Ticketing & Numbers in 2018
We recently had our 2017 Annual General Meeting, which is as it sounds – it’s the formal occasion in our organisation’s year when our Members vote on the big decisions that keep the wheels of our machine turning for the year ahead.
Among the decisions taken at this year’s AGM were some related to updates and changes in terms of ticketing for our 2018 event, which we’ve knocked together for you in an FAQ format below.
Q: How many tickets will be sold for our 2018 event?
A: The same amount of tickets as last year: 13 000. And why? There are a few reasons: first among them is that unlike a commercial event, we’re a non-profit – so ever-increasing numbers which generate increased profit aren’t how we operate. ‘Bigger is better’ may be how the default world thinks, but it’s not a motivation in how this wild & wonderful experiment grows, because we’re after quality, not quantity. So for our 2018 event, we’re holding numbers steady. The second reason is that space on our event site is now maxed out, and it would be environmentally irresponsible to increase numbers at the risk of damaging untouched areas by expanding beyond the footprint of our event.
Q: What’s the General Sales price ticket cost for the 2018 event?
A: R1,645 (including VAT and ticket agent fees). Importantly, this price does not reflect the actual cost to our organisation of having 14 000 people on site (that figure is the total number of people, which is a combination of 13,000 participants and approximately 1,000 crew and support service staff). As voted on at our AGM, our Members and organisational team (staff and Directors) decided not to pass the full cost of our event on to you, our community, but rather suffer a loss in order to keep the 2018 general priced ticket cost within the limit of CPI increases (ie: related to year-on-year inflation of costs). The cost could have been passed on to our community, but again: this isn’t a for-profit event, and we hear you when it comes to the increased cost of making it out into the desert each year. So in this round, we’ll take that knock in order to keep the event accessible. (If R1,645 isn’t accesible enough for you, check out our Subsidised and Community ticket options, which are much lower in price).
Q: When do tickets go on sale?
A: That depends on which type of ticket you’re talking about (there are a few).
Direct Distribution Tickets – which are available to Collectives (ie: creative crews involved in Artworks, Theme Camps, Mutant Vehicles and Performances) that register a project – have already started being allocated. Crew members on Collectives that have been issued with DDT allocations can start using the links they’ve received to buy those tickets from November 27th until December 4th. There’s another DDT allocation window coming for Collectives with projects that are registered, and that starts on December 8th.
General Sales Tickets become available when the first DDT window closes, ie: on December 5th in the first 48-hour sale (and there’s another 2nd General Sale sale on February 27th).
Q: This year, there are Vehicle Passes for the first time. Why?
A: Over the years, our growth in numbers has meant that the limited amount of camping space on our event site has been packed with camps that are very close together, which in turn has created a situation where space for emergency access has been impacted. Camps that are too close together and don’t have spaces between them are not ideal in terms of safety. We love fire, but if a fire breaks out and our Rangers or Fire Safety crew are not able to get within the camp to address the issue, then our capacity to deal with safety matters is compromised – and we’re not negotiable on keeping our community safe. This, coupled with our significant concerns about road safety means that we have had to identify the best way to reduce vehicle numbers, both on the R355, and also within our event footprint. Vehicle Passes have been identified as the best way to achieve this. There’s also our move to reduce fossil fuel usage (which is reflected in our investment in solar rigs for our DPW, DMV and other crew clusters) – Vehicle Passes make good sense from this perspective too.
Q: What about Collective crews bringing creative projects and materials – do they also pay for Vehicle Passes?
A: Don’t panic – VP’s will be issued to Collectives with registered projects that are arriving early. Suppliers, however, will have to pay for their VP’s.
Q: How much do Vehicle Passes cost, and where can you buy them?
A: R170 per vehicle, and they can be bought at the ticket checkout when you buy your event ticket/s.
Q: Why have General Sale ticket periods have been reduced to 48-hours?
A: For the past 5 years, since we introduced Direct Distribution Tickets that are allocated to crews bringing creative projects to Tankwa Town, the number of tickets available in General Sales has slowly been reduced. This is by design, to encourage people to actively participate by creating & bringing a contribution to the art, performance, camps and interactive activities that make up the magic of our event – and also to acknowledge the longstanding crews that have made significant contrributions over the years. In our 2018 cycle, this means that the majority of tickets to AfrikaBurn are in fact DDT’s, which means that only a limited number of tickets are now available in each General Sale (there are two: Dec 5th 2017 and Feb 27th 2018).
Moral of the story? Because this isn’t a spectator sport, project crews are afforded the benefit of direct access to tickets. So, consider creating a Collective, and then registering a project – so you can request DDT’s and avoid the bunfight in our 48-hour sales.
Q: What are Mayday Tickets?
A: These tickets are designed to accommodate international participants, who may not be available to purchase tickets during our General Sales due to timezone issues related to their location outside South Africa. In addition, many international participants do not have a historical project record at our event, and thus aren’t able to access DDT allocations.
Maydays will become available shortly after our first General Sale on Dec 5th 2017, and will remain available until sold out. They will only be available in between General sales, and are priced higher than our General tickets, in order to subsidise other ticket categories. In this way, they replace our Burner Support programme which enabled ticket buyers to make a donation that would make a Subsidised Ticket available to someone who could not afford the full-price ticket.
Want the specifics on ticketing for 2018 like categories, prices, dates and applications? Hit this button:
