Picture It

Ten days, now, before the gates to Black Rock City open and I begin to wonder how many of the BLM permitted 60,900 will actually be at Burning Man this year. How many of those once precious tickets will lie unused, ending up in scrapbooks or burnt in anger?

Every hopeful burner I know, who had not meanwhile made other plans, has a ticket now. Ebay has 275 listings, many for multiple tickets. Eplaya has pages of tickets offered – 130 new listings August 16th, mostly for two tickets. And prices continue to fall. That once valuable, coveted scrap of light cardboard is fast becoming worth less than anyone could have imagined a few months back when the ticket lottery left more than half of the hopefuls hopeless, when the second open sale was cancelled, when the scalpers and hoarders had the upper hand.

I was lucky. Lucky first to receive my two tickets in the lottery. One was for my son who wanted to go to his first burn. But with a new job this year, as the post-lottery months crept by, it was looking more and more doubtful that this would be the right timing for him. In May we decided to pass this ticket on. I was lucky then to make a good friend so happy.

And now I feel so very lucky again, to not be one of these desperate people who never imagined that they were holding a scrap of expensive paper which would have so little value.

The advice I gave a friend desperate til so recently for a ticket proved exactly right – prepare as though you will be going. The ticket problem will sort out as plans so often change as the event gets closer.

Between airfares and other logistics, it is too late now for most to be starting the process. Ticket availability is no longer the problem, but ending up stuck with a ticket no one wants to buy may well be.

It is nearly quiet here in my edge-of-town Reno garden. There is a soft, consistent, white traffic sound, like a stream flowing hidden among trees, a waterfall behind a knoll of rock, an off-trail Sierra lakeside with afternoon wind moving the tops of the trees. It is never quiet in the way of the desert.

The Black Rock playa, most of the time, is quiet in a manner so dense one can taste it, cut it with a butter knife. No background sounds of wind in the treetops, no muffled music of flowing water.

But there is a small corner of the desert which begins, now, to change – a corner where a city will soon rise. Teams of city builders are gathering, working at the ranch north of Gerlach Nevada, preparing for the August 1st start of on-playa activity.

First the survey crew will lay down the outline of the city – the position of the man, the streets, the perimeter. Then the perimeter fence will be built, followed by setup of the infrastructure (commissary, Dept of Public Works, etc) then Center Camp will begin to rise in the desert. The Temple crew starts their construction, the largest art projects begin to appear. The quiet of the desert, in this one little corner, gradually changes.

By Sunday August 26th, the heart of Black Rock City will light this little bit of playa, the dense desert silence will have ebbed away. Over the ensuing week the city will be populated, will reach its zenith. The sky will fill with flames, the ground will vibrate. And then, as suddenly as it came, this 21st century desert mirage will melt away.

Black Rock City Nevada, will become a temporary ghost town, then will vanish altogether. Like a gold-rush boom town, quickly built, burnt, then reabsorbed into the quiet, vast desert. With a few small differences – this ghost town is cyclic. Like some but not all ghost towns, it disappears entirely, but like no other, it returns the following year.

And it is very nearly time for the builders to begin their work on the playa.

Read John Curley’s first hand reports from the playa describing the start of Black Rock City 2012 and the building of the perimeter fence.

Burning Man is transitioning – change is afoot. Last year, for the first time ever, the 50,000 allocated tickets sold out. The results last year were desperate would-be burners who had always waited til just before the event to plonk down so much cash, and a new scalping of tickets.

The effects on the ticket availability for 2012 has been even more dramatic. Continue reading →