Ticketing

To ensure fairness, all participants — including our senior volunteer crew — are required to purchase a ticket.

However, we are offering two ticket types this year:
General Tickets and Steward Tickets.

Steward Tickets are discounted and reserved for those actively helping bring What If to life — like artists, camp leads, volunteers, and production crew. Learn more below to see if you qualify.

Read more about these 2025 changes here

General Sale

$285

General sale tickets are available to anyone as part of our commitment to radical inclusion. These tickets are offered alongside our Steward Ticket program at a slightly higher price with no conditions attached.

Like all tickets, these are non-refundable — if you later decide to participate in our Steward Ticket program, we can not exchange the difference in price.

General Tickets

Adult: $285 (all in – includes taxes and fees)
Teen: $142.50 (all in – includes taxes and fees)
Child: $14.25 (all in – includes taxes and fees)

Sale Starts: May 22nd @ 8pm (THURSDAY)
Sale Ends: When we run out.

Ticket Sale Page

The full-priced General Tickes begins on May 22nd, 2025 at 8PM PDT. No registration required, some years tickets go fast, but we expect good availability this year.

Full Details

Have questions? Check the Ticketing FAQ further down this page!

Steward Sale

$255

For participants that go the extra mile, we offer several sales that reward contributions and recognize individual circumstance. Please read each of these carefully to understand how these might apply to you.

Artists / Theme & Sound Camps

CORE / Essential Crew

Price: $255 (all in – includes taxes and fees)
Application: Qualification from now until June 11th.
Ticket Purchase Deadline: July 6th @ 11:59:59 PM PDT

Big art, theme camps, sound camps, art cars, and other collaborations take a concerted effort from our community. These tickets are made available to individuals and groups to help them in bringing these elements to the event.

First round of placement closes June 11 — placement applicants who submit by this date will qualify for an allocation of Steward Tickets. Any applications past this date are subject to Steward Ticket availability, which is not guaranteed. Final date for placement applications are July 9th.

So, if you’re a theme camp, sound camp, or artist lead sign up  for placement ASAP to secure your teams’ Steward Tickets.

Art Placement Camp Placement

If you’re an essential member of a project, contact your lead, and they will issue you a Steward Ticket as soon as they are available to them!

Full Details

Have questions? Check the Ticketing FAQ further down this page!

Volunteers

What If Volunteers, GVIAS Volunteers, and Committee Members

Price: $255 (all in – includes taxes and fees)
Application: Now until mid June
Ticket Purchase Deadline: July 6th @ 11:59:59 PM PDT

Participation is a core value and essential for this event. All individuals who volunteer with production, who has served as a GVIAS volunteer throughout the year (4+ hours) or who are serving with a GVIAS committee member can acquire a Steward Ticket.

Those who would like access to a Steward Ticket but are not actively volunteering in a committee or production capacity can be offered a Steward Ticket after applying to volunteer with the event.

Volunteer

Production leads, BC Rangers, GVIAS Volunteers, and GVIAS Committee members: You will be contacted May with how to acquire their Steward Ticket.

Past What If Volunteers: We will honour past volunteers through this sale as well, but we are likely sunsetting this incentive in future years.  So volunteering this year only guarantees you a Steward Ticket for this year and does not guarantee you a Steward Ticket next year. You will be contacted with a Steward Ticket offer in May.

Full Details

Have questions? Check the Ticketing FAQ further down this page!

Ticket Aid

$142.50

Ticket Aid Tickets are reserved for participants on a limited income who cannot otherwise afford a regular-priced ticket. An application for Ticket Aid Tickets must be made and approved to be eligible for one of these tickets.

Applications: May 16th – until we run out.
Price: $142.50 (taxes and fees included)
NOW IN WAITLIST MODE — APPLICATIONS FILLED IN RECORD TIME

Application Form (WAITLIST)

  • A limited number of 50% discounted tickets are made available to those who would like to apply for the Ticket Aid ticket program.
  • These tickets are reserved for participants on a limited income who cannot otherwise afford our regular price tickets.
  • We will continue to issue them until we run out.

Full Details

What If Ticket Sales

General Sale

Sale: May 22nd @ 8pm (Thursday)
Adult: $285 (all in – includes taxes and fees)
Teen: $142.50 (all in – includes taxes and fees)
Child: $14.25 (all in – includes taxes and fees)

The full-priced General Sale begins on May 22nd at 8PM PDT. No registration required, but tickets have been known to go fast. So please ensure you’re prepared for the sale when it starts.

