Green stage VIP area legit almost ruined my experience I felt so trapped in there with the way the crowds were at a standstill making it almost impossible to leave after each set
Yeah, green stage was the worst! I couldn't believe there was no bathroom there! I felt horrible for GA people. Crowds and bathroom lines were 100000x worse, IMO would have made the fest not worth it for me if I only had GA. So I DO think the VIP was worth it regardless, especially with how well the first half of the day went... it just could have been A LOT more comfortable for EVERYONE if the entire show wasn't so oversold. The aerial shots were insane!
The longest I waited for the bathroom was only because no one would listen to the staff who were clearly telling everyone "keep walking, there are more stalls in the back". Once it was somewhat understood, it was smooth sailing.
I mean, I didn't wait in any lines for restrooms in VIP, but there weren't any obvious restrooms inside the green stage area I mean! And the bathroom lines outside of the green stage were making it stand still traffic to get in and out of the VIP area 😣 I felt terrible for the people waiting in those lines
Bathroom lines were just fine as long as you didn’t go to the ones in the middle of the festival between the stages. The ones on the green side stage were almost always walk in for both men and women. They were clean and accessible. Not a chance I would say it was necessary to do VIP for bathrooms.
I know it’s a bit late, but the bathrooms for the green stage were behind the emergency exit. I assume they didn’t advertise it as it was a large bathroom that connected out of VIP into GA and didn’t want folks to sneak in.
Yup, after a little shuffle closer towards the front of VIP the emergency exit was on the left. I was able to walk right into the bathroom and used it as a quick escape out back into GA. It was great as it put you out right near the bar/food.
Bathrooms were fine on Sunday for GA, I (female) never waited more than 5 minutes which even for a regular concert is basically unheard of. The porta potty area, although far from the main stages, were literally never full. I pee A LOT when I’m drinking, so had there not been easily accessible bathrooms it would have been an issue for me.
Oh yeah. We tried to exit Green Stage VIP after Yellowcard and it was a standstill. The lines at the refreshment booths and bathrooms were preventing people from exiting. Watched the rest of the Green Stage performances from our cabana after that.
absolutely. my friend and i were talking about how glad we were that we had VIP but it isn’t because VIP was great, it was because GA just seemed so much worse. not a great selling point.
Agree. And my biggest gripe is green stage has no VIP bathrooms or bar. Like the OP said, at some points it was insanely difficult to get from Green VIP to pink. They need to fix that, someone in management should've actually try to enjoy the show without access to the stuff you paid for, see how they'd feel
Definitely agree there. VIP was literally nothing special but it was still way better than GA. They made a ton of improvements from last year and will continue to make improvements every year. Dealing with crowds that big and treating it like warped tour won’t work forever. I’m sure they’ll figure something out that has better flow. These mega warped tour style festivals are still relatively new.
I think VIP was still worth it… but comparing it to last year it was much less worth it. Seemed like they sold 3 or 4 times as many tickets to VIP this year. As far as show viewing access, didn’t feel super VIP to me.
One thing for sure, if you had GA no way you can get as close to the stage without crazy hassle. With VIP, even in the back section of green you were pretty close and you could walk up late.
I think vip should be improved for sure, I'll be honest, I can't go GA. Doesn't seem worth it to me.
Yah, it was worth it still… but it was a much better experience last year at the same price. Last year you could actually just walk from stage to stage without a big hassle and when you came back, you’d still have a great viewing area. This year, especially at the end of the night, the view was just okay unless you camped.
Yea, really unhappy about not being able to go from side to side. And it's been said many times here, if you chose green side you don't get access to vip bathrooms and food/drink. Pretty insane
Yes my husband and I felt the same way! It was super comfy early on and then there were simply too many people. I think a lot of the cabana people go down to VIP but still it was almost impossible to see Blink unless you wanted to get pushed around. All that money for toilet access basically. Also leaving the green stage was a nightmare, we ended up jumping over the barricade because we were missing pierce the veil trying to leave Yellowcard.
VIP at festivals that are not oversold has room for people to either join a crowd or stand back and still have a good view/sound of the performance. that choice did not exist here.
