The organizers of Burning Man have received reports of phony tickets being sold. If you buy from an outside source that is not one of our outlets, you may be subject to a counterfeiting scam. Fellow Black Rock Citizens, we forewarn you. If a gate person finds your ticket illegitimate, you will have to buy a gate ticket at the $250 price. Make sure that ticket is real.
Valid tickets are easily discernable from counterfeits by the following:
1) If you have a friend with a ticket purchased through Burning Man, compare the colors and paper quality. There are two colors of valid tickets this year: Purple border - same as last year, and bright green.
2) Valid tickets are multiple layer paper with a bit of color in the middle. Make a small tear in a corner of the little stub part of the ticket to peel back the layer and look for some color - it is kinda pinkish / salmon / rose/ orange.
3) Valid tickets are heat sensitive, which is why you should not leave them on the dash of your car ...... Expose a corner to heat and it will turn black - this is not the best test though because if you blacken the whole ticket, it's worthless.
CAUTION, do not tear the stubs off the ticket! It must be whole when you enter Black Rock City. (But a little tear in the corner is OK.)
Counterfeit tickets are often slightly blurry, paper feels different, ink may smear when wet, etc. We caught a person selling some like this at the entrance to our city last year. The participants who were duped would have avoided the problem by closely inspecting the tickets.
One simple way to avoid phony tickets is to buy from an authorized outlet: TicketWeb or our friends handling walk-in sales at Distractions in San Francisco, The Melting Pot in Reno, and Red Cat Records in Winnemucca.