Burning Man festival-goers accept huge losses in desperate bid to sell unwanted tickets

Festival-goers have been eating huge losses as they desperately race to sell unwanted tickets to this years' Burning Man Festival .

While tickets to the annual desert festival typically sell out in record time, this year marks the first time since 2011 that this has not been the case. For the first time in over a decade, tickets to the music festival have been slashed in half with some burners eager to get extra passes off their hands.

As burners scramble to offload extra tickets some have faced hundreds of dollars worth of losses. Tess C., a long-time attendee of the event, has been attempting to sell her parents' extra tickets and has been facing a headache of trouble. She told The San Fransisco Standard : "It’s been a nightmare. Burning Man tickets are always a s--- show. Usually it’s stressful to make sure we have tickets. This year, it was stressful to get rid of them.”

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Burning Man Festival is a week-long large-scale desert counterculture event focused on "community, art, self-expression, and self-reliance." The annual event, often described by festival-goers as a spiritual retreat, is held every year in the western U.S. and is slated to be held this year from August 25 through September 2 in Reno, Nevada. And while tickets begin at $575 before taxes and fees on their website, some sellers are only getting around $300 for their extra passes.

And while some ticket-sellers are fuming over the drop off in prices, others have thought about it more optimistically. Martin Rauchbauer, who has been forced to cut his losses and sell his extra ticket for $300, told the news outlet: "Of course it’s a bummer to lose money. But Burning Man has been criticized for being elitist and unaffordable. So whatever the reason is for this year’s lowered demand, I think it’s good that people that might not otherwise come may have the opportunity to go for the first time.”

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But this massive dip in sales has also ignited fears that this could mark the downfall of the Burning Man Festival. Bay Area–based Leo expressed his concerns to the The San Fransisco Standard as he said: "I’m more sad for Burning Man as a whole than I am about losing $400 or $500. Everyone always claims, like, ‘the end of Burning Man,’ right? But I don’t know, maybe it is. Everything ends at some point.”

And while he is still attempting to sell off two extra tickets, he's trying to keep an open mind about this years' festival as he is still heading out into the dust to celebrate. Leo said: "The magic of Burning Man is still going to be there," and added: "It’s a lot of work, but you get out 10 times more than what you put in.”