Anybody hear when Gates open for the 2014 Festival

This will surely be a heavily discussed topic leading up to the festival, especially considering that this was basically the only flaw in last year's festival. The festival promoters have assured us that they're working with local law enforcement to devise a better strategy for 2014. We don't know exactly what that entails yet, but hopefully it includes a plan to open the gates earlier than last year.

Logistically speaking, it was just mathematically impossible for them to process all of those cars in the small window they had to do so. Allocating just seven hours to get everyone inside, setup, and acclimated just isn't realistic. I was in line at 7:00 last year, and I still found myself with barely enough time to pitch camp before dashing off for an entire day's worth of music. Even if it means a little more money, I'd gladly pay it if it means I can get parked late Wednesday night.

Moreover, the 9:00 gates force a lot of people to drive overnight. Lockn' is about 5 hours from my house, so the 9:00 am gate time left my struggling with whether or not I should drive through the night.

They are already getting quite a bit of my cash but I may be willing to pay a little extra to get in a day early. Spread the entry times out and maybe make it a little smoother.

With a 10 hour drive I would pay extra to get in on Wednesday. If they don't I'll probably drive 8-9 hours & find a place to get some sleep so I'll be rested when they open. See how it is as we get closer & probably head in to the grounds early & wait it out.

haha, that's so generous of you to allow me to do that

You're absolutely right, but with a few caveats. Bonnaroo has had more than ten years to get things straight. They finally seem to have it down, but I've been to several Bonnaroos where I waited in line for a considerably longer period of time than I waited to get in to Lockn'. In fact, in 2011 I spent over 10 hours in line waiting to get in to Bonnaroo.

That being said, I've always gotten in to Bonnaroo before the music actually started. I don't mind waiting four or five hours. But I do mind missing out on music if I was in line before the gates even opened. Bonnaroo has had to make a lot of adjustments to get things straight; perhaps foremost is the fact that Bonnaroo now opens the campgrounds on Wednesday evening (instead of Thursday morning). Moreover, Thursday at Bonnaroo is a "light" day. There are no headliners or big name bands on Thursday. As a result, people are less concerned with getting in and being camped by Thursday morning.

Last year at Lockn' the music started at 4:00 pm on Thursday, but otherwise they went full force. As a result, they left a very narrow window to get everyone in. Bonnaroo takes in cars over the course of 24 hours. Lockn' attempted to take cars in over the course of 7 hours. It was simply impossible from a logistical standpoint.

Quoting myself from last year:



Unless they completely abandon the idea of searching cars, there's no way they can get everyone inside and parked in such a small window of time.

You may want to check with people that did VIP last year. It didn't seem to be any different than GA.

The biggest difference between entering a festival and entering a college football game (yes....I live in the home of Penn State Football, so I know the drill)is the stuff in the car. At Penn State no one is allowed to carry anything into the stadium that isn't in a clear plastic bag (kind of like your liquids when you fly). Everything else stays in the car in the parking lot. And cars are not searched. A complete lack of car search simply isn't going to happen at Lockn'. But I'm feeling confident that they won't be doing full unload and rip apart searches this year unless they are suspicious. But if they don't search at all, it will be way too easy to sneak in things like nitrous tanks.

I did the vip last year. From the time they started checking us, it took me about 4 hours to get my rv thru. The one thing I can suggest to folks is help the guys doing the checking. When I got my camper up to them, I had opened all the storage compartments, cabinets and even had the bed raised so they could look into the storage space. He walked in, looked at my crap and had me cleared in two min. Others in line waited until being asked, then had to find keys to compartments. The music made up for it all. Can't wait until this year.

This is a smart move, we didn't have everything open but when the search dude stepped up, we were ready to open. Be ready, and help out as much as possible, everyone in line behind you will thank you.

Let's hope they open early. Little early partying never hurt too many. If they don't will be flying into Richmond, what would be the decent hotel on the way to the site

You are forward thinking individual.