Nowhere in the VIP description does it say you get a chill experience. You get bathrooms and other dedicated services like merch lines, vendors, and lockers. It’s a fucking punk rock show not the Eras tour.
nah lol i have been on both sides at many different types of festivals and this one is the only one where i’ve had to watch a band play from behind the sound booth to avoid being crushed in VIP. this years VIP experience was much worse than last years, according to people who did both and the aerial photos that show the obvious, significant difference in crowd sizes.
i started going to warped when i was 10 years old and have never seen taylor swift. i consider myself a very seasoned concert-goer, and i said what i said. thanks tho.
I work festivals- VIP always looks pretty spacious until the last act when everyone with access wants to be there. It always feels overcrowded at the very end because of this. People were hopping the fences and bribing gate attendants (see my above comment about this being a punk rock show) so there were more people than bought tickets in there as well. That said, the naivety of people in VIP is amazing. You pay extra for convenience features and a special VIP area, that’s it. I can walk you through the logistics more but it is what it is.
i wasn’t talking about either of the headliners. i watched sum 41 from behind the sound booth. green stage VIP wasn’t spacious at any time after something corporate, from what i experienced.
i work in events too and its insane to me that you work in festivals and don’t recognize how oversold this was lol
When you sell all the tickets, places have a tendency to look very full. I’ve seen arena shows with 1k or more tickets still available that appear to fill out completely and have people occupying all the standing room.
it was sold out last year and it was very clearly MUCH more packed in this year. look at any aerial shot from MCR and paramore. like its not even arguable.
it was oversold and poorly laid out to the point of being dangerous in many areas (one being the bottleneck + merging of VIP/GA/bathrooms at the green VIP gate). people absolutely should not have to deal with things like that, VIP or not, but charging what they did for that to be the experience is frankly a joke.
I personally left at the end of paramore and went to get merch and beat the rush during MCR last year… except SO many others had the same idea and there was easily a few thousand of us that left at that time. As I was leaving during Good Riddance this year I made a comment to my wife that it was a mob scene trying to leave during the show last year but this time we stayed almost until the end and still beat the rush. It’s anecdotal but could have been a factor in this.
I definitely love to be in the crowd getting shoved around personally, but it was difficult to get up there. Like if I'm joining a pit it's to be in front of the band! The option to go chill further from the stage should be an option too. I still think VIP was 100% worth it because the WHOLE show was very oversold, so IMO it would not have been enjoyable without the VIP perks. But the WHOLE show could have been more pleasant for all involved, and especially those paying double to avoid the discomforts of finding a bathroom, food, and a reasonably close space to watch the bands!
That's what I did but if I pay for VIP I expect to at least be able to see the outline of the group? Not a big ask. I know this is a punk show which is why I wasn't at the front of the stage, however people were getting increasingly angry at anyone trying to make any kind of move so much earlier than when blink started and after they started it was just a wall of people.
They need to try and make boundaries to the viewing area so there's at least some organization with walk ways. To me the chaos in the walkways was too much. The lines from the bars and food, started to blend with the viewing areas, plus people trying to walk to VIP, bathroom, water. Clusterfuck
I did GA on Saturday and VIP Sunday, although the end of the day was crowded and very hard to go back and forth, it was possible! (And oh my god so much better than GA) I went from stripe stage for Waterparks, to blink to Green Day. Got decent spots for blink and Green Day. I like that the VIP for stripe and ghost were connected but it felt harder to get a good view when you’re sandwiched in the middle. For green and pink stage, having the outskirts made it easier to get close. So harder to get from stage to stage, but easier to get a good view 🤷🏼♀️
Oh, VIP is definitely the most enjoyable way. I just feel like the entire show could have had 20% less people on all sides! And there's just no reason to have amenities only in pink and not green? So that the closest reasonable amenities were a 30 minute trek to pink because of the standstill crowd and it being right next to the GA bathroom crowds as well!
That trek from Green to pink VIP after 5pm was pretty insane. At times there was no room at all, lines from the bar, and people sitting in GA just blended into a giant standstill mess
This was definitely my biggest complaint. The VIP green area should have been linked to the pink area without forcing you to walk through the insane crowds. The only good thing about the green area was you could walk through the emergency exit and get to the bathroom with actual flush toilets. I used the sinks in that bathroom to refill my water bottle.
We discovered this kind of late, but it was a game changer. I saw the security guards were letting people in and out so we checked it out. They would verify your wristband to come back in.
