Update on 4/29 – Follow this link for a statement from ShowClix on the 2019 Main Sale.

Original post –

Burning Man’s Main Sale on Wednesday was a rough experience for many. Even if it had gone perfectly from a technical perspective, the vast majority of those participating would not have been able to purchase a ticket as demand significantly outstripped supply.

But Wednesday’s sale was especially challenging due to technical issues that resulted in a variety of poor experiences.

We know some people encountered the following types of errors: 500’s, 400’s, “Unable to Proceed,” “Tickets currently unavailable,” and others. While the errors varied by user, they shared a single underlying cause: high demand. This was compounded by a hardware issue outside of our control. If you experienced one of these errors and rejoined the queue, your original place in line was retained. You did not drop to the back of the line.

We’re working closely with our ticketing partner to determine why this happened and to prevent it from happening again in the future. We believe bots were a factor, and we are specifically investigating interference from bots compounding the load.

We are deeply committed to the fairness of our ticket sales, and we’re truly sorry for the negative experiences many of you encountered.

To learn more about other upcoming ticket sales and programs, please see our ticket page.