Events

What music festival offers the best overall experience?

Unlike the Fyre Festival, these VIP experiences deliver on what you paid for.

It’s time to start fantasizing about your 2018 VIP music festival wishlist. With so many wonderful events happening all across the globe, it pays to be prepared. You might attempt to cross a few off your list or go all-in on experiencing one in true style.

If you go all-in, you’ll discover a limited group of festivals dedicated to the VIP punter. Whether it’s private golf carts to zoom between shows or your own tour bus to share with pals, a little more cash may get you some real advantages.

Unsurprisingly, the most flashy VIP packages can be found at US events, with established heavyweights like Coachella and Lollapalooza nailing it. From the glaciers of Iceland to the Nevada desert, these are six of the finest VIP music festival experiences.

What music festival offers the best overall experience?

Photo: Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival/Facebook

The world-famous Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival in Tennessee goes all out on its lineups. While it is too early to predict who will perform in 2018, the 2017 version had megastars such as U2, Red Hot Chili Peppers, The Weeknd, and Chance The Rapper. Sounds like a fantastic time, doesn’t it? It’ll be a lot better if you Roll Like A Rockstar.

The top rung of Bonnaroo’s multiple VIP and platinum choices is expensive. (Reports place the price at much over $30,000 USD.) You and up to eight pals enjoy a private, fully-stocked tour bus away from the crowds, as well as exclusive viewing places and a 24-hour concierge on call. Because it is so exclusive, you must contact the festival for a pricing quotation.

What music festival offers the best overall experience?

Photo: Governors Ball/Facebook

If you’re thinking of visiting New York in 2018, you couldn’t do much better than the weekend of June 1-3. That’s when the city’s stalwart multi-genre festival Governors Ball takes over Randall’s Island with a lineup of on-point acts that has yet to be announced. (Notable 2017 performers included Tool, Lorde, Flume, and Phoenix.)

Governors Ball has appealing VIP levels as well as platinum tickets for the serious partygoer. The platinum package allows you to “experience the festival as if you were an artist,” with viewing spaces onstage with the artists, a front of house platform dead center at each stage, and fast lanes for convenient access throughout the event. To add to the exclusivity, only 100 of these platinum tickets are ever available for purchase.

The Secret Solstice event in Iceland pulled off a successful marketing trick in 2015 by declaring The World’s Most Expensive event Pass. The package, which cost a ridiculous $200,000, featured first-class flights for two from anywhere in the globe, a private villa for five nights, a personal chef, and several other extravagances. The following year, they continued the (undoubtedly joking) practice with an even sillier $1 million bundle.

Aside from the headline-grabbing exploits, Secret Solstice features a truly wonderful VIP ticket that won’t leave you in debt for forever. As a VIP, you can explore the event more easily since it corresponds with the summer solstice (which means it never gets dark). Consider joining the festival’s private parties within a lava tunnel and a glacier cave if you truly want to party in 2018. Yes, both of these are true.

Lollapalooza is currently held in six countries, although it originated in Chicago. The flagship weekender returns to Chicago’s Grant Park from August 2-5, 2018, no doubt with a blockbuster lineup. Chance The Rapper was the local hero in 2017 with The Killers, Muse, and Arcade Fire, and Founder Perry Farrell and co. always pull off spectacular bookings.

Lolla’s step-up from VIP is called Platinum, and it costs $4200 USD in 2018. You receive lounges with fantastic views of the four major stages, private bars, catered lunch and supper, mini-spa treatments, on-site golf cart transportation, and a whole lot more for that tiny money.

Coachella in Indio, California is one of the best-run festivals in the world, so you don’t need VIP wristbands to have a great time. Having said that, the festival’s Safari Tent package is a worthwhile expenditure. (Given how expensive hotels in the area are around Coachella week, it could even be cost-effective.)

The Safari tents are located in a remote portion of the festival grounds, and they include a private check-in, an onsite concierge, and access to VIP viewing spots. Coachella is a desert event, therefore the tents include air conditioning, private restrooms, and showers. What is the biggest danger? You never want to leave your air-conditioned cocoon to go watch a concert.

Electric Daisy Carnival is one of those events that is difficult to photograph. It’s an all-out sensory assault that takes over Las Vegas Motor Speedway for three nights each June, with state-of-the-art production, roaming performers, spectacular light effects, and a who’s who of dance music talent. All of that stimulation might be tiresome (the event lasts from sunset to morning), but VIP makes a significant difference.

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