dBMblog
sold out
A response to Burning Man selling out by Halycon
July/27/2011 Filed in: community
WOW! Burning Man is sold out this year for the first time ever. Hard to believe. And crazy to be witnessing the panic on the interwebs as people who didn’t take care of their ticket needs are scrambling to find one. Burning Man’s Facebook wall & ePlaya are crazed with pleas for tickets and arguments about whether or not Burning Man has somehow “sold out” by selling out. I don’t see the logic in this at all, nor in the claims that Burning Man is now an “exclusive club” or shouldn’t have closed gates at all. Whatever. Tickets have been on sale in plentitude for over 6 months now, and the BMorg has been warning people monthly through Jackrabbit Speaks that the event will likely sell out for just as long. The huge frenzy for tickets on the day they went on sale in January, when the first two tiers of less-expensive sold out in a record 24 hours, was a clear sign that demand was going to be off the charts this year. So. So?
As someone posted on the BM wall, in response to some of the whining going on about “exclusivity”: “Burning Man is not a playground for the rich now...it is a playground for the organized.”
Halycon sums it up nicely at the end of this video: “If you want to go to Burning Man, keep picturing yourself going to Burning Man...If you are meant to be there this year, then you will be there.”
Lastly, this blog post is well worth reading for thoughts on abundance vs. scarcity: http://blog.burningman.com/2011/07/participate/abundanceorscarcity/. I like this:
“Reaching the attendance limit for ticket sales is not an existential threat to Burning Man, but it is an existential crisis. It forces both the organization and its attendees to ask: who are we, and what do we value?
Does Burning Man become an organization with a closed gate – or does it become something else? Right now I don’t get the impression that it knows. All options are … theoretically … on the table. What do we do? My advice, for what it’s worth: believe in abundance.”
The majority of Camp Get Found has had their tickets for many months now and we’ve long moved on to camp planning, coordinating and building, though I know of at least 3 Foundlings in search of their Golden Ticket.....here’s hoping that the universe provides for them.
Notes from the unfolding adventure