Festies

Ep. 25 Getting In, Getting Out: The Festival Commute

• Sunny Balopole, Vanessa Gutierrez, Clark Lawson • Episode 25

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Festival transportation can seriously shape your weekend, especially when it comes to getting in and out.

In this episode, we’re talking about how to plan your arrival and exit so you’re not stuck in a sea of people, lost in a parking lot, or paying $90 for an Uber that never shows up. We cover what to consider before you go, how to keep your Festie's crew connected, and why just a little planning can save a lot of stress.

We’ve made the mistakes so you don’t have to.

Follow us @festiespodcast on Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube for more Festie's content!

Sunny's Festival Corner:

Outside Lands Music Festival

Gathering of the Juggalos

Ultra Japan

Sunny:

Hey Vanessa,

Vanessa:

yes honey.

Sunny:

What do you call two best friends that love music festivals?

Vanessa:

Hmm, I guess you'd call them Festies.

Clark:

music festivals, friendship, festies.

Sunny:

How you feeling today?

Vanessa:

Today I was working on the ambulance because Ed gave me a set of tasks to do while he was at work and I did. I did it all,

Sunny:

wow.

Vanessa:

Yeah

Sunny:

, so when you're doing tasks, do you ever have to call and be like how do you do this? Or are they all things that you know how to do?

Vanessa:

I didn't have to ask him I was doing pretty easy things.

Sunny:

What were you doing?

Vanessa:

Insulation finishing up insulating some stuff,

Sunny:

what you just know how to do. That

Vanessa:

, sunny, you could do this.

Sunny:

No,

Vanessa:

well, that inside part. I think you've seen all the pink stuff in the wall,

Sunny:

oh, yeah,

Vanessa:

you just place it, there it's easy

Sunny:

how much though? And how packed though

Vanessa:

it comes in like

Sunny:

these are all things I would overthink

Vanessa:

you.

Vanessa:

You would know you would. It's easy.

Sunny:

Okay,

Vanessa:

I'm not doing rocket science or anything. I do all the easy stuff. But then I was doing like weather stripping too. That's kind of a pain in the butt figuring out where we took all the weather, stripping off the doors and then gluing them back on oh, okay, I'm talking about.

Sunny:

Yeah,

Vanessa:

so I was doing that right before I left to come here.

Sunny:

Yeah,

Vanessa:

what else I do?

Vanessa:

I did a coat of primer on the floor. I think we're going to put the floor down first,

Sunny:

so exciting

Sunny:

so funny because every time we go over there for like a party, that's the

Vanessa:

topic of conversation

Sunny:

the

Sunny:

party trick. Yeah, I feel bad because I'm always like anytime someone shows up, I'm like Ed, can we show them the ambulance? Ed, can we show them the ambulance? Like whatever new person shows up,

Vanessa:

I know.

Vanessa:

We were talking to all of our friend's parents that were there for Fourth of July.

Sunny:

Yeah,

Vanessa:

they all wanted to know. I was like I mean, I can show it to you, but if you have any deeper questions, you're going to have to go to Ed.

Sunny:

Yeah, it's really exciting to see how far along it's come, to remember when it was just a bunch of wires

Vanessa:

yeah, or when we gutted it and it was just empty

Sunny:

yeah,

Vanessa:

yeah it needs to be functioning and running and like be able to semi live in it by the end of this month.

Sunny:

Yeah, it's interesting about the ambulance because it's gonna totally change how we experience festivals

Vanessa:

yeah

Sunny:

I was telling you the other day that we were talking about same, same but different, and going and clark, and I were already planning like how we're going to set stuff up and after we made this whole plan I was like wait, they have the ambulance, and then we have to do it all over again in our heads.

Vanessa:

I feel like it'll be great because there's so much more room to like bring stuff,

Sunny:

yeah,

Vanessa:

but also we won't need as much stuff,

Sunny:

right.

Vanessa:

But then we can just have a whole living room,

Sunny:

yes,

Vanessa:

instead of it being taken over by the tent, and I can't wait to take it out to like bonnaroo and stuff. Oh, it's gonna be so fun

Sunny:

, yeah. So that kind of leads us to our topic today, which is logistics. I want to talk about simply getting there and getting home.

