Registration

Today the ticket registration for Burning Man opened. What I did not realize back in 2012 when I decided that I was for sure going to Burning Man that year (or so I thought) is that getting a ticket is a rather complicated matter. Tickets are not sold at the gate. You can't just show up and hope for the best although there are brave souls that do just that every year and I guess it works out for some of them. Maybe tickets used to be sold at the gate at some point but not anymore! So since I had not educated myself on how to get a ticket back then I missed out and instead 2013 became my Birgin year. Birgin = a first timer at Burning Man.
The first time I heard about Burning Man was around 2004. I was at Ash Springs hot springs in Nevada with my ex boyfriend David and a person there told us about this event up by Reno. We thought it sounded amazing then but didn't go for all those years and we lived in Nevada too. Well I didn't go until almost a decade later. I wish (of course) that I would had went sooner than 2013. I know I missed out on all those earlier years, so that is a regret of mine.
This year it will be a fight to get a ticket. The number of overall tickets decreased by about 20 000 and the number of tickets in the main sale, the sale I register for, are reduced to ONLY about 10 000 tickets.
A serious reduction from the 2019 main sale that had, if I recall it right about 30 000 tickets. Had I belonged to a theme camp my chances of getting a ticket would increase but I do no affiliate with a camp at Burning Man. I like to do my own thing. This year Burning Man decided to drastically reduce the amount of tickets in the main sale and instead increase the tickets allotted to the different registered camps.
You can also get a FOMO ticket but those are expensive, $2,500/ticket and then there are some for $1,500/ticket. Plus fees and taxes added on top of that. The main sale ticket cost is $575.00, plus fees and taxes.
So....I am hoping for the best.

A big change this year at Burning Man is NO MORE Center Camp Coffee Shop. Here is what Mango writes in The Burning Man Journal about the beloved Coffee Shop.
"In 1995, the Center Camp Coffee Shop was born as a single espresso machine sitting on top of hay bales. Rumor has it that a storm took out the bedouin-style tent that housed the bales, but the espresso machine and its offerings persevered — an early testament to the dedication and resilience of Burner culture. In 2000, the Center Camp Coffee Shop moved under a huge structure that can withstand 120 mph winds, truly an engineering feat. Since then, the Center Camp Coffee Shop has grown to over 1,000 volunteers and into a vibrant community.
Black Rock City is a continuously evolving, living experiment. As we shared at the end of last year, we will no longer do coffee sales at Center Camp in 2022. There are other big changes to our city, as well. This decision is ever so bittersweet, and it was not made lightly.
Center Camp Coffee Shop volunteers, you have for many years contributed to Larry’s idea. Under the guidance of Center Camp managers P Segal, Dana Harrison, and Marcia Crosby, you created a culture and an organic community. The Center Camp Coffee Shop is a beloved chamber of the beating heart of Black Rock City, and will forever be a part of our history. The memories and deeply-rooted value of your quarter century (!) of service is not taken lightly, or for granted. You have been inspirational and welcoming, and we can’t wait to see where and how you bring your energies, joy, and playfulness next. People like you are what makes Black Rock City… well, Black Rock City. From the entire Burning Man community, we offer a deep bow of gratitude to the thousands of the volunteers who have made the operation of Center Camp Coffee Shop what it has been."

Read the whole "Love Letter to the Center Camp Coffee Shop" here,
https://journal.burningman.org/2022/02/black-rock-city/building-brc/center-camp-coffee/

It IS bittersweet. I get tears in my eyes when I read that. I am sad that the Coffee Shop is no more. I LOVE that place and I started volunteering as a barista there in 2016 and did it through 2019. And it was amazing. I will miss everything about the Coffee Shop. Perhaps I will make my own coffee shop at Black Rock City. Many camps serve coffee and I did notice a decrease of people coming by the Coffee Shop starting in 2018. I understand Burning Man's decision to put an end to the Coffee Shop but yes bittersweet is a good word to describe the feeling.
I am hoping to find another place to volunteer at Burning Man. ❤️
The Man burns in 164 days.