With every tix having it's own serial #, why couldn't the Borg create its own on-line after market tix site and announce that anyone caught reselling in other areas (eBay, craigslist, stubhub - would have their serial numbers dishonored at the gate. Then post a list of all dishonored tix so potential purchasers could confirm validity of tix. Seems like their are options to disallow scalping and it's a bit shocking that no precautions were taken.

Senor W Ley

For a bunch of people who hate on sound camps...from Opulent Temple to Root Society to Nexus...BMORG's first camp sure seems to be DAMNED CERTAIN they don't want to learn any of the lessons the sounds camps have had to pay for in blood, sweat, and tears.
Responsible promoters are, first and foremost, TRANSPARENT: Meaning: they tell you, look, the event's gonna sell out. Here's how many tickets are left, GET THEM NOW.
Do we see this on First Camp's part? No, we don't. "Oh, they should have known". No, we really, really shouldn't, since they didn't say a.) how many tickets were left; b.) that there was a maximum amount; c.) that there'd be a cutoff date.

Irresponsible and unforgivable. This, people, is a group of folks who think they can not say anything, and push off responsibility for running their event on everyone else. And when the shit comes down...oh, blame everyone else. For "shoulda knowing" things that they...oh...shoulda made transparent.

If people are hating on you, First Camp, you should just take it, Because you deserve it. You PHAIL. Completely.

Next year, it's LIB and Coachella for me. You don't deserve my money. Or my art.

www.whitewhine.com

At the same time, Burning Man pays no taxes to the state of Nevada.

Only drug dealers have it this good.

Click here:

http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2011/jul/27/burning-man-festival-sells-o...

here, here.

Burning Man is an example of what Ivan Illich called “institutional nemesis.”

This is the processes whereby an institution or group turns into the opposite of what it professes. It is a common phenomenon in human history.

For example:

In the early 1960s, when I lived in Greenwich Village, there was a local, independent paper called The Village Voice. It championed independent journalism and attacked the media chains.

Today The Village Voice is the root link in a chain of newspapers across the U.S. The local franchise is SF Weekly. It was recently found to have engaged in unfair competition against SF’s own local, independent paper, The Guardian. Institutional nemesis.

Another example:

In the 1970s, SF progressivism was a popular movement that sought to challenge the political establishment and confront stupid, compromised politicians.

Today SF progressivism is a sect, entrenched in the political establishment and promoting the careers of stupid, compromised politicians. Institutional nemesis.

Another example:

Early Christianity was a loose confederation of autonomous congregations, persecuted by authorities, and consisting mostly of the lower classes.

Within a few hundred years, Christianity became an authoritarian hierarchy, persecuting dissidents, and replete with great wealth and power. Institutional nemesis.

And right now, we are watching Burning Man. It started out as the creation of a few creative souls devoted to artistic expression and freedom from the patterns of the dominant system.

It is now turning into a rich corporate entity concerned about mega-management, profitability, and security. Institutional nemesis.

The capitalist system has a way of turning everything into a commodity even when the original intent is otherwise.

That's now happening with Burning Man. Most people who already have Burning Man tickets will soon realize that they can sell them for many times their value if they want to.

Many won't want to sell. Others, however, will realize that they can easily turn an investment of a few hundred dollars into one of a few thousand through a single transaction. That's a good deal, especially in hard economic times.

There's a jet-set market ready and eager to grab up the tickets. People from all over the world who have money are big fans of Burning Man. Many are willing to pay exorbitant prices for the privilege. They want to be part of Burning Man Chic.

Soon the organizers themselves will come to a startling realization: If they sell tickets to future gathers at their real market value, rather than the current, relatively low prices, they'll make a killing.

At current prices, the organizers stand to make from ten to nineteen million dollars. But if they sold the same 50,000 tickets at, say, $1,500 a piece, they would score $75 million.

Current organizers may want to forgo such huge profits. However, there will be profit-seeking hawks watching them from the outside. They will be willing to take great risks to themselves in order to do whatever is necessary to displace and remove such reticent profiteers with themselves. That's how capitalism works.

The bell of Burning Man capitalism has sounded. It cannot be unrung.

Click here:

http://www.mercurynews.com/top-stories/ci_18562698

I've been thinking about the very first comment on this thread, and the more I think about it, the more that sounds like a really good idea. Too bad no one thought about it for this year.

It's certainly not the first event to sell out. But I guess it speaks to Burning Man's popularity now that some tickets are selling for the price of scalped Superbowl tickets. I guess they just underestimated their own popularity.

At this point, it's hard to do the right thing even if you wanted to. If I had an extra ticket, I wouldn't sell it at more than face value. But how could I be sure that whomever I sold it to isn't just some scalper themselves? This is why an exchange run by Burning Man sounds like a good idea. My first thought was that it wouldn't work. People would complain that the organization is exerting too much control. But the current situation certainly makes the notion seem more appealing.

(And no I don't have an extra ticket. I bought two and we're both planning to go. Sorry.)

But all that aside, I think folks should take a chill pill. It may not be as bad as people are making it out to be. I just scanned Craigslist and found 3 ads selling tickets either at face value or in one case, in exchange for work on his car (he had a gift ticket and he wasn't asking money for it). So most people are being cool. The reason you don't see many of those ads is that they probably disappear within minutes, because there are so many more people looking to buy.

I suspect that in the end, there will be a few rich tourists willing to pay big bucks to be there, but I'm guessing they'll be a tiny minority. In fact, I think that the fact that tickets sold out a month before the event will probably mean less tourists and more participants than usual.