Car searchs

[yung_]

getting into car camping/getting into the actual festival, how well do they search girls' bodies? Not bags or anything, that's expected to be searched. But how touchy are they when it comes to boobs and vag area?

they split the uprights.

[Ryankunzzz]

How thoroughly are bags searched? Out of curiosity.

[ods..]

I have to say, my experience in the car camping line was seriously incredible. In line for probably a total of 45 minutes to an hour (meaning car parked, moving every few minutes, hanging out outside drinking beers). I got in line around 5ish I think.

When we got up to the front (we were only the twelfth car in line or so), the car at the front of the line next to us decided they were bringing their weed in with the consensus that a med card would be perfectly good. Fucking hilarious. So a few supervisors went over to that line to handle these idiots (the dudes in blue uniforms kind of look like the hard asses, they were the ones I saw checking bags mostly and taking the most time at the car search), and we were left to the CHILLEST dudes in yellow uniforms ever.

My only advice is to make friends with your search people as you are coming up to line. They are looking to have a good time too and are happy when people are nice to them. One of the dude's in yellow was from Trinidad and so my friend immediately starting cracking jokes about steel drum bands etc etc, had the dude cracking up. They waved all three of our cars through without checking a single bag. My car was first and they opened the back seat (of a car completely backed to the brim), checked one shopping bag of blankets we had just bought from Bed Bath and Beyond, then said we were chill. They waved our other two cars through without even opening a single door. Not one of us was frisked.

Oh and we had enough drugs to deplete a small army.

tl;dr, fuck off, attempting to give good advice to those who need it.

They didn't check our food, they didn't check shit. But that's my experience.

[JessikuhDollie]

I just want to know if there will be search dogs or horses.
And will they confiscate opened items or can openers?

To those Weekend 1 attendees updating and posting on this thread, thank you so much!
Hope you all had a safe an amazing weekend!

[nixsantos]

someone told me said that the earlier you arrive at car camping, the further you'll be parked from the entrance? is this true? i'd just like to confirm, as the plan for my friends and i are to leave by 6am to arrive at the venue right on time. pretty nervous!

[DSantos]

someone told me said that the earlier you arrive at car camping, the further you'll be parked from the entrance? is this true? i'd just like to confirm, as the plan for my friends and i are to leave by 6am to arrive at the venue right on time. pretty nervous!

Everything I have read states they fill Lot 8 and Lot 5 first, those are the closest lots to the entrance so you should be fine. See you in line in about 16 hours.

[amili.oh]

someone told me said that the earlier you arrive at car camping, the further you'll be parked from the entrance? is this true? i'd just like to confirm, as the plan for my friends and i are to leave by 6am to arrive at the venue right on time. pretty nervous!

No, if you get there around 9am on Thursday you'll more than likely be closer to the entrance

[heyeric]

@00:27

[nixsantos]

^ thanks for the help, guys! i appreciate it.

[smithsmack80]

I am REALLY sweating this metal poles nonsense. My boyfriend's parents loaned us two 10x30 carports that are made up of twenty or so small poles. More than anything else, I am dreading the thought that some dick in a yellow shirt will tell me that I can't take them into the campgrounds even though I've used them every year since '07.

[citizenerased]

I am REALLY sweating this metal poles nonsense. My boyfriend's parents loaned us two 10x30 carports that are made up of twenty or so small poles. More than anything else, I am dreading the thought that some dick in a yellow shirt will tell me that I can't take them into the campgrounds even though I've used them every year since '07.

pretty sure it was the metal stakes, not poles, that people were talking about.

[smithsmack80]

I definitely saw more posts about stakes and only a few talking about poles. I guess if ONE person posted about a confiscated canopy and another about a metal hammock stand I should consider the few thousand that had no problems. But if it weren't this I was obsessing about, it would be something else. Happy Coachella!

[melissaur]

yeah smithstack i'm in the same boat. i know it's unlikely to have my canopy taken......but i have 2....and i would rooooast without that shade. hoping for the best

[smithsmack80]

Be super polite and as helpful as possible. If you have cute girls in your group, consider shameless flirting. I've already primed my hottest friend for such a scenario. Good luck!

[qbancandy3]

Wowzers - I just read all 9 pages. Thanks to ALL (well maybe not the few dicks who had nothing positive to say) for updating with tips/advice! I'm a Coachella virgin and have been wondering how extensive the car search would be. --- Wonder how search-y they'll be feeling @ 1am?
Anyways, much thanks y'all!

