How to get into Burning Man after ticket sales are over.

Don’t have a ticket? This blog is not going to let you in on a mad secret of how to EPICLY break into the Burning Man without a ticket as some people have resorted to sticking themselves into the dashboard of their vehicles or trying to parachute naked into Black Rock City. If you don’t have tickets and have missed all opportunities to purchase, you should manifest your reasons to go BM for the right reasons and I’m here to tell you why. Sharing with you how my best friend and I never bought tickets and manifested our way into BM.

Josefine and I had tried every opportunity online to get tickets and failed all the way to the last OMG Sale. We decided to try to buy tickets off scalpers, but they were being sold for 2x the amount and there is no a guarantee to know you will get them or if you will receive real tickets unless you are buying from a friend. We were just moments away from clicking ‘Confirm Payment’ on a StubHub sale of overpriced tickets… but we hesitated. Why? Because after much research, we realized how risky it was, but more importantly it is because Burning Man is not about buying the experience. If it was then we wouldn’t be going. Decommodification is what separates this event from most where you are buying your entertainment, buying your experience, and buying your happiness. Instead, we are the experience and we create our happiness. In case that isn’t convincing enough, consider the below:

Why you should not buy scalped/overcharged tickets?

Ones sold online (Craigslist or other) are most likely fake or a scam as most tickets are released 1-2 months before the event, so you cannot know if that person has tickets to actually provide you.
You have to find a way to check if they’re fake. This means you have to know or meet the person after they receive it.
Also, even if you believe in the scalper and they sign their soul to providing the ticket, there our Burners who skim through those sites selling tickets and if they get a hold of the ticket number, they will void it. You can check if your ticket is voided here.
Buying inflated priced tickets will only jack up the prices for everyone, which is against the exact principle of Burning Man. Never buy a ticket from anyone above face value. Burning Man is one price for everyone. Only those fortunate can donate a higher amount.

Now to the fun stuff…

How to get into Burning Man after tickets sell out?

It was just 1 month away from our 2-week trip in the desert, so it seems our only option was to find fellow Burners who have two extra tickets willing to sell at face value.

1. Share your REAL story on ePlaya Forum
We first reached out to the community online, the official ePlaya forum. We scrolled through the first few pages of posts seeing all the typical posts of either 1. People BEGGING for tickets or 2. They are saying how they really want to go as this is their first time. Most people did not share much more.We realized there was a huge opportunity to showcase ourselves as Burners. Our subject line read, “Two desert wanderers sharing the power of the word and the beautiful mind.” I don’t have the original post as it was taken down/archived, but in less than 300 words we shared a little bit about both of us and our travels, but most importantly how we thought we could contribute to the community. We had already booked our flight for 2 weeks backpacking in the area, so we just had to find a way to get in.
In two to three days, a fellow Burner messaged us and gifted us one ticket and one vehicle pass.

This was unreal!

We could hardly believe it ourselves at the moment, but there was no reason to fear because it was a gift. We did not even have to pay for it. There is little incentive for someone to go out of their way to send a fake ticket. We struck our luck and continued to share our story online. Time flew by. We were then only 2 weeks away without hearing from anyone else, but there was no turning back now.

MORAL: Real Burners are online and searching for others to help on their way.

2. Post your story on Craigslist
Despite our advice to not buy scalped tickets on Craigslist, this doesn’t mean you shouldn’t share your search for tickets on there. We posted on Reno and Las Vegas and local areas our same story, but we also added a photo of us during our trip. We decided to take advantage of our free ad space on the back of our rental car.

By the time we posted on Craigslist, we were just days away from the first day of Burning Man and we were already on our way through the deserts of Utah and Arizona. Mostly without internet and reception, we spent our few minutes passing through small towns to check for any leads on tickets.

It was the night before Burning Man and we were not turning back. We were driving into the closest town and decided worst case we sit outside with our posted sign on our car to see if we can find another kind soul. Our back up plan, we go back to Utah and check out some more natural sites.

With our luck, as we are 45-min into the 60-min drive toward the small town right before BRC, we get a response on Craigslist. A woman from Reno said she had an extra ticket which her daughter was only using for one day, and can gift to us. She asked if we could meet her in Reno the next day.

We couldn’t believe it…

Of course, we turned the car around and drove back to Reno (closest major city), and we camped the night out in a Starbucks lot. The next day meeting her, she not only shared us the ticket but invited us into their theme camp community, United Nations.

MORAL: If you don’t have tickets, be yourself and share your story. Fellow Burners will support you on your way. Let the universe manifest what you need. Like most people say (but now I truly believe), Burning Man will come to you when you’re ready.

“If you don’t have tickets, be yourself and share your story.”

Honestly, I thought I would be writing about my 7-day experience on the dry, alkaline lake bed of Black Rock Desert. I met so many beautiful people, shared healing moments, traveled through my spiritual space, witnessed the day and night transformation of the playa, danced to music until my aching muscles couldn’t stand it, hitch hiked and biked through the deep playa, cuddled in puddles and hugged until we couldn’t breath. But I realize there is no way for me to explain my experience and I don’t think anyone can stand the amount of words it would take for me to express Burning Man.

Instead, I encourage everyone to try to go at least once in your life.

If you are well on your way on the path to self-enlightenment, and want to open your heart and mind to the beauty of human potential, you deserve a Burning Man.

You will be amazed by this beautiful community. Burning Man provides a blank canvas for you as an individual. There is no sense of existing social schemas bound to your name (you even get a new playa name). There is no sense of where you’re from, what you do for work, or even your ethnicity. But there is an extreme understanding that you are a unique and beautiful individual that goes beyond these things we try to identify ourselves with in the daily life of society. Instead, in Burning Man we are all souls capable of love, hate, sadness, and all human emotions sharing a beautiful, liberating, ultimate no-judgement-zone experience.

TIP: Have no expectations coming into Burning Man.

For me the journey into Burning Man started months maybe even years before when I realized there’s a lot more to life than what the material world provides us. The 10 principles for me summarizes a lot of what I felt society should evolve to.

Now enjoy my fellow camp mate’s video snippets of our experience where you’ll catch me exploring and hoola hooping through :)

Some stolen photos below from my other camp mate/family. I didn’t take many photos as the conditions are terrible for a camera. My GoPro video snippets were added above.