I’m a be honest and offer a heartfelt: “ Fuck NO”!
Email title: Burning Man 2025 by Heineken (PBR would have been more on point with the culture )
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.
Make a recurring gift today
to help keep Burning Man decommodified
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 effectively losing $174 on every $575 ticket, $524 on every reduced price $225 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
