Took a role as ticketing lead for our Regional Burn of 400 people. Set up the eventbrite with all tickets and vehicles passes, a census and developed a Directed Sale and Low Income ticket strategy. The sale was at noon yesterday, and the 300 general sale tickets sold out in 4:30h. Which is nice, but it also means we need to shift to a lottery next year since demand is growing fast. And that sucks because eventbrite is a great ticketing platform, and all the lottery ticketing systems I've seen have been super limited in functionality. I guess it's a next year me problem. I feel I've been better at being productive, tying off loose ends and checking off annoying tasks from my to-do list. A big one still to do is my taxes for the year. Maybe tomorrow? My accountant sucks because she doesn't understand what I do/the internet. So I'm toying with the idea of filling my own taxes? If someone's gonna fuck it up and do it wrong, might as well be me. Trying to organise a slavic Maslenitsa pancake weekend at my parents country house, but the main people I wanted to go with are all too goddam busy. I guess that's what happens when people have real jobs. Hesitating between keeping it super low key with only a couple folks or inviting some people it would be good to get to know better, maybe build some connections.
Good work on the ticketing thing! I've always wanted to do a Burner event where the tickets were 'stacked', and distributed by the recipients.. It would work like this: You select, say, 10 core members of the community. Past event producers, key artists, a couple of the theme camp organizers, etc. A good representation of the "do-ers" in the local Burner community. You give each of them 100 tickets. They distribute those tickets in groups of 5 or 10 to whoever they choose. You trust them to distribute the tickets to people who are going to be good to have at the regional event. People who get the culture, are down to be participants rather then spectators, people with clever new ideas, and the old hands who 'it just wouldn't be the same without you!' Those people then distribute their tickets - in groups or singly - using the same logic, to their network of selected recipients. Then, the day of the event... People show up at the gate, and they get a colored wrist band, that identifies which of the 10 'original' people was the source of this ticket. If you notice all the people with the blue wristbands are fantastic burners and totally making the event awesome, you know who to thank/appreciate. On the other hand, if everyone with a yellow wristband is a sexual predator and making people uncomfortable at the event, people can address the issue with the person who was responsible for distributing the yellow tickets. It is community accountability on a large scale. And hey... if you didn't get invited (didn't get a ticket), then you have some self reflection to do! If you invited someone who turns out to be a dud or a problem-child, then you have some apologies to make to the person you got your ticket from, AND the community at large. Talk about an intentional, thoughtful, and engaged community! This would be amazing, I think. Maybe you should do that next year. It sure is easier than a lottery. :-)
Haha that’s quirky! My one issue with this is that there are already some complaints about the community being too « turned in on itself » where it might be hard for newcomers to integrate. When tickets sell out that fast, but camps and community members might get directed sales it starts feeling « exclusive » to outsiders, because they might not realize how much volunteer work is behind it all. You need new blood for a community to not turn toxic, and segregating people by color (bracelets) might turn sour fast. Maybe for a small one-day party tho, 100ish people.
But that's why the selection of the "original 10" recipients is so important in my ticket distribution model. These need to be people who deeply understand the culture and intent behind the Ten Principles, and know that new people are absolutely critical to developing and sustaining the culture of the event and community. If they only give their tickets to the Jaded Old Burners, then that's the event they will have: a grumpy buncha has-beens who are More Burner-y Than Thou. So any responsible member of the "original 10" has calculated the distribution of their tickets to encompass the reliable Old Skool producers of fantastic participatory events, AND the careful selection of newbies with potential to bring something fresh and surprising. PLUS, it makes the COMMUNITY responsible for who shows up, rather than an algorithm. Don't like the mix of people at this year's event? Then go talk to the Original 10 about it. PARTICIPATE. Advocate for your belief/position, and help them direct tickets in a better way. Because... every year the Original 10 will/can change. It's how the producers of the event keep it fresh and keep everyone in the community engaged. (I had a small experience with this when I was one of the producers for our regional Decompression event, Seacompression. There was a heavy metal camp that wanted to put up a stage and have live metal bands playing. Since 100% of the music at Decomps is EDM, it was kinda crazy to dedicate an entire 40' x 40' space (and the sonic space around it) to heavy metal. But ya know what? It was one of the most popular placements at that year's event! People LOVED it!) So yeah. I think the "Original 10" ticket distribution idea is one that is GENUINELY Burner, and - if we all actually believed in the Ten Principles - then it could work. At least that's my theory...
Just saw this reply. The main question I got when I talked about your idea with some friends was "well, who gets to chose the 10 burners" ? A burner event without EDM sounds nice, would be a totally different vibe for sure. Our local regional has a shortage of stuff to do at night if you're not out dancing in my opinion. We're gonna set up a bar, to see if that helps fix the issue a little.