My problems with Coachella....

[righteousdnk]

I had absolutely no problems bringing in my water bottle and filling it up for a dollar about four or five times a day. Even when they were yelling about how they couldn't fill up your bottle unless you had a Coachella one, I still got it filled with no problems. I had one of these:

[anonimouse]

first and formost



now that we got that out of the way, i think you are a troll but i'll say a few things anyway just for fun

1) Not being allowed to bring your own beer in - our friends was confiscated - lies

read the faq. i've never seen it written ANYWHERE that you can bring alcohol into the came site

2) Not being allowed to bring your own water container in - they said so in the leaflets - again more lies

yea that did seem to be a bit inconsistent depending on who searched you. big deal, buy a water bottle

3) Not being allowed to come and go from the campsite - what the fuck is all this about? easily solved with a weekend or day wristband, I wasn't aware of this and missed Paul Mac due to being freezing cold and not allowed to go back and pick up my jumper. This was the stupidest rule, totally totally brainless.

again, stated in the faq. the thing that confuses me here is that youre from the uk right? significantly colder place from what they all say right? so your friend (im assuming is from the uk as well) couldnt handle a little 59 degree low? if you would have walked up through the crowd to get closer to "Paul Mac" im sure there would have been enough warm bodies around you to keep the cold away

4) Being Id'ed every 10 minutes - even though we had wristbands - incredibly annoying having to take my passport into the festival area every day

i wasnt drinking and i didnt get id'd once the whole weekend. liquor laws are slightly different in the states but you had to have known that, right?

5) Lack of free water - this was bordering on a human rights disaster, charging 2 bucks for a small bottle of water and/or having to buy a 10 dollar coachella one, which you werent allowed to take into the beer garden in the campsite(???). Kids were fainting in the evening from dehydration. Why werent we allowed to bring in our own containers?

ok so again you flew over here from the uk just for this and you are complaining about this travesty against mankind? with the conversion rates and all this means you would be paying 1.35GBP per bottle. seriously wtf are you crying about? you can afford to fly here but you cant afford to spend less than 10GBP per day on water? i didnt see anyone fainting or dehydrated, in fact the local papers spoke to a doctor in the first aid tent who said dehydration and heat related illness's were much lower this year than previously

8) Overpriced shit beer, I mean 7 bucks for a can of Heineken pish. No choice and way overpriced. Why was it so difficult to get a beer? Beer drinkers were treated like lepers, where pot smokers were everywhere, I even had the pleasure of witnessing a 16 year old honking on her crack pipe during the Cure.

have you ever been to the states before? did you really expect wooden barrels of Monocled Rooster grey stout or some such shit? americans drink shitty beer. i thought this was established as fact all over the world?

Its just a shame that the festival organizers were totally shit, instead of being a 9-10/10 festival I feel that they dragged it down to a 6/10.

tollett and crew do a great job year after year. they are constantly looking for ways to fix what is broken and improve everything that isnt. sure theres always going to be minor things that arent quite how you want them to be but what do you expect? go to any other festival in the states and tell me its better than this one. then give me like 20 mins or so to laugh before i respond


maybe you can find some festival in europe that will let you bring in your precious beer. but im sure the lineup will be something like nickelback > stone sour > kings of leon > cradle of filth > muse

killer lineup

[righteousdnk]

maybe you can find some festival in europe that will let you bring in your precious beer. but im sure the lineup will be something like nickelback > stone sour > kings of leon > cradle of filth > muse

killer lineup

You forgot the Creed reunion.

[Wheres the beef?]

You are right. I hate Oxegen too, but I still prefer it to this opressive piece of crap. All festivals are money making exercises, in Ireland we are used to getting ripped off. That's why smart folk like me go to Pukkelpop in Belgium for way less money and a way better festival. But Coachella took the biscuit for being badly run for all the reasons my friend from the UK posted.

We met heaps of Aussies, East Coasters, pretty much everyone not from LA thought it was a pile of shit rules wise. Concentration camp. Even the organisers we complained to about some rules (the campsite re-entry, my friend was freezing one night and wanted to get a hoody, no can do, WTF?! $$$$$$$$) agreed with us. I feel sorry for you people who haven't been to a good Euro fest, and think this is great. They checked the TISSUES in my POCKET for drugs!!!!!!! Madness. Pity they missed the 4 bottles of water/vodka, even though the guy after me got his bottles SNIFFED! Ridiculous.

[Jon Blazed]

faq doesn't mention anything about the horrible sound bleed issues

[midnitevulture]

tollett and crew do a great job year after year. they are constantly looking for ways to fix what is broken and improve everything that isnt. sure theres always going to be minor things that arent quite how you want them to be but what do you expect? go to any other festival in the states and tell me its better than this one. then give me like 20 mins or so to laugh before i respond


maybe you can find some festival in europe that will let you bring in your precious beer. but im sure the lineup will be something like nickelback > stone sour > kings of leon > cradle of filth > muse

killer lineup

Do a bit of research before you make a complete fuckin retard of yourself next time.

Oxegen(closest to Coachella in evil) http://www.oxegen.ie/2009/index.php?...d=51&Itemid=58

Benicassim(sold its soul a few years ago but still miles ahead of Coachella) http://fiberfib.com/en/line-up/benic...festival-2009/

Summercase(no soul selling, clearly affecting lineup, but wayyyyy more enjoyable than all of the above) http://www.summercase.com/indexen.html

Electric Picnic(light years ahead of Coachella) http://www.electricpicnic.ie/html/music.html

Pukkelpop(light years ahead of Coachella, like the above, the lineup is far from finished but getting there, yes I realise 50 Cent is hilarious). http://www.pukkelpop.be/nl/line-up/all-names/

Finally, the biggy, Glastonbury. Doesn't need any introduction.


America, open your eyes, you are getting gang raped by GV.

[garspaceman]

I agree with midnight vulture, you yanks like shite like Creed etc

see also All Tomorrows Parties

www.atpfestival.com

End of the road festival

www.endoftheroadfestival.co.uk

the greenman festival

www.thegreenmanfestival.co.uk

I could go on, all of these allow you to go back and forth your accomodation (my main gripe of the whole weekend) and dont charge you 7 bucks for rubbish beer. Plus you can bring your own to your digs for the weekend

oh and by the way I queued for 20 mins for one water fountain in no shade, how is that fair? and my water bottle I bought at the general store had to be thrown away, unopened.

Reading the posts above, none of you are justifying Coachellas stupid rules.

[garspaceman]

Oh and there were plenty of fainters mostly kids in their teens who spent shed loads on getting to and attending the festival who didnt want to shell out on the water

[Ardentbiscuit]

Hmm, where to start. Came over from the UK especially

First and foremost the organizers moving the goal-posts.

1) Not being allowed to bring your own beer in - our friends was confiscated - lies

2) Not being allowed to bring your own water container in - they said so in the leaflets - again more lies

3) Not being allowed to come and go from the campsite - what the fuck is all this about? easily solved with a weekend or day wristband, I wasn't aware of this and missed Paul Mac due to being freezing cold and not allowed to go back and pick up my jumper. This was the stupidest rule, totally totally brainless.

4) Being Id'ed every 10 minutes - even though we had wristbands - incredibly annoying having to take my passport into the festival area every day

5) Lack of free water - this was bordering on a human rights disaster, charging 2 bucks for a small bottle of water and/or having to buy a 10 dollar coachella one, which you werent allowed to take into the beer garden in the campsite(???). Kids were fainting in the evening from dehydration. Why werent we allowed to bring in our own containers?

6) The Do-lab - that shite monstrosity who drowned out every quiet band on the 2nd stage and some of the tents. It should have been placed in a field on its own, maybe in place of the utterly useless Dome.

