Super VIP will no longer have an open bar

Not a rumor. Emails were sent out today. Because of state laws they cannot do it. They have replaced this with lunch and dinner meals for Friday and Saturday, and a private show with Warren Haynes.

i lol'd
i dont see it on their facebook tho. are they censoring their facebook page?

I am not an angry business type, haha, but yeah me and my sis are going SVIP.

The same thing happens with Bonnaroo - I think it is more of a reflection on Facebook than anything.

Seriously, though, I would be pissed if I were going SVIP. You cannot put a price on four days of an open bar at a music festival

At what time on Thursday is the Warren acoustic set supposed to take place? He has shows with the ABB on Friday and Saturday, so I assume he will play his solo set Thursday. How can people in SVIP catch his set and not miss any of the other music? Remember there is also a Welcome BBQ for VIP and SVIP. The solo set will only be for the SVIP.

One more thing...why not offer Open Bar craft beer and wine instead of the liquor if liquor is the problem? The SVIP is 21 and older, so I don't see what the problem with open beer would be.

I'm SVIP and this doesn't really bother me. I would trade an open bar for a private acoustic Warren Haynes set any day. Them again, I am more of a "smoker" than drinker anyways.

Really makes me wish I had a SVIP instead of just a VIP, just couldnt afford it though. Maybe I can talk someone into letting me sneak in the private shows. Never hurts to try!

i'll meet you there, power in numbers lol

I don't rule out the possibility that Warren comes back on Sunday - he can hitch a ride with Allman Brothers bandmates Derek Trucks and Oteil Burbridge, do the SVIP set, then jam out with Furthur.

Virginia ABC laws make it a violation to "ADVERTISE" a "FREE" Alcohol service or any alcohol pricepoints or specials. Floydfest has simply gotten away with it or found a nice little loophole. For example all drinks are paid for at the end of each business day by a "hospitality group". Plus Virginia has A third party liability law. This makes liable everyone involved with the alcohol service from the server, bartender, Banquet alcohol license holder, ABC manager and some cases the facility or event coordinators, if there should be an alcohol related death or injury. I used to teach TIPS classes and mixology courses for a large casual dining chain throughout the state.

My inner cynic tells me that they costlessly created the Super-VIP area by cutting into the original VIP area. Maybe ticket sales were slower than expected (or as expected for a first-year festival) and they had the x-people-per square foot ratio blocked out and realized they can do it without over-crowding the regular VIP section.

The rest of me wants to tell the inner cynic to chill out and remember that it's Peter Shapiro. He's always made for a good venue. Maybe they extend the side-of-stage relax area so you can see, maybe then brought in cranes to make a gigantic swinging platform 50' overhead. Maybe they just cordoned off a bit of the VIP section so we don't have to worry about getting and staying there.

Bottom line for us about the switch, if you showed us two options, one with open bar and one with heck, jsut the Warren Haynes show, forget the viewing area and food, we'd probably have opted for the music. It's all about the music.

Cynic would remind us that there's no real description of what "private" means, how many others will be there, who we'll have to miss to catch these performances, or whether the performances will be more than three songs.

Bite me, cynic.