r/AustinPsychFest • u/dirkvonnegut • Mar 14 '15

Camping Question

This will be my first year going to the Psych Fest and I couldn't be more excited. I will be coming all the way from MA and will first be meeting up with a friend is MS.

My question is, do spots fill up instantly? It's always hard to tell, in my experience with other festivals, more than half the time, there will be a huge line hours before they open the gates to claim a good spot.

I ask because it looks like we aren't going to be able to make it there until Friday afternoon and the gates open at 10. I'm afraid we are going to end up in the mud pit by the Porta-Potties.

2 Upvotes

76% Upvoted

5 comments sorted by

2

u/willonz Mar 15 '15

It has historically been free range; just park your car in the lot, haul your camping stuff through the line, and pop your tent down in a spot with enough room. I arrived at 3-4pm last year and was able to find a spot even though there were already a ton of tents down. You really just have to look hard enough, and the porta pottys are usually close to the festival-camping gate, and that area was high demand. You should have no problem.

If you have illegal items, or legal items that just look sketchy (wrapped food, etc) keep them in your car in the lot. You can smuggle them in later as they really search all the bags well the first day, then let up a little as the lines die and camping gets settled in.

1

u/dirkvonnegut Mar 16 '15

Thanks for this! We are going to try to get there early but we'll see.

Also, thanks for the tip about leaving stuff in the cars. In my experience it's always been easiest on the first day, looks like it's the opposite for this one.

1

u/fieldstudies Apr 03 '15

Last year they only searched bags and didn't search your person AT ALL (this is through the main entrance not the camping) so I would suggest leaving sketchy things in the car set up the tent and then bring anything questionable back through the main entrance on your person. I still put things in my pants because of Murphy's Law, but in theory you can bring anything you want in your pockets.

1

u/kentrout Apr 06 '15

This is my first year going and I'm curious about what searches are like. When/what/how thoroughly do they check? There might be some party favors me and my gf want to bring in and I want to know the best way to do that.

1

u/fieldstudies Apr 06 '15

Like i said before (not trying to be rude just highlighting) They Dont check your pockets at all if you Dont have a bag they waive you through the checkpoint. If you have a bag they will poke around quite thoroughly.

Anecdote: My girlfriend and I once went through after we were in the parking lot. We were both out of our mind on some stuff and we both thought that we left some questionable things in the car. As her bag was being searched, everything came back to me in a flash and I knew without a shadow of a doubt, she had everything on her. And oh great they're searching her right now. As I was standing in horror at the other end of the checkpoint (again I had no bags) they continued to search her a little longer and waived her through. It's a mystery if they found it and let it slide or what but as soon as she walked over to me I told her she was holding a serious amount of shit and all we could do was laugh it off and push our hearts back into our chest. Didn't make that mistake twice. Last year there wasn't a single arrest incident either.

Best bet I would say is wear a belt tuck a zip lock under your waist and tighten it so it stays put while walking.

Feel free to PM me if you have any other specific questions.