So what exactly is the festival passport? For the price of $799, the pass provides general admission access to over 90 Live-Nation owned festivals worldwide, including those like Lollapalooza that are already sold out. The initial price tag may seem alarming at first, but given that most festivals costs a little of $300 each, passport holders can come out ahead after just three festivals.
The catch? Only 1,000 passes would be given out. We talked to a few of those who remembered to set their alarms and grabbed a pass before they sold out. We learned about their background, what festivals they plan to attend, and what the passport means to them.
Peter is a college graduate from Michigan who currently works in Detroit plans on hitting major US festivals like Bonnaroo, Electric Forest, Lollapalooza Chicago, and Austin City Limits. The pass also offers a handful of international festivals. He has a cousin that lives in Berlin and is hoping to attend the German version of Lollapalooza there in September.
Megan, who got her undergrad degrees in Biology and Psychology from the University of North Carolina Wilmington, currently lives in Kansas as a research technician in a genetics lab. Music festivals hold a very special place in her heart. A year ago, she met Dee at Firefly using Radiate, an app that let’s you connect with people going to the same festivals as you. Now, they are engaged and both have festival passports!
Megan says the best part about the pass is that “(they) both have a hard time getting off work for all the festivals we want to go to, but we don’t want to pay for a weekend pass if we can only go to Saturday/Sunday. So, we plan on using the passes to go to as many festivals as possible without having to attend the whole thing.”
Jonathan from New Jersey plans to attend 16 festivals using the passport. The pass is not only increasing his number of festivals for the year, but expanding his horizons. While he’s been dying to go to certain festivals like Electric Forest, Lollapalooza, and Austin City Limits, he hasn’t had the means due to distance and the price tag of each festival. Now that the ticket cost is not a factor, a whole new world of possibilities has opened up including the chance to go to his first festival in Europe, Creamfields. “I would have never had heard of this festival if it wasn’t for the passport giving me the opportunity and knowledge of the expanded festverse.”
What’s even better than all the festivals he gets to attend? All the people that Jonathan will get to meet along the way. According to him, the best part about the festival passport (which could be argued to be the best part of music festivals in general) is the community. “I believe the value of the festival pass is amazing, but what’s more important is that it created this community of people. We wouldn’t have done so ourselves if it wasn’t for this pass connecting 1,000 people from all over the US and Europe. More friends to add to my festival family and friendships are going to be created that will last a lifetime.The opportunity that this has given us is grand. Yea it has thrown our summers and years into a frenzy and a loop, however it will be one for the books and something that we will all cherish.”
Do you have a festival passport? We would love to hear from you in the comments below!
3 Comments
My boyfriend and I both have festival passports for this season. We are regular festival attendees and by grabbing this passport it widened are reach of festivals to attend this year as well. This is a summer of a lifetime for sure!!
I would rip off my left boob for a pass.
Yeah my girlfriend and I have them as well. Doing Bisco this weekend after coming back from Electric Forest last weekend. Its exhausting, but totally worth it. The festival family we met at Forest has been worth the whole investment. I cant wait to see them almost every other weekend this summer!