Vanessa:

Oh, okay

Sunny:

, because a negative commute there or home can completely ruin the experience. Right, if you have a hard time getting in or driving there because there's traffic or whatever, you start the day with a sour taste in your mouth, right. And then if you have a shitty experience leaving, it can kind of erase all the fun you just had.

Vanessa:

I'm just thinking about your car accident before Coachella and then our nine-hour flight delay to Bonnaroo. Yeah, but I mean, I'm talking even more your car accident before Coachella and then our nine hour flight delay to Bonnaroo.

Sunny:

Yeah, I mean, I'm talking even more like micro than that. How are we going to get there and how are we going to get home? I'm talking that simple.

Vanessa:

Yeah,

Sunny:

if you're staying, you know, in the area of your festival and it's like a daytime festival. That's what I want to talk about is the logistics of getting there and getting home.

Vanessa:

Okay.

Vanessa:

Really narrowed in,

Sunny:

really narrowing it down? Yes, so getting there, you have four options, basically right, you have driving and parking. You have a ride share like Uber, lyft, public transportation, a shuttle Usually these festivals have shuttles

Vanessa:

yeah

Sunny:

, um, oh, five, I guess.

Sunny:

or you could walk, depending on where you are

Vanessa:

or if it's a camping festival, you can camp

Sunny:

right.

Vanessa:

Are we talking non-camping?

Sunny:

We're talking about non-camping,

Vanessa:

okay, got it.

Sunny:

She's in bonnaroo mode still.

Vanessa:

I am sorry, okay, so but we don't know not, not camping, not camping

Sunny:

okay, start with driving and parking.

Sunny:

If you're gonna drive and park, you really want to make sure that one of your crew is going to be a designated driver to drive home. If you can't trust someone in the group to stay sober, no driving

Vanessa:

yep been there

Sunny:

yeah, yeah, guess we're leaving the car here overnight. Yeah, but if you are going to drive, I think it's really important to figure out where you're going to park ahead of time.

Vanessa:

Yeah,

Sunny:

you don't want to drive there and be looping around for parking.

Vanessa:

Especially if you're not going early,

Sunny:

right

Sunny:

no-transcript those apps ahead of time, and then, of course, always carpool the less amount of cars the better. So that's pretty much my tips for driving and parking. The second option is the ride share uber or lyft.

Sunny:

I guess waymo, now

Vanessa:

I was gonna that earlier when you were listing them, I was like Waymo.

Sunny:

Yeah, the rideshares for getting there they work. If you're going early they're going to be cheap. There's no surge that's going to affect it. If you're going a little later, similar thing with the driving and parking you're going to run into traffic.

Vanessa:

Yeah,

Sunny:

and especially the festivals now they always have set Lyft Uber drop off pickup spots. Those are going to get crowded pretty quickly. So ride share to get there is great If you're getting there early.

Sunny:

Vanessa and I have both driven for Lyft, so just for the I'm trying to say no-transcript.

Vanessa:

Considerate,

Sunny:

considerate, yes, yeah, just to be considerate to your driver, maybe have them drop you off a few blocks out and walk. Probably be faster anyways, and a little cheaper for you as well. Other option public transportation. Now I only took public transportation the first year of outside lands, megan and I took cal train to home. We were running to catch the last train.

Vanessa:

God, I just recently had to do that after Valkyrie's game too.

Sunny:

Oh no, so stressful.

Sunny:

Yeah, I would say, if you're going to take public transportation there and back, always check the schedule ahead of time, know when the last train leaves, because it's not fun to leave the festival and then realize there's no train or no bus or whatever transportation womp, womp. Then you end up having an uber. Um, this might be a little extra, but a lot of the times you know our phones can die. It's good to have a piece of paper and like write down the last train or like the train times and put them in your bag.

Vanessa:

I thought you were going to say phone numbers.

