The association’s management team is responsible for balancing financial risks and cultural risks. Above all, I understand that the ticketing plan is strongly representative of community culture, and we choose to focus on participation this year.
The plan reflects what we want to emphasise as a community, it is presented here to you as part of a larger step our community is taking, where we consider budgets, logistics, and other cultural aspects.
In this year’s ticketing plan I want to emphasise participation. We want to make sure that the people who build Midburn will be able to arrive with body and passionate soul.
These are the main principles:
Participation - this poses a financial risk, but we decided that the first sale which was typically an open sale, will be dedicated solely to departments, Theme Camps, and especially artists and their teams.
Low-income participants - 350 tickets (20% more than last year).
Ticket price - due to soaring inflation (5-6%, and up to 15% for certain services) we expect a sharp price increase by our suppliers, especially in logistics, transportation and security. The Art Fund received an extra 1% of our budget to help support and develop our artists community, and we are working extra hard to reduce costs. Bottom line: we’re trying to balance ticket prices and the number of tickets.
It is therefore decided:
To slightly increase the number of participants in order to avoid more than a 3% price increase (35 ILS). This requires an increase of an extra 300 participants which will hopefully have minimal effect on our culture. The ticket price this year will be 1175 ILS, with a total of about 8350 tickets (expected 8050, depending on the actual participation of Internationals).
The number of tickets allocated for the assembly, construction and restoration teams on the ground will increase by almost 2x. This expresses our appreciation for those working hard on the Playa and those who are unable to otherwise participate.
Theme Camp allocations - the old system is not working well. Camp leaders tend to register more participants than they actually need. It is understandable, we all want all our friends in. In practice, what happens is that whoever registers more, receives more. We want to strengthen the content makers of the city and share our communal effort more evenly, to have a vibrant interesting city with truly radical self expression and inclusion. We have to make sure no one is left behind trying to bring their radical expression (no matter how many times per second they can press F5 or how many friends they have). This year we are trying something else, we’ve mapped about 20 participatory roles in Theme camps and we’ll be allocating tickets accordingly. This will hopefully encourage more gifting and participation. We do not intend to dictate what counts as a gift, but we do want to encourage diversity and self expression. This is our year to make a quantum leap. If we want our community to represent the fringe, we need to make sure the mainstream does not take hold. Therefore, these participatory roles, or categories, are sometimes specific and sometimes broad, allowing some interpretation. We are testing it as we go, and always try to make things better rather than nostalgic.
Internationals - we will have x2 more allocations than last year (~400 tickets). We want burners from all over the world to contribute and participate. We will make all the effort possible to make our information more accessible in English.
OMG sale - number of tickets will be determined after the last participation sale.
RVs - ticket prices have been tripled, and we are working to better prepare for the logistics involved, and how they affect our spaces (especially taking free-camping space).
