When we covered the infamous “Burning Man” Festival, thrill-seeking California tech-geeks, Hollywood glitterati, and new millennium hippies were stuck on a mud-laden playa for days after heavy rainstorms stuck the region.
As an additional bonus, Nevada Rangers arrested many climate protesters for trespassing on tribal lands.
Good times, my friends. Good times.
But all good things must come to an end. Apparently, inflation is snuffing out the joy.
For the first time in over a decade, Burning Man is not sold out with just days to go before the annual festival in the Black Rock Desert.Between last year’s record thunderstorm that swept the playa away, and rising inflation, ticket sales for Burning Man are the lowest they’ve been in over a decade.We reached out to people on Facebook and asked if they were going to the festival this year, and why or why not. Responses included not being able to fit it in their budget this year.Organizers of Burning Man are offering tickets to last minute buyers without requiring pre-registration.
Likely, the exodus of Elon Musk’s Tesla, X, and SpaceX teams is not helping . . . as the tech gurus had a lot of disposal income to squander on high-end desert camping. But, I digress.
It’s so bad, scalpers are getting scalped.
As of late Thursday morning, the organization still had general admission tickets available starting at $575 (plus a $55.75 service fee). The official site found itself with stiff competition from ticket resale sites including Vivid Seats, which had tickets as low as $258, less than half their face value.Meanwhile, sellers outnumbered buyers on the Burning Man Ticket & Camp Exchange page on Facebook….The fall-off in demand is in sharp contrast to the years prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. Five years ago, would-be ticket buyers for the 2019 event were frustrated at overwhelming demand during the online sale, which strained the online ticketing system. In response, Burning Man pushed the Bureau of Land Management to allow up to 100,000 attendees at the event in the BLM-administered Black Rock Desert. BLM refused the request, citing the lack of security available over Labor Day weekend.
It appears long-time attendees are not sad about the development.
There is a sense among longtime attendees that many of Burning Man’s ills — from the much-loathed “turnkey” camps, with luxuries such as private chefs, to phone-toting tourists who exploit the event for its Instagrammable sights — stem from spectators who come to gawk at the spectacle, not participate in it. At a gathering that thrives off attendees’ labor, loafers are admonished for bringing down the vibe.Wolf, a social worker from San Francisco, admits she probably qualified as a sparklepony during her first Burn back in 2010.“It’s like, ‘I’m cute, but, oh, my God, I don’t have any water; can you give me some?’” she said, mocking her younger self.This archetype, Wolf said, is what’s killing Burning Man. For Wolf, going to Burning Man is not about capturing photos of your outfit for Instagram. It’s about “radical self-reliance,” community and generosity.“You bring things, not only to take care of yourself, but also to help others,” she said.
Meanwhile, the elite media struggle to find a reason for this development.
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