Organizers of the The Burning Man festival have set up a new lottery-style system for ticket sales that will debut Monday.
Organizers say registration begins Monday and ends Dec. 11 for those who want a crack at 3,000 pre-sale tickets at $420 each. Those who get tickets in a random drawing will be notified no later than Dec. 19.
The bulk of the tickets will be sold in a second lottery-style sale, with results announced by Feb. 1, the Reno Gazette-Journal reported.
Registration for the main sale starts Jan. 9 and ends Jan. 22. Up for grabs at that time will be 10,000 tickets for $240 each, 15,000 tickets for $320 each and another 15,000 tickets for $390 each.
After those 43,000 tickets are sold, another 10,000 tickets will be sold for $390 each in a first-come, first-serve sale in March. More than 3,500 low-income/scholarship tickets also will be sold for $160 each to qualified applicants.
The eclectic art and music festival will run from Aug. 27 to Sept. 3 next year on the Black Rock Desert, 110 miles north of Reno.
Organizers announced the new lottery system earlier this month after the first sellout in the event’s 26-year history. The festival drew a record crowd of about 54,000 late last summer, more than the 50,000 allowed under a permit with the federal Bureau of Land Management.
Organizers say the lottery system will begin to address the increased demand and limited ticket supply for the event. They also hope it will eliminate the rush to buy tickets online, which has meant lengthy delays because of overworked computer servers.
“It is our genuine belief that while demand does exceed supply, it’s not by thousands upon thousands of tickets,” organizers wrote on their website. “We believe based upon our analysis that most participants who want a ticket will be able to get one.”
Source Pollstar
