Bill JensenHot. Sticky. Angry.
A wait of epic proportions is happening right now at the front gate of Coachella, Friday April 16, the first day of the music and arts festival in Indio, California. A three hour line (if you can call a mash of 1000 people a line).
Apparently, the wait was being caused by the electronic machines that scan the tickets and e-tickets at the front gate coupled with the fact that the security was staffed by many volunteers. Visitors say it was taking between 30 seconds to a minute to scan the tickets, before they went through not one, but two bag checks.
At 5:11 p.m., a supervisor announced (sans bullhorn) that they were going to stop scanning the e-tickets with the problematic machines, and only collect them–which means for the time being anyone with a xeroxed e-ticket can get through the gate and get a wristband. If you wanted, you could print out 50 e-tickets, hand them out to the crowd, and they would work.
An hour earlier, a throng of 50 people jumped a chain link fence to the right of the gate, and were chased by security.
Worst. Mosh Pit. Ever.; Credit: Bill Jensen
Advertising disclosure: We may receive compensation for some of the links in our stories. Thank you for supporting LA Weekly and our advertisers.