7) Clueless 'helpers' - Im sure this has been discussed on these boards. Very annoying.

8) Overpriced shit beer, I mean 7 bucks for a can of Heineken pish. No choice and way overpriced. Why was it so difficult to get a beer? Beer drinkers were treated like lepers, where pot smokers were everywhere, I even had the pleasure of witnessing a 16 year old honking on her crack pipe during the Cure.

Plusses - Music was amazing, BJM, MBV, Fleet Foxes, Jenny Lewis, Zane Lowe etc etc

People were genuinely friendly and I met some lovely lovely people.

The food was of excellent quality and by no means a rip off

Its just a shame that the festival organizers were totally shit, instead of being a 9-10/10 festival I feel that they dragged it down to a 6/10.

This is super easy. So you came out, tried it and didn't like it. That's what life is about. You gave it a shot and it didn't do it for you; so you won't be coming back. I've done many things I don't like but I don't complain about it. I just chalk it up to experience.

As for a number of your complaints, reading the website, asking questions on here or emailing Goldenvoice would have prepared you better.

As for all the rules, this is the wild west! We need rules and laws!

[midnitevulture]

This is super easy. So you came out, tried it and didn't like it. That's what life is about. You gave it a shot and it didn't do it for you; so you won't be coming back. I've done many things I don't like but I don't complain about it. I just chalk it up to experience.

As for a number of your complaints, reading the website, asking questions on here or emailing Goldenvoice would have prepared you better.

As for all the rules, this is the wild west! We need rules and laws!

That all makes sense. You enjoy it, so go for it. We didn't, so we won't come back. But really, when ya think about it, how can you spend that amount of money on something so morally wrong and unjust and oppressive? It's dire.

[miSTEVEious]

yeah coachella as compared to bonnaroo or high sierra leaves much to be desired.

[Voodoo Hipster]

I think you can place most of your blame on past attendees or yourself for you having such a hard time.

1 - The wristbands and ID situation is due to fuckheads breaking the rules for years..If people were a little more responsible and not giving alcohol to minors or sneaking friends into the campsites...this might not happen. I can understand them not wanting you to go back and forth all day. Security Issues to say the least.

2- There was more free water this year than any other year, The bottle (even with the luke warm water) was probably one the best things they ever did. There were 3 stations for free water and 3 stations for filtered water.. What do you want from them..drinking fountains every 50 feet. If you were too lazy to stand in line for a few minutes or too stupid to find free water on the map, don't blame Coachella. Also is there 1 festival in the entire world that does not charge for Bottled water?


3 - I like the Do-Lab it gives a place for the hotties / Hipsters to hang out while I watch my bands. I would much rather them be there then fucking up my Kills. In all my years I have never heard the Do-lab over powering a band, I have heard it in-between acts but I can't remember a time where It was a distraction.

4 - Coachella is in the desert, it gets cold at night, you should have known that beforehand and that you were not allow to your camping spot before 10 when Paul came on stage. It's your own fault for missing Paul.

5 - Since I pay 7.00 for beer at most clubs anyways, I don't see the pricing out of control and since there are 3 Beer Gardens with views of the main stages and tents, I dont think we are treated as lepers.

6 - and that poor 16 year girl needed her crackpipe to listen to The Cure for 3 hours..If you had a problem with her..you could have moved 20 feet in any direction and forgotton all about it. Same with the pot smoking.

Sorry you didnt have a good time. I had a blast.

[tigermilkboy]

The ID problem is the state and local law enforcement. If GV doesn't maintain the constant checks on ID for alcohol the law will pull the plug on the whole festival or alcohol sales. It is more strict in the US. It is something I miss-drinking alcohol and wandering round. But there is no way round this for GV other than making it over 21 only.