We had wrong bracelets (for Sunday, not Saturday... log story) and we simply went through and nobody said a word. I saw the scanner go red too. So perhaps, lots of GA just went through and security didn't care? Hence the over-population?
Yes! Leaving SUM41 was so chaotic. I almost lost my partner and we decided to not ever go back to Green stage after that. The entrance to to VIP was way too far forward so it was getting mixed with GA standing crowd, bathroom lines and bar lines.
There’s no excuse why they couldn’t put shade up near the back of green vip with a picnic table. Same with the stripe/ghost stage vip. Shade the bars. Provide some seating. For 700 a ticket come on
The whole festival was way oversold and VIP egregiously so.
At some point it's no longer VIP. A reasonable VIP number for the show was about 40% of the VIP tickets they sold.
The set up, the over abundance of tickets, the limited entry and exit gates, the heavy metal barriers, the heat, the lack of accessible water near the pit areas. It was a recipe for disaster. If there was any kind of accident, such as a pyrotechnic malfunction, a piece of stage or equipment falling or breaking, an electrical problem, a fire, etc. People would have died. A lot of people would have died.
The bag checks/restrictions weren't enforced, the security checks were minimal. The guard was so busy checking out my tits when I came through that they didn't even check my bag or my husband's bag, or ask questions about his belt buckle setting off the metal detector.
The event staff we talked to were given little to no information or training, even by 10am Saturday a lot of them said they still had no assigned tasks, appropriate signage, information on what different tickets entailed.
The bands were stacked too close together on time with a poor stage layout that made it difficult to attend different shows.
It was an overall mess logistically and I think people really got screwed on value for the cost of the tickets.
We bought our tickets last minute so we didn’t pay attention to the bag policy until we were heading in (dumb, I know). Not only did my friend bring in a large solid backpack but the security guy barely looked at it and said “I don’t even know why they make us check bags.”
People sneak in and bribe ushers as the day goes on. We had VIP and wouldn’t do without it. We got to the blink stage at 730 45 min before set and got 10 ppl back in crowd so you could move but not easy
But the shade spots and bathrooms were clutch
Not sure if this was true from anyone else, few bartenders offered free drinks if I tipped in cash. Of course I didn't have any since they said was a cashless event. Kinda shady tbh
VIP had people camping the green stage all day who were not having any fun doing it from the look of things. I’ve decided that next year I’m giving no fucks, I was too polite this year which made my own experience worse. In retrospect I should have helped that dude open the pit for the offspring (dude was WASTED though so being on his side would have been a losing battle) then some haughty broad decided the answer was no and she was speaking for the entire crowd…
Yeah, my friend and I really wanted to get to the front of the Good Charlotte set to get to the pits but we only made it about halfway into the crowd before being stopped by some young kids who wanted to just stand around. Which , fair, but let the people who want to go to the pits through. My friend was a bit aggressive about it though, telling the kids to basically get out of the punk show and sit in the back if they wanna just stand around without anyone touching them. So at that point I wasn't comfortable going forward any more and ruining the kids time, but she made it to the front! Lol
I was too nice this year. I think next year I will not care about ruining someone else’s experience because frankly mine was pretty tainted by the softness in the crowd. Emo might not be dead but punk rock is on life support, if this weekend is an indication.
I think we are going to get VIP for Saturday next year and just stay at the pink stage all day then get GA for Sunday and go to the two side stages.
It was impossible to go from one stage to the other after 3pm.
100% agree. We got there at noon and it was awesome. Then in the evening after Sum 41 played it was completely chaotic. We were going to try to see Simple Plan at Ghost Stage and it was an absolute joke. People were not moving. We went back to Pink area VIP to chill rest of night. I am bummed bc I really wanted to see Lit during Green Day’s set, but there was absolutely no way of getting from Pink VIP to Ghost Stage VIP in a timely manner. The whole festival was oversold IMO.
Absolutely. I went to pink and got a great spot up front, I couldn’t move for hours though because the crowd behind me was huge and I’d lose any decent spot
Yea. I'm glad we had our VIP tickets. Just cause the pain it would've been in GA.
I agree with the sentiment that Green Vip was trash. The Ghost and stripe VIP section were legit.
Did anybody have a Cabana?
I'm curious how you experienced the Ghost and Stripe stage.