[SuitedStranger]

Thanks to the first weekenders for the posts, advice etc...!

[gaspard27]

Rolled up today at 2:00. The Scion in front of us got totally tossed. Wasn't paying much attention to how things started but they had to remove everything. Security pulled out floor mats and checked all around the spare eventually finding about an eighth of weed and rolling papers. Once again, not sure how it started or how these three young guys and one girl were profiled but it happened. I was concerned about my tent stakes stashed with my spare (don't use or drink anymore) but security was swift with us. My wife and I are 40+ and the only thing I was holding was prescription cholesterol medicine so it seemed like we were the least of their problems.

[venturas90sgirl]

No complaints. We were in line around 3:30 and waited 30 min barely getting searched. My friend accidentally left a glass bottle in my trunk. The guy just asked, "is that all the glass you brought" (we had bottles at the bottom of the coolers) and I was all no "he's just an idiot." Aaaaand we're through. And our whole group got in together. No complaints this year.

[mikepitz]

rolled in 5pm. security jacked our water guns cuz they were out in the open, if they were in bags we wouldn't have had a problem. girls in front of us had to pour their salsa out into plastic cups. other than that, very quick n easy.
have a great weekend!

[nyarlathotoats]

We were good. Rolled in around 12, got a five min search, and our shit was packed to the brim. Good tines...

[Vic Viper]

i don't know why more instruction than "don't be an asshole" is needed.

security doesn't want to search car thoroughly, you don't them to search your car thoroughly. act like a responsible, upstanding human being and everything will be cool.

[mistame]

I got in line at 6pm, was searched by 6:15 and sent on my way by 6:20. I was solo so I assume that's why they didn't do a thorough search. The line next to me had a swarm of yellow shirts opening luggage and investigating every nook and cranny. I obessed about hiding my weed, pipe and stakes. Weed? Check. Metal stakes? Check. Oh, and they sell pipes at the general store

[mistame]

Also, my car camping pass didn't match my wristband (I preordered the wristband last year and added the camping pass later). They just asked me my name and let me through. No complaints this year!

[Manic Episode Mike]

I've been waiting for my account to be validated and it literally just got done about 30 seconds ago. This year (WEAK-end #2) was my third year in a row at the Coachella Festival. Due to my experiences (overall, but heavily in part due to the security, which I'll elaborate upon further) this year, I highly doubt that 2013 will be making the list of festivals and shows that I'll be going to next year.

Admittedly, I did arrive at a weird time of night, as I had no choice but to work & leave a few hours early, from West LA. My buddy who came in from Denver for the fest drove with me as we had pre-packed our car, and we made great time getting out to Indio and the grounds. However, once we finally got inside the main fence, it was a giant unorganized clusterfuck, at least compared to last year. There's a lot to be said for getting there early so that you can avoid this type of bullshit, but hey, things went the way the did and it's in the past now. That being said, let me elaborate on why I didn't enjoy this past weekend nearly a hundredth as much as past years' fests.

After waiting in a ridiculously slow moving and completely chaotic, pathetic excuse for a car camping security checkpoint, I noticed this was because the two cars directly in front of us (when we were 1-2 cars from getting in), were being fucking TOSSED. When I say TOSSED, I mean, searched harder than I've seen people get searched by police and border patrol. And this was all being done by some guy in a yellow shirt. He was going through EVERYTHING, their coolers, the entire trunk, unrolling every sleeping bag, every shirt and piece of clothing in the bags, going through every part of the car, every pocket/glove compartment, under the seats/car itself/floor mats, inside the spare tire case and literally all through the car. What'd he find? Like an eighth of weed and what looked to be some rolls from where I was sitting. I saw these kids being put in handcuffs.

Realizing that what we had in our car might get us arrested, I made the wise move to throw it in reverse and turn the fuck around ASAP. Sorry, but I'm not going to be risking jail time and potential felonies for a night of music. Luckily I was able to score a room at the Hyatt Grand Champions and it was totally worth it. Fuck car camping.

