Burning Man Is Desperate For Cash (sfstandard.com) 37
AzWa Snowbird writes: Burning Man is urgently calling for millions more in donations amid faltering ticket sales and staff layoffs. The nonprofit's CEO, Marian Goodell, primarily blamed flagging higher-priced ticket sales and increased operating costs since the pandemic.
The festival has sold a tier of higher-priced tickets since at least 2016. In 2023, a limited number of more expensive advance tickets were available between Feb. 1 and Feb. 3, with 1,000 tickets costing $2,750 each and 3,000 costing $1,500, according to an archived version of Burning Man's 2023 ticket page. Ticket sales for the annual bacchanal in Black Rock City flopped this year after a rain-plagued 2022, and scores of burners later resold their tickets, eating huge losses.
The festival has sold a tier of higher-priced tickets since at least 2016. In 2023, a limited number of more expensive advance tickets were available between Feb. 1 and Feb. 3, with 1,000 tickets costing $2,750 each and 3,000 costing $1,500, according to an archived version of Burning Man's 2023 ticket page. Ticket sales for the annual bacchanal in Black Rock City flopped this year after a rain-plagued 2022, and scores of burners later resold their tickets, eating huge losses.
sellout (Score:5, Insightful)
You sold out, man.
Your counterculture went mainstream and you cashed in. Now the money is gone, and so are the people. It's over.
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Re:yep (Score:4, Insightful)
Burning Man used to be a counter culture event. People setting off explosives and doing whatever they want in the middle of the desert. Now celebrities show up in their million dollar motor homes.
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You sold out, man.
Your counterculture went mainstream and you cashed in. Now the money is gone, and so are the people. It's over.
This. The festival that celebrated counter-capitalism, has now been infected by it.
Just saw a video from a couple outlining their expenses for a week at BM, keeping in mind you’re in the middle of fucking nowhere.
Over five thousand dollars to rent your way though BM, is NOT what one would define as anti-capitalist.
Re: sellout (Score:2)
It was a sellout from day one.
It was always a con.
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It was never "counter-capitalism." Where did you even get that from? The communal-like hippie dances? Easily tricked by appearances are we?
Decommidification and Gifting are literally two of the of base principles of Burning Man. And if you hadn’t noticed, capitalism isn’t exactly in the business of long-term sustainable consumption when it measures success by the fiscal quarter.
Counter culture events in America, would logically find it quite natural to stand against the obvious main culture of capitalism. Hence the counter stance.
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If you're feeling really adventurous, you could try gurning on the Isle of Mann.
Uh... no. (Score:4, Interesting)
You sold out, man.
Your counterculture went mainstream and you cashed in. Now the money is gone, and so are the people. It's over.
Not even remotely true.
Burning man changed it's campsite rules, making it difficult for people to come and camp as a group. They changed the a ticket lottery to favor individuals and not groups, so that not everyone in your campsite might be able to get a ticket.
They did this with the best of intentions, people realized that only a subset of their campsite friends would be able to get a ticket and so everyone decided not to go under those rules.
BM was having growth issues (ie - far more people wanted to go than they had permission from the BLM), tried to change the rules to with the best of intentions, and as a result implemented a system that discouraged groups.
If they go back to the previous rules, Burning Man would be wildly popular again.
Re:Uh... no. (Score:4, Informative)
BM was having growth issues (ie - far more people wanted to go than they had permission from the BLM), tried to change the rules to with the best of intentions, and as a result implemented a system that discouraged groups.
If they go back to the previous rules, Burning Man would be wildly popular again.
2020 and 2021 were directly affected by COVID, but 2022 and 2023 both saw massive attendance numbers (70K+), with 2019 reporting near 80K.
Not sure how you figure it’s not still wildly popular. Those are all-time record attendance numbers, and the event is capped at 87K.
Letter from Marian Goodell (Score:5, Informative)
Not 10 minutes after this Slashdot article posted, I received the following E-mail from Maid Marian:
Support Black Rock City & Beyond
Hi,
If you’re getting this email it’s because you've probably had a ticket to Burning Man in the last 20 years.
Either Burning Man is still a huge part of your life, you F **#$% ing hate Burning Man, or maybe you’re ambivalent. Wherever you land, it’s probably been just as impactful for you as it has been for many of us.
What started for me in 1995 at the edge of a dry lakebed — where a tall man wearing a bedsheet and holding a plastic flamingo told me to "drive 12 miles to a black mountain and then left until you see five pointy things" — has evolved from a bunch of weirdos with guns into a global institution reimagining and reinventing what the world could be like if we did things a little bit differently.
