BLACK ROCK DESERT, Nev. (CelebrityAccess) The ticketing company platform that was used for the recent, imperfect onsale for this year’s Burning Man festival, has reportedly been identified.
Burners are used to waiting in a queue, hoping to get tickets to the event in Nevada’s Black Rock Desert but apparently, this ticket Main Sale was particularly frustrating, filled with unexplained technical issues.
Approximately 23,000 tickets and 10,000 vehicle passes were offered but this time luck of the draw wasn’t in play. Burners were in the digital queue for nearly an hour and a half before the following statement from Burning Man was issued:
“We are experiencing unexpected technical issues with today’s ticket sale. We’re sorry for the difficulty and are looking into what happened. We will share more info when it’s available. #burningman #ticketing #blackrockcity #brc2019 #bmantickets.”
The issues ranged from potential buyers getting kicked out of the queue to getting a notice that they were cheating.
Billboard recently learned that the company used for the onsale was ShowClix, which is a new partnership with the desert fest after it ended a five-year relationship with Ticketfly. ShowClix is a Pittsburgh-based company under owner Paton Technology. The company president, Brian Arnone, is a former Ticketfly senior VP, according to Billboard.
We believe bots were a factor, and we are specifically investigating interference from bots compounding the load,” a post on Burning Man’s blog said. “Even if it had gone perfectly from a technical perspective, the vast majority of those participating would not have been able to purchase a ticket as demand significantly outstripped supply,” the blog explains. “But Wednesday’s sale was especially challenging due to technical issues that resulted in a variety of poor experiences.”
Ticketing insiders told Billboard that it is especially difficult to sell ducats for Burning Man because of its many gates to entry, hoping to ensure patrons will respect the festival’s wishes of gifting, self-reliance, and inclusion.
h/t Billboard
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