Sunny:

Let's see what's the other mode of transportation Shuttles. A lot of these festivals offer shuttles. Now

Vanessa:

I don't think I've ever taken a shuttle?

Sunny:

You haven't.

Vanessa:

No, oh wait.

Vanessa:

Yeah, we did. Oh yeah,

Sunny:

EDC, and that was the best

Vanessa:

and you don't remember this, but we did it also for Treasure Island Music Festival.

Sunny:

I don't remember that at all.

Vanessa:

I know

Sunny:

I think you're wrong.

Vanessa:

I definitely remember being in line and taking the shuttle back To where no clue shuttle back to where no clue,

Sunny:

who knows.

Sunny:

With the shuttles I have always had a great experience. However, I've heard of nightmare stories from people who have gone very late and tried to take the shuttles and they're stuck in line yeah, because they still have to sit in traffic, like everyone else is.

Vanessa:

So if you go late you're gonna have to wait yeah,

Sunny:

but it is dependable.

Sunny:

You know it's gonna be there, yeah, as long as you know when the last one is. Oh, but with the shuttles you have to book in advance. They sell out.

Vanessa:

You need a shuttle pass.

Sunny:

You can't just hop on said shuttle, oh. But speaking of shuttles, I just saw today that outside lands their shuttle service has always gone from civic center out to outside lands and they added one this year for South Bay attendees. And you can park at the Cow Palace and then they'll take you from the Cow Palace to Outside Lands.

Vanessa:

Oh nice

Sunny:

, and the parking at Cow Palace is free, but the shuttle pass is $90. So you'll have to decide for yourself if that's worth it or not. I think that's pretty much it for getting there. Again, these are things you want to plan ahead of time. Have your whole crew on the same page,

Vanessa:

yeah

Sunny:

. Especially the first day of a festival, when everyone's getting their bearings, it's not fun to scramble.

Vanessa:

I love when we would pile like 15 people in your mom's van yeah, to get to Outside Lands.

Sunny:

Yeah, oh yeah, that's what. That's what we would do. Well, clark would do, because the few years he didn't go to outside lands, he would drive my mom's van and pick us all up,

Vanessa:

all the seats out, yeah just sitting on the floor,

Sunny:

so if you have a, friend who would be willing to pick you guys up.

Sunny:

That's cool too, oh my god. And this one time Vanessa had to pee so badly, and I've never seen this before. She was crying because she had to pee, but like she didn't want to ask to stop,

Vanessa:

I had just peed before we left the festival.

Sunny:

Oh that's,

Vanessa:

and then like my bladder immediately filled up even worse, so it came out of nowhere when I felt the need to go. I was like, oh, it's okay. I literally just went, like I can wait for it, and then it just hit me,

Sunny:

yeah,

Vanessa:

like we weren't even out of the city yet and I was bawling, crying that's how much it it hurt. I had never been in that kind of pain before.

Vanessa:

It was so crazy

Sunny:

I was like stop the car, stop the cars.

Sunny:

I remember like we just opened the sliding doors and you immediately

Vanessa:

no, I remember clark being like I'm gonna pull over here and you can go in up that hill. I was like fuck the hill. I just opened the door and pulled my pants down.

Sunny:

Oh man

Vanessa:

and then someone else peed right there with me, just so I wasn't alone. I was sitting on a towel and you guys were like, just pee on the towel.

Vanessa:

And I was like I can't

Sunny:

oh my god,

Vanessa:

mental block, I can't do it.

Sunny:

I was saying that I can't believe.

Sunny:

I was saying that

Vanessa:

somebody was saying that, but vanessa's just like was saying that.

Sunny:

Somebody was saying that. Yeah, but Vanessa's just like too nice. She didn't want to inconvenience everybody else and ask us to pull over, which is not a big deal. She would rather sit there in pain and cry.

Vanessa:

It wasn't until I started bawling that everyone was like okay, pull over,

Sunny:

Okay, stop yeah.

Sunny:

That's funny. Oh my God, I haven't thought about that in a long time.

Sunny:

Okay, now we have the logistics of getting home.