Burning Man now is a worldwide cultural phenomenon that, since 1986, has been built and experienced by nearly a million people, both in Black Rock City and at more than 80 annual official events around the world. You may be one of those people. Whether or not you come to Black Rock City regularly, you are part of the community and we value the ways you have contributed to make Burning Man happen. Thank you.
It’s a little-known fact that revenue from tickets does not support the cultural movement that Burning Man has become. We do not want to raise ticket prices. In the name of Radical Inclusion, we actually prefer to lower them. But, the fact of the matter is that the cost to produce Black Rock City in 2023 was $749 per participant while the main sale ticket price was $575. You can read more about this inflection point and the reduced ticket sales in 2024 and how this has forced a much larger fundraising goal to keep operations going. Or explore the summary financial information going back 10 years to see how the higher-priced tickets have been subsidizing the event for some time, and how the drop in those sales threatens Burning Man.
The plan for 2025 and beyond is to flip the script. It’s time to think about the most Burning Man way to close this gap.
No, we won't go towards corporate sponsorship, additional RV fees or merchandise sales. Instead, we will turn to the community and invite participation and support to help fill the gap. Yes, we have reduced the number of regular year-round employees on staff, and we’re diving into the budget to trim what is already a lean and tight Black Rock City infrastructure and nonprofit management. But that alone isn’t enough.
Now is the time to ensure that Burning Man can persist into the future — not just as an annual event in the desert, but as a cultural institution that will be here decades from now, empowering future generations to reimagine the world they live in.
I would certainly prefer that our focus be solely on pushing the edge, rather than having to raise money all the time. But as we continue to provide containers for the future to be prototyped, we operate in the context of the default world, and that requires ongoing charitable support year after year to keep this thing going.
You already know we're not a normal nonprofit — we never wanted to be “normal.” But we are a nonprofit and to keep doing what we do, we need your help.
F-*&$ commercial sponsorship! \/
Contribute today so we can:
Prototype new ways of living, working and being together
Support art and artists through grants
Get Black Rock City off fossil fuels
Nurture Burning Man culture around the world
Capture the DNA of what we are doing to hand off to the next generation
Get funky and bring more cacophony of chaos
We are moments away from announcing the Black Rock City 2025 t
Re: sellout (Score:2)
who cares (Score:1)
$2750 for a ticket? Wow, I had no idea (Score:5, Insightful)
I thought Burning Man was a hippy, alternative culture sort of thing. It sounds more like a hippy simulation for rich people to me now...
They should rename it Burning Cash.
Same here (Score:1)
I thought Burning Man was a hippy, alternative culture sort of thing.
I thought exactly the same thing, if I were ever to go I assume I'd just show up on a flaming chariot or something, and camp wherever.
I mean how do they even check for tickets?? It looked like chaos driving in from all the pictures I've ever seen.
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Oh no. Anyway... (Score:2)
Woodstock 99 should have warned you.
But now where will all the tech bros bang drugged up hippie chicks?
Business finds out (Score:2)
What? (Score:1)
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Anarchy works really well for one person, it's kind of workable for two... but by the time you get to larger groups, if you don't have organization and authority you're asking for trouble.
Of course, once you have organization and authority, you'll get people trying to claim the top spot and rip everyone under them off.
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Why can't you preserve space so the anarchist can go off and be by himself?
Re: What? (Score:2)
This idea works. It's called the detatched single family home with a yard and no HOA.
LOL. Get fucked. (Score:4, Funny)
The moment they had a CEO position they should have seen they were no longer what they stood for.
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The moment they had a CEO position they should have seen they were no longer what they stood for.
LOL you don't have a clue about your history. CEO is nothing more than a leader. Every event needs a leadership, and virtually every long running event with that kind of turnover and planning requirements has a professional organisation orchestrating it from the top. When you run long enough leadership changes and new people need to be employed. What do you call those people in the job ad? Cuddly Decision Daddy? Tsar of the Flame? or just CEO.
The first CEO position was formalised in the 90s. They've had a C
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The moment they had a CEO position they should have seen they were no longer what they stood for.
LOL you don't have a clue about your history. CEO is nothing more than a leader. ... Find a better attribution.
Their CEO is "nothing more than a leader " who makes over $350K [givefreely.com], so there's the attribution that they've lost their way.
BMORG is the issue (Score:5, Interesting)
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The fact that during covid an unofficial burn was done on the site for little money shows that the BMORG is the issue here. They've gotten too greedy.
5,000 people at an unofficial (COVID) burn vs. 75,000 people at an official one.
Last time the event was that small was damn near 20 years ago. Perhaps we do the math before assuming.
Commercialized self realization...? (Score:1)
Oh well (Score:2)
Burning man hasn't been a relevant event for at least 25 years.
Just ask the LGBTQQIAPBLMDEI feminism community (Score:1)