Fee Increases Violate Federal Law, Threaten Ability To Do Business In State

For more information, please visit www.brcvpc.com.

RENO, Nev. — Today the organizers of Burning Man filed a lawsuit against Pershing County, Nev., to stop the county’s attempt to impose a drastic increase in fees on the annual weeklong event, which is held on public land managed by the U.S. government. This action will not affect the 2012 event.

“For more than 20 years, the Burning Man community has proudly made northern Nevada its home, providing millions of dollars annually to the local economy,” said Larry Harvey, the founder of Burning Man. “We love Nevada. Unfortunately, Pershing County is making it difficult to continue doing business here. We intend to resolve this matter through reasonable means and work collaboratively with Nevadans to keep our business in the state.”

Black Rock City, LLC, is the company that organizes the Burning Man event each year in the Black Rock Desert. Pursuant to requirements of the Bureau of Land Management, which manages federal land, BRC has annually compensated Pershing County for all documented, event-related costs since 2005. As part of a separate agreement negotiated with Pershing County over disagreements about the applicability of the county’s festival ordinance, BRC has additionally contributed a total of $395,600 to Pershing County and local charitable organizations that serve its residents. Read more »

Addendum:  We want to make sure you all know that our intention is not to screw over the buyers in this process, but rather to make sure they DON’T get screwed. Check the list for your ticket number.  If you purchased one of these tickets, please contact partiserv here: partiserv (at) burningman.com and we will assist you.

When our ticket office is alerted to situations where tickets are being sold for above face value, those tickets are voided and the ticket numbers are placed on our voided ticket list. If you’re wondering whether you might be holding (or are being offered) one of those voided tickets, you can find the (regularly-updated) list of them here on our ticket page.

Individuals selling tickets at above face value are notified that the ticket they purchased has been voided. If they can provide us with the original ticket and either proof that a sale wasn’t completed, or that a sale was reversed, they are considered for a refund. It’s also made clear to them that if they DID sell it, they should arrange to give a refund to the buyer, since they are now responsible for having sold something that is not good for its intended purpose.

If you’re holding one of these voided tickets, contact partiserv here: partiserv (at) burningman.com.

And now for some ticket news. At this point, ALL tickets have been mailed out to those who purchased them — or they’re being tucked safely away at Will Call, if that’s what you specified. (If you have not received your tickets and are expecting them, contact our ticket support folks for help.)

Thanks to the fact that the BLM increased our population cap to 60,900 this year, we’ve got one more limited open sale of 1,000 tickets coming up this Friday August 3 at 12 noon PST. You must sign up beforehand to have access to the limited sale, and you can ONLY sign up during a twelve hour window on August 1 from 10am to 10pm PST — that’s TOMORROW– so, get ready! These tickets are non-transferrable, Will Call only, and yes, they will go FAST. More information and sign up on our tickets page. Read more »

Let’s get one thing out of the way right off the bat: this post will not reveal a magic solution to Burning Man’s traffic woes. There is no wand to wave to quickly transport you onto the playa and prevent you from ever having another exhausting Exodus experience. If I said that, you’d know I was lying, because getting 60,000 people in and out of Black Rock City using a two lane rural highway is no easy task. Traffic will, for the foreseeable future, be a part of the Burning Man experience.

Exodus 2005. Photo by Borealis Aurora

Yep, I said it. And I know you know it. So, let’s talk about what we can do to make getting in and out of BRC a better experience for everyone, and consider what constitutes reasonable wait times.

We are continually evaluating ways to improve the process of getting into and out of Burning Man. Some of these will require years of planning, while others can be implemented more easily. Here are some of the changes we are working on for 2012: Read more »

The Burning Man Founders are excited to announce a new open position at BRC: Event Operations Director. This person will oversee the event-related logistics and operations of Black Rock City and all event-related departments (ESD, Community Services, Playa Safety Council [Rangers, Gate/Perimeter/Exodus, DMV], DPW, Café and Ice, and Art) as well as all physical manifestations of the event.

