The 2011 Burning Man Ticket Launch Day

Dear Burners:

Wednesday, January 19th was the launch of Burning Man tickets for the 2011 event. Unfortunately the annual ritual and excitement for opening day of tickets was matched with an equally overwhelming feeling of frustration at the ticket sales process.

Never has there been as large a simultaneous demand for Burning Man tickets as there was this year and as a result, our ticket vendor’s systems were quickly overwhelmed. This year’s standstill of the ticket purchase process was quite a surprise, since the technical systems hadn’t changed from the smooth launch in 2010. However, the demand challenged the servers managing the queues and as the In Ticketing staff worked to balance the load and we worked to inform you of the situation the process became more complicated before it was resolved.

It is inexcusable that anyone would have to wait to purchase a ticket for as many as 8 hours, and we are very sorry that so many people had to spend a fair portion of the day tweaking and monitoring their position in the purchase queue. In Ticketing is still doing follow through on the situation and is responding to every issue they’re informed of. At this time we believe that the vast majority of purchases in the initial queue on Wednesday have been completed. There seem to be some confirmation emails that have not been received and any outstanding inquiries will be answered as soon as possible.

We’ve been working with In Ticketing for years. They are not just a ticket vendor, they’re our friends, and fellow Burners. The ticket sales process has improved steadily since 2006 and in 2010 was completely effortless. Moving forward we will be collaborating with In Ticketing to ensure the queue won’t crash again in the future.

We’ve included a personal note from In Ticketing, below. If you have ticketing questions or problems that need to be resolved, you can contact them directly by visiting this support page, and using the drop-down menu to select the topic that best fits your issue.

Please monitor our information resources for any possible updates: the Jackrabbit Speaks Newsletter and the Burning Man website, and announcements on the Burning Man Facebook Page and our Twitter feed.

We will continue to monitor our public resources for your feedback on this recent frustrating experience.

Thank you for your patience and understanding. We very much look forward to seeing you in Black Rock City. Despite the ticketing hiccups we believe 2011 will be the best burn ever!

~Burning Man


Hello,

We respect and value you as a part of the Burning Man community. We at In Ticketing are not just a ticketing company; we are also longtime Burning Man participants that are deeply rooted in the Black Rock community.

In the course of our longstanding working relationship with Burning Man, we have shared many successes along the way, and occasionally a little turbulence. We know that the Burning Man experience is much more than just a ticket launch and you are much more than just a ticket holder. We consider you all friends and family. Our goal is always to make the ticketing process smooth and enjoyable for everyone and that did not happen this year.

We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience you may have experienced.  The number of people on the site at the time of tickets initially going on sale was significantly greater than ever before.  Although we took many additional steps to prepare for the increased demand, there was an overwhelming interest in tickets this year. This caused an unexpected delay in the queue, which had to be reset to continue processing orders.  We are aware of the frustration and impact that this had on many of you and are very sorry for this experience.

As a result of sharing information in real time while troubleshooting was still happening, some information given during the course of the day may have been incorrect. The intent was to keep you informed, and not to mislead, cause confusion or create stress during the process. We are working diligently to correct this issue and we plan to keep you in the loop of any further developments.

We appreciate what makes this community special and wish the day would have gone smoother for everyone. We are continuing to address these issues and keep you posted.

~In Ticketing [para_end]

About the author: Will Chase

Will Chase

Will Chase is Burning Man's former Minister of Propaganda, working on global communications strategy. He was the editor-in-chief for the Jackrabbit Speaks newsletter and the Burning Man Journal, and content manager for Burning Man’s web properties. He also oversaw the ePlaya BBS and Burning Man’s social media presence. Will first attended Burning Man in 2001. He volunteered as the Operations Manager for the ARTery (Black Rock City’s art HQ) and was on the Burning Man Art Council from 2003-2008. He was Web Team Project Manager and Webmaster from 2004 until he transitioned to the Communications Department in 2009.