Additionally, I felt like no one at the entire fest was partying. The crowd was lame as fuck, filled with self-absorbed egotistical hipsters and wannabe bro thugs, no one was friendly, and we met only a few cool people the entire time. The police presence and the fact that there were uniformed officers swarming the campgrounds and the entire festival, as well as fucking NARCS and the yellow shirt assholes just made for a real negative environment. I had my nutsack fondled twice on the way into the venue and a female friend of ours had her underwear "entered" with one of the female searcher's hand during the patdowns. They were ridiculous. Obviously with so many people a lot are going to have totally different experiences than I did, but from what I have read on here lurking since I couldn't post for the last 2 weeks since registering, it seems I'm not the only one. Many girls had their tits grabbed, etc. Shit was a joke.

[fetuspiniata]

I think I may have had the lightest search ever conducted by security. They looked in my cooler in the back seat then checked the glove box and the center console. Opened my trunk and fluffed my pillows for me and then sent me on my way. Just another perk of going solo!

[ods..]

I've been waiting for my account to be validated and it literally just got done about 30 seconds ago. This year (WEAK-end #2) was my third year in a row at the Coachella Festival. Due to my experiences (overall, but heavily in part due to the security, which I'll elaborate upon further) this year, I highly doubt that 2013 will be making the list of festivals and shows that I'll be going to next year.

Admittedly, I did arrive at a weird time of night, as I had no choice but to work & leave a few hours early, from West LA. My buddy who came in from Denver for the fest drove with me as we had pre-packed our car, and we made great time getting out to Indio and the grounds. However, once we finally got inside the main fence, it was a giant unorganized clusterfuck, at least compared to last year. There's a lot to be said for getting there early so that you can avoid this type of bullshit, but hey, things went the way the did and it's in the past now. That being said, let me elaborate on why I didn't enjoy this past weekend nearly a hundredth as much as past years' fests.

After waiting in a ridiculously slow moving and completely chaotic, pathetic excuse for a car camping security checkpoint, I noticed this was because the two cars directly in front of us (when we were 1-2 cars from getting in), were being fucking TOSSED. When I say TOSSED, I mean, searched harder than I've seen people get searched by police and border patrol. And this was all being done by some guy in a yellow shirt. He was going through EVERYTHING, their coolers, the entire trunk, unrolling every sleeping bag, every shirt and piece of clothing in the bags, going through every part of the car, every pocket/glove compartment, under the seats/car itself/floor mats, inside the spare tire case and literally all through the car. What'd he find? Like an eighth of weed and what looked to be some rolls from where I was sitting. I saw these kids being put in handcuffs.

Realizing that what we had in our car might get us arrested, I made the wise move to throw it in reverse and turn the fuck around ASAP. Sorry, but I'm not going to be risking jail time and potential felonies for a night of music. Luckily I was able to score a room at the Hyatt Grand Champions and it was totally worth it. Fuck car camping.

Additionally, I felt like no one at the entire fest was partying. The crowd was lame as fuck, filled with self-absorbed egotistical hipsters and wannabe bro thugs, no one was friendly, and we met only a few cool people the entire time. The police presence and the fact that there were uniformed officers swarming the campgrounds and the entire festival, as well as fucking NARCS and the yellow shirt assholes just made for a real negative environment. I had my nutsack fondled twice on the way into the venue and a female friend of ours had her underwear "entered" with one of the female searcher's hand during the patdowns. They were ridiculous. Obviously with so many people a lot are going to have totally different experiences than I did, but from what I have read on here lurking since I couldn't post for the last 2 weeks since registering, it seems I'm not the only one. Many girls had their tits grabbed, etc. Shit was a joke.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAH you're a fucking joke. don't come back

[CrimesceneCookie]

I don't see the problem with that post.
Is this a "be a dick to the noob" thing?

[ods..]

You flip your car in reverse and go and book a hotel for the night because you saw someone checking bags at the security checkpoint?

[frizzlefry]

If this is a true story, why didn't you just toss your drugs? Didn't that thought occur to you while you were driving to the Hyatt and booking a room that was hundreds of dollars? Of if your drugs and booze was so fucking important for you to have a good time in the camping grounds why didn't you just hide them outside the fest and bring them in through a less strict search? I smell a troll or a complete fucking idiot

[Stickjohn]

Additionally, I felt like no one at the entire fest was partying. The crowd was lame as fuck, filled with self-absorbed egotistical hipsters and wannabe bro thugs, no one was friendly, and we met only a few cool people the entire time.

Some people just like the Hyatt Grand Champions crowd better.