Monthly Archives: June 2012

Jun 29 2012

Ticket update: Still no decision, “we’re afraid of exceeding the population cap”

We asked what happened to the extra tickets, and Burning Man answered. Well, sort of. They answered in the vague, wishy washy language of politicians. Once again, BMOrg comes through with a spectacular display of indecision and confusion, that does nothing to help Burners and everything to help scalpers. Here’s the Jack Rabbit speaks:

While we’re currently evaluating ways we may be able to release a small number of additional tickets to relieve some of the stress in our community, please understand that we cannot sell an additional quantity of tickets that will risk exceeding our allowable population cap. Happily the new permit does give us a little bit of breathing room, though. Hang tight while we work to find the sweet spot between helping more folks get out to Black Rock City and being too precariously close to going over our allowable maximum.

Let’s dissect this a bit. They are currently 2,900 tickets away from their allowable maximum. However, Maid Marian has stated that they expect 6000 people to leave before the Man burns. So, that gives us 8,900 tickets breathing space – a margin of error that is around 15%. It is interesting that Will calls this situation “precarious”. Is it really that difficult for them to count the number of people they let in the gate, that they are afraid of being wrong by 9000 people? Why wouldn’t they just say “because of population concerns, we are going to have an auction for the remaining 2,900 tickets, and that’s it”.

There are a lot of grey areas in this ticket situation, and have been from the start. Grey areas and fuzzy numbers and different stories from different people, are usually indications of something afoot, someone cooking the books. Perhaps when all the insiders have sold out all their family and friends ticket allocations for $1000 each, then BMOrg will decide to sell a few thousand more tickets on the gate at the last minute – for cash, of course.

How the hell do they count this any way? What is the difference between the “population cap” in the permit, and the “number of tickets sold”? The BLM gets paid based on the money that gets generated, ie number of tickets sold. They get 3%. If the number of people there, is higher than the number of tickets sold, then the BLM is missing out on money. How can this happen, other than Burning Man letting friends and family in for free, or selling extra tickets at the gate?

I suspect that there will be a few more tickets finding their way to theme camps, art cars, art projects, key individuals and groups, and others on the secretive World’s Biggest Guest List.

Jun 27 2012

Support BAR – bring the magazine to the Playa

No, we’re not talking about AK-47’s and Fourth of Juplaya. Burn After Reading magazine started this year, and they want to bring you all kinds of stories about Burner culture. They are in the final stretch of their Kickstarter project, and they need your help to give them enough money to print out the magazine and hand it to people at Burning Man. They will also be hosting an interactive salon:

Our $7,000 fundraising goal will allow us to print a minimum of 3,000 copies of a 42-page, glossy, full color magazine about Burner art and culture to distribute at Burning Man 2012. It will also cover shipping costs, augment our schwag costs (we’re bringing tons of cool stuff to playa like our surprise gifts for scavenger hunt winners!) and help us truck literally THOUSANDS of pounds of magazines to the playa!

We’ll be hosting a BURN AFTER READING MAGAZINE COFFEE HOUSE at Sacred Spaces Village at (roughly) 4:30 & Esplanade : Tuesday -Sunday 9:30am-Noon. Our BAR MAG Coffee House will feature world music, story telling, interviews, talks, stickers, scavenger hunts, a documentary screening, lots of comfy spots to read the print version of BAR MAG and of course, delicious and fresh fair trade coffee. 

Burn After Reading Magazine was founded in February of 2012 by a group of volunteers who love Burner culture. Our staff is all over the country documenting art, covering events, taking photos, interviewing people and getting to the heart of burnerism! What compels us to spend so many hours, money, sweat, tears, and heart to make these giant pirate ships, these mind-blowing kinetic skeleton sculptures, these fire-breathing steampunk octopus art cars? 

Our dedicated volunteer team is ready to pour their hearts into the gifted Burn After Reading Magazine on-playa, print edition, and bring it to Burning Man this year. This magazine is about Burners, by Burners and for Burners.