Okay Dopers – we’re counting down to the last month here before a huge throng of 25,000+ people begin their temporary migration out to the Nevada desert for the annual Burning Man festival. Got your ticket?!?!
I went last year and regretted it.
Eveybody wants to rip you off, and there’s nothing specific to do for really long stretches.
Uh… 6’ 4" – you sure it was Burning Man and not the Woodstock reunion concert???
Please explain what you mean by “everybody wants to rip you off” – the traditional definition would mean that you were being overcharged everywhere you turned (such as you would if you were visiting, say… Disneyland)… but as you know, Burning Man has a very strict no-sell policy. Did you have something everybody wanted, and they kept wanting to trade with you?
If there’s nothing to do at Burning Man, it’s because you didn’t do anything (sorry to say). The Burning Man LLC is under no obligation to provide you with any entertainment; you are expected to be a participant and not a spectator and as such you need to bring your own entertainment.
…I guess if you went there expecting to have everyone else amuse you, you would have been seriously bored. Sorry to hear it, buddy.
Some things live up to the hype, and some don’t.
Too Scary.
This is very reminiscent of a movie called the Wicker Man. How do they choose who gets to be in the burning man?
I went a few times a couple of years ago. The tickets have gotten to expensive for me though. I still tend to go to the beach burns every month though.
Oh, and this is a hilarious paradoy of the burning man site. Always cracks me up.
http://www.malice.org/BURN2000.HTML
Okay, what is Burning Man, and why would I want to hang out in the middle of a desert in the middle of summer?
I agree that the tickets have become obscenely expensive but unfortunately that is the only way they can keep 40,000 people from showing up and still have enough money to pay all the bills (BLM alone charges an obscene amount for the permit).
25,000 x $150 (hypothetical average) = $3,750,000.
Not much money when you think about it. One thing I am happy to here is that they are not going to sell gate tickets after Friday afternoon (or something like that), hopefully that will cut down on the frat boys just hoping to see some booby.
Baglady and I don’t get out the beach burns every month, but the next time we make it to one we’ll put the call out for you.
Saint Zero – Burning Man is “an experiment in a temporary community” and you make it what you want, really. There’s a large artist community that goes out there… but in a culture where we are so used to corporate sponsorships, thinking within the box, and being spoon-fed everything, it’s a bit of a transition to be told, “Hey, just do what you want.”
Burning Man is basically whatever you want to do out there. There are a couple of formal events, like the burning of the man figure, but you can keep as busy, or as idle, as you want. Of course, “No Spectators” being a motto, it’s best if you DO something, than just stand by and watch.
Hey Oldscratch – the prices ARE expensive now. They tiered it though, such that you could buy the tickets at $125 earlier this year. They’re up to $200 as of today, though. They can lower the price substantially if they took on corporate sponsors, but that would defeat the whole purpose of BM.
One way to save on the admission is to volunteer to work during Burning Man as a Greeter, Ranger, Lamplighter, etc. I’m rangering for the first time this year, but will be staying at a camp made up mostly of other Black Rock Rangers. The official volunteers get to buy a cheap admission ticket ($125?), you get a free ticket for next year if you put in X number of shifts. I think for Rangers it’s four shifts.
The reason for the tremendous increase in cost has to do with the fact that the overlapping government entities have all come to realize that they can make big money off of permit fees. BLM alone is asking for almost seven figures, I think. I also hear that they have to pay exhorbitant amounts for insurance coverage, again in the seven figures.
Having been to a few Ranger meetings, I’m blown away by the logistics involved in pulling this off year after year.
So, it’s kind of an Agnostic Mardi Gras? 
Uh… I don’t think I’d spend a weekend in the Black Rock Desert for this.