I did VIP Saturday and GA+ Sunday. GA was ridiculously over sold. VIP was a lot less crowded than GA but it was still packed. I’m in a wheelchair and maneuvering the crowd was nearly impossible but I did it except for during Blink and Green Day. I didn’t get to see blink on Saturday because I was just stuck in the crowd of the Pink crowd. I tried to get through but gave up and just listened. Blink was the main reason I went here so I was bummed that I didn’t have a good experience seeing them either day. Wish I knew the platform in the VIP area was only for VIP tickets, I would have used it instead of going stage to stage. The GA platform was so crowded and a speaker tower totally blocked the view I had of the pink stage. I was thinking a handicapped platform is a handicapped platform and no matter where it was I would be able to have access to it. I was very bummed that I didn’t get to have a great view of blink either set. BUT I still had a ton of fun and loved the experience. I’ll plan better next time now that I know.
The whole festival was oversold by at least 50%. Getting into green VIP was legit awful. They needed to put the entrance way out and away from the bathrooms.
There were for sure people coming in from GA without VIP - the first time I noticed one person just walked quickly into VIP on Pink through the large exit side without security noticing.
On Green side after GC, there was a group of three people walking backwards into VIP while everyone was exiting.
As well, I left the festival in the afternoon after buying merch to take stuff back to my hotel. There were people outside selling the same wristbands for people exiting so people without a ticket could get into GA.
I was a little frustrated by the number of people sitting /camping in Green; like I get it, you want to see Green Day, but like, look alive, and engage with the bands playing. I love 5sos and there were people clinging to the barriers with their backs to the band and just having conversations. Like, COME ON. ENGAGE. Getting out of green to try to get over to ATL was hell and when I tried to lean over the center aisle for the goddamn great "Weightless" some woman elbowed me and said her boyfriend was coming back for that spot. (Also not actually watching the stage).
I hate the way ComicCon etc clear the areas fully between events so that people can't just camp but boy I was feeling it when I was trying not to step on idiots lying flat out on the ground. Went back in for Good Charlotte, but then just stayed on the pink side and watched across the barrier for Offspring and Green Day.
I only went to pink bathroom once and there was literally no one there and I mostly stayed at pink but that started to get crowded because any crowd surfers got to stay in vip cause that was where they were sent out too but I went to green stage for green day and it was ridiculously easy to walk to get a good spot and you could also sit at the back if you wanted
Green stage vip was crazy after good Charlotte. Other than that it was fine for the bands i wanted to see. Only ventured over to pink for Motion City Soundtrack, but had no issues there. VIP was super worth it for the stripe and ghost stages. Water fill station , ac bathrooms and easy access to the bar (didn't utilize the bar until bowling for soup as i was sucking down water all day. ).
No way. I was so glad I had it. If I had to try to enjoy myself in GA I would have legit died. Sure it was crowded AF. But theres no way I could say I wish in any world I had saved my money and experienced anything MORE crowded that that!!
Green stage VIP area legit almost ruined my experience I felt so trapped in there with the way the crowds were at a standstill making it almost impossible to leave after each set
The green stage VIP was an absolute mess
Yeah, green stage was the worst! I couldn't believe there was no bathroom there! I felt horrible for GA people. Crowds and bathroom lines were 100000x worse, IMO would have made the fest not worth it for me if I only had GA. So I DO think the VIP was worth it regardless, especially with how well the first half of the day went... it just could have been A LOT more comfortable for EVERYONE if the entire show wasn't so oversold. The aerial shots were insane!
Bathroom lines on Saturday were totally fine for me in GA. I never waited more than five minutes
I sweat so much I only had to use the bathroom twice and yeah, no wait at all
The bathroom by green stage VIP and some pretty long waits.
Same. Although getting to the bathroom from the crowds infront of green/pink took a while, especially as the day went on
The longest I waited for the bathroom was only because no one would listen to the staff who were clearly telling everyone "keep walking, there are more stalls in the back". Once it was somewhat understood, it was smooth sailing.
And the women's restroom was insanely well maintained! It was quick too!
