New Burningman Ticket Process - 2012

[Dave_techie]

Some of us who are on fixed incomes are more thoroughly screwed by this than is appropriate.

I am poor, period, dot, end of sentence, I go to burning man because it is one of the few places that I don't feel like society hates me for being poor, but that is rapidly changing. I have been a doer in my time as a burner, I have worked hard, and even gotten a free ticket, I cannot count on a free ticket, I cannot count on being an artist, I cannot count on even getting a ticket if I can get the money together to get one.

This is how burning man becomes a rich kid, frat boy rave

This is how burning man becomes even more divided between the artists, and participants

This is how you get a whole lot more spectators.

This is how you kill an event and force it into the hands of the community.

At least when they were for profit they cared enough about their paycheck enough to not do things this ridiculous.

And lemur, you are ridiculous, Calling people who make an active effort to get their ticket early entitled? That is entirely backward, I do appreciate that people whining about not getting tier one tickets ARE acting entitled, that is the game. But painting EVERYONE who is opposed to this logistically faulty, community attacking policy of abject madness a whiner, or entitled? Is ignorant, and is not remotely representative of the community I love.


edit: I also want to bring to the attention of this community that stored credit card numbers are a terrible idea, sony, steam, amazon, all have in the pretty recent past had massive leaks, they have far better IT people than our prior ticketing agent, I do not feel comfortable with them holding my information for any appreciable amount of time.

[CapSmashy]

I take offense to what you've said about supposedly "dumb-ass hippies" (and so callously I might add) even though they just happen to be the backbone of this event since its inception - along with the cacophany society I might add.... "Welcome home" is the mantra of those who greet the return of their true family or tribe members whether it be at a rainbow gathering or a decompression et cetera. Please learn a little bit more about this event before you make such foolish comments about it. Nevertheless, I have to agree that the new ticketing system sucks ass.... It's a horrible idea!

Fuck me, just what we need on top of all of this, a burnier than thou, my patchouli don't stink god damn hippie...

[hugo6788]

really unhappy about this. I've already booked an RV and looking at losing hundreds of dollars deposit if I'm not lucky enough to 'win the lottery'.

totally lame reasons why they've done this. People who are keen are prepared to queue (surely no worse than the queue arriving and leaving this event!!) and I'm sure Bruning Man can invest in a company that can deal with the increased server usage.

totally gutted

[Eric]

last year, tiers sold out on the first day. there were more people trying to get 1st 2nd, and even 3rd tier tickets than there were tickets.

Factual correction:

No, they didn't. 1st & 2nd sold out the first day, 3rd the next (if I remember right). 4th didn't sell out until I believe May, and they released the Gate tickets to be sold and those lasted until early JULY. In other words, the tiers didn't sell out until July- about 6 months after going on sale. As for there being more people trying to get 1st & 2nd tier than there are tickets- that has been true since I started going in 2003, probably before, and the first two have sold out on day one or two for years.


Please feel free to return to the freak-out at your earliest convenience. Reality doesn't enter into this discussion.

[rexingtonfunk]

Just having to go through the lottery process and put our cards on the line like that is punishment enough. It's ridiculous, and I'm shocked! Why are we given so little information. DId they not think that the burn community would not freak out over this?! They better have thought it through to every detail if they are deciding to change the entire system, and have ALL of the information available when they announced the change! So if I can only afford two tiers are my chances slim? How does it work!? How many tiers are there? I have questions all day long! :CCCCCCC

[lemur]

lemur, you are ridiculous, Calling people who make an active effort to get their ticket early entitled? That is entirely backward, I do appreciate that people whining about not getting tier one tickets ARE acting entitled, that is the game. But painting EVERYONE who is opposed to this logistically faulty, community attacking policy of abject madness a whiner, or entitled? Is ignorant, and is not remotely representative of the community I love.

if you arent one of the entitled people ...dont worry about it! i was only referring to those ones..


but...some are that way, i feel.... i think there have been examples of this any time theres ticket problems/debates

one example is...suggesting how many burns theyve attended entitles them to loyalty or even in some cases.. a better spot in line...

