Tickets

Historical Tickets

A long time ago, in a Playa far far away

Everything (used to) start from a Ticket. Before pandemic, having a ticket used to mean to be blessed! If you had a spare ticket you would pick the person you liked better to sell to. Scalping was never really a thing because the Burning Man Org used to patrol and cancel tickets that were sold at higher price but could totally have been.

The mantra, at the time, was BUY NOW, THINK LATER. You were guaranteed that you would have find someone to sell your ticket if you changed your mind.

But, as usual, with pandemic everything changed:

  • In 2022 (the first before pandemic) all tickets were sold but it felt “easy” to get tickets
  • In 2023 all tickets were sold from the org but a bunch of people (mainly camps) ended up with too many (unused/unsellable) tickets
  • In 2024 (the year after the Mugalypse) there were unsold tickets. Yes! For the first time since 2011 BM was suddenly not sold out. Things that simply weren’t a thing, they became a thing:
    • People ended up selling (and buying) tickets at a price lower than face value (and buyers were negotiating “discounts”)
    • It was possible to buy tickets at the entrance (!)

To be fair, this has been the trend for all Music festivals at least in US, not only BM.

Now much a Ticket (used to) cost anyway

Apparently the initial ticket was 15$ but in the recent times, there were pretty much 5 kinds of tickets (increasingly expensive):

  • Credentials: Free tickets for staff, contractors and committed volunteers. You cannot sell/gift these.
  • Low income: Highly discounted tickets (like < 200$), it was necessary to apply, send your latest tax declaration and wait. You cannot sell/gift these.
    • As rule of thumb everyone that made < 100k$ the previous year would have made (that meant that almost everyone in countries like Italy, Greece, Spain could have used this tier)
  • Reduced price: Half price tickets (~250$) for (less) committed volunteers. You cannot sell/gift these.
  • Main sale ticket: ~550$ this was the first “no string attached” ticket. You can sell/gift these.
    • This was the ticket that people was generally trying to get (and was hard to get)
    • The org used to claim that this was the price necessary to “break even”
  • FOMO tickets: Priced at 1'500-3'000$ were generally easy (or easier) to get. They were essentially a Main sale Ticket + a donation to the Org.

Some notes:

  • All tickets would have given you the same of all others (pretty much entrance to the venue and porta potties 😄)
  • In addition to that you would have needed a vehicle pass (VP) for each car/van/RV in your group. Prices would vary (free with credential, half for reduced price, etc) but always < 150$ each
  • All prices were “+ taxes” that were substantial. So a 550$ ticket would have costed you like 700$. Reason for this was mainly tax “optimization”. See next pic for an example from 2024 of a classic 2 Tickets + 1 Vehicle Pass Plus Taxes.

2024 Tickets

OK What now?

This year the org is trying something new. In addition to the “main sale ticket” (that now it is called “Today/Tomorrow sale”) there are a lot of “FOMO-lke” tickets.

  • $550
  • $650
  • $750
  • $950
  • $1,500, and $3,000 (essentially the old FOMO tickets)

Today Sale pricing

Credentials, Low income and (probably, but don’t have info yet) Reduced price tickets are still here to stay. The CFO recently mentioned in a town hall that the “break even” price is now $750 (that is quite an increment from last year, remember you need to pay taxes on top of it)

Should I buy a ticket?

FOMO image!

I would personally buy all tickets you can in the cheapest tier ($550). The max you can buy is 2 tickets and 1 vehicle pass. Buy them! I am optimistic you will sell them at face value (if you don’t wait the last months to sell them) I am not sure I would buy the $750+ (unless I wanted to donate to the org, that may be nice). On the 650$ ticket probably I would buy a single one and no vehicle Pass (just for peace of mind)

How do I buy a ticket?

Do It Now! Buying a “Today/Tomorrow” ticket is a process in two phases:

  1. (the chill one) you pre-register for the sale. No adrenaline, everyone that pre-register will be able to join the second phase.
  2. (the adrenalinic one) if you pre-registered you can join the sale… but there will be less tickets than people (especially the 550$ tickets). I suggest to block your calendar for ~1.5h, starting connecting 30min before the sale starts and, depending from the year, press “refresh” a lot (or just wait) the website will make it clear if refreshing will be counter productive

For “Today sale”:

  • The first phase is between Feb 3rd and Feb 11th at noon Pacific Time Zone (i.e., 9PM Central Europe Time Zone).**
  • The second phase is on Feb 12 at noon (PST, California time, 9PM in Europe). Please arrive earlier!
  • You need to go on https://tickets.burningman.org/ for registering and participating to the sale

A note on logistics

Two things you have to keep in mind:

  1. Tickets are not shipped to Switzerland (but are shipped in EU, e.g., Germany). International shipment is expensive and scary. In the past I got the tickets shipped at friends/office in the US. Currently I enter before the event starts and I simply go for a “Will call” and I have a stop at the box office.
  2. European Credit Cards not always work. Be prepared with multiple credit cards and make sure that they have enough credit and they are enabled for buying things from the US.

Hey! I bought two tickets! And now?

Congratulations!

First of all… congrats! Second, I am sure that among all of us, there will be people that didn’t get the ticket. Please check if someone in the group chat doesn’t have one yet. If everyone got one, tell me (Marco), I am positive I will find you a buyer