’re not here to make a profit. Sure, Burning Man Project is a business, but our business is culture: creating spaces for art, innovation, connection and joy, and making the potentially life-changing experience of Burning Man available to anyone who’s willing to take the ride.
Back in the 90s when Burning Man’s early organizers were first figuring out what we wanted Burning Man to be, we used to joke about this. Who could we persuade to write us a big fat sponsor check? Home Depot? Bic lighters? Mercifully it stayed a joke, with enough cringe factor that it ended up being directly addressed in the principle of Decommodification.
As was so often the case in our history, we made a good cultural decision that was maybe not the best business decision. Would we be asking you for money right now if we had chosen otherwise? Perhaps not. But we wouldn’t be Burning Man anymore, either.
The other thing any sensible festival would do in the face of soaring costs is to jack up ticket prices, which we’re also not going to do if we can possibly help it. We are way behind the profitability curve when it comes to pricing tickets to the event, and have been for years. The actual per-person cost of producing the 2023 event was $749. Which means we are losing $174 on every full-price ticket, $524 on every reduced-price ticket sold through the Ticket Aid Program, and the full $749 on every one of the more than 1,300 gift tickets we distribute to artists.
So what’s to be done?
I’m looking at you, Burner. Because we need your help.
In some respects, the current money challenges are predictable growing pains rooted in our transition from an event production company with a nonprofit side-hustle to an arts and culture nonprofit that also performs the annual magic trick that is Black Rock City. We are taking a cue from other cultural nonprofits, such as orchestras and theater companies, and swinging the finance needle away from ticket sales and deeper into philanthropic support now and into the future.
Thanks for helping with that.
The moment we’re in is challenging, but it’s more than a moment. The future of Burning Man as a cultural force in the world depends on our ability to keep producing Black Rock City without compromising on our principles and not going bankrupt in the process.
Whether or not Burning Man is still your thing these days, let me ask you this: do you really want to live in a world where there’s no Burning Man anymore? Or one where it’s just another festival with a $900 ticket price and a huge branded beer tent in Center Camp, next to the merch booth and the overflowing trash cans?
Surely that is a future no one wants. And speaking of the future, that’s the Burning Man theme for 2025: Tomorrow Today. I wrote it because I want us to have a future, and for us to make it real together. Because at this point in time, our future is anything but certain.
If you have the means, and if what we do together is meaningful to you, consider a gift of $749 to cover the cost of one artist’s Black Rock City ticket. Or $524 to help one person get to BRC who couldn’t afford it otherwise. Better yet, make it a monthly gift of $62 or $44 to achieve the same results.
Honestly, your gift of any amount is going to make a difference.
Thanks for listening.
Stuart Mangrum
Director, Burning Man Project’s Philosophical Center
PS: Sorry, no tote bag. It would just be MOOP.
PPS: If you haven’t heard about our fundraising efforts and this is all new to you, you can catch up here: Burning Man Journal.
Cover image of Black Rock City, 2008 (Photographer unknown)
Unbelievably tone deaf.
Report comment
so very tone deaf
Report comment
X-Man
Report comment
…BTW, I really hope the theme for 2026 can be “The Eternal Now.” Way cooler than some of our themes (even though they’re all been good). Just a suggestion.
Report comment
I can’t believe the ridiculous nature of this messaging. FFS please stop patronizing us. Less shock value and more accountability. Tell us why event costs have spiked by 60%. Tell us exactly what you are doing to mitigate organizational bloat and hubris. Tell us what leadership changes will be made. Please act like you are writing to adults.
Report comment
I’m sorry to see that the Org has stumbled badly in its messaging the last few weeks. Part of me wonders if even for-profit Loveburn could do better.
Report comment
“In some respects, the current money challenges are predictable growing pains rooted in our transition from an event production company with a nonprofit side-hustle to an arts and culture nonprofit that also performs the annual magic trick that is Black Rock City”
Who asked for this? People just want an awesome event. Its not our fault the org is wasting money and putting the future of the event in jeopardy. H
How much does Stuart make for “director of Burning Man Project’s Philosophical Center” What does that even do for the event?
Report comment
The end from the end – stop spending money
Report comment
This message sounds like a weird threat.
Perhaps the fact that black rock city is now just the “other thing”, being compared to a side hustle kinda says it all in terms of priorities.
Has the org possibly strayed a little too far from what the rest of us are doing here?
Get your house in order and remember what it is that you’re actually here.
Report comment
Honey, we are holding back our snark here in an attempt to give you just the facts.
First, when you reference “the org” here you are referring to many long-term employees who are active members of their local Burning Man communities. Some of us produce Regional Events. Some of us make and fundraise for art. Some of us organize theme camps in Black Rock City and beyond. Many of us have been instrumental in the creation of Black Rock City since the 1990s and 2000s, while others have come on board more recently bringing decades of logistical, production, fundraising, storytelling and art management experience. We are also passionate about Burning Man — so passionate we devote our lives to it 365. Many of us work seven days a week throughout the year, running as fast as we can to produce a 70,000 person event as well as support this ever-evolving global culture and phenomenon.
