Mismanaged Clusterfuckchella

[BrettShipes]

This was my 6th Coachella. It's always been a magical experience, most of the greatest times of my life have been at Coachella. The best shows, the best sound, the best people, the best venue and the best art I've ever had the pleasure of experiencing!

Now down to the issues. In previous years, I somewhat felt proud when I was able to sneak in my small amount of pot. Getting thoroughly searched made me feel comfortable that the idiots who were dumb enough to not hide their shit well enough got it taken away. Hell, I even got caught once before, but I didn't care, security was just doing their job so I couldn't complain.

This year, I was not patted down once, and my bag barely got a glance, much less a proper search, and by Sunday I just walked in with my pipe in my pocket because I knew they wouldn't bother searching me. This really got on my nerves. CSC is there to do a fucking job, to make sure that fucking idiots don't bring in shit they shouldn't have. If I were to hire CSC to do the job of making sure the festival is a safe, friendly place, I would be absolutely furious, because they obviously didn't give two shits about who got in or with what this year.

In previous years, I would see groups of people rushing the gates and hoards of security would run after them and jump them, so I felt comfortable that they were honoring that I paid some good money to attend. I was seeing security in action doing the job they're there to do.

This year, I witnessed people wristband swapping, hopping fences and just walking right into the festival with no ticket or wristband giving the "oh man, yah, last night was crazy and stuff and it just fell off" line AND THEY JUST LET HIM IN!. Maybe they should advertise this next year, they could probably break 100,000.

The problem was the yellow-shirts practically allowed this to be a free-for-all over-crowded drug-fest. I personally do not want to attend a music festival that allows people to bring in whatever they want, because at that point, it ceases to be a festival about the music which is why I go to Coachella in the first place.

They had to have made record profits for this year, and good for them, but for the sake of the festival experience, I hope they do something about this little issue. If not, this may unfortunately be my last year, and just saying that makes me want to cry.

Going to THIS festival again would be like willingly paying to sit in traffic in Downtown LA 5:30pm on a Thursday while trying to listen to an MGMT CD being played in the Mercedes next to you.

[BROKENDOLL]

But it was expanded, honestly, Im not making this up, those tents were bigger than last year. You didnt even go last year, you cant give an opinion on that for comparison from last year to this year. Does Mojave have to be as big as Sahara and Sahara as big as it was in 2006 for Daft Punk? And Gobi be as big as Mojave was this year?

I know the Sahara tent was bigger, and it was moved over closer to that rose garden. Not so much as big lengthwise as in 2006, but more so in the width. I'll be honest here...we spent the whole weekend either in the Sahara Tent or the Do Lab, as it was at times hard to manuever to any other stages if you knew the next act you wanted to see after that was back at the Sahara. And with Ins and Outs, I think another entrance to the fest grounds from the campgrounds somewhere near the Sahara tent would have made a huge difference in that traffic jam of passing people with that far away gaze in their eye. Seriously, we saw several attempts by people to sneak in by the rose garden area, only to be tackled and carted off. They had to be getting in through areas along the entrance and locker area next to the campgrounds...Over fences of course, but, if you could take the fences away, add security and scanning and you've got yourself a flow pattern! Since all festival goers could wander through the campground anyway to go rollerskate or dance at the clubhouse, why not divide the crowd into atleast two options for movement. Anyone can figure out that Ins and Outs means just that. 2 options. Duh, there's my solution! Utilyzing that open space by the lockers and adding an entrance from there would provide just that. And the bonus would be that ravers would probably use that exit while the douchebags used the other. 50% of the problem solved. I know we enjoyed being able to head back to the tent for awhile before seeing the evening's favorites, but that also meant we had to go completely back through the crowd, then out the gates, then up 5 aisles and back again towards where? The Sahara. One section removed could be a pricelss move compared to the shit storm GV is dealing with now I'm sure.

[buddy]

It comes apart
The way it does in bad films

[BROKENDOLL]

BTW Suprefan, we really did consider seeing Thom, but the idea of trying to make it from Orbital to Thom and back for Plastikman, at our age, on our 4th night of debouchery would have been pushing the odds.

[BROKENDOLL]

How you can argue that this is not a legit complaint about GV is beyond me. I guess I have higher expectations of what I receive for my $300. I should not have to spend an hour holding a spot just to be able to see an artist.