Ticket Sale Page


  • The General Sale opens on May 22nd @ 8pm PDT (Thursday)
  • Each checkout, you are allowed to purchase Two (2) General Sale tickets.
  • General Sale tickets are available first come, first served while supplies last and are not guaranteed.
  • During the General Sale both Child and Teen tickets will be hidden to prevent them from being added to cart. These tickets will be made available later in the week, so please don’t worry about buying them right away — these are hard tickets to transfer anyways (incase your plans fall through). Child / Teen will always be available up until the event.
  • General Sale tickets are full-priced tickets.
  • Have questions? Check the Ticketing FAQ further down this page!

What If Ticket Sales

Steward Tickets

To Be Eligible For Steward:

Price: $255 (taxes and fees included)

Art Placement Theme or Sound Camp Placement Volunteer


  • Tickets are set aside as Steward Tickets to ensure that participants with significant infrastructure and contributions are acknowledged.
  • The Steward Ticket program is open to theme camps, sound camps, artist and volunteers who get involved early.
  • The number of Steward Tickets made available to each contributor will vary depending on the individual or group’s need.
  • Only core / essential members of your camp or artist crew are eligible for Steward Tickets. We reserve the right to cap the number we assign you, so please be realistic with your estimates.
  • Steward Tickets are slightly discounted tickets.
  • Have questions? Check the Ticketing FAQ further down this page!

Placement Applicants:
We will issue each team lead an allotted amount depending on their requirements, and it will be their responsibility to distribute the tickets to their essential crew. We will issue ticket budgets to their respective leads on a rolling basis as applications continue to come in.

Application Deadlines:
Steward Tickets will be available to placement applicants if they apply before June 11th, and to volunteers on an ongoing basis as supply allows.

Ticket Purchase Deadlines:
The tickets made available through the system can be bought up until July 6th at 11:59 PM.

While our deadlines are more flexible this year to accommodate expected changes in participation, we strongly encourage everyone to sign up for placement or volunteer roles ASAP to guarantee the lower price.

Production leads, GVIAS Volunteers, and GVIAS Committee members:
You will be contacted in May with how to acquire your Steward Ticket.

Past What If Volunteers:
We will honour past volunteers through this sale as well, but we are likely sunsetting this incentive in future years.  So volunteering this year only guarantees you a Steward Ticket for this year and does not guarantee you a Steward Ticket next year. You will be contacted with a Steward Ticket offer in May.

What If Ticket Sales

Ticket Aid Ticket Sale

Applications: May 16th – until we run out.
Price: $142.50 (taxes and fees included)
NOW IN WAITLIST MODE — APPLICATIONS FILLED IN RECORD TIME
Application Form (WAITLIST)

Ticket Aid Tickets are reserved for participants on a limited income who cannot otherwise afford a regular-priced ticket. An application for Ticket Aid Tickets must be made and approved to be eligible for one of these tickets.


  • A limited number of 50% discounted tickets are made available to those who would like to apply for the Ticket Aid ticket program.
  • These tickets are reserved for participants on a limited income who cannot otherwise afford our regular price tickets.
  • One (1) ticket will be made available per applicant.
  • Those who want to apply must demonstrate need in their application. This application is kept strictly confidential and data is erased after the sale is complete.
  • If your Ticket Aid Ticket Sale application is accepted you will be contacted regarding a ticket.
  • Ticket Aid tickets are non-refundable (like all tickets)
  • Ticket Aid tickets are transferable. Please do not sell the ticket above what you paid. You will not eligible for Ticket Aid in the future if you were found to have been exploiting this program for financial gain.
  • Ticket Aid are available by application only.
  • If your Ticket Aid Ticket application is accepted, you will be notified no later than July 6th, but we should be able to issue you a ticket within a week of your application being accepted.
    Have questions? Check the Ticketing FAQ further down this page!

Ticketing FAQ

The system will open slightly before the main sale, and will continue through June and July on a rolling basis.

Artists & Theme / Sound Camps – Core / essential crew

  • Guaranteed if placement is in by June 11th @ 11:59:50 PDT
  • Based on availability of remaining Steward Tickets if placement applications are in past June 11th

Volunteers, including, but not limited to:

  • GVIAS Board
  • GVIAS Committee Members
  • GVIAS Year Round Volunteers (4+ hours)
  • Production Leads
  • Production Assistants
  • Production Volunteers
  • BC Rangers
  • Past BitF Volunteers (This will be the last year past event volunteers qualify for this program)

Steward Ticket offers will be available to placement applicants who apply by June 11th , and to volunteers on an ongoing basis as supplies allows. While our deadlines are more flexible this year to accommodate expected changes in participation, we strongly encourage everyone to sign up for placement or volunteer roles ASAP to guarantee the lower price. The tickets made available through the system can be bought up until July 6th at 11:59 PM.