Second: Black Rock City will always remain our priority. It serves as the heart and foundation of this global community. But also, Burning Man is not, nor has it ever been, “just a festival.” To focus solely on producing the event would be doing a disservice to all the amazing humans and projects that are actively bringing the Burning Man ethos into the world. People come to us with ideas for how they can create participatory events and experiences, support community resilience or carry out disaster relief work; we give them tools and knowledge to make this happen on its own.
So I guess our question is: tell us what you are doing over there that we’re not?
Report comment
I don’t know him, but it’s probably safe to say that he’s not 20 million dollars over his budget. So that’s one thing he’s doing that you’re not.
Report comment
I feel compelled to respond to your comment to Weird Guy, above, who asked a reasonable question. First, the condescending ‘Honey’ strikes a decidedly snarky chord, despite your ‘attempt’ to refrain from doing so. Why does it piss you off to be called out on the fact that the powers that be are minimizing the burn in favor of a worldwide cultural outreach effort? Burning Man grew from humble origins and needs some soul searching and perhaps a return to those original tenets that were by necessity more local. I understand it takes a village to make the burn happen, but attendees are not responsible for supporting every regional, every artist and the many camps and collaboratives that comprise the event. I say this as an artist who is fortunate to be able to create, maintain and transport my art to the desert; to participate fully in my camp’s activities; and to donate to various Burning Man funds, attend regionals and help individual burners all year long. Now we should feel badly for not doing more for the org.’s vision? Yes, THAT org., that you attempted to shame Weird Guy for mentioning. Please take a second look at your priorities and your budget and let us know. Thanks, Honey.
Report comment
Hi Stuart. Grateful to hear from you and thanks for writing. I know you are a rational person, a deep thinker; your past content shows that clearly. So I hope you can see the gaps causing the dissatisfaction among commenters.
Please if you can, pass on to Org leadership: people are unhappy; and worse, the sentiment is being ignored. To those who are unhappy and being ignored that is troubling; it feels like a canary in the coal mine.
What is being asked for can be found – repeated again and again – in the comments on the last 3 posts about fundraising.
Report comment
Read the collective room. Threatening us with the end of Burning Man to try to emotionally blackmail us into donating would feel icky anytime, but to do it THIS week, when so much of the community is afraid and grieving already…. I’m honestly appalled.
Report comment
Finger snaps
Report comment
The fact that you would even entertain Corporate sponsorship speaks volumes.
All things must pass and Burning Man is No exception.
Evolve and do something else.
Report comment
The Org has proven that it can’t control its spending and so needs to resort to constant begging. The Message being more important than the event itself. I don’t even know what The Message is, but I’m sick of hearing about it, to the point of doing something else with my money and time and effort. But go ahead a keep being Missionaries of some vague notion of brining the culture to the world. Don’t get it and don’t want it. What a mess.
Report comment
Ticket used to be $300.00 back when I was going. How the cost has bloated to 3x that is hard for me to fathom, but Google tells me Marian is pulling down $375,000.00 a year, so I’m going to say the author here is not being entirely forthcoming.
Everyone has their hand in it now, from BLM and Washoe Sheriff bilking mad permit fees, to the brass pulling down almost what the President of the United States makes. ($400,000)
It’s just possible that the ethos you hope to maintain isn’t viable. Burning Man has reached its highwater mark. The Plague, followed by the rainy year, and we’ve attained saturation. But prices keep going up.
It’s a death spiral. The bloat is real. New customers are not.
Slickfinger, DPW, 2002-2008
Report comment
Hey Stuart – what are your primary responsibilities as Director of the Philosophical Center? Do you think it is still necessary in our current media/pr environment?
Report comment
It’s a dirt party. You all are responsible for stewarding the dirt party in the Black Rock Desert, and that’s it. If you can’t even handle the basics why would we want you trying to do a whole lot more? All of your credibility is predicated on throwing that thing in the desert, mess that up and you are toast. It’s hard to watch y’all squander any and all goodwill you’ve built up over the years.
Report comment
Save on ‘costs’ by closing down all this extraneous bullcrap. Not everything needs to grow and expand all the time. Do one thing and do it well. We don’t need a ‘Director’ issuing a ‘call to action’. BRC is by and of the people, and we’ll do just fine thanks with the lightest touch of exterior management.
Report comment
debloat
Report comment
I didn’t know burning man was just some oligarchies side hustle. Get rid of your showers & commissary and bring back center camp coffee.
Report comment
The title of this article IS commodification. Continuing to name & link this title in JRS *is* commodification. Placing this name alongside pictures of Burning Man art *is* commodification. Regardless of how it was intended, you still gave branding placement to a major corporation.
If you thought this was a convincing way to raise money, send it to the beer company, instead of the artists who believed in your now optional principle of decommodification.
Report comment
if you are not a corporate festival, why do your “executives” get paid in that fashion. 80K a year for the top position should be more that enough
Report comment
There are billions available to nonprofits you are not considering going for.
Report comment