2015 Burning Man Box Office Info

[trilobyte]

[media]

With kind permission from the Burning Man ticket team, I'd like to share with you some details on the plans to improve the will call wait times and overall box office experience at this year's event.

• A brand new box office with 19 windows at maximum operations!
• Largest shade ever built by DPW - 60'x72' to cover an awesome efficiently designed queue that can hold 440 people in the shade.
• The ability to quickly expand that queue on demand to accommodate another 220 people. They won't be under shade, but it'll be orderly.
• At the slowest possible anticipated processing rate, they expect to be able to clear the queue in 1 hour and 15 minutes.
• They'll be implementing up to 6 "mobile box office" units (for processing straight will call pickups) to help lines move even faster during peak times, and effectively taking the box office from 19 to 25 'windows' during those peak periods.
• An amazing 'front of house' team to help expedite and guide folks in the queue. Lolligagging in line is a major time suck, this team will help keep things moving and make sure people are prepared when they get to the window.
• More flexible operations so they can tailor their window functions in real-time to address highest demand.
• They have doubled the size of the box office crew. There are some great new recruits on board.

All of this is in the face of approximately half the number of will-call tickets to this year's event compared to Burning Man 2014.

As in previous years, you do not need to worry about which gate lane you are in if you have a passenger who needs to go to the box office. As you approach the gates, a member of staff will check to see if you need to go to the box office and will safely direct your vehicle to the box office parking lot. Keep all your passengers together - don't send someone ahead or leave someone behind on foot.

Drivers, make sure that all your vehicle's passengers either have physical ticket in hand, or have copies of their order info and a valid ID for will call orders. Make sure you have your vehicle pass (more info on vehicle passes can be found here), or have a copy of the order info so that it can be picked up at the box office. Low Income Ticket recipients should have a copy of the email they received from the LIT folks, as well as valid ID and their ticket money. Check for this before you leave your point of origin, and make sure everyone has that handy before you get to the gates. Remember, if any person in the vehicle does not have a valid ticket, the entire vehicle will be turned around.

The Burning Man Box Office opens at noon on Monday August 24th for participants with valid early arrivals, and the box office will remain open 24/7 until the day of the man burn.

Early Arrivals
In order to arrive at Burning Man before the gates open at 10AM on Sunday August 30th, all passengers of your vehicle must have an early arrivals pass that is valid for that date (in addition to tickets and vehicle pass). Early arrivals passes are unique single-use bar codes assigned to that project, and are clearly marked with an arrivals date. Remember, early arrivals passes are not transferable between projects, and may not be bought, sold, bartered, traded, or gifted. For camps, every person who receives an early arrival pass from a camp or project is expected to camp within the borders of that camp.

The Burning Man gates open at 10AM on Sunday August 30th.

[Cwave]

The Burning Man gates open at 10AM on Sunday August 30th.

Just to be sure, this means actually entering the playa or just entering the queue?

And another question while I'm at it

Drivers, make sure that all your vehicle's passengers either have physical ticket in hand, or have copies of their order info and a valid ID for will call orders. Make sure you have your vehicle pass (more info on vehicle passes can be found here), or have a copy of the order info so that it can be picked up at the box office. Low Income Ticket recipients should have a copy of the email they received from the LIT folks, as well as valid ID and their ticket money. Check for this before you leave your point of origin, and make sure everyone has that handy before you get to the gates. Remember, if any person in the vehicle does not have a valid ticket, the entire vehicle will be turned around.

We all bought tickets together in the main sale but my friend who bought them for us two is in a vehicle behind/in front/next to us as we arrive and the two tickets are in his name(one for him, one for me).
Will this matter as we head towards will-call or is this not a problem?

[Sham]

The gates open at 10:00am on Sunday to relieve traffic on the roads leading to BRC. Previously they opened at midnight on Sunday, but the traffic was crazy and people were arriving tired and having to set up camp in the middle of the night.

This earlier opening time allows for things to be much more civilized, but DO NOT (honestly) start queuing up early or you will be directed into a staging lot. Those in the staging lot will then wait for many hours--while those who arrive at 10:00AM or later get into the city. While there is some fun spirit in the staging lot, it's not a place you want to spend the day.

As far as tickets being in different names and people being in different cars, try to stick together in the lines into the event. Greeters are understanding if you are a few cars apart.

[Mod Edit: edited the post for clarity]

[Elliot]

If I may be so bold as to add....

D Lot is a relatively small area immediately adjacent to the Gate itself. It is used when a vehicle arrives at the Gate-itself with some issue that will take a while to resolve -- to keep from holding up the line. For example, the vehicle may be packed so tightly that it will take a while to complete the routine search. Or there may be more people than tickets in the vehicle.
D Lot is used from many days before the official opening of the Event until the end of the Event.

The parking for countless cars for many hours takes place in a large area that I seem to remember being called Staging, but don't quote me on that. This lot is used only for less than a day. This is where those who try to show up "a bit early" get shunted. Staging is First-In, Last-Out. So the earlier you show up (the worse your "violation"), the later you will be allowed back into the line to Gate.

Staging is necessary to keep too-early traffic from jamming the public highway, but it is a major headache for the folks who organize it, so please avoid using it -- by avoiding arriving before 10 A.M. on Sunday August 30.

[trilobyte]

Thanks for the clarification, Elliot, you are absolutely correct. The pre-gate overflow area is known as staging. I've edited Sham's post for clarity.

@Cwave - when you quoted my post, you forgot the most important part of that sentence.... for participants with valid early arrivals If every person in your vehicle does not have a valid early arrivals pass, DO NOT ARRIVE BEFORE 10AM ON AUGUST 30TH. Please see this post for more info about planning your arrival.

