(No, this isn't really our ticket design for 2009)

By popular demand, we are pleased to announce the resurrection of the Burning Man Ticket Pre-sale, in advance of the holidays, for Burning Man 2009!

For years we’ve heard feedback from enthusiastic early-planner types who’d like to be able to gift Burning Man tickets to friends and loved ones at the holidays instead of waiting until January. As always, this year’s ticket will illustrate our art theme - Evolution - and we deem it particularly beautiful; a perfect gift. Other participants aren’t so concerned about holding out for the lower-priced tickets available on launch day, and would rather get a ticket now, and thus avoid the rush.

In answer, we give you the Holiday Ticket Pre-sale. Here’s how it will work: we’ll offer 1,000 tickets at $260 each (this will be the third tier ticket price for ‘09; more details on the full ticket launch will be posted on our web site on December 12). These tickets will be a special allotment and the quantity will NOT come out of any of the pricing tiers for our regular ticket launch on January 14. (And no, it won’t affect your chances to try for any of the first or second tier tickets when they’re available.)

Pre-sale tickets will be available online beginning Friday, 11/14 at 10:00am PST.

Tickets will stay on sale until 11:59pm PST December 28 OR the allotment of 1,000 presale tickets run out, whichever comes first.

For all the nitty gritty details, please visit tickets.burningman.com.

If only I could have made it to AfrikaBurn 2008.

It looks like an amazing event, check out this short slide show and interview with Monique Schiess, one of our Regional Contacts.

http://www.24.com/news/2008/soundslides/AfrikaBurn_festival/index.html

Red Eye Diner, 2008; image by Nightshade

If you dropped off your Burning Man recycling at one of the free 24-hour drop off centers in Reno-Sparks, perhaps you’re wondering what happened to your cans and bottles? Here is a summary of the free drive-thru recycling project operated by Save Mart in the Reno~Sparks area for burners during and following the week of Burning Man.

The total amount of recyclable materials dropped off in ‘08 was about three times larger than in 2007.

Read more »

It’s like a memory now, isn’t it?

The dust is out of your hair and your clothes. You’ve been sleeping in your own bed again, and maybe you’ve been out to eat. And you’ve gone to the refrigerator in the middle of the night, and you’ve had whatever you damn well pleased, because you could.

And isn’t it sad?

I saw the full moon coming up the other night, and all I could think of was the LAST time it was full, and it was rising over the desert hills, and someone was saying on the radio, “Hey, you hippies, have you seen the moon?”

Everything was still ahead of us then — the light and the dust and the music and the art and the wonder.

I waited a week before getting the playa out of my car. It turns out that after all that time and all that wind and all that heat, I discovered on the long ride home that I really really loved the smell of the dust, and I wanted to hang onto it as long as possible. And when I washed the car, the last physical remnants of the experience would be washed away, too. And I wasn’t ready for that. Not at all.

I had thought, after more than three weeks out there, watching those amazing people build the city and install the art, that I’d be really ready to leave. But of course I wasn’t. When it came time to go, it turned out that I wanted to stay forever, or at least until I could help take the city down. Complete the cycle.

But I couldn’t stay, the default world was calling, and when I hit the road, it was a jolt.

I couldn’t believe what a rush people were in to get off the playa; granted, they wanted to beat the crush, but even late Saturday night, the exodus had begun. People were going fast, passing each other, not caring about kicking up the dust anymore. That brought me back to when I was a kid, in the back seat of the car as my parents left the church parking lot, and watching cars cut each other off, all the rudeness and impatience. And I thought, all that talk of love and peace inside the church, and look at you now. And I’ve always believed that those parking lot scenes were the beginning of my disaffection with organized religion.

But that’s another story, and that wasn’t the feeling that stayed with me as I hit the road to Gerlach, and then past Empire, and then into the darkest hours on Indian land. Because there was too much to remember, and too much to look forward to. Read more »