How To Get Tickets for Burning Man 2022
Getting tickets is a little complicated, and as there's more demand than there are tickets, there's a lot of competition and there are many more people who want to go than can get tickets.
Three important things:
These are the ways to get tickets you should pay attention to:
The official Burning Man ticket page is here, with all info for this year in terms of dates and times.
Three important things:
- To buy a ticket from Burning Man, you first need a Burner profile, at http://profiles.burningman.org.
- If you're driving in a vehicle that's not a motorcycle, you'll need a vehicle pass, which is $140 (plus taxes and fees - all prices listed are plus taxes and fees).
- They accept Mastercard and Visa only.
These are the ways to get tickets you should pay attention to:
- FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) Sale. Open to everyone. You can buy a max of two tickets and one vehicle pass. This is the first opportunity to acquire a Burning Man ticket, but you pay a huge premium to do so. These tickets are priced 3-5x higher than normal tickets and come with zero additional privileges. You are paying extra entirely to secure a ticket. In 2022, there are 3000 tickets at $1500 and 1000 tickets at $2500.
Registration: You can register for the sale at profiles.burningman.org from Jan 26 at noon Pacific to Jan 29 at noon Pacific. You MUST register first to be able to participate in the sale.
Sale date: The sale itself begins at noon Pacific on Feb 2 and continues until they sell out. In the past, the FOMO tickets haven't immediately sold out, but if you want to guarantee yourself one, it'd probably be good to be ready to buy when they go on sale. - Steward's Sale (formerly called the Directed Group Sale) Only open to people in theme camps or art/mutant vehicle support camps. This is one of the two big ones, along with the Main Sale (next on the list, below). For 2022, there will be 35,000 tickets at $475 each and 15,000 vehicle passes at $140 each in this sale that get sold directly to members of theme camps, mutant vehicle camps, and a couple others. The Org does this because these camps are what provides most of the interactivity and entertainment in Black Rock City, and it can take a lot of people to build a camp or art project. Without the ability to guarantee tickets to a core group of members, many camps would find it impossible to pull off their plans. If you're eligible for a Steward's ticket, you'll find out from your camp/project leadership, and you are guaranteed a chance to buy two tickets and one vehicle pass.
Registration: Feb 23 at noon Pacific to March 4, 2022 at noon Pacific.
Sale date: March 9, 2022 at noon Pacific to March 11, 2022 at noon Pacific. - Main Sale. Open to everyone who didn't buy in the previous two sales. You can buy a max of 2 tickets and 1 vehicle pass. There are 10,000 tickets at $575 each and 10,000 vehicle passes at $140 each available in this sale. This is going to be very difficult to get a ticket in this year as the number of tickets in this sale are half what they were last time Burning Man was held, and demand is as high as ever. Realistically your chances are less than 1/8 or 1/10, but to maximize your chances make sure you're logged into your profile and ready for the sale BEFORE noon on March 30 (the sale date).
Registration: March 23 at noon Pacific to March 25 at noon Pacific. You MUST register to participate in the sale.
Sale date: March 30, 2022 at noon Pacific - OMG Sale. Open to everyone who hasn't bought a ticket in a previous sale. This appropriately-named sale takes place at the beginning of August and has 3000 tickets and 1,5000 vehicle passes available at $575 and $140, respectively.
Registration: July 27 at noon Pacific to July 29 at noon Pacific
Sale date: August 3 at noon Pacific. - Ticket Aid Program. Everyone can apply, but not everyone is accepted. If you are a low-income person, you can apply for a ticket that costs $225 in 2018, and a vehicle pass for $140. There are 5,000 of these available, and they read the applications in the order received, so apply early if you're eligible. You can read more about the Ticket Aid Program here.
- Secure Ticket Exchange Program (STEP). Open to everyone. This is an online system that facilitates the resale of face-value tickets that have been bought directly from Burning Man. You can be pretty much guaranteed that tickets bought through this system are valid tickets, but relatively few tickets are actually sold through this program. Info about the 2022 program hasn't been released as of writing this.
- Tickets resold within the community. This just means buying tickets from Burners, without going through the STEP program. The best way to do this is to connect with your local Burner community. The second best way is to pay attention to the ePlaya forums starting in June or so. It's a common place for people to post tickets for sale. You need to really check frequently though, as tickets posted for sale there will go very quickly.
