If you’ve ever purchased tickets to one of the big summer festivals, I’m sure you’ve looked at the V.I.P. packages available and thought there’s no way they’re worth the generally insane prices. But for the readership of Forbes, they’re really the only option.
Forbes is nice enough to detail how its readers can soak up the festival experience without experiencing the actual festival itself.
To get the most out of any festival, consider purchasing a VIP pass. Though they cost as much as three-times the regular admission, a VIP pass will guarantee a higher level of service. At Bonnaroo, where VIP admission is $1,169.50 for a pair, the special treatment includes preferred parking, seats closer to the concert stage, nicer shower and restroom facilities and VIP-only events. Regularly priced passes start at $209.50.
At other festivals, VIP treatment comes for a smaller price. Fans of ’80s hair-band acts like Bret Michaels (lead singer of Poison), Warrant and Tesla can get VIP passes to the Rocklahoma festival (July 9-13) in Pryor, Okla., for $400. The pass entitles ticket-holders to up-close seats and meals and beverages.
With or without a VIP pass, many of these festivals offer cool extras. At Rocklahoma, $2,000 will get you an hours-long session with a festival musician. The evening ends with a 10-minute set before a roaring rock ‘n’ roll crowd. Mark Nuessle, president and general manager of Catch the Fever Music Festivals, which organizes the event, says the sessions haven’t been advertised, but half of the slots are already sold.
All Points West organizer Ken Tessler says he may add additional components once the event date nears but is currently planning an interactive art exhibit and will host an eco-village where audience members can learn about environmental issues. At Pemberton, local outdoors companies will take concert-goers horseback riding, whitewater rafting and hiking for an additional price.
How can you pass up those bargains? Besides the fact that you might be the only person at Bonnaroo who takes a shower, those entry-level portable toilets are a drag, and the price difference is barely more than $800 a person. All Points West will likely not have the same celebrity be-seen quotient as its sister festival Coachella, but that eco-village sounds promising.
It’s easy to understand the economics behind offering the V.I.P. ticket, since most are likely sold to corporate outfits who want to impress their clients and higher-ups, but it certainly gives people within that bubble a vastly different experience than one might get hanging out with the riff raff. Then again, can you really put a prize on a one-on-one experience with one of the members of Trixter?
@Captain Wrong: These are hardly washed up hair metal dudes. This is Rocklahoma for god’s sake!
Bret Michaels, Warrant and Tesla not washed up? I guess if you consider the rib fest circuit, you might have a point.
@Captain Wrong: I’m assuming that these “sessions” include a happy ending, performed by Kip Winger, etc.
Prize or price? (I like prize.)
It’s early, but I think the difference would only be about $400 a person, which makes it totally worth it.
golf clap on the tag name, btw…
@Ned Raggett: Correct word usage vastly overrated.
@Dan Gibson: Sigh.
“At Rocklahoma, $2,000 will get you an hours-long session with a festival musician.” What kind of session? $2,000??? Man, I could swear a local bar paid less than that for one of these washed up hair metal dudes to come and hang out at his bar for a night.
As one of the $120 G.A. riff raffs, I will say that I got more than my money’s worth. Say what you want. I still got a shitload of autographs from the bands even on the other side of the gate without the extra (almost) $300. LA Guns and Frank Hannon of Tesla are the biggest names I had sign my guitar. The extra money didn’t guarantee getting into the Meet & Greets (vouchers) either.
I will say that I may have become an LA Guns fan after the show. Don’t really care about the hoopla between the warring parties, but I was impressed with the band that showed up. And Marty Casey is a hell of a nice guy, and (gasp) a pretty good singer.
I know that for an extra hundred you get to party with Bret Michaels after his show, but $2000? Where was your source on that?
Ratt, LA Guns, Tesla, Queensryche, Triumph, UFO (old maybe yes), and Zebra washed up? Obviously, you weren’t there.
Perhaps the $2000 is the All Star Band Camp? That’s not part of the VIP package. Actually, being at Rocklahoma is a bonus for shelling out the money for the Band Camp.