BOX OFFICE

Air Conditioning on the Playa!!!

The box office is a great place to volunteer during Burning Man. For a lot of people, it is the first contact they have with the event and for many it's their first contact with Burning Man ever. For this reason, we try and make their experience as smooth and pleasant as possible!

Inside our handcrafted box building, you will find a small, diverse, friendly crew asking for photo identification and looking up names in our computer system. We are responsible for all of the tickets held at Will Call as well as those left for burning friends who are arriving later during the week. Even though we have stopped selling tickets through our windows, we still see hordes of people looking to pick up or drop off tickets!

We do have air conditioning. But with that air conditioning comes the possibility that you will be faced with a line of people that weaves into the parking lot, made up of folks who have been in a vehicle for hours or days. This can be exhilarating and fun when everything goes smoothly, but occasionally there are Not-So-Pleasant Situations. This job requires a healthy ability think quickly and with a level head. You are never alone with the problems in your window, there are always shift leads and experienced crew members there to help you, but be prepared to deal with any problems you would expect any box office to have.

The box office is open 24 hours a day during the event. We have several different kinds of shifts ranging from short (8am-12pm) morning shifts to longer (Midnight to 8am) graveyard shifts. We ask everyone to commit to at least 4 shifts of 6-8 hours each, one being a graveyard shift.

A few things to keep in mind when considering joining the Box Office Crew: while it's not a strict requirement, we really hope you have a healthy relationship with computers. We will train you on how to use our computer system, but being comfortable with simple technology helps. Our "search" process is a lot like looking up things on Google, so if you're nervous, feel free to practice.

This is a "customer service" kind of a job. Questions are asked, problems are presented and sometimes our "customers" are unhappy. Patience is very helpful in the box, and is even better when partnered with a quick judge of character and problem solving skills. Our crew is diverse. We have old and young people from all over the world in the box. Because we are small, we are close-knit and lots of us camp together and enjoy the event with each other. We have a box office dinner near the end of the madness as well as an organized art tour.

If interested, please email boxoffice(at)burningman(dot)com with specific questions and indicate "Box Office" as your area of interest in the Volunteer Questionnaire.