There was a time in the not so recent past that festivals like Coachella and Ultra didn’t sell out within a hour of tickets being made available to the general public. But with the times we live in, that’s not always the case. There have been many complaints about the new ticketing systems these larger festivals adopted, leading to rumors and skepticism that the algorithms used are tainted to favor some more than others. To make matters worse, word has it that 200 Silicon Valley hackers were able to hack their way to the front of the line during this years Burning Man general sale that took place on February 18th.
On February 20th, officials from the Burning Man camp came forward and acknowledged the hacking. They also stated that they will be doing everything in their power to apprehend the criminals through their system history and cancel the fraudulent purchases. The way the Burning Man ticket buying process works is based on premsis that the individual is funneled into a virtual line by putting them in a “queue”. There are still flaws with this type of system and while there are already additional safeguards put into place to prevent this type of activity, no further plan has been announced to deviate from this current action plan.