The official Burning Man ticket page is here, with all info for this year in terms of dates and times.
Vehicle Passes
Starting in 2014, each vehicle coming into Burning Man required a vehicle pass ($140 for 2022), which you can buy at the same time you buy your ticket - see the link above to the official Burning Man ticket page. Make sure you have one or you won't be able to get in, and there is nowhere to leave your vehicle nearby.
Note that neither motorcycles nor vehicles towed in behind another vehicle require a vehicle pass.
Note that neither motorcycles nor vehicles towed in behind another vehicle require a vehicle pass.
Kid's Tickets
Kids 12 and under get into Burning Man for free with a ticketed guardian or parent, but they need their own print-at-home Kids Ticket to do this. One ticket for each kid, though again, they're free. More info here.
Work Access Passes (formerly called Early Entry Passes)
Because some camps and art projects require a lot of time and work to set up, the people putting them together arrive before Sunday when the event opens. Doing so requires Work Access Passes (WAPs) which are obtained by being part of a Theme Camp, or some other types of camps, such as those that support large art projects or mutant vehicles. The leader(s) of that Theme Camp or group will be assigned a certain number of WAPs to distribute to camp members that are needed for infrastructure setup.
Early entry passes are intended to only go to people who are required to set up a theme camp's infrastructure so that it's ready for the general population when they start arriving on Sunday. Camps caught abusing this privilege risk having their passes cancelled and not getting them in the future.
Early entry passes are intended to only go to people who are required to set up a theme camp's infrastructure so that it's ready for the general population when they start arriving on Sunday. Camps caught abusing this privilege risk having their passes cancelled and not getting them in the future.
Buying Tickets from Scalpers
As always with scalped tickets you risking being ripped off, and selling tickets for more than you paid for them is frowned upon by many Burners, including this one. Still, this is an information site so here's some advice, keeping in mind that tickets available on some of these options will be sold by scalpers.
Your best bet is probably Stubhub. Unlike eBay, Stubhub operates on an escrow system (meaning the buyer doesn't get the money until you get the ticket, with Stubhub holding the money in the meantime) and has a fair amount of expertise specifically around detecting and combating ticket fraud. You're always rolling the dice when you buy from a scalper or re-seller though, so be careful and use common sense! Also be warned that nobody gets their tickets until early to mid-summer, but Stubhub will be full of Burning Man tickets for sale long before then. Be warned that these are sold by people who don't yet have a ticket and who may or may not be getting a ticket when they're mailed out.
Craigslist is another option but you need to be more careful than with Stubhub. Don't send money to someone you met on Craigslist without seeing the ticket first. You really want to exchange your money for their ticket(s) in person, in a public place, and you should make sure you know what a real ticket looks like (it changes every year). There are lots of fraudsters on Craigslist. Be careful!
Keep an eye on the ePlaya forums and if possible, check the ticket number you're buying against the list of voided/negated tickets that Burning Man publishes.
There have been a number of people burned by counterfeit tickets on auction sites like Ebay, and I would not recommend using them to buy tickets. If you show up with a counterfeit ticket, your entire week may be ruined, because you're probably not getting in.
Your best bet is probably Stubhub. Unlike eBay, Stubhub operates on an escrow system (meaning the buyer doesn't get the money until you get the ticket, with Stubhub holding the money in the meantime) and has a fair amount of expertise specifically around detecting and combating ticket fraud. You're always rolling the dice when you buy from a scalper or re-seller though, so be careful and use common sense! Also be warned that nobody gets their tickets until early to mid-summer, but Stubhub will be full of Burning Man tickets for sale long before then. Be warned that these are sold by people who don't yet have a ticket and who may or may not be getting a ticket when they're mailed out.
Craigslist is another option but you need to be more careful than with Stubhub. Don't send money to someone you met on Craigslist without seeing the ticket first. You really want to exchange your money for their ticket(s) in person, in a public place, and you should make sure you know what a real ticket looks like (it changes every year). There are lots of fraudsters on Craigslist. Be careful!
Keep an eye on the ePlaya forums and if possible, check the ticket number you're buying against the list of voided/negated tickets that Burning Man publishes.
There have been a number of people burned by counterfeit tickets on auction sites like Ebay, and I would not recommend using them to buy tickets. If you show up with a counterfeit ticket, your entire week may be ruined, because you're probably not getting in.
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