It is just a fact the US is more 'conservative' than the UK, Netherlands, Germany and Spain-where the big Euro festivals are. The atmosphere is different in the US and Europe (not better or worse). The worse thing about UK festivals is occassionally the loutish football hooliganism you sometimes see-Leeds Festival riots anyone? I remember when the toilet blocks were set on fire one year and kids were engaging in battles with each other and the police. That wasn't fun either and nearly led to the festival getting cancelled.

To be honest, I appreciate the differences in every music festival. Coachella is my local and whilst not the best or biggest, it does more things right than wrong.

[garspaceman]

6 - and that poor 16 year girl needed her crackpipe to listen to The Cure for 3 hours..If you had a problem with her..you could have moved 20 feet in any direction and forgotton all about it. Same with the pot smoking.

haha, I like that comment about the Cure

She didnt bother me to be honest, I was just comparing the ease at which it was do drugs to getting a beer

And as for the temperature thing, It was the delta in temp that sent our UK bodies into shock, ask a biologist.

Didnt notice it the following nights

Its just a shame that they didnt issue a wristband to come and go

[beavington]

4) Being Id'ed every 10 minutes - even though we had wristbands - incredibly annoying having to take my passport into the festival area every day.

arent you advised to keep some kind of id on you at all time? it sounds like you are complaining just to complain about anything.

[garspaceman]

arent you advised to keep some kind of id on you at all time? it sounds like you are complaining just to complain about anything.

are you guys retards or what? why the fuck do you have to carry more ID round with you if you already get a wristband saying you are over 21.... I dont profess to look 21 so why get Id'ed all the time?

[beavington]

are you guys retards or what? why the fuck do you have to carry more ID round with you if you already get a wristband saying you are over 21.... I dont profess to look 21 so why get Id'ed all the time?

uh just for general safety. its usually considered wise to always keep some form of ID on you. this isnt rocket science. stop bitching already goddamn. and they say Americans are complainers.

[JClemy]

Man what a whiner you are. I suppose though that some people can handle Coachella and some can't.

I'm glad people can't go back to their tent. People hanging around the campground is sketchy enough but include people who can go back and forth and possibly steal your stuff. At Pemberton in Canada it was nice to be able to go to your tent but if you plan for your day you don't need too. Also Pemberton was not planned anywhere near as good as Coachella.

[MissingPerson]

The clarification re: beer to the festival is appreciated.

And to be honest, not being able to head back to camp would piss me off quite a bit. I rarely ever would need to, but I prefer the option.

[TeamCoachellaHellYeah]

Hmm, where to start. Came over from the UK especially

First and foremost the organizers moving the goal-posts.

1) Not being allowed to bring your own beer in - our friends was confiscated - lies

2) Not being allowed to bring your own water container in - they said so in the leaflets - again more lies

3) Not being allowed to come and go from the campsite - what the fuck is all this about? easily solved with a weekend or day wristband, I wasn't aware of this and missed Paul Mac due to being freezing cold and not allowed to go back and pick up my jumper. This was the stupidest rule, totally totally brainless.

4) Being Id'ed every 10 minutes - even though we had wristbands - incredibly annoying having to take my passport into the festival area every day

5) Lack of free water - this was bordering on a human rights disaster, charging 2 bucks for a small bottle of water and/or having to buy a 10 dollar coachella one, which you werent allowed to take into the beer garden in the campsite(???). Kids were fainting in the evening from dehydration. Why werent we allowed to bring in our own containers?

6) The Do-lab - that shite monstrosity who drowned out every quiet band on the 2nd stage and some of the tents. It should have been placed in a field on its own, maybe in place of the utterly useless Dome.

7) Clueless 'helpers' - Im sure this has been discussed on these boards. Very annoying.

8) Overpriced shit beer, I mean 7 bucks for a can of Heineken pish. No choice and way overpriced. Why was it so difficult to get a beer? Beer drinkers were treated like lepers, where pot smokers were everywhere, I even had the pleasure of witnessing a 16 year old honking on her crack pipe during the Cure.