we all feel we own the event because largely it is created by the people attending..

but we still gotta buy tickets..

a problem occurs there where people have invested time and effort to make burning man happen, they feel its theirs, the community owns it.. they own it..but then we have to pay the fees just to attend and play by someone elses rules....thus in some cases the people feel punished as that loyalty they expected isnt returned in the way they feel is best..

they felt entitled to a better /something/ and didnt get it.. and you read about it and hear about it in the community

my beef is with the people who seem to imply that their burning man resume entitles them to getting special consideration or treatment from the BMORG.. in my mind, at least, implying that anyone with a lesser resume, or.. no burning man resume really doesnt deserve the same consideration or treatment...


the people who worry about having enough money in their card when the tickets get paid for arent entitled assholes

the ones who feel they shouldnt have to deal with that trouble because of being a long time burner who does so much awesome stuff, and feel punished when they have to tough it out with everyone else..are

[Sola Gangsta]

I went to the burn last year and it was a wonderful and unforgettable experience. Some people I know have since stopped going because the event got too big and stopped being an experience radical self expression years ago. They have moved on to the Occupy# events and taken their costumes, drums etc out into the streets in protest of corporate control of our govt and bank bailout corruption. The mood of this country has changed in the short time from attending the last burn to now and the atmosphere everywhere is electric just like the burn was. The burn is now happening outside of the event itself. Symbolically BMORG represents the corporate takeover of our radical self expression. The test is can we take the 10 principles and apply it outside of the burn?

So I have a proposal if you dare. Its time to take the spirit of the burn back to Baker Beach and finish what Larry Harvey started and say no to the cops who stopped the original event. All of you who don't go to the event (or get excluded from the lottery), come join me and we'll torch our own corporate man. It will kick ass! Trust me, Burning Man is not going to be the happening place this year. It's where the 1% will be and you'll miss out...

[CapSmashy]

Granted, we do need to wait for "further information" before the full meltdown, freak out starts, but god damn, you'd think someone at BMORG would have caught on by now that we burners are a skittish lot over our event.

Dropping a bombshell like this without providing clear and complete details to go along with it is like the your doctor telling you they found a softball sized tumor but they aren't going to give you the test results for another 2 weeks.

I agree that chances are very high, that yes, you will get a ticket (provided you register in the first round, have the credit card fundage available, etc) but the fact remains that since it is going to a lottery system, the possibility you will not get selected for a ticket.

I think this fact alone will create an even greater initial ticket demand due to people with the means to do so hedging their bets and getting friends and family to also register for the first round of the lottery system across the tier system. I know I will and yep, there is a very real possibility that I may end up with 10 or 12 tickets when I only need 2 or 3. This has a huge potential to take a significant number of tickets out of the ticket pool (since I am not first person to mention this) for other burners and puts even more actual ticket seekers relying on sources like ebay and craigslist in thelast few weeks prior to the event since fulfilment will be delayed.

[Sola Gangsta]

Granted, we do need to wait for "further information" before the full meltdown, freak out starts, but god damn, you'd think someone at BMORG would have caught on by now that we burners are a skittish lot over our event.

The event has already left the desert... you just have to realize that it is now on the streets already! What is happening now is truly amazing and this is far better than the "canned experience" of radical self expression of the burn on the playa surrounded by BLM rangers. You are going to find out that as we get into this coming spring, what will happen in the streets will make last years burn in the desert look like a campfire picnic for old folks. It's not going to be the happening place; Baker Beach will be.

[Optoman]

We should all be fearful of a Lottery -


[youtube][/youtube]


I think that with the new ticket scheme Death Guild should hand out rocks at Thunderdome and give real meaning to losing the Lottery !

[Optoman]

[Sola Gangsta]

http://occupyorburningman.com/

Trust me you're going to waste your time out in the desert this year. The real burners aren't there anymore. The happening place will be Baker Beach! (I have it from locals in SF).

[CapSmashy]

Sooooo....

What's going to be so great at Baker Beach? A drum circle? People wearing funny clothes?

