A suggestion for decommodifing tickets

[Forrestberry]

A suggestion for Burning Man. Making the ticketing system a lottery would help to decommodificate things, and make it equal opportunity. Also, instead of using most of the donations for art, passing the infrastructure costs to the attendees. Why not use that money for the infrastructure?Making the participating parties responsible for the art. There for making the tickets a

[Forrestberry]

A suggestion for Burning Man. Making the ticketing system a lottery would help to decommodificate things, and make it equal opportunity. Also, instead of using most of the donations for art, passing the infrastructure costs to the attendees. Why not use that money for the infrastructure?Making the participating parties responsible for the art. There for making the tickets a

[Captain Goddammit]

The lottery idea has been tried and was the biggest disaster in BM ticketing history.
There are very good reasons it’s a terrible idea that fucks things all up, rather than repeat them here you could look it up yourself.

What do you mean “paying for infrastructure”? Do you not understand “radical self reliance”?
The more shit like that happens the further diluted this middle-of-nowhere do-it-yourself event gets.
If you aren’t bringing your own infrastructure to get by for a week, you’re the problem not the solution.

[Captain Goddammit]

So you’re suggesting “infrastructure” be provided instead of the radical self reliance that was part of the whole reason the event is what it is?
You’re saying we should be paying burning man to accommodate us, and that’s decommodifying the event?
Read up about why your lottery ticket idea was the worst ticketing disaster the event has had, it’s not a new idea, it’s been done.

One of the main worst things that happened is a whole lot of the art and camps didn’t get built, because due to that lottery plan, the people who were the “doers” didn’t get tickets, and the ugly truth is they need them more and are more important to the event than the spectators who fly in to look at it.
The people who haul all the gear and build all the stuff are the real burners.

[some seeing eye]

Also, instead of using most of the donations for art, passing the infrastructure costs to the attendees.

Very little of the ticket revenue goes to art. Almost all of it goes to infrastructure with a chunk to cash reserves.

You can look up the budget in the Burning Man 990 form. From memory less than $2M out of $42M. The big expenses are the BLM/law enforcement, medical, portopotties, food for the staff, equipment rental and paid staff. They save a lot of money using volunteers.

You can also learn a lot about the event from the Burning Man Census - detailed long version. There is a whole section on tickets. Very few tickets trade on ticket sites or even between strangers. The shortage is real. Usually when people suggest a change in ticketing (beyond just making it work technically!) they want it changed to get them a ticket and to disadvantage someone else.

[Eric]

Mod Note: I've combined the two identical threads, and moved them both into the proper 2019 Ticket Discussion forum.


No comment on the lottery idea, since I was a Mod when that was tried the first time and don't have anything nice to say about it.

[Sol Chemist]

42 Million? How much of that pays law enforcement to look the other way on drug busts?