More like, Coach-hell-a. Getting to Coachella this year has been more trying than usual, festival-goers say, as many are taking to social media to complain about hours-long lines to get to the car camping area on the festival grounds.
Traffic jams headed to the festival are hardly new, but Palm Springs newspaper The Desert Sun reported that it’s been “a rough start” due to “massive” wait times to reach the camping area, with some campers claiming they have waited up to 12 hours without access to bathroom facilities.
Local Palm Springs-based station KESQ-TV likewise dubbed the traffic jam “carmageddon” and quoted a couple festival-goers: “This is absurd, why are we spending this money to spend eight hours in a car we aren’t even inside yet,” and “I’ve seen people pass out through heat exhaustion, it’s been chaos.”
One TikTok user posted this detailed viral rant from her car on Thursday, stating that she and her group had been waiting in their car for 10 hours after showing up at 3 a.m and calling the backup of cars “a complete shit show.”
“It’s almost 1 p.m. right now. We still haven’t even gone through security. It’s 100 degrees outside. People’s cars are overheating,” she said. “They’re running out of gas. There are no bathrooms anywhere. People are literally using the bathroom behind bushes like animals, and they paid over $600 to be here. This whole experience has been so disappointing, and it’s been extremely dehumanizing. People are pissed.”
On X, some of the gripes are similar. “This is going to be by 12th Coachella and i’ve never dealt with this long of a line for the campgrounds,” one user wrote. As another said: “8 hours in line for Coachella camping and still nowhere close. This is beyond unacceptable. You charge thousands and can’t even manage basic logistics?”
One Hollywood Reporter staffer on the ground says they waited four hours to get into a campground, far less than others on social, but that festival-goers nonetheless are saying this year’s wait times were longer than usual.
It’s unclear what has changed this year that has seemingly caused additional wait times; a representative for the festival hasn’t responded to request for comment. Coachella is slated to start Friday afternoon and will take place this weekend and next. Lady Gaga, Green Day and Post Malone are headlining, with other notable acts including Travis Scott, Missy Elliot, Charli xcx, and Megan Thee Stallion.
Ed Sheeran and Weezer were added to the lineup last weekend, with Weezer playing weekend one while Sheeran is joining weekend 2. Weezer will still be playing the festival on Saturday, days after bassist Scott Shriner’s wife Jillian Lauren was shot by police on Tuesday while authorities were pursuing suspects in a hit-and-run.
#FestivalGoers #Complain #HoursLong #Lines
