Tickets for AfrikaBurn 2012?

[Monique Schiess]

email james@quiket.co.za, they are very helpful!

[LindaLion]

Hi Anna

As I understand it, there is no move to "protect" or "curb growth". The growth needs to happen slowly, with an exponential number of volunteers and organisers, otherwise it becomes an umanagebale nightmare with the risk of attracting a bad name rather than the one it deserves.
Affordibility: There are a number of tickets available for those who can't afford the first tier of R350 - special application has to be made for those, in good time. Personally I don't think that R350, or even R550 is a lot to pay for 5 days of the most awesome experience of my life. R500 is the DAILY holiday-rate accomodation for a self-catering place along the coast. I really like your idea about a monthly debit order for art funding... I see that there is a donation option on the ticket-sale website, which is great - perhaps a lower monthly contribution could be introduced?

Yay to the idea of volunteers not paying... or at least a reduced price. I agree that the volunteers/crew number would increase if this were the case. AB would need to manage this quite closely though...

And VERY VERY delighted to hear/see that no tickets will be on sale at the gate this year. Good decision... will lead to precision planning :-)

See you there!

[DMV_wayne]

By the very nature of Afrikaburn, practically everyone is a volunteer. Some just do more than others. Volunteering enhances the entire AB experience as well as being self fulfilling.

I think the ticket prices are really not excessive. If you consider the total price for the 5 days, on the other hand, that can vary from a few hundred to a thousand rand to 10's of thousands of rands depending on what you do at AB (Booze, art car, art installation, food, water etc).

Affordability is thus another ball game all together. And the individual can spend what his budget allows and if they have good ideas, apply for a grant or just apply your plain old ingenuity.

[Monique Schiess]

To explain some of the background on our ticket strategy, I've just posted this on Facebook:
To answer some of the questions that were being bandied about

As yesterdays mayhem shows, things have changed in the AfrikaBurn ticketing landscape somewhat: in 2010 it took 2 months to sell out the lowest tier, in 2011 it took 2 hours (and there were fewer available). Yesterday it took less than an hour to sell the two lowest tiers. Things have changed.

When we first started AfrikaBurn we figured that if we made a small amount of tickets available at a price lower than what it costs us to have people in Tankwa, then made the higher levels a little higher than what it costs us, it would be a good thing. It would even out; early adopters would get tickets at a lower price, latecomers would pay a bit more. By no means a perfect system, but one that we felt provided opportunity and spoke a bit to the ideal of radical inclusivity. We took our cue from Burning Man on that one. They have a similar system.

So, there are two main reasons behind the tiered pricing system. Firstly, releasing some tickets at a price below the base cost makes it more affordable for those of us who are not so flush - but this difference has to be made up somewhere else, or there would not be enough money to cover the event costs. This is why we appeal to people to "please always buy the highest priced ticket that you can afford" The other reason is that the tiered structure encourages people to buy their tickets earlier rather than waiting till later. Ticket sales are (pretty much) our sole source of income and, as we are a not-for-profit, our reserves are nowhere near enough to cover the costs of the infrastructure needed to create AfrikaBurn out of all that empty space. If the income doesn't come in early, the background work can't start when it must.

This is the budget plan we made for ticket sales this year:
Based on this year's event budget for running AfrikaBurn Creative Projects and the running of the event itself (which is still very heavily subsidised by donated services and volunteer work) we calculated it will cost us approximately R474.27 per person to have 4250 paying participants in Tankwa. This excludes any contingencies and unforeseen expenses, so it truly is a base price. We worked out our budget on 4250 tickets because
this is a sensible (and prudent) quantity to expect, in line with the trajectory of ticket sales over the years.

We made 500 tickets available at R350, and 500 tickets available at R450. We have also allocated 300 low-income tickets at R250. So 30% of the tickets to AfrikaBurn are sold below cost. The lion's share of tickets are available at R550, and the balance are made available at R700. We burned through a lot of brain cells, batteries and take-away food working out all the possible permutations and scenarios, and this is the solution we thought best represented the spirit of AfrikaBurn (and a good dose of the reality, nitty gritty stuff that we have to deal with).

The provisional limit we have set for this years event is 5000 tickets for sale (children under 14 are free). This is a generous but, we feel, responsible capacity increase based on our organisational capacity. The additional income we could possibly generate through selling any more than 4250 tickets creates a small but respectable safety net and any surplus would ultimately go towards creative grants next year, which helps some artists and in turn enhances the experience for everyone who makes the journey to the Tankwa. You know you love those big burning sculptures!

The enthusiasm is exhilarating ... and a little bit scary and definitely exciting.

[skyclad]

ok i cannot understand the pricing structure at all ! do the holders of more expensive tickets get anything but the knowledge they subsidized people who could afford to pay more ?

[Monique Schiess]

There is absolutely no difference to "what you get" depending on what you pay.

Cut'n pasted from the above posting: the reason for the tiered pricing system:

So, there are two main reasons behind the tiered pricing system. Firstly, releasing some tickets at a price below the base cost makes it more affordable for those of us who are not so flush - but this difference has to be made up somewhere else, or there would not be enough money to cover the event costs. This is why we appeal to people to "please always buy the highest priced ticket that you can afford" The other reason is that the tiered structure encourages people to buy their tickets earlier rather than waiting till later. Ticket sales are (pretty much) our sole source of income and, as we are a not-for-profit, our reserves are nowhere near enough to cover the costs of the infrastructure needed to create AfrikaBurn out of all that empty space. If the income doesn't come in early, the background work can't start when it must.

But like you're indicating, the system is not perfect and I dont believe there is a perfect system. If we hold back tickets in any way, then we are being exclusive....anyway we are logging all the concerns, and will try another system next year.

[Meeech]

Guys, the ticketing structure is not difficult to understand (especially if you try see it from the organisors point of view).
Tickets are limited because the infrastructure (volunteers, toilets, medics, etc) at this point can only support a certain amount of people. Infrastructure will grow slowly in time, and the number of tickets sold in future is based on this in combination with demand (which makes for a safer and better quality experience).
The organisors are also trying their best to enable access to people who couldn't normally afford the tickets, and the best way to do this (admittedly it's not perfect but it's the best way so far) is to discount some tickets, but in order to make up this discount they need to add a premium on to other tickets. If you don't like subsidising the poor folk then buy a cheap ticket early, if you miss out then buy the ticket you can afford, if you miss out on those then tough takkie.