As for people whose tickets are on the same order but traveling in different vehicles.... if you can, I would recommend swapping passengers so that both people on the ticket order are in the same vehicle. This way, if you should end up getting separated in line for any reason (pee break, merging, they could only let one through at a time at the traffic nexus approaching the gate, etc), you guys are still good to go. If that's not possible (maybe you're both drivers), what about swapping tickets around (you take what the other passenger has, and they take the ticket on the friend's order)? If that's not possible either, then once the person picking up the order gets into the will call lot he/she should get in line. The other person doesn't need to get in the line at all, just be there to get their physical ticket once it has been picked up. At worst the second car should only be minutes behind, so everyone should be able to have ticket in hand once the buyer gets through the line.

[Cwave]

Thank you all for the replies!

@trilobyte. Won't be arriving before Sunday afternoon but thanks for the heads-up anyway!
Both driving so we will just kiss bumpers from Reno right up into the queue of will call.

[kiss-o-matic]

Like

[nonuniform]

Question about early arrival passes: the art project I'm working on needs to swap people for early arrival. The early arrival pass has the name of the person on it, but schedule changes mean we have to give it to another project member to come up early and help setup. Does the EA need to be in the name of the person using it? This is between two people working on the same art project.

[MikeGyver]

Question about early arrival passes: the art project I'm working on needs to swap people for early arrival. The early arrival pass has the name of the person on it, but schedule changes mean we have to give it to another project member to come up early and help setup. Does the EA need to be in the name of the person using it? This is between two people working on the same art project.

EA pass Must be in the persons name that is using it. EA passes can not be traded or sold. You might be able to sort it out with ticketing but no guarantees.

[zorro sings]

Well maybe art project EAs are different than theme camps EAs (I doubt it) but there are no names on these. The bar code is connected to the camp/project but that is it.

[nkarsant]

I am trying to buy a ticket from someone who has their ticket waiting for them at will call. What do I/he need too do to ensure that i can retrieve the ticket even though the ticket is under his name??

[Eric]

I am trying to buy a ticket from someone who has their ticket waiting for them at will call. What do I/he need too do to ensure that i can retrieve the ticket even though the ticket is under his name??

Will Call orders can only be split at the Will Call Office on playa.
When he picks up the tickets, he gives one back to Will Call in your name. This also means that the original ticket holder needs to arrive first. The only way to ensure he puts one in your name is to show up with him, otherwise it's completely a trust issue. If it's a friend, or someone who you're strongly connected to through friends, you have a little more security. If it's a stranger ... it all boils down to whether or not you think you can trust him.

[StPeteEd]

I received my initial congrats email that I was able to get a low income ticket. But nothing since. When will we get a printable ticket to bring with?
Please I'm getting nervous.

[Lenstar]

Thanks for posting. Some really good information there. I do have a question regarding waiting times queuing at box office and entry to the festival. Could you share a little light on what are the best times to arrive Monday and suspected waiting times? I know it's pretty much guess work but if there's a general consensus to avoid arriving at midday or 5pm I would love to hear. Currently we are planning on leaving Reno at 9am.

Thanks guys.

[Ratty]

Lenstar, Welcome to eplaya. First off, it's not a festival. Secondly, no one can predict when the participants will arrive. And lastly, radical self reliance means if you read the original post on this thread your question may be answered as best it can. I hope you enjoy your burn alot more than this snarky reply. (It's not even 7 am yet. What am I doing up?) kiss, kiss...hug, hug

[mrchiff]

It's a crap shoot. There is noy way to answer your question. There will be lines. There will be wait times. It's unavoidable for the timeframe you are referencing.
Even if there was a magic time everybody would then aim for that time and then it would be unmagic.

[chuckularone]

Even if there was a magic time everybody would then aim for that time and then it would be unmagic.

Truer words have never been spoken!

[Lenstar]

Thanks guys. In 2005 and 2006 queues around midnight were in the region of an hour but that was 9/10 years ago, at night time and also had 30,000 less people attending. I understand things have changed.

I was hoping I could leverage the knowledge of experienced burners to see if we was a general peak-time traffic to avoid and when would that be.

Ratty, it is kinda a festival , of course people can make predictions, and answers can be also found through collaboration; Self reliance doesn't always work. kiss, kiss...hug, hug

[trilobyte]

I would anticipate wait times of 6-8 hours on Monday. Shorter if it's between midnight and 5am, but otherwise expect the gate to be extremely busy. While a number of initiatives are being undertaken to speed things up at the box office (see the first post), it's still a matter of being a massive volume of vehicles scrambling to get into Black Rock City. It could end up taking less time than that (if so, woohoo), but plan for that kind of wait and make sure you have necessary supplies to make it through.

[Lenstar]

Thank you Sir

[alephia]

Hello,

I'm having trouble locating when the Box Office actually opens. I understand that gate road will open at 10:30 a.m. on Sunday. My partner has a physical ticket and my ticket will be at will call and I was planning on arriving Sunday but I just received an e-mail that states the box office opens at 12 p.m. (noon) on Monday. Can anyone point me in the right direction to verify or deny this information?

Thank you.

Edit

Nevermind, I figured it out and re-read the e-mail

"The Box Office opens at 12pm (noon) PDT Monday, August 24 and is open 24 hours a day through 12pm (noon) PDT Saturday, September 5. "

[Flint2]

Hi friends...Just arrived in Beatty and realized I left my vehicle pass in Texas. I have my receipts and the pass info...Can I bring this info to will call for a replacement pass? I also have a picture of the decal. Ugh!

[theCryptofishist]

I doubt anyone here knows... Your other option is having someone there overnight it to you.