Burning Man moves to lottery for ticket sales
RENO -- The Burning Man festival in the Nevada desert may be nine months away, but organizers' new lottery-style system for ticket sales will debut Monday.
Organizers say registration starts 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 will be sold for $160 each to qualified applicants.
The 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 start 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.
"We believe based upon our analysis that most participants who want a ticket will be able to get one," organizers wrote on their website.
The new system calls for ticket buyers to register for the lotteries during a two-week registration period. At that time, they must declare which of the pricing tiers they would be willing to pay and provide a valid credit card number. A limit of four tickets per person has been imposed.
