Can Burning Man survive the financial desert - and keep its soul intact?

The Guardian

6 days ago

Burning Man has faced its share of challenges in recent years. There were the Covid years when organizers cancelled the Nevada festival entirely, the sweltering record temperatures of 2022, and mud created by heavy rains in 2023 that trapped tens of thousands of attendees on the playa.
Then last year, Burning Man tickets failed to sell out as they had every year since 2011. It was an indicator of a deep trouble for the week-long desert celebration in the form of a $20m revenue shortfall that meant 'everything is now at risk', Marian Goodell, the Burning Man Project CEO, wrote last fall.
Burning Man has been trying to find its financial footing and figure out how to ensure the longevity of a festival that has become an institution, Goodell told Bloomberg in an interview this week, a month ahead of this year's festivities.
The festival must succeed as a business, she told the outlet, while adding: 'I am loath to look at Burning Man as a product, where the goal is to sell as much of the product as possible.'
Burning Man, which started in 1986 on a San Francisco beach, is held each year in Nevada's remote Black Rock desert, where as many as 73,000 people travel to partake in the revelry and performance art. But over the years it has increasingly become a playground for the wealthy and Silicon Valley elite, such as Elon Musk. Meanwhile, rising ticket prices have coincided with a decrease in attendees making less than $50,000, Bloomberg reported.
Wealthy attendees, the outlet noted, have provided a 'lifeline' to Burning Man over the years, with five people responsible for two-thirds of the $60m the festival has raised since 2014.
Despite its explosive popularity over the years, in 2024 Burning Man fell short of its fundraising goals and saw a reduction in ticket sales. The organization does not have corporate sponsorships to support its operations, and the sale of tickets, which cost anywhere from $550 to $3,000, do not alone cover those expenses, Goodell said in her October note.
'Ticket revenue alone does not fund all that Burning Man Project does to bring Burning Man to the world, including the production of Black Rock City, and in fact has not since 2014.'
The organization has turned to Burners for support, writing that a monthly contributions of $20 'will help to keep Burning Man programs alive'. While it received millions of dollars in support, it still fell short of its fundraising goal last year. But this year's tickets have so far sold well, according to Bloomberg, allowing organizers 'to keep moving forward.'
Last year's decline in ticket sales prompted some outlets to ask whether the festival was past its prime, but Goodell argued in the Reno Gazette Journal in June 'the values that guide the Burning Man creative culture are more relevant today than ever.'
'It's not a partisan project. It's a cultural one. It's creative. And creative culture, especially when rooted in shared values rather than political ideology, is what holds people together when everything else feels like it's falling apart,' she said.