Burning Man Sells Out

For the first time in the long-running event's history, tickets to this year's Burning Man have sold out.

Shortly after tickets started selling at the fastest pace ever on Jan. 20, officials with Black Rock City LLC, the SF-based company that staged Burning Man in Nevada's Black Rock Desert, privately warned that they may sell out this year. The event, which last year peaked at almost 52,000 attendees, is limited by its permits with the US Bureau of Land Management and BRC's own desire to control its ever-growing size. A couple months ago, the company announced that tickets would not be available at the gate (which had happened only once before, in 2008) and urged burners to get their tickets because it could sell out. Then, over the weekend, that's what happened. "This is new territory," BRC board member Marian Goodell told the Guardian, noting that its BLM permit (which is up for renegotiation after this year's event) calls for capping the population at last year's level. "If we didn't have the BLM permit restrictions, we could manage an increased population."

This year is the 25th anniversary of Burning Man. When I was younger, I used to think about going every year. Now, I can't imagine enduring the discomfort.