International burners and will call

[benjamd]

Hi all,

So I went to sign up for the lottery today only to discover a major hitch in our plans.

We're from the UK and usually we purchase our tickets with our credit cards on our UK addresses, and then set the ticket delivery to go to our friends house in the USA. We meet up with them and all go down together to setup camp. This works really well, and in fact it has become a rule amongst members of our camp that everyone must have their tickets delivered in advance and not have them waiting at Will Call. This is due to many years of only having half the camp around to setup during entry on the Monday morning while the other half of the camp spends 4+ hours at Will Call trying to get their tickets.

This year however it appears we won't be able to do that. All international orders will be Will Call only. This completely ruins our camps plans for setup, and adds one more hassle for international burners that we really don't need! Coming to the burn from halfway across the world is hard enough as it is without having to mess around with tickets.

Now I'm actually visiting the states this week, so I'm hoping to be able to buy some pre-paid credit cards, load them up with cash and buy the tickets using these registered to our friends address. But I'm not certain this will work, can anyone comment? If this does work its fine for me, but what about all the other international burners out there?

Has anyone really thought through this fiasco?

[International Incident]

Well hello!

I’m a fellow burner from Australia.

There was NO QUEUE at Will call in 2011 (well maybe 10mins). I was working on gate and just didn’t hear any complaints about Will Call. The previous year, yes, there were problems but the powers that be have fixed the issue.

So stop stressing!


Cheers

[benjamd]

Thanks for the update melanie.

Not sure my camp will believe in a lack of queue though. We're British, we expect queues everywhere we go!

[Turtleburp]

And pajamas!!

[AntiM]

If this is your biggest concern, you are truly blessed.

[benjamd]

Hah, hardly.

Having said that, everything else is for later, I'll worry about that then. For now all I care about is knowing I've got tickets, and I can get in with the rest of the camp. The silly thing is we're moving to California in a few months, before the tickets will be sent out, but I can't buy the tickets to be posted to me there as I don't yet have an address there. Emigration makes all your other worries seem somewhat insignificant!

[Corvus]

And pajamas!!

Isn't that pyjamas?

[tummler]

...don't forget your bathing costume...

I love Britishisms.

[5280MeV]

Hi benjamd,

Good luck with the move to Cali, and welcome to the US!

We picked up an international burner in Reno who had been separated from her group by a hurricane.

Entry on Tuesday afternoon was about a 3 hour wait in the car, but we were just able to walk right up to the Will Call booth and grab the ticket. The Will Call area was a ghost town. Not sure what it was like on Monday, or how it will be in 2012.

[AntiM]

...don't forget your bathing costume...

I love Britishisms.

Soap and a smile?

[benjamd]

Well I hope will call is as good as 2011 again then. I'm sure it will all work itself out. See you all at the burn!

[carazy]

I was wondering the same thing as I'm from Australia but have friends in USA who usually receive the tickets. So I contacted the ticketing dept and got this response.

====================================
Hi,

I've read the FAQ and registration page and noted that it says "Note: orders from countries outside of the US and Canada are automatically held at Will Call."

The FAQ page states.
Q: How do I change my shipping address?
A: You won't be able to change your shipping address until *after* you have been notified of your ticket order being processed and receive a confirmation number via email. When you have your confirmation number, go here: http://tickets2.burningman.com/contact.php and select "change shipping address This is only for US and Canadian addresses.

I live in Australia and was wondering if my friends and I manage to get tickets would it be possible to change the delivery address for the tickets to be sent to our fantastic friends in San Francisco (USA) who we would be traveling to BM with, or would the system block us from changing the delivery address because it sees us as International participants eg "Automatically held at Will Call".

My apologies if this information is readily available however I've been trawling the forums and the BM site / FAQ and cannot find info that addresses this scenario specifically.
It may be worth updating the FAQ as I'm sure a great number of international participants are in the same boat.

Thanks in advance and have an awesome day.

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Hi Cres,

After your purchase is complete you can go through the same address change process and change it to your SF friend's delivery address.

take care,

:r
.+'*'+. .+' *'+. .+'*'+.
rebecca throne - xxxxxx @burningman.com *-
'+.,.+' '+.,.+'
'+.,.+'

Tickets Schmickets, with a side of Print
Burning Man
=================================================================================

[benjamd]

Thats fantastic news, thanks very much for letting us know, I'm sure a lot of international burners will breathe a sigh of relief.

[dragonpilot]

Holy Smoke! Waiting in the WILL CALL line is value added! You mean you're complaining you get to stand in a line with other cool folks and watch the freak show going on around you?

They oughta charge extra for that!

[Rice]

I live in Canada and choose to have my ticket held at Will Call. I have misplaced my ticket once, and worry about losing it during the entire 3000Km drive down to BRC...

Now I drive up, park. Saunter up to Will Call, show some photo ID and Vola. I hop back in my vehicle, wait a couple minutes and I am through the gate. No worries, no stress, no lost ticket. (It was not fun having to completely unpack my vehicle looking for the ticket that was not in "the ticket spot". Most stressful 4 hours I ever spent.)

Anyhow, that is my experience. Yours may be more or less awesome...

[Ugly Dougly]

You're taking a huge gamble this year.