Vanessa:

Same as before.

Sunny:

Same as before.

Sunny:

Backwards. I just want to say that at the start of the day, when you get to your festival, have a meetup plan with your friends. That's inside the festival. You meet there first and then exit the festival together.

Vanessa:

Yes,

Sunny:

because it is a shit show outside the festival.

Vanessa:

Yeah,

Sunny:

and it'll be really hard to find people. Everyone's trying to find somebody.

Vanessa:

Yeah,

Sunny:

definitely. Meet inside the festival and exit together would be my recommendation.

Vanessa:

Stay together,

Sunny:

yeah, swim down and, just to repeat, if your designated driver ends up not staying sober, don't drive.

Vanessa:

Yeah,

Sunny:

you know, find another way. Leave the car and then let's move on to ride share.

Sunny:

when using the ride share to leave,

Vanessa:

oh god,

Sunny:

you should yeah,

Vanessa:

a nightmare too

Sunny:

you should either be leaving the festival very early or very late

Vanessa:

Till they kick you out.

Sunny:

Yeah, I like to do this. I'll stay in the festival until they kick me out, because I would rather be waiting around inside the festival grounds than on the street.

Vanessa:

Yeah.

Sunny:

And I don't like to exit the festival with the masses.

Vanessa:

Yeah,

Sunny:

you know

Vanessa:

it's a nightmare.

Vanessa:

Yeah, for lack of a better word, it's yeah.

Sunny:

Everyone's in a good mood and like moving. It's not scary or anything, but I'd just rather be walking with a little more room around me.

Vanessa:

Just picture the Finding Nemo when the fish are on the net.

Sunny:

Yeah,

Vanessa:

swim down.

Sunny:

I just quoted that.

Vanessa:

I know.

Vanessa:

It totally is that like you're just like keep going yeah, packed like sardines

Sunny:

we're all gonna get there

Vanessa:

going through the tunnel at outside.

Vanessa:

Let's try to leave.

Sunny:

Yeah,

Vanessa:

we got kicked out of the main stage at Bonnaroo on Thursday oh like after Luke Combs. We were sitting there and all of a sudden they're like you have to go. We're like what? We just had to leave the main stage area.

Sunny:

Oh, I see,

Vanessa:

it was so crazy. I was like

Sunny:

we just got here

Vanessa:

, yeah.

Sunny:

Oh, also with the ride share. I would go a few blocks away and have

Vanessa:

oh yeah.

Sunny:

Go to a quieter place. It's easier for the driver, it's easy for

Vanessa:

I would say that's my biggest tip for you guys. If you're ride sharing afterwards like even though there's a ride share designated area, no Uber or Lyft driver is going to want to go in there to pick you up, because usually the lines and the traffic is long to get in, and it would benefit everyone If you walked through a few blocks away from the festival and made it easier for them to pick you up.

Sunny:

Yeah,

Vanessa:

I know it sucks.

Vanessa:

I just recently had to do that,

Sunny:

but it's easier,

Vanessa:

it's worth it,

Sunny:

worth a little more of a walk.

Vanessa:

Yeah,

Sunny:

let's see what else do I have here. Oh, if you end up leaving the festival early, tell your friends don't just ghost and disappear, because that can cause a lot of chaos for your other friends as they're waiting for you at the pickup spot that you made.

Vanessa:

Yeah

Sunny:

, if you go home, communicate that. Um, I would also say, if you have the capability, which most of us do now uh, share locations with everyone in your group for the weekend and with at least one other person who's not at the festival.

Vanessa:

Oh smart, yeah,

Sunny:

it's important people know where you are in case you get separated. I think that's pretty much all I have for getting there and leaving.

Sunny:

I know that was super specific, but I just, I feel like it's a really important part of the festival experience to make go as smoothly as possible, so that way, your festival experience is as fun as possible.

Vanessa:

Yeah leaving to me is always like the biggest nightmare, like I don't ever want to think about it

Sunny:

yeah, do you have a time where you guys made a plan of how to leave and then it just fell apart?

