insiders scalpers have exhausted the pool of suckers and are left holding a glut of tickets. Also, don’t be surprised if the population cap increases this year and there are more tickets issued, now that the growth-impeding issue of vehicles on the road has been neutralized.
Did Burning Man really sell 38,000 tickets in 20 minutes today? Or did they just say they did, with the expectation that they can keep selling tickets all year long through STEP? We’ll never know, but we do know for a fact that in the past they’ve claimed a sold out event and then attendance actually dropped from the previous year.
Here’s some of the viewpoints of Burners about the sale process:
Luke I’m heartbroken my 2 best friends scored tickets. I didn’t and we all clicked the link at the same time. I gotta say even though I didn’t get lucky the process was heaps better than last year. Great work guys!
Monique I logged on at exactly noon and 24 minutes later was told no more tickets available at this time. Bummed.
Stacey I was only able to buy one. Not two. My boyfriend did not get one. We are truly bummed
Scott Nice work! I got on right at 12 and had my tickets in ten minutes
Lynsey Got tickets within 8 mins clicked on at one second past ! Excited to go home
John I got tickets, but punched in exactly on time. I had two computers going, the other for a close friend. No dice with his I know of others who punched in punctually but came up empty-handed. Luck of the draw…STILL, PLENTY of other opportunities and SALES to come!
So Not fantastic .. Got this “code not valid” with my confirmed code for about 10mins before getting a sale is closed
Cassie I want tickets so bad.. How frustrating to wait in line and not get any for 1 hour. Now I’m on the search! I need 2 with 1 car camping pass.
Adam logged in right on time, had 2 tickets in cart, when I went to check out, would not take my credit card info – for THREE different cards. called my bank, they told me ticketfly was rejecting the charge, not the bank. 0 tickets. so frustrated.
Lawrence They double charged my account, then the sale didn’t go through. Missing 900$ from my account and have no tickets.
Farrah My entire camp secured tickets within the first 20 minutes. Very smooth and so much better than last year. Super excited to be in the official planning phase again!
Robert Well, I clicked on within a few seconds of noon, waited over a half hour till my turn came only to be told all tickets were already in shopping carts. Oh well, went 14 times, perhaps time to try something else this year.
Soleo Horrible! Servers crashed, half of my camp(long time burners) all sitting waiting since exactly 12:00 didn’t get tickets and already see tuns of tickets all over stubhub and ebay.
Jen Nooooooooo. Screen refreshed for 54 minutes and I didn’t get my ticket. So unbelievably disappointed
Liz Got tickets it was a breeze. Last year I was online for 4 hours to get a ticket.
Kevin Got on at 12:04. told to not refresh for 45 minutes, then told to refresh every 15 seconds. got shut out. I’d like to think that 38,000 people were in front of me and that it was not computer error….oh well hello STEP!
Megan Submitted payment and everything but never got confirmation and money wasn’t taken from bank acct
Nicolette No tickets. Sat in the ‘auto 30 sec refresh’ for an hour until I got a message that said no more tickets available. Most of the people I know did not get tickets.
Justin I was in line & all registered when i got kicked off.. went back to the site with code to find that all tickets were sold out! This new system (ticketfly) was a terrible idea to try to handle all of the ticket influx! Next time use a system that worked properly.
Blues Bob It sucked. An hour in line and all I got was the “sold-out” message”. I’ll try other avenues, but I hate the unpredictability of not having one. It’s fucked planning for a trip you’re uncertain you’re actually taking. And this was going to be my last year for awhile.
Simon No joy here, I’m just stuck with “We’re currently processing a high volume of orders” in a loop that goes round and round forever, for the last 17 minutes.
Holly I have 9 withdrawals from account of 399.00 for individual tickets starting at 301 pm transaction 2nd approved by bank then ticket fly kicked back I called them they say banks fault no they put money right back ticket fly blamed bank then burning man …. I can’t even begin to tell u how upset I am … After money being held by ticket fly for 22 minutes then getting look for confirmation email from us in 2 minutes or try again …. no email try again and same bs …. I held back in 2011 to give others chance to go and 2012 for personal reasons to deal with this …. I just want to know why the fuck it happened that I didn’t score a ticket when money was withdrawn and I have proof at 301 pm … wow
Sergent Pepper it was 34 minutes…22000 still in queue too. Just heard a news report about it
Seems like Ticketfly is maybe not so fly after all.
Last year we helped Burners deal with this with our story “Help! I Didn’t Get a Ticket – 7 Ways You Can Still Go”. Most of the information still applies. We don’t know yet when STEP opens, but the dates for the OMG sale are:
| Thursday, July 31, 2014 | 12pm (noon) PDT: OMG Sale ($380) registration begins |
| Monday, August 4, 2014 | 12pm (noon) PDT: OMG Sale ($380) registration closes |
| Wednesday, August 6, 2014 | 12pm (noon) PDT: OMG Sale ($380) starts |
(source: official Burning Man site).
[Updated 2/26/14 5:03pm]
So far 61,000 tickets have been sold (or reserved to be sold). Many tickets are gifted to volunteers and regionals. The 2013 Special Recreation Permit specified a maximum population of 68,000. According to Wikipedia, that’s exactly how many were there last year, no more, no less. Burning Man themselves disclosed the number as 69,613. The 4-year environmental assessment supported a population of 70,000. Bottom line: there are more tickets out there. In the past, the longer you waited, the less you paid – our prediction is that this year’s pattern will be the same.
Thanks to Burner Art LAescapist for this image – looks like some sucker paid $5000 for a ticket. Probably a stolen credit card!