Steward Tickets are distributed through our directed system and will be made available through leads of various projects and teams. Once your placement or volunteer form is approved, a budget will be allocated to your team lead for distribution on a rolling basis. Once you receive your ticket, you’ll have until July 6th @ 11:59:59 PDT to purchase it.

Yes, General Sale tickets are plentiful and we are expecting minimal capacity constraints this year. Plus, we are holding back a sizeable strategic reserve of tickets, just in case we need to facilitate any sudden increases in demand.

We have allocated a significant budget and expect to accommodate most requests. That said, we do reserve the right to limit excessive camp or art project ticket requests if necessary.

Unfortunately, no. As a 100% volunteer-driven event hosted by a non-profit, the labor and financial costs of processing numerous refunds exceed our capacity. If you think you might qualify for a Steward Ticket, please contact your lead before purchasing a general ticket to see if you’ll be included in their budget.

The price for What If 2025 Tickets are $285 this year, an increase of $5 from the 2024 price.

Steward Tickets are $255 and is the first year we’re offering a discounted ticket.

Yes
Our only stipulation is that you DO NOT SELL YOUR TICKET AT A HIGHER PRICE THAN YOU PAID FOR IT!. Those caught doing so will have their ticket cancelled, and will not eligible for any ticket program in the future.

Also, we are now offering 2 options for dealing with the financial transaction when transferring tickets. Instructions are here: How to transfer tickets to someone else.

That being said, don’t delay, technical support for ticket transfers isn’t available during the event, and the name on the ticket must match your government ID.

Also, our while our ticket marketplace is open for posts, it will not be actively promoted on the buy page until late June / early July.

IMPORTANT: When transferring, triple check the email of the individual you’re transferring it to, it can be hard to reverse these.

For What If 2025 there are a total of ~2500 adult tickets available. We expect good availability throughout the sale season this year.

Yes. In the General Sale you can purchase a maximum of two (2) tickets per order.

In the Ticket Aid Sale, you will only be able purchase one (1) ticket for yourself.

Unfortunately, no. As a 100% volunteer-driven event hosted by a non-profit, the labor and financial costs of processing numerous refunds exceed our capacity.

The only scenario where ticket refunds will be considered is during an event cancellation scenario, such as what happened during COVID.

You can sell or transfer your ticket so someone else, including on our open marketplace page. We are now offering 2 options for dealing with the financial transaction when transferring tickets. Instructions are here: How to transfer tickets to someone else.

Persons with these challenges should contact us to make arrangements for themselves and their caregiver.  Contact us by email at: [email protected]

Tickets for children ages 6-12 and youth ages 13-18 are eligible for discounted tickets. Child, Youth & Infant tickets are available right up until and through the event, and go on sale about a week after the main sale has settled.

 

There is no hard limit to youth/child/infant tickets sold, but you will be turned away if you show up with a youth ticket as an adult.

Infants ages 0-4 are free, but we do require that you get a free infant ticket from the ticket purchase page.

Tickets: http://qkt.io/whatif2025

Yes, you can!

HOWEVER: we strongly advise you to use a laptop/desktop for a better user experience. These sales are time sensitive, and working with a larger screen and a consistent, dedicated internet connection may be more efficient and less stressful for you. Please use a recommended browser such as Chrome, Firefox, or Safari.

Find someone with a computer or smartphone and borrow theirs (or go to a Library!).  It should only take a few minutes to set yourself up.

Any tickets are left over from the Steward pool will be made available in a Last Minute Sale, only if the General Sale has sold out as well.

If one is necessary it will start on July 13th @ 8pm and run until all tickets are sold out.

Only if you are accompanied by your parents/legal guardian.  You must be 19+ to go unaccompanied.

A limited number of Ticket Aid tickets are being made available this year through a direct distribution program.

Applications will be accepted until our pool of Ticket Aid tickets run dry — after that the application will serve as a waitlist.

Certified service animals with documentation are welcome.

Otherwise no.

No.

Our sale does not have the same restriction as Burning Man’s. The same credit card can be used to make multiple purchases.

You are getting an error “Promotion code has already been used or is locked temporarily for an active checkout session” – here’s what’s going on: Whenever the purchase link with the code is opened, the code will lock for 30 minutes to allow enough time to enter your purchase information. You may be getting this error because you accidentally closed your browser window, or something else happened to close your current session. Do not panic, just wait for 30 minutes and try the link again.

There is no restrictions on purchasing tickets across multiple sales (General / Steward). We understand you’re likely buying for friends and family, so we do not cross-check for similar names or credit cards.

©2025 Greater Vancouver Interactive Art Society