Alchemical Arts Alliance recently sold out their event in less than 24 hours using ThunderTix. We helped them respond to unprecedented demand and will do so again later this year.
Known the world over, Burning Man is an outdoor festival celebrating individual self expression, technology, art and music, held each year in the remote desert of Northern Nevada. The first Burning Man was originally planned to be a one-time event. The first event was such a success, that it has been held every year since 1990 and has become the multi-cultural festival for free spirits to attend. The Burning Man website describes its evolution:
“Burning Man - from its early days on a small beach in San Francisco through its evolution into the bustling city of people that the Burning Man event has become today. These people make the journey to the Black Rock Desert for one week out of the year to be part of an experimental community, which challenges its members to express themselves and rely on themselves to a degree that is not normally encountered in one's day-to-day life. The result of this experiment is Black Rock City, home to the Burning Man event.”
Just how popular has Burning Man become after 22 years? Last year over 27,000 tickets were sold in the first 48 hours and for the first time in Burning Man history all 53,963 tickets ( $210 – $360 each ) sold out before the event was held.
With such high demand it is no surprise that additional supporting events have started before and after Burning Man proper. The additional supporting events, nicknamed "pre-burns" or “burns”, are held regionally across the country, one of which is "Euphoria" near Atlanta Georgia.
The event promoter for Euphoria 2012, Alchemy Festival, uses ThunderTix to sell tickets. This year Euphoria sold out in 24 hours. Alchemical Arts Alliance wrote to us recently:
"The market for burns this year is really nuts. Burning Man sold out and all of the regional events seem to be selling out as well. For the first time ever, we're capping attendance at our big event, Alchemy, at 3500 participants, so that one is guaranteed to sell out quickly, too."
Just like the sold out Euphoria burn, ThunderTix will manage the sales of those 3,500 invitations to the Alchemy burn.
When Alchemical Arts anticipates high demand for one of their events, they use the event ticketing tools available in their ThunderTix account. The 3,500 invitations will be made available in three batches of 1,162 each, on three different days.
By staggering the ticket sales Alchemical Arts establishes a best practice for a high demand event that you can use as a guide. The number of tickets, batches and availability dates can be fined tuned in your account.
Every event is different and we are always available to help you plan your high demand event sales strategy. Have you had a high demand event that utilized staggered ticket sales in batches? How did it go? Let us know in the comments!