Ticket Time

Critical dates for ticket purchases to Burning Man 2013 are around the corner.  Since it’s my hope that each 50 and over person who reads this blog will go at least once to Burning Man, I want to be sure you have the dates and required steps in front of you as we approach the first-come, first-served opportunities to get in the gate.

Step one is already available to you:  fill out the Burning Man profile.  You can do so by going to http://profiles.burningman.com/.

Judie having fun on the Playa.  Can't wait for Burning Man 2013.

Judie having fun on the Playa. Can’t wait for Burning Man 2013.

Here’s more about the profile from my official Burning Man sources:

“Initially, the Burner Profile will be used as part of the pre-registration
process for ticket sales to Burning Man 2013. To create your profile and pre-register for access to ticket sales, the only information you’re
*required* to provide is your first name, last name, email address, mailing address and birthdate. That’s it … the same info required whenever you buy Burning Man tickets.

“Eventually we’ll be expanding the use of this new platform to offer
additional features. So, the more information you put into your profile,
the more value you’ll get out of it. Those of you involved with creating
(and registering) projects for Burning Man are quite familiar with the
wealth of information we collect year after year in order to process your registrations, and we want to make that whole process easier for YOU and for US by leveraging information stored in your Burner Profile.

“And in the glorious vision of our future, we believe Burner Profiles will help facilitate communications around on-playa and off-playa volunteer activities, give us the ability to provide targeted communications that are pertinent to you, and offer single-sign on account management to access all of the Burning Man information systems that you work with.”

Some people have expressed alarm at Burning Man’s attempt to collect data about its attendees.  I’m completely sanguine about this – I provide far more data to retailers such as Amazon who have no personal interest in me other than money, because I’ve found it makes my shopping experience better, quicker and even more rewarding.  Since Burning Man sells only tickets, it doesn’t seem likely that the organization would use the profiles for nefarious purposes. However, it will definitely help them understand the appeal of the Festival to different audiences and make adjustments as necessary to broaden (or narrow) that appeal.  Burning Man states that it will not share this information or use it for purposes outside of ticket sales and Festival planning.

If you have more questions about Burner Profiles, please check in at the FAQ on this topic, http://profiles.burningman.com/faq/.

Moving on to the next critical dates for ticket sales – pre-registration.  You must pre-register in order to be eligible to purchase a ticket online.  Pre-registration will begin at noon on Wednesday, February 6 and end at noon on Sunday, February 10.  Ticket sales will begin at noon on Wednesday, February 13 and end when the 40,000 available tickets are sold.  As noted in an earlier post, all tickets will be sold for $380 per person.

Detailed information about ticketing is available at http://tickets.burningman.com/.  This site will also provide a link to the pre-registration page when it becomes available next month.

I’ve marked all these dates on my online calendar so I can be johnny-on-the-spot when it comes time to register and buy my tickets.  I hope you’ll do the same.

See you on the Playa.