Car search = FAIL

[jorluivil]

I'm getting there around 930 in the morning, they'd better have a space for me. I couldn't get Thursday off so I can't leave until Friday morning...coming from la. Hopefully, since I'm arriving late I won't have to deal with all the crap that all the early birds dealt with.

[Brucebruce1212]

Took an hour in line but no problems at all. Went smoothly

[jorluivil]

Took an hour in line but no problems at all. Went smoothly

Are there a lot of opens spaces?

[GuyInTucson]

The first car-camping lot is full I believe. Lot 2 still has plenty of spaces as of about 30 minutes ago.

[muzikrazed]

Only took 1 1/2 hrs and barely looked in the car or packed trunk at all. Didn't even check my cooler or ID me. Now off to set up camp... It's only 5am

[cogirl]

At what time did it take 1 1/2 hours? We waited in line for two hours to wait in line at the car check line. We are finally third to be checked, and then there's another line getting out of the car check. At this point we won't be setting up camp. This is so ridiculous. They are also really sporadic on the checks. One guy had to throw out his cologne because it was in a glass bottle but didn't even check the contents of the next car's cooler.

[hegemon]

Had zero problems getting through. Took about an hour but people were already partying in line. Security seemed very cool. On top of that, Coachella has already started if you are camping. This is awesome so far.

this

the party (missed this last year) was awesome - f'ing cool to dance to remix of knights of cydonia

now i remember why i love coachella

[elChurro]

Ins and out are gonna be a bitch... talk about congestion.

[canexplain]

Ins and out are gonna be a bitch... talk about congestion.

By Saturday afternoon things will calm down I bet ...

[Opt!m!st!c]

Someone I met in camp told me at one point the fire marshal completely halted the car searching and refused to let any more cars into camp. I can imagine it would be for the same reason the fire marshal and PD tried to stop people from leaving sunday night, because it was too dangerous and unorganized. Pedestrians everywhere and too few people directing traffic, if anyone at all.

[Stefachink]

Damn, I wonder how much Goldenvoice got fined for all of this.

[Josesativa]

So I'm sitting in line for car camping and have been here since noon, over 3 hours and they don't have enough security to search all the rows of cars.

The side that is being searched is taking forever. They're popping hoods, checking spare tires, unpacking bags, unrolling sleeping bags. It's insane considering there are hundreds if not thousands of cars and they're spending 10-20 min per car.

Honestly I doubt I'll even be searched before sunset.

This is bullshit. We paid all this money and they don't have enough security guards?

http://twitter.com/trentlapinski

i didnt mind the wait. we were meeting new people sharing beers and then by the time we got in there they barely checked us .
they just asked us if we had any drugs and we said no
lol

[shoegazer76]

I thought car check was great! I got an oil change, transmission flush, & the timing belt replaced when it was my turn. First time thats happened at a fest.

[travolta]

I thought car check was great! I got an oil change, transmission flush, & the timing belt replaced when it was my turn. First time thats happened at a fest.

LOL someone mentioned that security thought they were mechanics looking under the hood. would of loved to hear someone say "can you check/top my fluids while your in there."

[juloxx]

Went smoothly for me. Plus being in the line with all the eager Coachella go-ers was kind of an epic experience.

[drewdrewdrew]

The security opened the back of my truck, looked in my cooler, saw my backpack and said "are you in the army?" I said "nope, my dad was and has this army backpack" and they immediately marked my car and let me in.

[Madtapdancer]

The line when we got there Thursday around 9 was super long but it was really fun to hang out with the people and drink some beers. Everyone in my caravan of cars just turned our cars off and we would take turns pushing the cars up that needed to moved. Once we finally got the the front the check was so pathetic. They looked under the front seats and glove box that was it. They didn't open our trunk or check the bags on our roof. Once we got past the security it got lame though. Two old guys on horses thinking they were Judge Dread started yelling at every car passing for the most bullshit reasons, and it was almost impossible to park next to your friends because they wouldn't let you pull of to the side to wait for your friends who were still getting checked by security.

[Strange]

this is so funny, the lady opened up the back of my station wagon, saw it packed wall to wall, floor to roof with shit, asked "any glass in there" and closed the door. lmfao.

[lowfront]

I got there thursday around 2:30pm. Took around 2.5 hours to get through to the camp site. I had 3 guys take all of our shit all over the ground, opened every bag, took our 3 tents apart, took everything out, 1 guy the whole time was just in the car ripping it apart.

WAAAYY to much searching going on here. Was really upset about this.

[FoxeyLady]

^That's crazy. I think the key is to get there when it's a bit crowded. I remember right before we entered the lot we heard a cop tell security to start letting people in faster because traffic in indio was getting too backed up, this was about 7:30 pm on thursday. We ended up waiting about an hour in line and the only thing they searched was our cooler. After that they just waved us on through.

