There's been a lot of new changes with this year's Burning Man .
Burning Man just recently announced early this month in a unprecedented move that last minute tickets will be available to the public to purchase. This historic move is for the week-long event beginning on August 25 and ends September 2. This is also the first year since 2011, tickets have not yet sold out.
People who have always wanted to go to Burning Man can still purchase tickets through OMG Ticket Sale with no pre-registration. Tickets start at $575 before taxes and fees. Now there's another new change to the annual event's music rules that could draw complaints.
Burning Man organizers sent an email out to festival's sound camp and mutant vehicles leaders about this latest policy change. The policy change is that the music lineups can be released two weeks ahead of the start date on the concert on Sunday, August 25.
Previous guidelines asked that the sound stages reveal their music lineups no earlier than a week before Burning Man opens.
"We’re trying this out this year in the spirit of greater transparency and providing the community earlier information," organizers wrote in the email that was obtained by SFGATE .
They also said this rule was as a "one-year trial." While this change might seem slight, some fans are not happy about the revised guidelines. Concert goers and fans of the event expressed their concerns for what this could mean for the event on a Burning Man subreddit .
Many fear that displaying the music line-up early will veer into music festival territory with this "advertising" and bring that demographic to the event. Burning Man, according to the website , it's not a "festival" but "community and global cultural movement guided by 10 practical Principles " that includes radical inclusion, civic responsibly and communal effort. It also take places in a "decommodified" temporary man-made city in the Black Rock desert.
One of the line-ups for examples is the Mayan Warrior sound camp’s lineup which includes DJ sets like Rufus Du Sol, DJ Tennis and Carl Cox, which are all popular dance musicians.
Organizers also requested that sounds camps tag Burning Man in social media post declaring the lineups and to do partner posts on Instagram. SFGATE additionally talked to Jorge Perdomo, who is behind The Fluffy Cloud mutant vehicle, and he explained how this new rule has caused discourse in the Burning Man community, echoing the sentiment in the subreddit.
"What people don’t want Burning Man to become is a music festival,” he said.
But he also challenged the reasoning by stating that sculptors and visuals artist have the opportunity to announce their displays far in advance so why should it be different be musicians.
"I don’t think it’s commercialization," Jorge continued. "None of these artists are being paid. They are gifting their talents and their skills to the community. How is that commercialization?"
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