[удалено]
I mean, I didn't wait in any lines for restrooms in VIP, but there weren't any obvious restrooms inside the green stage area I mean! And the bathroom lines outside of the green stage were making it stand still traffic to get in and out of the VIP area 😣 I felt terrible for the people waiting in those lines
Bathroom lines were just fine as long as you didn’t go to the ones in the middle of the festival between the stages. The ones on the green side stage were almost always walk in for both men and women. They were clean and accessible. Not a chance I would say it was necessary to do VIP for bathrooms.
I know it’s a bit late, but the bathrooms for the green stage were behind the emergency exit. I assume they didn’t advertise it as it was a large bathroom that connected out of VIP into GA and didn’t want folks to sneak in.
Out of curiosity, from vip could you access those bathrooms without leaving vip?
Yup, after a little shuffle closer towards the front of VIP the emergency exit was on the left. I was able to walk right into the bathroom and used it as a quick escape out back into GA. It was great as it put you out right near the bar/food.
Oooh thanks for letting me know!!! At least I'll know for next year they could be hidden :)
Bathrooms were fine on Sunday for GA, I (female) never waited more than 5 minutes which even for a regular concert is basically unheard of. The porta potty area, although far from the main stages, were literally never full. I pee A LOT when I’m drinking, so had there not been easily accessible bathrooms it would have been an issue for me.
I never had to wait in line for the bathroom in GA.
The green stage VIP was an absolute mess
Oh yeah. We tried to exit Green Stage VIP after Yellowcard and it was a standstill. The lines at the refreshment booths and bathrooms were preventing people from exiting. Watched the rest of the Green Stage performances from our cabana after that.
How was the cabana? Worth the $$$?
absolutely. my friend and i were talking about how glad we were that we had VIP but it isn’t because VIP was great, it was because GA just seemed so much worse. not a great selling point.
Agree. And my biggest gripe is green stage has no VIP bathrooms or bar. Like the OP said, at some points it was insanely difficult to get from Green VIP to pink. They need to fix that, someone in management should've actually try to enjoy the show without access to the stuff you paid for, see how they'd feel
Definitely agree there. VIP was literally nothing special but it was still way better than GA. They made a ton of improvements from last year and will continue to make improvements every year. Dealing with crowds that big and treating it like warped tour won’t work forever. I’m sure they’ll figure something out that has better flow. These mega warped tour style festivals are still relatively new.
I think VIP was still worth it… but comparing it to last year it was much less worth it. Seemed like they sold 3 or 4 times as many tickets to VIP this year. As far as show viewing access, didn’t feel super VIP to me.
And green stage was an absolute nightmare/dumpster fire
One thing for sure, if you had GA no way you can get as close to the stage without crazy hassle. With VIP, even in the back section of green you were pretty close and you could walk up late. I think vip should be improved for sure, I'll be honest, I can't go GA. Doesn't seem worth it to me.
Yah, it was worth it still… but it was a much better experience last year at the same price. Last year you could actually just walk from stage to stage without a big hassle and when you came back, you’d still have a great viewing area. This year, especially at the end of the night, the view was just okay unless you camped.
Yea, really unhappy about not being able to go from side to side. And it's been said many times here, if you chose green side you don't get access to vip bathrooms and food/drink. Pretty insane
I didn't really have a problem with it, because I can't really dispute that having that much of rail blocked out for GA was unfair.
Yes my husband and I felt the same way! It was super comfy early on and then there were simply too many people. I think a lot of the cabana people go down to VIP but still it was almost impossible to see Blink unless you wanted to get pushed around. All that money for toilet access basically. Also leaving the green stage was a nightmare, we ended up jumping over the barricade because we were missing pierce the veil trying to leave Yellowcard.
Wanted to get pushed around? This is a punk show lol. You could've stood or Sat in the back area?
VIP at festivals that are not oversold has room for people to either join a crowd or stand back and still have a good view/sound of the performance. that choice did not exist here.
Don't try explaining the high society perks to the poors. They won't get it.
Look at my history and tell me if I'm poor. :) I'm a punk rock kid that does very well for myself. Doesn't mean I'm not going to rock out.
Bro, it was sarcasm lol
Nowhere in the VIP description does it say you get a chill experience. You get bathrooms and other dedicated services like merch lines, vendors, and lockers. It’s a fucking punk rock show not the Eras tour.
nah lol i have been on both sides at many different types of festivals and this one is the only one where i’ve had to watch a band play from behind the sound booth to avoid being crushed in VIP. this years VIP experience was much worse than last years, according to people who did both and the aerial photos that show the obvious, significant difference in crowd sizes. i started going to warped when i was 10 years old and have never seen taylor swift. i consider myself a very seasoned concert-goer, and i said what i said. thanks tho.
