More than 26,000 tickets for the 2018 Burning Man festival in Nevada’s Black Rock Desert sold out in the first half hour of the main sale.
Burning Man, which attracts more than 68,000 people each year, will be held from August 26 to September 3 this year and will celebrate with an I-Robot theme.
Tickets cost $425 each during the main sale, and vehicle passes cost $80. Main sale tickets have sold out since 2011, usually in the first 30 minutes.
Burning Man organisers claim that the number of people trying to buy tickets is often twice the number of tickets available.
Burning Man again prepared an online waiting room to ensure that the website was not overloaded with purchasers at one time. The waiting room gave no preference to purchasers, according to Burning Man spokesman Jim Graham.
Some people complained of being kicked out of the waiting room, though most seemed to be able to return to the waiting room before the sale began. The waiting room has experienced glitches in years past as well.
Alternatives for customers to purchase tickets after the main sale include a low-income ticket programme that requires an application for $190 tickets which ends on April 16.
There is also a limited one day ticket sale on April 4 costing fans $1,200, as well as a secure ticket exchange programme as a way to resell or buy tickets from those who are unable to use their tickets. There is also a last-minute OMG Sale between July 25-27 in which registration is required.
The event, which is currently capped at 68,000 participants, already attracts closer to 80,000 people when counting government officials, service vendors and some volunteers. Burning Man organisers are asking the BLM to hike the cap to at least 80,000 – at most 100,000 – though the growth would be long-term, not immediate.
Image: ToddonFlickr
Share this