What do we do about Freiland's price increase?
Chiara
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Seen by 55
This advice process is about Freiland’s decision to add a 20 € camping fee per person in 2023 and 2024. The main decisions we need to take are (I). Whether we still want Kiezburn to happen in 2023, and (II). If so, where do we get the additional money from.
Proposer
@Chiara
Proposer’s role:
I am writing this Advice Process on behalf of all the participants of the Kickoff Weekend 2023. This group of people includes most of the realizers for Kiezburn 2023, a lot of realizers from previous years, and some Boardies.
Information gathered before posting
This proposal was discussed at the Kickoff Weekend, on 28.01.2023.
People/roles most affected by this proposal
@Everyone
@Boardies
@Finance
@Tickets
People/roles with the most knowledge and experience relevant to this proposal:
Participants of the Kickoff Weekend
Last year’s Finance lead @Kathleen
The proposal
Background
Freiland wants to add a 20 € camping fee per person in 2023 and 2024. This is because they want to expand the site by buying new land, and because they want to add fixed infrastructure for water (2023) and power (2024). Note that the water pipes we currently have are owned and not rented by KB, so this addition would not save us any money in 2023. For reference, in the past years Freiland’s price has been 10% of the ticket revenue, so about 8.000-10.000 €. This is a 20.000 € increase. This means that in 2023 and 2024 Freiland’s price would be 30.000, three times as much as it was in the past.
The proposal
At the Kickoff Weekend, there unanimously agreed that we still want Kiezburn to happen in Freiland 2023, and we will start scouting for new locations to host Kiezburn 2024. The alternative would be that Kiezburn does not happen at all this year.
If we go ahead with Kiezburn 2023, we need to decide where we can get this extra money from. The three options are:
We increase ticket price by 20 euros (from 95 to 115)
We take the money from the Kiezburn budget (e.g. dreams, infrastructure, KB-related events).
A mix of both
How would the proposal be implemented
If we decide to take the budget from Tickets, then the Ticketing team should decide on the details and implement them at the next ticket sale. For example, does the low-income ticket price stay the same or does it also increase?
If we decide to take the money from the Kiezburn budget, then the Finance team should decide on where it makes more sense to reduce the budget.
Who would implement this proposal
Tickets
Finance
When would this proposal be implemented
Before the Ticket sales for Kiezburn 2023.
What would be the cost (time, money, effort, etc.) of this proposal
Money: 20.000 €
Time/effort: deciding which areas of the budget we can take money from
What are the advantages of this proposal (relative to the current situation and/or counter-proposals)
We have an event in 2023.
What are the disadvantages of this proposal (relative to the current situation and/or counter-proposals)
The financial burden falls either on the participants, or on Kiezburn budget (thus restricting the amount of money that we can put into creativity, infrastructure and KB-related events).
Decision
A decision on whether we want to have an event at all with these conditions should happen in the next two weeks, so we can go ahead with booking a date with Freiland.
A decision on where we get the money from should be taken before the ticket sale.
Chiara Mon 6 Feb 2023 10:33AM
We need to pay 20 extra per person (it’s a camping fee), so selling more tickets would not help
Johannes Klöppner Mon 6 Feb 2023 12:11PM
Yes but the basic rent should stay the same? Like if we have hundred people more, then the money we could have gotten from them for art could go in subsidizing the tickets instead
Chiara Mon 6 Feb 2023 12:20PM
The basic rent is a portion of the ticket sale (10% I think) so it would also increase with more participants. I might be wrong but I’m not sure we can save a significant amount of money this way.
Caro T Mon 6 Feb 2023 11:57AM
It's a very unfortunate timing of raising the Freiland funds this drastically given the results from the Vision Weekend aka our decision to move site. Whilst I personally want a last year at Freiland and also believe it'll make emptying storage much easier if all the camps are back. What I mean with that is, as this ought to be our last year at Freiland, that we probably should find a storage unit close to Berlin and ask (plus financially support camps) to transport their entire useful storage to the new location.
Given that the move will be expensive and the storage unit will also cost things, my question is how much money we ought to save and dedicate to that move? Is it worth having a smaller Kiez Burn this year? Like a 600 people event for instance, to save money and resources?
Skipping a year is also an option. not a nice one. but an option.
B r i Mon 6 Feb 2023 3:18PM
I was thinking it be even more people to help make a fund for transport from one storage to the other plus whatever extra cost that will come up (as it alway does).
I guess I don't understand the system, but, less burners = more money left over?
Things like power cost more per meter of cable than usage, no?
Alex Kaos Mon 6 Feb 2023 3:25PM
FYI - The economics of scale mean that the more people come, the more money there is left over. Less people squeezes our budget tighter.
More people make it possible to give bigger projects (like moving). Plus it provides the possibility of more Human-Power.
Henrik 🤖 Mon 6 Feb 2023 12:14PM
I don't want Kiez Burn to be skipped and would happily pay the camping fee plus a bit extra to make it hapen 💛💸💛
Bart Mon 6 Feb 2023 7:28PM
+1 for increasing ticket prices. While the cost increase from Freiland is huge, 20€ more on the ticket is not that much in the grand scheme of things.
I have the impression that KB is rather affordable compared to other burns and am certainly willing to pay for a VIP ticket. I would be very sad to not have KB23.
Cris Tue 7 Feb 2023 12:05PM
My vote goes for these already-said options:
Absolutely in favor of the mix of both option: increase the ticket by sth less than the hard 20 €, keep low income as 50% of the regular price. Relocate dreams and other budget to subsidize the tickets.
Promote the VIP tickets. Explain why one should choose that ticket and what is the money for.
"Fundraiser" through Burn Night revenue.
In the Art Budget vs. Inclusive Tickets, I personally strongly stay on the keep-them-low side of life. I've never experienced more expensive Playa Art to be better in any way. Yes, it definitely allows cool things to happen, but we're also not discussing a concept, just a one-time situation. Whereas when we increase the ticket, we are just making our event more selective, making it for low-income burners to even attend. Fuck art! (on 2023)
Other not so soft opinions, probably underevaluated:
Charge Freiland the one year usage of Deine Mudda Feuerschale, that they stole from Storage. It's a big Schale, so I'd say 25€/day. Plus the not-even-asking-for-it fee: 200€
We demoop before the event and leave the moop at Freiland. Not that they charge us for taking anything.
Storage is the new Effigy! Burn, Strike and Storage all-in solution!
(and yes, very disappointed at Freiland for go so f*cking Wallstreet on us)
Johannes Klöppner · Mon 6 Feb 2023 9:52AM
Also was there any plans to increase number of tickets this year? As this could also give us some playroom, like the money we could get from 10% more tickets used to fund then some of the low income tickets or at least have smaller increase in ticket price for everyone?