The gates are open for the 40,000 Individual Sale tickets – as long as you pre-registered before noon last Sunday. I got in the queue at 12:00:12 – and it took about 8 minutes for my turn to come up. When I submitted the code for the second time, I got a “Bad Gateway” error. I had to refresh the browser and agree to re-submit my form data, then it worked. A relatively painless process, certainly much smoother than last year.
As part of buying the tickets, you have to agree to thousands of words of legalese. What are you actually agreeing to? Some highlights:
– you must spend 2 hours after the event picking up trash
– even if you’re going for a day, you must bring enough food, water, shelter and provisions for an entire week
– Burning Man has all rights to any images you take, or any images taken of you, at the event. You may only use such images for personal use. You can have a show at an art gallery of all your photos; but you can’t charge admission for it or sell the images. However, Burning Man can sell the images or use them for promotion as much as they want
– if anything goes wrong, including serious injury or death, you can’t sue Burning Man, and you can’t sue makers of art cars, art projects, and theme camps
– although you can’t sue them, Burning Man can still sue you
– you can use the Burning Man logo on items that you intend to give away; but you can’t trade those items for anything
– you promise not to be offended by nudity, and if you are, you may leave the vicinity or the event
– you are agreeing to abide by the Ten Principles. So, if you’re not radically self-reliant, in theory they can kick you out (or sue you); if you’re thinking about yesterday or tomorrow, you’re violating the Principle of Immediacy – and therefore the terms of this agreement
– Burning Man can cancel your tickets at any time, for any reason.
– you are not allowed to sell your tickets at a higher price than face value
– if anything goes wrong with processing your credit card, you’re SOL, you’re not able to use another one
For those who are interested, here’s the full text. It’s questionable how legally binding a contract of this type is.
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Are you guys kidding? Complaining about 40 minutes in the queue? I got in at 3:49:17 PM PST and I’m still waiting – TWO DAYS LATER! This can’t be normal!! But because I don’t know how close I could be I don’t want to risk refreshing when I don’t need to, which could just put me further back in the queue… Somebody help please! What do I do??
Probably give up…the tickets have been sold.
So, I “successfully” purchased two tickets from the sale, meaning I put in my CC info and received a confirmation email. Problem is that I realized I entered the wrong billing address seconds after I hit confirm. Hey, I feel like an idiot, but it was 430AM in India and I was delirious. My payment still hasn’t showed up on my bank account. Should I be worried? If the card doesn’t go through, will they contact me for corrections or will they give my tickets to the next person in line? I am filled with anxiety, help ease my troubled soul someone!
I would be proactive and contact their support people. If you got a confirmation number you might be OK.
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In addition to the comments I already posted, I want to add a few things that irk me about the ticket sales. The line for sales is unnecessary. Take some of the millions of dollars generated in ticket sales and spend some of it on this issue. Clearly the technology is available to address this issue so it doesn’t have to suck for so many people. I have been attending this event since 2000. I have never waited this long in a ticket queue. That said, I have never bought my tickets in advance. I usually buy them in the spring from someone who bought a cheap tier ticket early, thought they could go, can’t because of another obligation that came up, etc.. Today I felt really stupid spending 4 hours waiting for ticket sales. Last year I waited to buy my ticket until the summer. Wasn’t sure I could go until then. I was living on the east coast and the logistics were more complicated than past years. So I waited till I knew I could work it out, started looking for a ticket in June, and it all worked out. It was a little stressful because of the ticket scarcity, but I found one. The ticket scarcity motivated me to get one early this year. But really, the ticket sale seems like a total fiasco. I think Burning man should hire hire some more lawyers and computer people. Its an entirely expandable event if its planned for accordingly. If there were no cap on ticket sales, there would be no scarcity. No scalping, No ticket issues. I vote let everyone in. How big is it going to get 70,000. 80,000? 100,000? The more the merrier. Get biking across that huge expanse of playa. go!
I really wanted to read through the terms and conditions before agreeing to them, but with the warning that there is a 15 minute window to complete the purchase, or start over in the ticket buying process, (I had already been waiting more than 4 hours at my computer, wondering if I was still in line and what was taking so long), I knew I would be unable to read the entire thing in the allotted time, so I clicked agree, and bought the tickets.
6 hours booted many times but finally got my tickets….
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if you get the “tried too many times error” use another browser application. I got booted 3 times on chrome and now I’m using firefox where I’ve had no boots but have been waiting patiently for 2 hours.
thanks so much for your input, perhaps you’ll attend our event before speaking about it in the future?
2 hours and 31 minutes .. queued right around 12:05pm PST.
Good on your for hanging on that long- without being booted off. An inspiration for others we’re hearing from who are still in the queue after hours. Forget having a life: stick by the computer all day, because any second now it might be your chance!
Jeez… I feel for all you guys! I must have gotten lucky! I had no problems and only waited 14 min. I got in at 12.00.06…
I got in queue at 12:00:26 seconds and after about 10 minutes started having issues with the refreshing of my page. I have now been kicked out of the system for submitting my passcode too many times……. 🙁
12:00:45 over an hour in queue, had to refresh once, hoping I’m not here for hours.
Been in the queue since 12:00:19pm exactly. First two times got to purchase screen but it was blank, second time go to verification of credit card and it timed out. Waiting patiently now hoping that the last verification trip didn’t make the system think I got my ticket. The universe will somehow deliver I am sure.
Got bumped from queue multiple times and finally got this message:
“You have reached our limit for trying!” Sent email to support. What the hell does that mean!? I was in the queue at 12:00:39! Again, a challenging year for me after being denied by the lottery last year. Thanks to my camp leader, I got a ticket last year, so let’s hope I can do the same this year.
There’s a limit to trying? That’s wack.
Did support email you back? This happened to my friend as well
In past years I have waited in online queue for 5 hours or more, so I’m still calm and collected at 55 minutes…
Been in the que since 2:07 (CST) so 12:07 PST… still waiting… very hopeful!! It’s been over 40mins. I’ve had to refresh my screen 3 times. No way of knowing where I am in line… Keeping my fingers crossed and thoughts hopeful!
Can’t imagine how long i’ll be in queue now … entering at like 12:32 after session expired. Laaaaame
46 minutes in queue . . .
Still in the queue, 40 min later…not fun
I had the exact same issue as dilloncrouch! I selected num of tickets (1), got to next page to select method of delivery (ship to Canada), clicked continue, it hung for a while and gave the “session expired” notice!!
i was in at 12:00:48 and I am still in the queue 42 minutes later…sucks!
Waited 26 minutes in queue (right from 12pm) and then finally after getting through I was directed to the ticketing website, only to wait 2 minutes and receive the message “session expired”. WTF! Now I have to go back into queue … anyone else have this issue?
same thing happened to me, but it wouldn’t let me back in the queue because I had already used my passcode.
really 8 minutes to get into system? impossible i been in que for over a half hour and i was online 26 seconds into the sale