Lottery effect on theme camps/art

[mshaman]

The Colorado theme camps have been devastated by the lottery. Of 35 members in my camp, less than 10 got tickets at last count. Yet I already see dozens and dozens of tickets for sale at $625-$1100 on scalper sites. We don't know how many tickets we'll be able to get. We don't know who will be able to go. We were told, "That will all be answered on Feb 1, with the results of the lottery." But the wondering, the waiting, the looking for tickets has only just begun.

What is the effect on our camp? Well, we can't take on anything too ambitious... we don't know who will want to contribute, or how to commit to donors that we CAN and WILL implement on the playa, because we don't even know who will be able to go. And we won't for a long time. So that means no large scale art. No big art cars. Long-term preparations and the ability to fund and staff a serious undertaking have been devastated, not just for us, but for every camp I've talked to.

Last year sold out. But you know what? Everyone in my camp got tickets, because we thought ahead, and bought early. So if some person who can't plan ahead wants to wait till August to buy a ticket and finds they've been sold out, no problem, in my mind. If he can't plan ahead enough to buy a ticket, he probably can't plan ahead enough to build a theme camp or a serious art installation. Which type of participant do you want to reward? Which type of participant do you want to attend? Do you want real art, theme camps, and mutant vehicles? Or do you want some dude who shows up with a backpack and sleeps under your RV?

I maintain that this system is a profound disincentive to contribution.

[triode]

I can personally attest that I would have put about two grand into BM2012 projects at this point, if there had been a reasonable ticket process. My camp is in limbo. I can only imagine what the camps that put up the heavy money are going through.

Good thing I didn't spend shit yet! Me and my wife both came up empty for tickets. We'll see how well the STEP thing works.

Leave it to the BMORG dips to put up a system that doesn't reward Burners who have their shit together. The organizers have been completely tone-deaf about the ticket fiasco and to the chorus of Burners trying to keep this thing from going off the rails.

Now 2012 is and will forever be the year with botched ticketing and recycled theme. Playa hugs.

[MrMullen]

Not to add to the choir of doom and gloom, but I am on a couple of Camp mailing lists and I am seeing the same effect on the camps too. Huge portions of the camps, including people heading and funding camps, did not get tickets.

I think this year's lottery is going to have a devastating impact on camps which will reflect on the event itself.

[Brianna_Beauty413]

This might not be a welcoming post but...most big camps already put thousands of dollars into their establishments. In that case I don't understand why paying one hundred or two hundred dollars more for a ticket would be that big of a problem. So make a couple of changes to your camps, maybe it won't have as many lights or as big of speakers but you'll still be there. I also understand that you might not want to buy from scalpers - but if it comes down to it and you really want to go - you'll do anything.

[mshaman]

This might not be a welcoming post but...most big camps already put thousands of dollars into their establishments. In that case I don't understand why paying one hundred or two hundred dollars more for a ticket would be that big of a problem. So make a couple of changes to your camps, maybe it won't have as many lights or as big of speakers but you'll still be there. I also understand that you might not want to buy from scalpers - but if it comes down to it and you really want to go - you'll do anything.

Brianna,
I believe you are right, that many dedicated burners will go the scalper route. I operate on an average of $4000 negative cashflow per year on the burn by the time I put my camp together and upgrade art/mutant vehicles/infrastructure, and I have already sunk $4000 in camp infrastructure this year. I would say that the $4K plus 12 months of steady preparation, fundraising, and bloody knuckles from building stuff makes me a dedicated burner. But I won't buy from scalpers as a matter of principle.

I will sooner sell the 18KW diesel generator, shade structures, multiple RV's and trailers off to start recovering what I can. I have been waiting on tickets to see how much I should sink on art/art cars, because I had little faith that the lottery would work. My fears were confirmed; unless something spectacular happens regarding ticket availability it is the end of our camp, because none of us will go through scalpers and we don't particularly want to endorse such a broken system with our dollar votes. The 2 groovy art cars and all the playa services and gifts we had planned? Canned.

Will Burning Man miss me as I pack up my toys and go home? I am not narcissistic enough to believe that. But BM will miss the hundreds of others like me when attendees see that the really ambitious camps, cars, and installations have dried up and blown away.