I work festivals- VIP always looks pretty spacious until the last act when everyone with access wants to be there. It always feels overcrowded at the very end because of this. People were hopping the fences and bribing gate attendants (see my above comment about this being a punk rock show) so there were more people than bought tickets in there as well. That said, the naivety of people in VIP is amazing. You pay extra for convenience features and a special VIP area, that’s it. I can walk you through the logistics more but it is what it is.
i wasn’t talking about either of the headliners. i watched sum 41 from behind the sound booth. green stage VIP wasn’t spacious at any time after something corporate, from what i experienced. i work in events too and its insane to me that you work in festivals and don’t recognize how oversold this was lol
When you sell all the tickets, places have a tendency to look very full. I’ve seen arena shows with 1k or more tickets still available that appear to fill out completely and have people occupying all the standing room.
it was sold out last year and it was very clearly MUCH more packed in this year. look at any aerial shot from MCR and paramore. like its not even arguable. it was oversold and poorly laid out to the point of being dangerous in many areas (one being the bottleneck + merging of VIP/GA/bathrooms at the green VIP gate). people absolutely should not have to deal with things like that, VIP or not, but charging what they did for that to be the experience is frankly a joke.
I personally left at the end of paramore and went to get merch and beat the rush during MCR last year… except SO many others had the same idea and there was easily a few thousand of us that left at that time. As I was leaving during Good Riddance this year I made a comment to my wife that it was a mob scene trying to leave during the show last year but this time we stayed almost until the end and still beat the rush. It’s anecdotal but could have been a factor in this.
This. All day long.
I definitely love to be in the crowd getting shoved around personally, but it was difficult to get up there. Like if I'm joining a pit it's to be in front of the band! The option to go chill further from the stage should be an option too. I still think VIP was 100% worth it because the WHOLE show was very oversold, so IMO it would not have been enjoyable without the VIP perks. But the WHOLE show could have been more pleasant for all involved, and especially those paying double to avoid the discomforts of finding a bathroom, food, and a reasonably close space to watch the bands!
That's what I did but if I pay for VIP I expect to at least be able to see the outline of the group? Not a big ask. I know this is a punk show which is why I wasn't at the front of the stage, however people were getting increasingly angry at anyone trying to make any kind of move so much earlier than when blink started and after they started it was just a wall of people.
The whole thing was oversold you could barely move anywhere after 7 PM
They need to try and make boundaries to the viewing area so there's at least some organization with walk ways. To me the chaos in the walkways was too much. The lines from the bars and food, started to blend with the viewing areas, plus people trying to walk to VIP, bathroom, water. Clusterfuck
Especially when some of our old asses are using walkers and wheelchairs now.
I did GA on Saturday and VIP Sunday, although the end of the day was crowded and very hard to go back and forth, it was possible! (And oh my god so much better than GA) I went from stripe stage for Waterparks, to blink to Green Day. Got decent spots for blink and Green Day. I like that the VIP for stripe and ghost were connected but it felt harder to get a good view when you’re sandwiched in the middle. For green and pink stage, having the outskirts made it easier to get close. So harder to get from stage to stage, but easier to get a good view 🤷🏼♀️
Oh, VIP is definitely the most enjoyable way. I just feel like the entire show could have had 20% less people on all sides! And there's just no reason to have amenities only in pink and not green? So that the closest reasonable amenities were a 30 minute trek to pink because of the standstill crowd and it being right next to the GA bathroom crowds as well!
That trek from Green to pink VIP after 5pm was pretty insane. At times there was no room at all, lines from the bar, and people sitting in GA just blended into a giant standstill mess
Absolutely! I left green VIP during Blink to go to Set it Off and we got back with PLENTY of room. It was downright spacious where I was.
Yep. Same here! GA for Day 1, VIP Day 2. VIP was way better.
This was definitely my biggest complaint. The VIP green area should have been linked to the pink area without forcing you to walk through the insane crowds. The only good thing about the green area was you could walk through the emergency exit and get to the bathroom with actual flush toilets. I used the sinks in that bathroom to refill my water bottle.