Why not, Tom? I got up with one of those lack of sleep headaches where you want to chill awhile longer, but nooo, we had to haul ass to your board photo shoot reuest for the OUTDOOR theatre, only to be stood up and robbed of another 30 minutes of my recovery time from my night before,damn you! Goddamned Divas! Pffft!

[BROKENDOLL]

be sure to add to the list of complaints that the churros were terrible this year

Hmmm, I normally sustain myself on Churros and only had one this weekend. One. That's it.

[TomAz]

You don't make any sense. You're turning into Sly/Ron.

[TomAz]

But, yeah, I wish all of my friends were able to see everything they wanted. We tend to see each other quite a bit at Coachella, Tom, and I am happy about that. I remember specifically last year at X, seeing how much you were enjoying that set helped me enjoy it more. Same with the King Khan bands this year. It is good to have you at Coachella and I hope it continues. OK, now I really don't know where I'm going with this. Yay Coachella. I hope they made enough money this year to fix some issues.

god damn it now I'm feeling guilty for saying anything. I like seeing you too John.

[Errant]

Now down to the issues. In previous years, I somewhat felt proud when I was able to sneak in my small amount of pot. Getting thoroughly searched made me feel comfortable that the idiots who were dumb enough to not hide their shit well enough got it taken away. Hell, I even got caught once before, but I didn't care, security was just doing their job so I couldn't complain.

This year, I was not patted down once, and my bag barely got a glance, much less a proper search, and by Sunday I just walked in with my pipe in my pocket because I knew they wouldn't bother searching me. This really got on my nerves. CSC is there to do a fucking job, to make sure that fucking idiots don't bring in shit they shouldn't have.

^this

I walked straight in with a mixed drink in a 20oz Dixie cup in one hand, and an unopened beer in the other. I fully intended to toss them in the box, but CSC was waving and hurrying me through.

[guedita]

They continued to give these tickets out all weekend... we didn't contribute to the problem the unorganized system did. I heard about tons of people just walking in with no wristband at all. There many different ways people entered the festival without paying. However I was not one of them I bought my ticket months in advance. Tickets sell out... you hear tickets are being handed out for free no questions asked, Um HELLO?! Who wouldn't...

Can you please just acknowledge that you are most certainly part of the problem? You took advantage of the unorganized system, and contributed to the overcrowding of people being there who had not legitimately paid for tickets. Overcrowding was one of the biggest problems of Coachella this year. And you know what? I wouldn't have. If I hadn't gotten my shit together before it sold out, I would have stayed at home. Seriously, this self interested, I-deserve-to-go-only-cuz-I-want-to attitude that disregards and disrespects the way a system is supposed to be set up to run is the very reason why events like these are becoming worse and worse. It is the very reason it's alright for festival attendees to push and elbow their way to the front. It is the very reason people don't think twice about throwing their trash on the floor. This selfish mantra of as long as I can get away with it then why not is the problem as much as lax security and disorganization.

[thestripe]

From another thread. This guy is the perfect example of what I fear Coachella is becoming.

1. Daft Punk-make it happen, as good as Tiesto is, Daft Punk should have been the first electronica on the main stage, but I can assure you we wont care if you get them here next year.
2. Bring the one day passes back-there was waaaaay too many people there this year one day passes i think make it easier, or expand the grounds somehow(caz i know the true solution of selling less tickets is out of the question, although upping the price would make up for that, just sayin); and this is coming from a Coachella vet(every year other than the first)
3. Lil Wayne-sure the crowd would be a little different, but his first concert back from prison would be just plain sick
4. Justice-No one gets the Sahara pumped like them, let them close the Sahara like they did in 08' on Sunday, they wont disappoint, they never do.
5. The Who-While Muse was good this year, The Who would have been better, make it happen.
6. Mos Def-this festival is made for him bring him back!
7. Don't schedule Tiesto and 2ManyDJs at the same time-I was put in the awkward situation of Tiesto on the main stage and ended up watching his entire set because there was no way I was walking thru the madness to watch the end of soulwax's set which made me sad.
thats all for now

[chiapet]

One of the funniest security stories I heard was from a friend I trust not to make shit up... the people in front of them had cases of beer (one case each) in the FESTIVAL security line on Friday. My friend was laughing at them, thinking where do these assholes think they're going with a case of beer and assuming he was going to get a free beer once they were told to drink it or dump it.

Instead, they showed the security guard the Coachella page on their phone, apparently the camping FAQ where it says one case of beer per person, and walked in with their beer.

