Arrival 2015

First year, the entry processing was a disaster, whether you arrived early or late. Last year, it was smooth sailing.

If you are driving down from Boston I'd recommend a motel in Charlottesville Wednesday night and an early roll-out Thursday morning. But other GA campers should weigh in on whether there really is an advantage, for tent sites, by sleeping at the gates or just showing up in the morning. And when we get closer to it, there will be more people here responding.

And welcome to the forum!

For tent only there is only marginal benefit to arriving early. We got there by 5 last year, were in early and had a wide choice of very close campsites. For people arriving later they may have had to walk a few extra steps to find a place to setup, but it was not crowded at all at any time on Thursday.

FWIW, we are following the same strategy this year. I second Sue's downside--by getting up early and not being able to sleep after setting up camp (too hot), I ended up falling asleep during Umphrey's.

At the gates for car camping- how throw are they with the searching the cars?

Last year I was picked up at the Charlotte airport ~ 12:30 am and then we drove straight to the festival with a couple stops for beer and food, etc. Got there just before dawn and were in the top 1/3 I would say of the cars waiting to get in. After dawn, they moved us all through pretty quickly and started loading back to front in terms of the campsite location.

Was pretty tired Thursday night, but we managed to pull through well enough. It really just up to the person regarding what kind of sleep they want, who all you want to see on Thursday, etc.

As far as the location of your camp goes, you would probably want to see an updated map for this year. The back was great for last year because you were right by the morning stage and one of the late night shows, showers, food, vendors, etc. With the new Blue Ridge Bowl I am not 100% sure what the new map will look like in terms of the morning and late nights stages. But last year all of the Car campgrounds sort of wrapped around the stage and I don't think it made a major difference one way or the other.

As far as searches, they haven't been thorough either year for me. The first year it took so long, they just asked to look in the cooler for bottles and let us through (did ask us to empty our pockets which I thought was odd). Last year, our car was so packed out they didn't even bother trying to look through it all after we promised we didn't bring any glass. The overpacked car thing seems to work out pretty well when they are trying to hustle people in.

I have to laugh at the look on the poor searcher's face when face with the wall of stuff... 'Move along..."

I received an email saying lumni tickets are being shipped. We're getting closer folks!

You had to order your tickets when they went on sale last year. Around november or so, there is not much of an advantage besides it being cheaper.

There are supposed to have "the lumni lounge" this year in the concert field, but I havent seen anything about it since I ordered my ticket.

I ordered Alumni VIP tix last fall and haven't heard a peep from them since the receipt email arrived the same day.  Customer communication is def a weak point for Lockn.

For VIP/SVIP issues you have to contact CID. They're very responsive to pretty much anything you throw their way.
Lumni ticket discount is only offered for about  a month in the fall when they first go on sale.

Received my "tickets being shipped" email! Yes!!

Are the tickets going out so far just the GA tix?  Anyone get VIP or SVIP yet?