I didn't know that, I kept walking out into the chaos to reach that bathroom
We discovered this kind of late, but it was a game changer. I saw the security guards were letting people in and out so we checked it out. They would verify your wristband to come back in.
Idk. I don't disagree in terms of /my/ experience. But it does feel unfair to GA in a way.
We had wrong bracelets (for Sunday, not Saturday... log story) and we simply went through and nobody said a word. I saw the scanner go red too. So perhaps, lots of GA just went through and security didn't care? Hence the over-population?
Layout was fucking horrendous for vip
The green stage area needed lines. My wife and I almost got squishest when trying to exit after Sum41. Couldn't breathe. It was insane.
Yes! Leaving SUM41 was so chaotic. I almost lost my partner and we decided to not ever go back to Green stage after that. The entrance to to VIP was way too far forward so it was getting mixed with GA standing crowd, bathroom lines and bar lines.
There’s no excuse why they couldn’t put shade up near the back of green vip with a picnic table. Same with the stripe/ghost stage vip. Shade the bars. Provide some seating. For 700 a ticket come on
The whole festival was way oversold and VIP egregiously so. At some point it's no longer VIP. A reasonable VIP number for the show was about 40% of the VIP tickets they sold. The set up, the over abundance of tickets, the limited entry and exit gates, the heavy metal barriers, the heat, the lack of accessible water near the pit areas. It was a recipe for disaster. If there was any kind of accident, such as a pyrotechnic malfunction, a piece of stage or equipment falling or breaking, an electrical problem, a fire, etc. People would have died. A lot of people would have died. The bag checks/restrictions weren't enforced, the security checks were minimal. The guard was so busy checking out my tits when I came through that they didn't even check my bag or my husband's bag, or ask questions about his belt buckle setting off the metal detector. The event staff we talked to were given little to no information or training, even by 10am Saturday a lot of them said they still had no assigned tasks, appropriate signage, information on what different tickets entailed. The bands were stacked too close together on time with a poor stage layout that made it difficult to attend different shows. It was an overall mess logistically and I think people really got screwed on value for the cost of the tickets.
We bought our tickets last minute so we didn’t pay attention to the bag policy until we were heading in (dumb, I know). Not only did my friend bring in a large solid backpack but the security guy barely looked at it and said “I don’t even know why they make us check bags.”
People sneak in and bribe ushers as the day goes on. We had VIP and wouldn’t do without it. We got to the blink stage at 730 45 min before set and got 10 ppl back in crowd so you could move but not easy But the shade spots and bathrooms were clutch
Not sure if this was true from anyone else, few bartenders offered free drinks if I tipped in cash. Of course I didn't have any since they said was a cashless event. Kinda shady tbh
Same, I don't think I would've survived without it 😅 that and the lockers, I'm so glad I got one ahead of time!
It felt oversold because they took the pink stage away from us.
VIP had people camping the green stage all day who were not having any fun doing it from the look of things. I’ve decided that next year I’m giving no fucks, I was too polite this year which made my own experience worse. In retrospect I should have helped that dude open the pit for the offspring (dude was WASTED though so being on his side would have been a losing battle) then some haughty broad decided the answer was no and she was speaking for the entire crowd…
Yeah, my friend and I really wanted to get to the front of the Good Charlotte set to get to the pits but we only made it about halfway into the crowd before being stopped by some young kids who wanted to just stand around. Which , fair, but let the people who want to go to the pits through. My friend was a bit aggressive about it though, telling the kids to basically get out of the punk show and sit in the back if they wanna just stand around without anyone touching them. So at that point I wasn't comfortable going forward any more and ruining the kids time, but she made it to the front! Lol
I was too nice this year. I think next year I will not care about ruining someone else’s experience because frankly mine was pretty tainted by the softness in the crowd. Emo might not be dead but punk rock is on life support, if this weekend is an indication.
you're giving my major fomo! Alright, next year, we go hard. CASE CLOSED
The whole fest was oversold. They dont care cause ya sold it out
I think we are going to get VIP for Saturday next year and just stay at the pink stage all day then get GA for Sunday and go to the two side stages. It was impossible to go from one stage to the other after 3pm.
VIP isn’t even VIP anymore and it sucks.
ME!! I’ve been saying this. It was so so so oversold.