This position will be taking on the Founders’ event-related responsibilities, which will allow them to transition to the Burning Man Project as their main focus.

We are taking applicants both internally and externally, so please send this to people who you think may be great for this role. The best candidates come from other Burners!

POSITION AVAILABLE: BRC Event Operations Director

LOCATION: Burning Man San Francisco office

Submit resume and cover letter by 6pm on Sunday, July 29th, using this link.

JOB SUMMARY:

The BRC Event Operations Director will oversee and direct the ongoing event operations and logistics of the Burning Man event. This role will manage six event-related departments and oversee strategic planning and decision-making for the long-term success of the event. The Event Operations Director will consult with the Burning Man Founders on decisions, and will have full authority to make all decisions in fulfilling the responsibilities set forth in the job description.

The responsibilities of the BRC Event Operations Director will include but are not limited to:

*General management of event-related departments

*Event operations production and management

*Participation in the Executive Committee, the Leadership Forum, and staff-wide meetings, retreats, and processes

*Oversight of the Operations Team Committee

*Participation in External Relations

*Budgetary Oversight

For comprehensive details on the duties and essential functions of this role, as well as a list of qualifications and physical requirements, please view the complete job listing.

This is a full-time, regular position eligible for benefits in our San Francisco office.

Submit resume and cover letter by 6pm on Sunday, July 29th, using this link.

Peter Doty’s “Christmas Camp”, Burning Man’s first theme camp, 1993. Photo by Gerry Gropp.

[Please note we've changed the nomenclature for these types of camps from "Plug & Play" to "Turnkey" to better reflect the way they function.]

Groups of people who set up a camp at Burning Man – or hire help to set up a camp – with the explicit intention of having things ready to go in advance of the arrival of others, are engaging in what we’ve termed “Turnkey camping” (see previous posts on this topic here and here).

In recent years, we’ve seen a rise in Turnkey camping services, and the Burning Man organization has decided to address the issue by providing guidelines for these camps and their organizers. We thought you’d like to see them.

We welcome your feedback on this topic in the comments section below. Read more »

[Kristy Evans is a senior manager in the Gate, Perimeter and Exodus Department, where she has helped manage the task of getting people in and out of Black Rock City since 2007.  The logistics of traffic, people movement, and staffing a huge department still fascinate her, and with an ever growing city there is always more work to do. She first made the trek to the Black Rock Desert in 2003 and began volunteering in 2005 with Gate. She is a member of the Burning Man Leadership Forum, and you can read the rest of her bio here.]

Exodus Traffic, 2004. Photo by Jocko Magadini

Getting participants in and out of Black Rock City is one of our greatest challenges, and we figure it’s high time to share our ongoing work on the traffic front with you. For most Burners it isn’t the most vibrant topic, except for some of us nerdy types who like to think about systems and logistics (which is probably how we found ourselves huddling around fire barrels drawing traffic scenarios in playa dust for fun).

After the 2011 event, we received more responses (through our Feedback Loop process via feedback here: feedback (at) burningman.com) about traffic and wait times than any other topic. And we are listening. Those of us in the Gate, Perimeter & Exodus Department have been reading your feedback for years and have carefully considered the many suggestions put forth by the community. Read more »

Don’t be surprised if a group of lab coat-clad scientists descends upon your vehicle as you approach the Greeters station this year. You might just be one of the lucky ones selected by the Census Samplers! These eager burning nerds are keen to include you in a scientific probability sample of Black Rock City’s population. They’re gathering data to get a more accurate picture of who is attending Burning Man this year. Aren’t you curious to know?

Last year 42% of the people who participated in the Black Rock City Census considered themselves artists, and an additional 35% considered themselves artists sometimes (read prior stats from the Census). Do these numbers seem high to you? Low? We don’t know if the people who voluntarily filled out the Census were truly representative of the citizens of BRC. Read more »