Vanessa:

I have a time where we didn't make a plan and then we were like fuck,

Sunny:

what happened?

Vanessa:

Um, well, just like at stage coach. So I've been to Stagecoach a couple of times and I've always been

Sunny:

this year or another year at Stagecoach.

Vanessa:

I have multiple examples.

Sunny:

Okay, here we go.

Sunny:

Okay, I'll shut up

Vanessa:

so like my first couple of years I went, we would always stay like in Palm Springs, so it's like 30 minutes away. We just didn't think about how long it was gonna take. If I would have known, I would have maybe been a little bit more prepared, had my backpack full of water or snacks, because I remember waiting for a very, very long time to get an uber from the rideshare place.

Vanessa:

This year, however, we like got an airbnb like two miles away.

Vanessa:

So like, if worse comes to worse, we could always just walk,

Sunny:

yeah,

Vanessa:

but like we were trying to get an Uber because our feet hurt so bad and we couldn't, we already walked a mile to the ride share area and then we had to walk another mile to like the closest ride aid is where our Uber drivers before that took us there told us that's the best place to go to to get picked up.

Vanessa:

So it was a lot of walking for blistered feet, but that's what we had to do, because nobody nobody would come pick us up, that we would get an uber and then they would cancel because they would see where we were and they're like, yeah, I'm not going in there. It was a nightmare. So then we realized there's another place you can get ubers from and it was also not a very far walk and it was a little bit easier. Also, we got phone numbers. Like you kind of have to rough it the first day and maybe get some phone numbers of uber drivers, because they're also willing to like come get you if you text them

Sunny:

oh, that's smart

Vanessa:

and I know there's also drivers you can hire in that area.

Sunny:

Oh for sure

Vanessa:

that's for stagecoach Coachella specifically, but I'm sure it's like that other places too.

Sunny:

What would you have done differently, like how could you have not made that be the experience?

Vanessa:

Um, we could add somebody drive. We had one sober person with us.

Sunny:

Yeah.

Vanessa:

Cause I remember thinking like we should have just drove,

Sunny:

oh yeah.

Vanessa:

So if you're for sure you know that somebody will be sober by the end of the night, I would have just driven

Sunny:

live and you learn.

Vanessa:

Yeah do you have an example?

Sunny:

oh, uh, do I have an example? Um, I think I might have talked about this story on a previous episode. We were all at outside lands enjoying a set. It was the end of the night and I still had to go meet up with somebody else to get their wristband so I could use it for my cousin the next day and the plan for us was to meet at whatever spot. Our plan was and me and my crew, vanessa and her other friends, we were just going to Uber back. So for some reason I decided not to say anything out loud and I just left to go get this wristband because I thought I'm just going to get it and come back.

Sunny:

When I got to that meetup spot, the guy was not there I was supposed to grab the wristband from. He calls me and he's like I already exited the festival, and where he was was that the total other side of the park than where my friends were. That just ruined the whole plan right there. So I just kept going and went to go get this wristband, exited the festival. So I didn't meet up with them at the meetup spot that we had at the end and I had already kind of just thought in my head. I'm just going to end up sitting and waiting for an Uber for like a few hours. That's my fate now.

Vanessa:

Oh my God, a few hours.

Sunny:

I ended up leaving the festival. I got the wristband. I call Vanessa blah, blah, blah this is what's happening on my end and you're talking to me about it. And then your driver overheard you and was like where's your friend? Let's go pick her up. So then you guys came to pick me up.

Vanessa:

I do not remember this at all.

Vanessa:

It's so funny.

Sunny:

I don't remember how we got home from Treasure Island. You don't remember this.

Vanessa:

You don't remember this.

Vanessa:

Like I kind of do, but what year was this?

Sunny:

2017. So that's my story. Communication is key.

Sunny:

Say things out loud.

Vanessa:

Yeah, I mean that's so not like you to just fuck off and not tell anybody.

Sunny:

I know, I know I literally just fucked off, because we were at Twin Peaks and I was supposed to meet them at Panhandle. So I was like I'll just go get it and come back, and then they fucking weren't there.

