1) Volunteers (who worked 15+ hrs on last congress for free) get two tickets with priority.

2) Hackerspaces get a number of tickets with priority, thru replicating tickets (you can only buy one per day). The amount of replicating tickets given depends on size of area (a hackerspace can be tasked with giving vouchers to relevant people in their city). There's a limited quantity of these tickets, separate from amount of vouchers.

The main point of the congress is primarily to bring the chaos crowd together, then the rest of interested parties. That model may not fit your vision, but chaos events year after year succeed at not leaving out the core crowd.

Also, this year I have bought 2 tickets on public sale for friends without issues (best way to get tickets is to group up with your friends).

It's always taken high effort to buy tickets for c3, needing to be exactly on time (not 30 seconds late) to each sale round.

37c3 was an exception due to low sales, caused by skepticism in the event returning after years of not happening. This year that trust was regained and buying tickets became hard again.

For me the price of accommodation is pretty prohibitive. It's one of the most expensive times of the year and Germany is also one of the most expensive countries in Europe. I've looked at it once but the hotels were too expensive for me (I think it was in Hamburg then).

But it's ok, I can watch it online. I don't like travelling during this busy period anyway.

There is affordable accomodation: nearby gymnasiums where you bring a "bed" and "duvet" and "towel+shampoo" and get by with like 5 bucks a night.

I dont think thats for everyone. Speaking as someone who has done it.

It's an option for those on a tight budget aka "beggars can't be choosers". Hotels are a lot cheaper if you book a (fully) refundable stay months in advance instead of waiting until you have a ticket.

Friends who booked months earlier still paid a bit of a premium. Much cheaper than now of course, but you should still budget for €150/night or so.

Of course not, it's for people who can't spend more than five bucks a night.

Oh yeah I'm too old for that though :)

Live life, give it a go.

I've done that in the past (I lived in youth hostels for years in fact) but I can't now. Especially because I sleep with a CPAP machine as well.

I was wondering how those work in hostels. I have taken mine with me and gotten one of the eight bunk rooms or so next to an outlet

I just don't take the risk of getting hostels. It's not sure you can get a bunk near an outlet, the machine can be messed with or broken etc.

Most expensive?

https://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/rankings_by_country.js...

Some things are pretty cheap compared to other countries, meat for instance

True but I'm in Spain. Last time I looked a hotel or guesthouse was around 200€ a night which is really a lot for me. Of course this is a time when lots of people travel.

But I didn't mean to complain, just to say it's not only the ticket availability that's a factor.

And this is not something the organisation can help of course. It's a German event so of course it's in Germany. And the tickets themselves are well priced.

And like I said, I really appreciate them making everything available online.

I do tend to go to the Dutch hacker camps that are being held once every 4 years.

Hamburg is also one of the most expensive cities in Germany

We were a group of 5 and there were 3 separate presales for public. We all got tickets and it worked out pretty decently, like last year.

It’s an inventive to volunteer

Other way around: Easier tickets is an incentive for volunteers, as a bit of a payment in kind. It helps people known to volunteer come back, and it encourages them to keep volunteering year after year. You need to work, honestly, ridiculous amounts of hours to get a voucher (15-20 hours), and so it'd not be a very good incentive for average person.

You can absolutely get tickets on public sales by knowing when sales start, refreshing on the dot and doing the captcha as fast as you can. Reducing your latency (ethernet, fresh browser profile without extensions) helps. Add some friends into the mix and you'll get all the tickets you need.

It really isn't.

Tickets are not that hard to get and you are not required to do anything once you have one.

I believe some core orga members (aka The people contracting the venue, getting permissions and renting equipment etc) are guaranteed a ticket but almost everybody else has to buy their own.

The fact that the "hacker space community" gets preferential treatment is very much intended.