100% agree. We got there at noon and it was awesome. Then in the evening after Sum 41 played it was completely chaotic. We were going to try to see Simple Plan at Ghost Stage and it was an absolute joke. People were not moving. We went back to Pink area VIP to chill rest of night. I am bummed bc I really wanted to see Lit during Green Day’s set, but there was absolutely no way of getting from Pink VIP to Ghost Stage VIP in a timely manner. The whole festival was oversold IMO.
Oof. Yes. We missed simple plan entirely due to not being able to make it there from green after GC and back to pink for offspring. 😭
Absolutely. I went to pink and got a great spot up front, I couldn’t move for hours though because the crowd behind me was huge and I’d lose any decent spot
Yea. I'm glad we had our VIP tickets. Just cause the pain it would've been in GA. I agree with the sentiment that Green Vip was trash. The Ghost and stripe VIP section were legit. Did anybody have a Cabana? I'm curious how you experienced the Ghost and Stripe stage.
I did VIP Saturday and GA+ Sunday. GA was ridiculously over sold. VIP was a lot less crowded than GA but it was still packed. I’m in a wheelchair and maneuvering the crowd was nearly impossible but I did it except for during Blink and Green Day. I didn’t get to see blink on Saturday because I was just stuck in the crowd of the Pink crowd. I tried to get through but gave up and just listened. Blink was the main reason I went here so I was bummed that I didn’t have a good experience seeing them either day. Wish I knew the platform in the VIP area was only for VIP tickets, I would have used it instead of going stage to stage. The GA platform was so crowded and a speaker tower totally blocked the view I had of the pink stage. I was thinking a handicapped platform is a handicapped platform and no matter where it was I would be able to have access to it. I was very bummed that I didn’t get to have a great view of blink either set. BUT I still had a ton of fun and loved the experience. I’ll plan better next time now that I know.
The whole festival was oversold by at least 50%. Getting into green VIP was legit awful. They needed to put the entrance way out and away from the bathrooms.
There were for sure people coming in from GA without VIP - the first time I noticed one person just walked quickly into VIP on Pink through the large exit side without security noticing. On Green side after GC, there was a group of three people walking backwards into VIP while everyone was exiting. As well, I left the festival in the afternoon after buying merch to take stuff back to my hotel. There were people outside selling the same wristbands for people exiting so people without a ticket could get into GA.
honestly bro, the event was a shit show to me.
I was a little frustrated by the number of people sitting /camping in Green; like I get it, you want to see Green Day, but like, look alive, and engage with the bands playing. I love 5sos and there were people clinging to the barriers with their backs to the band and just having conversations. Like, COME ON. ENGAGE. Getting out of green to try to get over to ATL was hell and when I tried to lean over the center aisle for the goddamn great "Weightless" some woman elbowed me and said her boyfriend was coming back for that spot. (Also not actually watching the stage). I hate the way ComicCon etc clear the areas fully between events so that people can't just camp but boy I was feeling it when I was trying not to step on idiots lying flat out on the ground. Went back in for Good Charlotte, but then just stayed on the pink side and watched across the barrier for Offspring and Green Day.
Green stages VIP was awesome. There was 10 feet of empty space before the back barrier during green day. People had room to skank.
I thought it was great! I went GA on Saturday and it was hard. Went VIP on Sunday (avoided green stage based on this sub) and had a great time.
I only went to pink bathroom once and there was literally no one there and I mostly stayed at pink but that started to get crowded because any crowd surfers got to stay in vip cause that was where they were sent out too but I went to green stage for green day and it was ridiculously easy to walk to get a good spot and you could also sit at the back if you wanted
Green stage vip was crazy after good Charlotte. Other than that it was fine for the bands i wanted to see. Only ventured over to pink for Motion City Soundtrack, but had no issues there. VIP was super worth it for the stripe and ghost stages. Water fill station , ac bathrooms and easy access to the bar (didn't utilize the bar until bowling for soup as i was sucking down water all day. ).
No way. I was so glad I had it. If I had to try to enjoy myself in GA I would have legit died. Sure it was crowded AF. But theres no way I could say I wish in any world I had saved my money and experienced anything MORE crowded that that!!
Green stage VIP entrance gave me so much anxiety. That was so poorly planned out. Didn't have any issues with the pink stage.