Shipwreck Tiki Lounge "Tickets"

[Key Man]

Today I got the following email, which made me a bit seasick:

Friends of Burning Man's Shipwreck Tiki Lounge

The 2012 burn is coming fast. Hope you all mamaged to get tix for this year as the Shipwreck Lounge is going to be better than ever! Check out photos of our work in progress of a fully self contained and portable, air conditioned, Tiki bar built inside a 45-foot shipping container. facebook.com/shipwrecktikilounge

We are raising funds to complete the project and are offering many exciting premiums on tikilounge.eventbrite.com Entrance to the lounge is going to be a tough ticket this year so pass this email on to your burner friends. Thanks for your support of Ship wreck Tiki Lounge at Burning Man and may the Tiki Gods smile upon you.

Tiki Tom


I clicked the link and read:

For 2012 our plans, though no less grand as past years, will be taking the Shipwreck Tiki Lounge in a fresh new direction.

In order to continue bringing our artworks to the Black Rock Desert in these difficult and expensive times we are redesigning the entire camp to achieve a financial and workload sustainability.

For the past few months the Shipwreck crew have been designing and building an entirely new lounge within our 45 foot shipping container! Once completed, the bar will be shipped intact directly to the Black Rock Desert.

We knew from the start that by doing most of our construction back in the default world we would be bringing to the Black Rock Desert a bar the likes of which has never before been seen on the Playa. But as our project progresses we now believe we may well be building one of the most amazing Tiki bars ever seen on the West Coast!

Due to the Lounge’s limited size we anticipate our capacity to be perhaps 20 patrons at a time. So with perhaps 50,000 attendees expected in 2012, the average citizen of Black Rock City may find entrance into the Shipweck Tiki Lounge a very tall order.

We therefore urge all lovers of fine island drinks, tiki fans, and others who want to ensure their entry into our island paradise to take advantage of our premiums being offered through Eventbrite.
Your premium donations also help pay for the Lounge's considerable transportation and construction and bar expenses. Nobody makes any money on this endeavor, we do it for the love of tiki and the Black Rock Desert.


That page also displays this "Ticket Information" frame:


http://tikilounge.eventbrite.com/

I don't think I've ever visited the Shipwreck Tiki Lounge, and I don't know where they found my email address. Is it only me, or is this just wrong? Like the so called "plug and play" camps, it seems to flaunt the principles of Burning Man and I think that in the long run it damages the event.

My two cents.

Key Man

[theCryptofishist]

Yeah, I would say that anyone who opted for that would be in the "Suffering Bastard" category.
A lot of people on this board are going to hate this for much the same reasons that you do. All I can say is that there are hundreds of other bars that offer all sorts of wacky shit, and they don't cost a thing. You can make a connection with the bartenders just by being your own sweet self. That's the sort of thing I treasure about the burn.

[shykat]

Me no like.....Theme parks do this, called something like "fast pass" for an extra fee you get to cut to the front of the line..

[trilobyte]

Actually, the fast pass at Disneyland costs nothing extra. Speaking personally, I think this is just playing a shell game with commerce.

[shykat]

I was thinking of 6 flags.... which does charge. either way this camp is doing it.

[shykat]

It's their pitch that really rubs me wrong......

[pirotechnics]

Not really down with this. I get that the funds for everything have to come from somewhere but I just get a bad vibe from the way this is being done. At least be more creative then "Tickets"

[International Incident]

Not really down with this. I get that the funds for everything have to come from somewhere but I just get a bad vibe from the way this is being done. At least be more creative then "Tickets"

+1000

[fritz]

Bringing awesomeness to the playa certainly costs money, so I don't fault anyone for creative financing. However, I absolutely agree that the line bumping tickets are not good. If the project is fully financed this way, it will end up creating an exclusive private bar. Not cool IMO.

[Lonesomebri]

I've seen the Shipwreck Tiki Lounge many times, looks like a really neat set-up.

But I've never drank there, never been offered a drink, or sat at the Lounge....

You should see the dives I actually drink at.

LastBarOnEarth 2.jpg

[Ugly Dougly]

Like Janis Joplin said, "nothing, I mean NOTHING, if it ain't free!"

[BBadger]

What? Make a Burning Man camp lounge more like a shitty default-world club in the with a "cover charge" to bypass a line? What next? Buying prepaid-$5 "tickets" for watered-down screwdrivers? Shit, I might as visit a shithole club in Reno!

[Ugly Dougly]

If they gotta charge people, then they are spending too much.

[VultureChow]

Yikes.

From their Facebook page:

Access packages for STL 2012 are selling at a brisk pace.

If that isn't a glaring violation of Radical Inclusion, I don't know what is.

I have to say, eplaya has been good for me. I have such concerns about fitting in and being accepted in normal life, I think I would have jumped at one of their "access packages" if only to make sure someone would talk to me and let me at their bar.

Now I just feel mild disgust at the offer.

[theCryptofishist]

So, who's going to sit outside the Shipwreck Tiki Lounge and heckle?

It's how you earn your Bullhorn Badge from the Playa's Rainbow Boy Not Yet Old Scouts.

[VultureChow]

So, who's going to sit outside the Shipwreck Tiki Lounge and heckle?

It's how you earn your Bullhorn Badge from the Playa's Rainbow Boy Not Yet Old Scouts.

I'd counterfeit their "passes." Hand them out in the thousands.

