Music Festival SeasonLists about the phenomena of the summer music festival - who to see, how to dress, and what to expect beyond heat, crowds, and bigger crowds.
Updated September 24, 2021 3.1K votes 901 voters 72.3K views
Over 900 Ranker voters have come together to rank this list of 14 Ways To Sneak Into Your Favorite Music Festivals
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Ever suffered from festival FOMO? All your friends are heading out to the greatest music festivals ever for days of partying to live music by dozens of your favorite bands. But your bank balance has a little minus symbol right beside that all-important number. Getting into music festivals just isn't in the budget.
So, that puts an end to your fun, huh? Well, think again. Being broke doesn’t mean you can't experience those Coachella hipsters and Bonnaroo hippies in person. You can join them if you're sneaky enough. Some brave music fans have shared the best ways to get into festivals online, and you can follow their lead and try sneaking into live shows yourself - provided you don't mind breaking the rules, that is.
Feeling brave? Here's how you could sneak into music festivals all season long. And, if you're wondering where to test these skills, check out our list of the best US festival lineups of 2020.
If you've got a buddy who managed to nab a wristband, get them to wiggle it off their wrist and throw it over the fence for you. Then, slip that bad boy on and waltz through security like it's no big thing.
Alternatively, you could hang around the festival site, looking for anyone who's had enough fun for one weekend and is heading home. Hit them up for their wristband - it's only going to waste otherwise.
Once you've successfully gotten into the festival, it's time to keep your cool. Avoiding getting caught is all about blending in and not attracting unnecessary attention. In other words, now is not the time to go crowd-surfing or ask your favorite band for a selfie.
Your chances of a successful sneak-in might increase under cover of darkness. One successful fence-hopper from Australia told Vice that he was able to creep past security guards and spotlights by staying alert and wearing all black.
You can collect wristbands from just about anywhere. Whether you snag wristbands from a night out at a club, concerts you’ve been to in the past, pride parades, or food festivals, all you have to do is remember to keep stockpiling them. If you're creative, you could even make your own.
Cover your wrists in them. Stack the wristbands up until they become a kaleidoscopic mass of plastic and paper, and trust that the sheer volume will cause exhausted security to simply wave you on through. As crazy as this technique sounds, it can work - see Marcus Haney's festival-hopping documentary No Cameras Allowed for proof. Sure, at one point he gets caught, but he was scamming the system for some time before that.
This tactic requires a bunch of friends who are all equally eager to get in on the free festival action. Let's say you've hopped the fence - but security is right there. Scatter!
Most festivals are cordoned off from the public with fences. You could try scaling them, but if your upper body strength isn’t quite up to par, there are other ways to get around these barriers.
Writing for xoJane, Lynn-Q-Yu said that she and her friends scoped out the fence at a festival that was manned by guards. Luckily, they found the one section that was unmanned, burned through the zip tie connecting the fence, and piled on through. Consider taking a leaf out of her book if you've got a cigarette lighter and good fence-based reconnaissance skills.
