Burning Man CEO calls for “urgent” donations to save festival amid staff lay-offs

Marian Goodell, the CEO of Burning Man has called for “urgent” donations as a way to help save the festival amid staff lay-offs.

The week-long non-profit festival – which is located in the deserts of Nevada and focuses on community, art, self-expression, and self-reliance – has been known to sell out of tickets months in advance, sometimes within 30 minutes of release. This year saw the festival open ticket sales to non-registered buyers for the first time after experiencing slow sales.

Now, in a detailed post on the Burning Man official website, Goodell explained that the music and arts bash’s “need for philanthropic support is extremely urgent,” and cited various financial issues that the fest is dealing with as well as ticket sales not doing as well as they had anticipated for reasons as to why they currently need the support.

“This $5.7M shortfall, combined with a $3M dip in receipts from main-sale tickets and vehicle passes, means that our year-end charitable donation target has essentially doubled to nearly $20M,” wrote Goodell in the post. “This needs to happen before 2025 ticket sales and our annual revenue cycle begins in January.”

Goodell explained that Burning man has been “examining and restructuring our operations and reducing our expected 2025 (and beyond) costs by several millions of dollars,” and added: “This has already included reductions in payroll and vendor costs. As you may have heard, we had to lay off talented and brilliant people who make Burning Man happen year-round.”

She continued: “Without corporate sponsorships — which we’ve never had and will never have — to underwrite our operations, we are increasingly reliant on philanthropy (including your generous purchases of those higher-priced Black Rock City tickets).”

Thought she mentioned donations from “dedicated major donors,” Goodell has also called upon the festival’s global community to contribute $20 per month as a way to help fundraise for the non-profit fest.

“Your steadfast generosity and ongoing donations are needed to help secure the long-term of Burning Man,” she wrote and added that an increase in ticket pricing next year is an “untenable option” for prospective attendees. Those interested in donating to help the fest can visit here for more information.

In other news, earlier this summer, it was reported that a woman had died on the first day of Burning Man 2024.

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