Coachella 2012 Breaks Attendance Record

[LiquidL]

Unless you count the 25,000 gate crashers in 2010.

25,000 gatecrashers!? Surely you jest

[captncrzy]

I personally did not feel the larger crowds this year. I've been going for 12 years and the only 2 times its been bad were 2006 and 2010. 2010 was the absolute worst or the worst though.

Agreed

[Lynn163]

I didn't think it was crowded till Saturday night and later on Sunday. Felt like everyone just showed up for the headliners.

[TomAz]

25,000 gatecrashers!? Surely you jest

I can't find the LA Weekly article now. Google clusterfuckchella and see what you come up with.

[Bumblebee]

What I find interesting is Indio gave the festival a hard cap on people allowed onsite. They must have added stricter rules on comps and employees.

[luckyface]

25,000 gatecrashers!? Surely you jest

That's the number that Goldenvoice claimed. I believe they said 90,000 - 100,000 were wandering around that year.

[LiquidL]

I can't find the LA Weekly article now. Google clusterfuckchella and see what you come up with.

Unauthoritative but this source says as many as 30,000 gatecrashers in 2010. Holy moly that's just bad management.

[theGold]

It seemed so sparse to me! Especially the lines and camping area. Did car campers even tailgate this year? I never saw a line build up

[Bumblebee]

Unauthoritative but this source says as many as 30,000 gatecrashers in 2010. Holy moly that's just bad management.

I think the scanners went down one day in 2010 and anyone with a kinks color photocopied wristband got waved through the front gates. Plus the year before still had walk-up tickets at the box office.

For me in 2012, only Gotye and M83 suffered from overcrowded where a couple thousand people could not see or hear anything of value.

[bluecheese]

What I learned this year was to wake up early and take advantage of the sparse stages.. there is so much good talent early.

[n3glect]

There were definitely lines mid day. I had friends who had an hour wait in the security check.

However, entry was pretty quick earlier, with the exception of Friday.

[fatbastard]

The Sahara tent really needs a logo with a sickle.

[sidsjiff]

Definitely more crowded than last year but not ridiculous like 2010 and 2006.
Back to the point about GV selling 10K more tickets this year - now that they own the fields, maybe they'll expand the grounds even more and sell more tickets in the future? They have a product in major demand and I don't see why they won't try to milk it for what it's worth. Pisses me off a bit but this is not the Coachella of 7-8 years ago anymore.
Oh and the extra space they added near where the ferris wheel is now was rather cool. Liked the full bar, Pink's and some of the other food trucks. Good place to chill out.

[seitron]

Hmm they have more area now? That'll make all the difference. Thanks for the course Professor.

They do. Dumbass. That whole food court area was added after 2010, if you think it doesn't make a huge difference in crowd movement you fail hard. That tiny plot of land stops a lot of congestion between the stages and lets them add a few more thousand people.

I agree, it didn't feel crowded this year, 80-85k was a good number.

[travelfan]

There were only two times I thought this year was more crowded than last. The first was that the lines seemed noticeably longer to get in. There were times we waited 20 minutes, I don't remember doing that before. The second was that all of the sudden Sunday afternoon/night seemed way more packed than any other day prior. Don't know why, but several other people have mentioned this as well.

Then again, the only set I went to that I think was considered one of the more crowded ones was M83, and we were really far up front. I wasn't there, but apparently Gotye and David Guetta were intolerably crowded.

[n3glect]

Having Gotye in the Mojave was a poor decision. I'm still scratching my head about that one.

I think that they judged the capacity almost perfectly this year. If they add any more to capacity next year, it'll be 2010 all over again.

[Lynn163]

There were definitely lines mid day. I had friends who had an hour wait in the security check.

However, entry was pretty quick earlier, with the exception of Friday.

They didn't have enough lines into the camp grounds. Hope they change that next year, or maybe not make us go through the camp grounds like previous years!

[TomAz]

Unauthoritative but this source says as many as 30,000 gatecrashers in 2010. Holy moly that's just bad management.

They made serious mistakes in 2010, no doubt. The good thing is they learned from them.

[with_cheese]

They didn't have enough lines into the camp grounds. Hope they change that next year, or maybe not make us go through the camp grounds like previous years!

