Thanks a million to Anonymous Burner for sharing this timely evidence. BMOrg doesn’t want to explain how Commodification Camps got so many tickets to an event that was sold out in February, so it’s left to Burners.Me and our wonderful community of readers.
These tickets were offered secretly to some Theme Camps, as well as Commodification Camps – right up to the last minute. A special code was required to apply for them. Read the fine print: although they call it “Donation Ticket”, only $250 of the $650 is actually tax-deductible.
2500 tickets were sold back to STEP by Burners, but only 1500 Burners in the STEP queue got tickets. BMOrg held onto 1000 for some purpose – probably this one – before saying they would release another 1000 tickets into STEP, and an extra 2000 into their OMG sale. They closed the STEP queue early, and we have no way of knowing how many STEPpers got tickets, and how many were left wanting after 3 months of waiting patiently.
Here’s a copy of the original email from BMOrg staffer Steven Young, which was leaked to us by another source in June.
From: Steven Young <steven.young@burningmanproject.org>
Subject: Donation Ticket Introduction
Date: June XX, 2014 [snip]
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[Update 10/13/14 10:24am]
A couple of Burners have wondered about the date and time on the screenshots above. It is midnight August 25 – that’s when the event started (yes, we know, technically it started at 10am Sunday 24th – blame BMOrg for being confused, not us).
However, this block of 10 tickets was sold after the OMG sale. Anonymous Burner tell us:
the order date isn’t on there. I do know for certain that the transaction occurred post OMG sale! Tickets were “sold” as part of a package deal to mates who flew into Bman, got picked up at the airport and checked into their cube. Each had a bike and or scooter waiting for them and a survival pack, with access to a “handicap registered” golfcart.…and a whole lot of expectation based on the price they paid. Expectations that no Real Burner would ever have and no Camp could have ever fulfilled without everyone pitching in.
These camps are not without their headaches! Many of those failed expectations have led to people wanting their money back or not paying and the dominoes fall from there. There are many who have not gotten paid as promised for their time and energy put in, cargo containers are being held hostage as payments haven’t been made to the trucking co. while the higher ups have taken their cut off the top.
The community pays the price, while the bosses bank whatever cash they can get their hands on. A familiar story.
This revelation highlights further lies truth-stretching from BMOrg. Steven Young said in his email “this is a short-term initiative about which we’re being discreet” – that was in early June, and they were still selling the tickets right up to the start of the event at the end of August.