Vanessa:

They were on the south side exit.

Sunny:

Yeah, yeah.

Vanessa:

Jesus.

Sunny:

I mean, there were other factors in there that you know were out of my control, but I could have definitely handled that better. I should have told my group where I was going.

Sunny:

They might have gone with me. I don't know.

Vanessa:

Did you tell us that you weren't there anymore?

Vanessa:

Like after the fact

Sunny:

I always do this Explosions in the sky or Empire of the Sun,

Vanessa:

empire of the Sun,

Sunny:

empire of the Sun. I heard that they were done as I was walking, oh, and I called you and I was like I have to go get this wristband. I left, left, I'll find my own way home. I think is what I said because. I was just like it's gonna be too much of a pain in the butt but luckily your kind driver was listening and came to pick me up

Vanessa:

good tips, sunny

Sunny:

thanks, vanessa

Vanessa:

okay, moving on, sunny's festival corner

Sunny:

August 8th to August 10th, we have Outside Lands Music Festival in San Francisco, california. This festival is at Golden Gate Park with diverse world-class music featuring over 90 artists across seven stages. It also has food, wine, craft beer, cannabis and art experiences that highlight the Bay Area. Headliners are Tyler, the creator, hosier and Doja Cat. Other artists are Jessica Pratt and Midnight Generation.

Vanessa:

This is Sunny's favorite festival.

Vanessa:

She's going for sure. I have tickets for Saturday, but I still don't know if I'm going to be able to make it.

Sunny:

Oh, you do have tickets

Vanessa:

For Saturday only.

Sunny:

Oh, okay, I didn't know, you actually had tickets

Vanessa:

because I want to see gustafelstein, but I don't know if that's gonna happen

Sunny:

next festival, august 13th to the 16th, we have the 25th gathering of the juggalos

Vanessa:

shut the fuck up. Is this in ohio?

Sunny:

Yeah

Sunny:

it's in thornville, oh, ohio. Oh wait, my notes here say just read from the website. So let's go. The 25th anniversary of the Gathering of the Juggalos is upon us in all its magnificent glory, a time for all Juggalos to embark on a quest to make their way to join their entire family. If you have never been to a gathering in your life, then this would be the one. As always, the gathering remains a corporate and sponsorship-free festival, which is unheard of in the industry. It is a 24-hour-a-day, four-day outdoor music festival which showcases everything from concerts, late-night parties, comedians, seminars, contests, wrestling, sideshows, carnival rides, camping and so much more. It is the place to be this summer so that you can partake in the greatest family reunion on earth.

Vanessa:

I would love to go to that one year.

Vanessa:

It's so funny because we saw icp at bonnaroo and we were like listening to them on podcasts and stuff and they were talking about all this and yeah, we could do. I think we could do a whole episode on ICP in this festival?

Vanessa:

I think we should

Sunny:

. Headliners are GWAR, ICP and Tech N9ne.

Vanessa:

Oh, what weekend is this?

Sunny:

August 13th to the 16th, Are you?

Sunny:

going to go to this

Vanessa:

Dude. Ed loves Tech N9ne and ICP.

Sunny:

Oh man,

Vanessa:

no, he's seen Tech N9ne a bunch. That's so crazy.

Sunny:

Other artists Falling Under, and Mary Tyler Whores. September 13th to the 14th, we have Ultra Japan. It's in Tokyo, Japan. So there's Miami Ultra, right. Well, now there's one in Japan. Japan was such a fan of the festival that they built a special park for it. It's only for this festival. It's a two-day event boasting the world's top EDM DJs, with unparalleled stage designs and top-tier production. Headliners are Calvin Harris, DJ Snake and Griffin. Other artists are Adam Bayer and Amelie Lenz. That's it for Sunny's.

Sunny:

Festival Corner.

Vanessa:

All right, Festies, you know what to do. Follow us on Instagram, tiktok and YouTube at festies podcast, and leave us a rating and review. Wherever you listen to us and we'll talk to you guys next time. Bye,

Sunny:

see you next time,

Clark:

Festies.