by Whatsblem the Pro
Burning Man Public Relations Manager Megan Miller wants to give all you volunteers some inside scoop for obtaining tickets.
The upshot is that the Direct Distributed Tickets program will not be repeated this year, so if you’re a volunteer but the Org has chosen not to gift you a ticket as reward for past labors, you’ll need to participate in the Individual Sale. . . which means you need to pre-register. Pre-registration for the Individual Sale begins on Wednesday, February 6th, 2013 at 12:00 noon PST, and ends on Sunday, February 10th, 2013 at 12:00 noon PST. The Individual Sale itself, which will be first-come, first-served, begins on Wednesday, February 13th at 12:00 noon PST.
Last year’s lottery wasn’t the only ticketing debacle to afflict our community. Thanks to repercussions of the lottery, a large number of 2012 volunteers were left ticketless, necessitating the hasty creation of the Direct Distributed Tickets program to address the problem.
The Direct Distributed Ticket program will not be repeated this year, according to Miller.
It’s important to remember that the people running and working for the Org are basically our friends; we’re all in it together and we’re all light-years beyond anything going on in mainstream society. . . but at the same time, we have to recognize that (A) the Org has quite a lot of power over TTITD itself even if burner culture is largely beyond their ability to control and direct; (B) power corrupts; (C) the people who make up the Org itself have shown us time and time again that they are not particularly well-suited for their jobs and not so vastly talented that they easily overcome the limitations of, say, being a humble retired landscaper and not any kind of actual expert on anything relevant (cocaine is, though, a hell of a drug, and sometimes just barely good enough is perfect). With all these facts in mind, it’s critically vital to the future of both the event and the culture that we avoid putting the Org people on pedestals, and remain scrupulous in holding their feet to the fire when appropriate.
So: When will these convoluted ticketing schemes from on high end, and yield to the voice of the people? For several years now, we have petitioned the Org to take the much simpler approach used by many, many other festivals instead of creating these Rube Goldberg ticketing schemes that either do nothing to thwart scalpers, or actually facilitate them at the expense of veteran burners. Maybe if someone could figure out a way to cut cocaine with humility, they’d start listening to us for a change.
This is the complete text of Megan Miller’s e-mail to Burning Man volunteers:
hello Special Events Volunteers!
some inside scoop for you on playa tickets! read on & activate!
VOLUNTEERS: PLEASE PLAN TO PARTICIPATE IN THE INDIVIDUAL SALE
If you are a volunteer who typically purchases your own ticket to Burning Man, please plan on participating in this year’s first-come, first-served Individual Sale on Wednesday, February 13th beginning at 12pm (noon) PST. In order to do so, you must pre-register between this Wednesday, February 6th 12pm (noon) PST and Sunday, February 10th 12pm (noon) PST by visiting http://profiles.burningman.com (and following the directions) during this pre-registration period.
After last year’s main sale left a lot of folks who build the core infrastructure of Black Rock City without tickets, we created the Direct Distributed Tickets (DDT) program.
This year, however, we’ve have a new and improved ticket process in place, including the Directed Group Sale. To be clear, there is NOT a plan to repeat last year’s DDT process. We don’t anticipate repeating the DDT process, and we’ve designed this year’s ticketing sales plan accordingly. So, if you received access to a DDT last year but did not purchase a ticket in this year’s Directed Group Sale, you should plan to participate in the Individual Sale.
(The 2013 Directed Group Sale focused on theme camps because they were the largest users of DDTs last year. By holding the Directed Group Sale before the other sales, we expect there to be less competition for the remaining tickets. The goal is to take care of groups early on, thereby increasing the chances for people to get a ticket in the Individual Sale.)
You can find more details about ticketing on the ticket page:
and the ticket FAQ:
http://tickets2.burningman.com/faq.php.
Thanks for all you do to make BRC the magical place that it is, and I hope to see you there in 2013!
Megan
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Megan Miller
Burning Man Public Relations Manager