[wh..sh]

They should just make it a private bar and invite those who donate.
I, for one, dont know these people (or like these people enough) to pay money and hang out at their bar.

[theCryptofishist]

Well, I'm sure they will have a full line-up of champagne cocktails... Krug champange cocktails.

(I hope no one said that already...)

[HandJamMasterC]

Ya, this doesn't seem like the right spirit in my mind. I've hand built every item in my bar ( One Eyed Jacks Tavern ) , starting after the Burn in 2009, and continuing up until yesterday ( Gawd, I hope I'm finished ). Never asked anyone for money ( except the wife ). Only fund raise among our camp members and friends - to help pay for the wine and champagne. We may be small, we may not be a cool Tiki Lounge in a shipping container, but we have fun. And we'll try and pour you the best wine and champagne in Black Rock City - the same stuff I'd serve you if you were at my own home !!

[theCryptofishist]

*imagines what going to the house of someone at Shipwreck Tiki would be like*
*shudder*

(I bet they give you three squares of toilet paper unless you buy the deluxe package.)

[wh..sh]

Ya, this doesn't seem like the right spirit in my mind. I've hand built every item in my bar ( One Eyed Jacks Tavern ) , starting after the Burn in 2009, and continuing up until yesterday ( Gawd, I hope I'm finished ). Never asked anyone for money ( except the wife ). Only fund raise among our camp members and friends - to help pay for the wine and champagne. We may be small, we may not be a cool Tiki Lounge in a shipping container, but we have fun. And we'll try and pour you the best wine and champagne in Black Rock City - the same stuff I'd serve you if you were at my own home !!

And I would come to your bar before I would go to any "fancy" Tiki lounge... not because its free, but because you don't seem to have lost focus on why you are doing this in the first place.
Thanks to you and your wife

[Ugly Dougly]

And, no, it's not like anybody has ever thought of bringing a "Tiki Bar" to BRC. Ufamea!

[RedHeaven]

If they gotta charge people, then they are spending too much.

Exactly.....

[theCryptofishist]

And, no, it's not like anybody has ever thought of bringing a "Tiki Bar" to BRC. Ufamea!

But, but, they are epitomizing the cargo cult like no other tiki camp!

[AntiM]

Where are the Menehune when we need them?

[percussivepaul]

God fucking dammit. I was ranting against just this sort of thing in the 'plug and play mutant vehicle' thread. That sooner or later we are going to be confronted with bouncers and velvet ropes and "Sorry, VIPs only". Entrance for the "average citizen" is going to be a tall order? And what are they selling? "Line bumper passes"?

FUCK. THIS.

I don't care if you have front row seats to the resurrection of Christ in your little shipping container. I don't care if you have two unicorns fucking on top of a flaming trampoline. I will not be blown away by your fancy bar (even if I'm sure it's very impressive) and I would not go inside even if you paid me King Kamehameha's ransom. I refuse to sit back while Black Rock City turns into fucking Shoreditch or Jersey Shore or whatever the fuck. At its best this place is about connections with people, about discovering and sharing the deepest expression of your spirit, about creating new realities that are not bound by the artificial soul-destroying constraints of the default world. If your project requires you to import the worst exclusionary bullshit of the default world onto the playa then you are DOING IT WRONG. FUCK.

[shykat]

two unicorns fucking on top of a flaming trampoline.

I wanna see that...........

[theCryptofishist]

Not if it's sparklecorns.

[Sk8GodFather]

The Shipwreck Tiki Lounge is cool as hell!!! When I need to escape the craziness of the roller disco, I hang out there. They help a lot of people out. Like everyone doing a theme camp it's hard and expensive. Give Tiki Tom a break!!!!!!! Don't hate!!! He is a good friend of the roller disco!!!!!

[percussivepaul]

Okay. I don't know them, but I can believe they're honest, hardworking people. I know (from experience) what goes into putting together a camp and I know it's not easy and not cheap. But I'm basing my reaction on what I see happening right now, I am just really afraid for the future of the event when people start selling access to their on-playa spaces and art and vehicles etc. Like, okay, if you create something, you should be able to enjoy it and host some private events if you want, I have no problem with that. If you create something really popular and you want to be able to give special access privileges to your close friends and supporters, then that can be okay too and I expect that's where this whole idea started. But it's all in the tone. They're making it sound like an exclusive nightclub, with a lineup of "average citizens" -- non-VIPs -- chumps -- waiting to get in, somewhat foolishly because of how packed this place will supposedly be, and with a purchase you can be whisked past the door. When I read that page there is no doubt that I am being sold something -- the privilege to skip the line, and the idea that I'm above the average citizens who lack that privilege.

I swear I read somewhere that people respond better to Kickstarter campaigns that don't offer incentives, but rather are just honest in asking for donations. Frankly I'd have responded much more favourably to a simple call for help. I might have thrown in a few bucks if I'd hung out at this lounge in the past and wanted to see it continue. I did so for the Black Rock Cinema, and I didn't have to be offered the privilege to kick someone out of their seat so I could see the movie while they stand outside in the lineup. I'm a little insulted by the idea that I would only give money if I get something in return, and that what I would want is a special badge that makes me better than other people. Once we start going down this path don't you see where it leads? Aren't you put off by the idea of people building walls and fences and hiring security and so on?

Am I in the wrong here? I'm open to being convinced. And in fact who cares what I think, I'm just some guy. But if you think what I've said is unfair, I'd love to hear an explanation of how selling 'line bumping passes' is not problematic.