Sell me on why I should skip the desert and go there instead. Not some touchy feely" Dude, its gonna be so awesome and mind blowing" bullshit. Give me specifics.

Will I be able to park my bus on the beach and deploy my kitchen, shade structures, etc?

[lemur]

one of the reasons i go to burning man at this point is to see big ass splosions and firey shit.

burning man isnt my outlet for my political ire..

i am pretty sure youre never gonna see Crude Awakenings type awesomeness at any of those occupy camps.



shit being on fire.. splosions, for me, burning man is more about that stuff than a movement thatll fix societies ills

[mgb327]

I spent the night tossing and turning, coming up with tons of reasons this, reasons that. I boiled it down to this...for me. Dumb luck beats all the preparedness/planning/dedication/self-reliance I can muster. A lottery is a "gambling game/device". Most lose, some win. I think when the Borg releases the "more details" pages, it will be more full of holes than what we see already.

[Sola Gangsta]

Sooooo....
Will I be able to park my bus on the beach and deploy my kitchen, shade structures, etc?

The original burners just did all of this without asking (radical self reliance and all)...

This process is just starting, but an insider from Portland says that the BLM stats are actually much larger than the 50,000 stated attending the event and she organized the wind chimes east of the Temple of Transition this year. Several of us are thinking of skipping the event this year for a number of reasons, but basically boiling down to the fact that we recognize that the energy of the playa has morphed into the streets and is now a truer representation of the 10 principles than the event itself:

http://occupyorburningman.com/

It is getting bigger if you haven't noticed and come spring time the energy is likely to change the mood of everything. If you want to buy your event and have a "canned burn" courtesy of a corporation you have missed the original point of the burn in the first place. I have forwarded this to many people and we'll see what develops, but if you know your burning man history, Baker Beach is the perfect place to make a stand and now is the time to do it because the mood of the country is much different than it was in 1986...

[CapSmashy]

one of the reasons i go to burning man at this point is to see big ass splosions and firey shit.

burning man isnt my outlet for my political ire..

i am pretty sure youre never gonna see Crude Awakenings type awesomeness at any of those occupy camps.



shit being on fire.. splosions, for me, burning man is more about that stuff than a movement thatll fix societies ills

Yep. Who the hell wants to talk politics at Burning Man? I wanna see shit blow up and catch hippies trying to sneak in working p&g.

[CapSmashy]

I spent the night tossing and turning, coming up with tons of reasons this, reasons that. I boiled it down to this...for me. Dumb luck beats all the preparedness/planning/dedication/self-reliance I can muster. A lottery is a "gambling game/device". Most lose, some win. I think when the Borg releases the "more details" pages, it will be more full of holes than what we see already.

Except in this case it will be significantly more winning.

[moonrise]

Countless "hippies" buy tickets.

Larry Harvey loosely quoted '...I once was a hippie..." I can cite it, but I'm too busy working, duh!

[RedlyneM3]

+1 on the horrible idea...we have people in our camp that are trying to plan a trip here from overseas. smh

[CapSmashy]

The original burners just did all of this without asking (radical self reliance and all)...

Really? You got pictures of these school busses parked on the beach with a 12x40 kitchen and a couple of hundred square feet worth of shade structures?

I bet you don't.

This process is just starting, but an insider from Portland says that the BLM stats are actually much larger than the 50,000 stated attending the event and she organized the wind chimes east of the Temple of Transition this year.

Which process would that be?

Several of us are thinking of skipping the event this year for a number of reasons, but basically boiling down to the fact that we recognize that the energy of the playa has morphed into the streets and is now a truer representation of the 10 principles than the event itself:

Skipping the event? Aw shucks.

Well, I guess have fun out there on the streets instead.

It is getting bigger if you haven't noticed and come spring time the energy is likely to change the mood of everything.

This is assuming of course that everyone is not bored with it by the time spring rolls around.

If you want to buy your event and have a "canned burn" courtesy of a corporation you have missed the original point of the burn in the first place. I have forwarded this to many people and we'll see what develops, but if you know your burning man history, Baker Beach is the perfect place to make a stand and now is the time to do it because the mood of the country is much different than it was in 1986...