Plusses - Music was amazing, BJM, MBV, Fleet Foxes, Jenny Lewis, Zane Lowe etc etc

People were genuinely friendly and I met some lovely lovely people.

The food was of excellent quality and by no means a rip off

Its just a shame that the festival organizers were totally shit, instead of being a 9-10/10 festival I feel that they dragged it down to a 6/10.

Was this your 1st time at the festival?

[elChurro]

A friend snuck in a large water bottle filled with patron silver, all we had to do was buy frozen lemonades and blam!... coachellaritas! We were buzzed and refreshed but most of all free to walk around without the beer garden leash.

Tequila hangovers suck though. bleh.

[Voodoo Hipster]

A friend snuck in a large water bottle filled with patron silver, all we had to do was buy frozen lemonades and blam!... coachellaritas! We were buzzed and refreshed but most of all free to walk around without the beer garden leash.

Tequila hangovers suck though. bleh.

We did that on Sunday. Friday and Saturday we had Drank Rum and Coke Sno-Cones all day. That Sno-Cane lady made soo much money off us buying 5.00 ice.

[kas_t]

I'm from Spain, and I was in Coachella this year... but i didn't come to US just for the festival... that's the good news... hhahahah

well, I'm really agree with the guy from UK, and all the things he criticize... I can sum up what my feeling are after the festival with that:

COACHELLA IS THE MATRIX OF MUSIC FESTIVALS

and I can explain, If u have never been in a Music Festival, coachella is awesome... all this concerts, people, good organization, all clean, weather "during the day"... everything seems perfect...
but if u have been to a European Festival... DON'T GO!!!... with all that silly rules... I know is US, I know we could read FAQ before come, but in that case I'm so sorry for american young people... and now I understand why I found every saturday night in Barcelona american guys telling me what incredible is Barcelona and Spain

[BROKENDOLL]

Right, festivals where you can take beer to your accomodation, perhaps I should have made that clear, I dont expect you to be able to take it to the main festival sight

ATP, Bestival, End of the Road, Greenman......

They said you could take any water container in, I took a small bottle, which i bought at the general store, and I had to throw it away. And yeah people having to pay either 2 or 10 bucks for water is a verging on a human rights disaster you fuckwad.

As for people who worked on the gates they were fucking clueless. For example on Thursday night when they opened the Dome area, I asked if there was anything going on, the guy on the gate said 'no, there was a misprint on the flyer' Like what the fuck? totally clueless

All they had to do to solve the to and from the camp site (I still dont understand for the life of me why you werent allowed to do this, is this a stupid American rule) was to issue wristbands. Save us being hemmed in the arena where by mid afternoon in the baking heat, shade was at a premium.

Maybe this will open your eyes as to why they don't allow ins or outs...

Yeah there is a huge difference between European and US festivals. I wish the wristbands come back for Coachella. Nothing better than going back to your own tent mid afternoon to consume some supplies.

Reason #1

Oh and there were plenty of fainters mostly kids in their teens who spent shed loads on getting to and attending the festival who didnt want to shell out on the water

Between the fest and "supplies" they may not have had a shed load of $ left. Not GV's fault.

Oh and Im 32, not 15, so being id'ed all the time is a bit fucking stupid

I'd be curious to see what you look like actually. You may be 32, but you're coming acrossed to me as an ignorant 15 year old in this thread. No wonder you got ID'd so much! Let's put it this way, the people at the gates probably could give a rat's ass about what you're carrying in, but they have a job to do. After 40,000 people a day, an attitude like yours is bound to draw some attention, thus the reason you felt singled out. Perfect example...suffacated brought in an extra cooler the 2nd day. He had a container with Jack Daniels in it, at the bottom of the cooler of ice. On top he had a case of ice tea. They searched and found the Jack asking what it was. He politely told them ice tea.(Duh) They nodded and let him take it in anyway, knowing full and well it was booze. He didn't whine like you are, and he respected the fact they were only doing their job. He's older than you, but acts his age...maybe trying that will make a difference for you next time.