Agreed. If they are going to do a thorough search like they did on weekend 1 (checking the pockets and sleeves of every item of clothing in people's bags) then they need to get more people. Ugh, just imagining the people this weekend having to do that wait in 100 degree temperatures.

[aguadulce]

It seemed WAY less crowded to me.

The lines getting in from the day parking lots were non existent - you walked right up to the
person doing the checks each day. It was fantastic.

Also the food lines were short whenever we got anything to eat. Except for Friday night when
it was really cold and the coffee line was about 100 people long and not one other food place had
anyone.

[Lynn163]

It seemed WAY less crowded to me.

The lines getting in from the day parking lots were non existent - you walked right up to the
person doing the checks each day. It was fantastic.

Also the food lines were short whenever we got anything to eat. Except for Friday night when
it was really cold and the coffee line was about 100 people long and not one other food place had
anyone.

How was getting out of the parking lot every night? So far I haven't seen anything about it.

[luckyface]

I keep reading about how this year's lines were better than ever. Maybe I timed things better last year or something, because every line to enter and leave was significantly longer this year (except the shuttle lines, which were again outstanding). The tents for the bigger acts seemed more crowded, as well. When we were going to stop in to hear Afrojack, the lines out the side were at least 20 people deep. I would have hated to see what it would have looked like for an actual great electronic act!

[luckyface]

How was getting out of the parking lot every night? So far I haven't seen anything about it.

We drove by the parking lot lines on the shuttles and they seemed pretty congested. I imagine they were better than previous years.

[BROKENDOLL]

They made serious mistakes in 2010, no doubt. The good thing is they learned from them.

Every year since it's inception, GV/Coachella has been dealt with plus's and minuses, and usually by the following year they've been addressed. The clusterfuck of traffic that the local residents complained about the first few years is practically non-existent now. Monroe Street used to be backed up to the I-10 freeway, bumper to bumper at the peak times, and as a resident of Indian Palms C.C. you didn't think to try coming home on Monroe after say, 10pm because traffic was all one way heading back to the freeway from that point on.Think that didn't upset the locals? Now those same locals are offering up places for fans to stay for the festival.

And if you look back through the years at most of the complaints or suggestions regarding the inside of the festival, those have also been addressed. I wouldn't call them mistakes by GV, but learning lessons. They set the rules, and we've broken them. Unfortunately, because of Coachella's growth and popularity, coupled with the fact that they give us inches and some peeps insist upon going way past a mile, we're learning and paying the price for those lessons they're learning from us. Sorry, but I can't blame GV for the fact that my 10 minute stroll down the street to the fest, has now become an obstacle course that takes a good 45 minutes, nor can I bitch about security lines and searches, when even I've got shit I'm bringing in that I shouldn't be. And while we all know that rules get broken, the complete fucking idiots should keep in mind how the rule they're breaking might affect the future of their festival, and think twice before thinking that they'll get away with it. Prior to 2010, you never experienced 3 separate searches just to get to your music, just like you never saw 3 rows of fencing surrounding that music. Thanks to those 30,000 fucking idiots in 2010, Coachella now feels kind of like some Nazi camp/prison. And, thanks to the fucktard responsible for the stabbing, we can probably expect even more security issues in the future. Shit like that could put a stop to the fest if it continues. Quit fucking it up, idiots!

[arthurbang]

I think I posted about it earlier, but we parked in Lot 14 all 3 days (coming down Monroe from the freeway seemed to work great!). It never more than a few minutes to get in or out. We also never had any wait at the security checks.

[gaypalmsprings]

Week 2 is more crowded than Week 1. I love Hotchella.

[mountmccabe]

I thought it felt less crowded this year.

Also i don't remember 2006 as being extra crowded, though I guess there were def more people than 2005.

[romanticizer]

I have nothing to compare it to but it seemed a lot less "Cattle Drive" than Sasquatch.

[bluecheese]

that's weird, I thought week 1 would be more crowded.

How's the grass holding up?

[loopy]

hmm. this must have varied wildly depending on who you were seeing; it felt much less packed than last year to me, and i kept stumbling across almost empty tents. (Atari Teenage Riot crowd, i'm looking at YOU).

Ditto, it actually felt less crowded to me than previous years. Maybe it was the weather on Fri, but even Sat/Sun felt like it.