[unit300021]

its was such bs, waited for over 2 hours, once they searched threw away my prescription medicine because it was "expired" by a month. Unpacked everything searched it very well. And then as soon as I got everything packed up the car rolling up next to mined smelled of weed and the supervisor just happened to walk by and stopped. Then said it was either mine or theres because it only smelled there, so then he made me unpack everything again and then he searched once again searched every square inch of the car and then made me empty out my pockets and patted me down. it was such bullshit. Besides that car camping was really convenient.

[headrush]

we waited MAYBE 30 minutes tops to get "searched" for 30 seconds. i couldve snuck in a 4 foot bong.

[slapuinpublic]

Our group leader has been there since 11am or so. Says they weren't even letting ppl in at 2pm...glad i won't get there till 10pm.

ya we didn't get a bad search though, it was actually pretty mild. It just sucked sitting there for that long while we were wanting to set up camp

[jaysocal]

A few notes:

1. Our group got there at 12:30pm on Thursday. The website said that camping opened at noon, but the security people said that they don't open until 1pm.

2. The car lines were crazy. There were about 20 cars in front of us waiting to be searched. At 1pm, the security crew started moving down the line.

3. Our group got lucky to have the 2 idiots searching cars (sarcasm). They took at least 20 minutes PER CAR. There was a VW Bus in the front of the line that they were literally tearing apart. It was stupid and unnecessary.

4. It took them 20 minutes to check my car (I timed it). They had us take EVERYTHING out of the car, they checked under the hood, checked in the spare tire compartment, opened EVERY bag, EVERY pill bottle, and checked all of our IDs. It was STUPID. At the end, they didn't find anything, because we didn't have anything. Fucktards.

Needless to say, that was just the start of the stupidity that was Coachella Camping this year. I have been camping at Coachella for the past 5 years and this was BY FAR the worst experience yet.

The spots were NOT 10 x 30' (they were stacking cars right next to each other and the guy telling us where to park told us that the average car is 9 feet wide...not quite sure what he considered an average car...a Hummer?)

At the end of the day, all of us just had to make it all work and live with the situation, but the people that GV contracted to do camping this year was really bad (I mean, come on...6 total shower trailers for 8000 camping spots? Really?).

I sure do hope that GV reconsiders their camping configuration and setup for next year.

[ryanliamg]

we waited MAYBE 30 minutes tops to get "searched" for 30 seconds. i couldve snuck in a 4 foot bong.

if you had, you wouldn't have had to bring any weed. all them stoners would have made you king.

[heyeric]

this is how our groups search went.

rolled up to campgrounds around 2pm, the line was moving very slow for the first 30 minutes. started drinking and walking around meeting some new friends and before we knew it, another hour had gone by and...

me- "hello, we do realize we have shit ton of stuff piled in the car and on the roof."

staff- "yes, we can see that."

me-"well, it took me an hour to pack that car and 30 minutes to strap the top down."

staff -"um...."

me- "LOOK, your staff can take all that stuff off, waste there time searching through it and load it back on but you should just save yourself some time and let us in."

staff- *strange look* "sounds good." *draws circle & x* "GOOD TO GO!" he says.

me- "sweet, thanks!"

staff-"no prob guys, have a great weekend."

& off we go.


much love coachella

[loopy]

joke. we arrived around 11pm on thursday night to wait in line for 2 hours to have a staffer shake his flashlight in my trunk and ask if I had any glass. I drunkenly answered no, just food, beer, and underwear, and he politely sent me on my way. thorough!

[elhoffo]

I showed up friday took like hour's to get in so we just went to see some show's and figured we would deal with the search later in the evening. So i went to the car search area at 3am something about the fire marshall stopping everything so i got stuck there til like 7am. We had a tailgate party and there was even a few people infront of us that somehow had a table and managed a vicious round of beerpong!! It was good to meet some good people but damm that was a long ling ! Next year i think i'll just rent some hotel room's.....brutal. My friend's that go to other music festival's like Ultra where disgusted on how badly this was handled .

[eskamo951]

The spots were NOT 10 x 30' (they were stacking cars right next to each other and the guy telling us where to park told us that the average car is 9 feet wide...not quite sure what he considered an average car...a Hummer?)

The average parking space in a parking lot is 8 feet wide. The people who work security don't know much.

[Lady_C]

Anyone suspect car searching will be upgraded this year? I heard a rumour that Indio PD is doing the searches now and not some paid security company. Also was car check in continous into friday morning? I wont be getting in until 5 am ish on Friday this year. Thanks in Advance!!