Um... I was able to sneak in 5+ unopened bottles of water every single day. Gatorade too. Hell, the guards didn't once check my fanny pack so there's that too. Weird.

As for the helpers, well, that's everywhere, dude.

Okay, Passive...It was the Fro, wasn't it? You just shoved those water bottles up in there like cloves in a ham and walked right on through, huh? LOL

You are so spot on. me and some friends came from europe, and wow. Huge disappointment. I enjoyed myself alot, but it's the worst festival I've ever been to, Pukkelpop, Benicassim, Summercase, Electric Picnic, Oxegen are all better. It's a joke.

Just think of the money you'll save next year! Pass it on to your friends!

I came in here ready to flame this guy, but I'd hate to say it. THe majority of his gripes are well warranted. I definately don't like how GV handled the whole ID thing. It was fucking rediculous, why give out wristbands then if you are going to ID people with them on anyways?!!!! Then the bullshit...OH well let me go get it...OH WAIT! I FUCKING CAN"T CAUSE YOU BASTARDS DONT ALLOW RE-ENTRY, EVEN INTO THE CAMPSITE!!!


BIG FUCKING GRADE: F for that shit....

THE DO LAB WAS obxiously loud, drownded out a lot of the neighboring tents with horrible bass trembles, and not to mention the lack of having to walk 1/4 mile to get free water after spending 10 bucks to get a small plastic bottle.

P.S. DAMN YOU GV for hiring HOTTEST girls to give you free water so that us guys would be feeling like cheapfucks if we didn't tip the gorgeous girls who gave us water. WHICH WAS THE EXACT OPPOSITE OF THE WHOLE IDEA OF PAYING 10 bucks for free tap water...FUUUUUUUUUUUuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu

Just because you're used to paying for your girls doesn't mean you had to do it for your water! LOL
Anyway...Another example I think of whining so much that you become a target. The very first day we went in and I walked right through the gates with my bag open, tickets in hand, and my bullet full of some stinky weed right in the palm of my hand. We chose to wait until getting into the fest for our 21 bracelets only to realize I didn't bring my ID...Hell, as you know, I haven't seen 21 in a long time. In any case, we took a chance and asked security if I could go back to our tent and get it, respecting the fact that the rules said no...( I had accepted the fact that I would have no beer that day...Instead, the dude was nice in return and allowed me to go while suffacated waited. Knowing that I'd probably be searched more thoroughly coming back in, I left my little stinky bullet with him (And my sweater with my tequila down the sleeve) and went for my ID, thanking them for this priveledge. You'd be amazed how people treat you when you treat them the same way. Stop whining and work on being polite next time. Or, wait afew years and get old and wise like me before attempting our festival again.

[coldstart]

^ good post

[garspaceman]

. Stop whining and work on being polite next time. Or, wait afew years and get old and wise like me before attempting our festival again.

'your' festival? stupid people and absurd rules? And be surrounded by dickwads like you, woopee doo you smuggled some drink in, well hello my fancy pants.

Great, now where do I get my ticket

[coldstart]

If you don't like Coachella so much, why are you trolling the forums for it? Focus your energy into something positive instead of just being an ass.

[hawkingvsreeve]

'your' festival? stupid people and absurd rules? And be surrounded by dickwads like you, woopee doo you smuggled some drink in, well hello my fancy pants.

Great, now where do I get my ticket

GO FUCK YOURSELF.

[Leeartlee]

yeah coachella as compared to bonnaroo or high sierra leaves much to be desired.

High Sierra? Are you kidding?

[sonofhal]

'your' festival? stupid people and absurd rules? And be surrounded by dickwads like you, woopee doo you smuggled some drink in, well hello my fancy pants.

Great, now where do I get my ticket

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