[Sexecutioner]

Can you please just acknowledge that you are most certainly part of the problem? You took advantage of the unorganized system blah blah

who the fuck cares??? there will always be people who take advantage of the system. the way i see it, this is all on GV for creating a system so easily taken advantage of. if you are handing out free tickets, 9 out of 10 people are going to take one. how about lets stop blaming her and wonder why not one person that GV hired this year knew what the fuck they were doing? this chick just came to the festival to have fun and grabbed some free tickets, BFD! What i want to know is why GV took 20 million in profits from all of us, and didnt seem to spend one cent of that on making sure their staff was trained, resulting in a horrible experience for us, the paying customer!

[frazzles]

Just because there was a fucked up system for her and her friends to take advantage of DOES NOT alleviate them from ALSO contributing to the problem.

Refusing to admit that you helped the overcrowding issue is pretty high on the bitchass-ness list, though.

[thestripe]

Advantages advantages!

[Leeartlee]

So basically what the consensus is around here is that there were too many people. The reason there were too many people was because GV was doing a shit job of keeping people out who did not have a ticket/wristband through legitimate means. Is this about right?

If this is true, GV is going to recognize that there were far more people inside then there should have been. I highly doubt they are just going to sit back next year and go, "Well we made money so what the fuck do we care?" As has been said, this was a year of adjustment. I have complete faith that we will not see near the same over crowding issue as we did this year in the years to come.

[guedita]

The BFD is that there were hundreds of people, maybe thousands, who did not pay and found a way into the festival to "have fun." This overcrowding made the ineptitude of security even more evident and directly contributed to the horrible experience many had.

ADVANTAGES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Leeartlee]

For comparison, Glasto had the exact same problem as we did this year. People gatecrashing was pretty much fucking the event over. The solution? They got bigger fences and beefed up security. Now Glasto continues to be one of the premier music festivals in the entire world... and that shit has been going on far longer than our beloved Coachella.

In other words, nothing is fucked. It just needs to be reworked a bit.

[BlackSwan]

Is being a DJ so fucking hard that you can't carry records?!

[TomAz]

Glasto continues to be one of the primer music festivals in the entire world...

primer.

[Leeartlee]

fixed, you fucking spelling check Nazi

[TomAz]

that's not misspelling. That's not having a clue what the fucking word you're using is.

[BlackSwan]

Movie primers.

[faxman75]

Overnight this thread turned into people bitching about being able to get their drugs in without much hassle and people who scammed free tickets are compelled to voice their dissatisfaction as well.

This thread was productive early on and now people are just looking for reasons to complain.

[Leeartlee]

Thanks Swan, I was wondering how that word was used correctly. That is in fact why I come on this board, for English lessons that is.

And wasn't this thread always been about bitching? Sure, the bitching was constructive but it was bitching nonetheless

[DeanSpang]

Here we go. LAND SHARKS!!!

these were rad

[faxman75]

who the fuck cares??? there will always be people who take advantage of the system. the way i see it, this is all on GV for creating a system so easily taken advantage of. if you are handing out free tickets, 9 out of 10 people are going to take one. how about lets stop blaming her and wonder why not one person that GV hired this year knew what the fuck they were doing? this chick just came to the festival to have fun and grabbed some free tickets, BFD! What i want to know is why GV took 20 million in profits from all of us, and didnt seem to spend one cent of that on making sure their staff was trained, resulting in a horrible experience for us, the paying customer!

How about she went out of her way to knowingly take something that she did not pay for? You're justifying stealing Coachella tickets. She took them knowing she wasn't going to volunteer and knowing she didn't give a deposit. Maybe things would be different if she didn't KNOW all of that information but that wasn't the case here.

[BlackSwan]

Overnight this thread turned into people bitching about being able to get their drugs in without much hassle and people who scammed free tickets are compelled to voice their dissatisfaction as well.

This thread was productive early on and now people are just looking for reasons to complain.

Why don't you complain about it?

[faxman75]

Thanks Swan, I was wondering how that word was used correctly. That is in fact why I come on this board, for English lessons that is.

And wasn't this thread always been about bitching? Sure, the bitching was constructive but it was bitching nonetheless

NO, it wasn't all bitching. There was actually a constructive list going at one point with the bitching weeded out. There are some legitimate issues that almost everyone witnessed and I fully expect changed to be made because Paul T. does in fact read the board and will read this thread.

[captncrzy]

Lee is an intolerable c u n t. Ignore.