Wait, what? I can get corporate sponsorship and have all this shit i've been doing all these years taken care of by corporate drone underlings? Fuck, i've been doin it wrong all these years.


Oh yes, you have still not given any specifics as to why your thing will be so much better than my camping trip in the desert.

Details boy. Give us some details.

[MyDearFriend]

edit: I also want to bring to the attention of this community that stored credit card numbers are a terrible idea, sony, steam, amazon, all have in the pretty recent past had massive leaks, they have far better IT people than our prior ticketing agent, I do not feel comfortable with them holding my information for any appreciable amount of time.

This. This!!! I also have serious qualms about folks who want to charge me for something months before they ship it. If it doesn't arrive, then what? The 30 or 60 or even 90 day limit (depending on card and jurisdiction) will be past, and I will be SOL.

[Sola Gangsta]

one of the reasons i go to burning man at this point is to see big ass splosions and firey shit.
burning man isnt my outlet for my political ire..
i am pretty sure youre never gonna see Crude Awakenings type awesomeness at any of those occupy camps.
shit being on fire.. splosions, for me, burning man is more about that stuff than a movement thatll fix societies ills

Who knows what is going to happen, shit may very well blow up on Baker Beach. All I know is that having been to last years burn it isn't much different from what is now happening in Occupy (minus the eye candy weird art cars and firey shit), but I'm not easily impressed with toys and fire and the man burn while impressive is not why I go. To each ones own. I'm just trying to point out that not going to the burn this year isn't the end of the world and you aren't going to miss very much not going because the longer the Occupy movement goes, the more it is taking on aspects of the burn.

[Sola Gangsta]

Really? You got pictures of these school busses parked on the beach with a 12x40 kitchen and a couple of hundred square feet worth of shade structures?

The original burn was very small and didn't last a whole week - you missed what I was trying to say.

Too soon for details. Things are still developing...

[lemur]

You got pictures of these school busses parked on the beach with a 12x40 kitchen and a couple of hundred square feet worth of shade structures?

do you got pics of yer kitchen?

id like to see! i run a kitchen on the playa... and id be interested to see any kitchens that size, it might be helpful to me.


PM it if you want?

but yeah plz!!

[Sola Gangsta]

I have been in contact with a few people and we are thinking of giving invitations to everyone who gets denied a ticket to the desert (which could be in the thousands) to come to Baker beach labor day weekend instead. I have connections to the organizers of OCF who are also burners in Eugene, OR, but I'm waiting to see what develops.

[DanusLight]

I'm just kinda irritated that I didn't get the JRS newsletter. Thinking that maybe I had somehow became UNsubscribed I attempted to REsubscribe and got this as a reply Results:
Ignoring non-text/plain MIME parts
You are already subscribed!

Really? Then where is my newsletter?

[M_FULL_OF_GRACE]

Wow. I'm learning a lot here. I always mailed in my ticket money on the first day. I shouldn't say always. 2 years ago I bought my ticket at Berkeley Hat. I guess there won't be any more retail sales. I will go and i will have fun. I'm going to concentrate on the positive for now.

I agree with you, I know it is hard but I think we should all stay focused on the positive for now. At least until more information is available.
I mean, it does not seem fair, for anyone. I am dirt poor, should apply for the low-income ticket but I am not, because someone has it worse and they deserve that opportunity. I have my ticket money saved and I am willing to pay the highest tier. If I have my money, prepared or whatever then I feel it is only fair that I be able to purchase and get my one little ticket to go HOME! I have only been once and I am unable to describe with adequate words what going has done for me; this year I wanted to do it better. It is not fair for anyone. Rich, poor, newbie, veteran or this "real burner" that i keep hearing about.

But as of now there is nothing we can do so I think just staying positive and keeping positive flow about would be the best thing. At least for me...

[Sola Gangsta]

burnermotto.jpg

[M_FULL_OF_GRACE]

burnermotto.jpg

I DO CONCUR!!!