The new lottery system in which hopeful Burners register for pairs of tickets ahead of them going on sale, is already causing much chaos and heartache among the furry-boot set. As the Guardian breathlessly reported this weekend, initial requests for tickets far exceeded the supply, leading organizers to guess that many people requested more tickets than they needed, and had friends or family members submit requests on their behalf, for fear of not getting tickets at all. As you'll recall, last year's event sold out, leading to a healthy black market trade for exorbitantly priced tickets on Craigslist which the tried-and-true Burner community finds disgusting. But hey, it's the American way.
In order to avoid rampant scalping this year, Black Rock City is in the process of creating "a Burning Man-exclusive reselling platform in which members of the Burner community offer their extra tickets at face value." Ha! Call us cynical, but we're pretty sure there will still be some people out there with profit motives, and some well off bond traders who want last-minute tickets who'll be willing to pay whatever they charge.
Black Rock City chair Larry Harvey encourages everyone to turn to "the community" for a ticket, and to only buy one at face value. BRC board member Marian Goodell reiterates, "The secondary market is the community, and we don't want people to feel they have a commodity in their hand that will help them make the rent. You're really hurting your community if you're treating this like a commodity." You hear that, scalpers!? You're hurting your community! Those $300 tickets aren't commodities with changing market values, they're magical passports to a land without money, where you can trade a book of your poetry for a hit of E, and where time stands still.
We'll check back in July to see if tickets hit the $2,000 mark this year.
