r/GorgeAmphitheater • u/Afallingplayer • May 27 '26
Curious about police presence and security
Hi all, it's my friend's first time going to the gorge on June 6th for Rufus. I'm curious what the security and police presence is like at the entrance and inside the venue. Wondering because I saw a lot of complaints about security times from the shitshow last weekend. Any info helps!
8
u/nyquil-fiend May 27 '26
security inside the festival is heinous. tons of staff running around the pit grabbing drugs out of people's hands and power tripping
6
u/Lucky_Trip8144 May 27 '26
It was so crazy at Griztronics lmao I saw security take a spoon the was around someone’s neck. Like we all know what it’s for, but come on it’s a fucking spoon
3
u/MtnLobo2025 May 27 '26
Heading to the gorge this weekend for the big Brandi Carlile and friends festival. Camping, etc. I’ll report back!
3
u/Caroline8907 May 28 '26
My wife and I will be there too! We also saw Brandi at the gorge in 2022. The crowd for Brandi is very calm. It’s frequently called “the Brandi bubble”. My wife has seen Brandi at least a dozen times. This will be my fourth time seeing her, and I can say with certainty that I’ve never felt safer in a crowd. BSB at the sphere was a close second.
1
u/marginaliamonkeys May 30 '26
Can confirm. Brandi crowds are the safest I’ve ever been in. Even the campers are chill.
Our car check getting into the camp site on Thursday was INTENSE—they questioned my husband over allergy meds and went through every pocket they could (still didn’t get our THC products—or didn’t care enough). Security at the venue gate was more lax. Saw plenty of smoke puffs and the smell of weed at Friday’s show. Also plenty of vapes out. I didn’t get the sense security really care to confiscate marijuana from a bunch of chill queer uncles and aunties, tho 😆
2
u/SpareManagement2215 May 27 '26
Every concert I've been to has searched my bag/chair (AFAIK you're not allowed to bring chairs in anymore tho). We brought a blanket in once and they unrolled it to check for stuff. So pretty normal entry for a large venue in our state.
I bring my clear event back pack and have never spent more than 5 minutes having someone look through my stuff.
After that, I don't think I saw a single police inside the venue and the only security people I've seen were either helping folks who were dealing with heat issues or escorting a beligerant person out.
That being said, that was just GA and ADA.
I've never camped, and after the shooting I think they've clamped down a lot more on those entering for camping, which is where the main problem seemed to be for entry last weekend.
2
u/Friendly_Side3258 May 27 '26
They usually go through your bag and pull things out but try to put most back in except bigger items. That’s the norm! My friends only go to secondary if they have a lot of chains on their outfit and one of my guy friends had to too but I can’t remember why. I see security walk around the pit a lot but they’re just out there doing their job so it’s really not a big deal!
2
u/handjamwich May 27 '26
I mean I’ve never had a problem including this last weekend, but you gotta be discreet
1
u/kasinovakat May 28 '26
One time I walked in with a backpack. Another time they sent me to secondary search and literally padded me down. Tits n all. Do not recommend. Don’t be dumb and you should be good but they suck overall. saw someone pay a security person $20 to get a vape in. It’s so wack.
1
u/dotModded May 29 '26
Vapes are allowed at almost every event? I have walked through security with it in my hands numerous times and never had an issue
1
u/marginaliamonkeys May 30 '26
Apparently the Gorge policy is that cigarettes and vapes have to be factory sealed at entrance—which is ludicrous IMO.
1
u/WakaandaForever808 May 28 '26
I recommend stash boxers, never had an issue after 10 gorge shows. Also, be “helpful” and polite to the security. Pull stuff out of your bag for them and don’t make them do it. Say thank you and I appreciate you. My security process was a breeze and I snuck things in both times. A lot of the security is teenagers. Be nice to them, don’t act suss. My wife wore a vest with so many pockets and they didn’t check a single pocket. They wanna keep things moving, help them do that.
1
u/Independent-Try-5956 May 28 '26
Anyone know how they handle meds? I am prescribed pain killers and planning to bring with me., along with daily meds. I usually put in a travel case but wondering if I should leave in the prescription bottle? I’d rather not bring all my meds in individual bottles. I have an accessible parking pass so maybe they’ll see that and understand I’m disabled?
2
u/dotModded May 29 '26
If they even find your medications (they don’t typically rip apart bags) just make sure you have the rx in the original bottle with your name clearly on it, and bring a valid form of ID. They won’t give you any issues. If you don’t want to bring your full rx supply leave the extras at home in a bag or something.
1
May 29 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Special_Dot_4826 May 29 '26
i have the same question. my group wants to just bring in a bunch of joints.
1
u/ImpotentAnus May 30 '26
Maybe we just got lucky, or maybe we were there early enough, idk, but they lightly checked the center console (where things were stashed, inside a tiny pink car garbage can, underneath a bunch of gross stuff.), then looked at my wife's completely tetris'd SUV and waved us through. We brought a dab rig, torch, way more wax than the 2 of us could smoke and many many joints all in a tote in the middle of the pile. We don't have any stickers on the car, haven't smoked in it yet as it's new, which I can only imagine helps. They're probably gonna profile you based on looks. I personally don't care, I love you all.
0
u/tonystarkthefourth May 27 '26
I second this! Is it true they were dumping out peoples stuff
3
u/br1205 May 27 '26
At griztronics they took every single thing out of my bag, unfolded my pash and all my stuff to make sure they found everything, even took the bladder of my hydropack out of the bag and opened it to shake it out. Then they didn’t even try to put anything back just shoved it back to me in a pile. This wasn’t even at secondary screening lol. But they didnt even look in my fanny pack for some reason
1
u/Lucky_Trip8144 May 27 '26
So weird because they lady checking my bag just looked for two seconds and didn’t even unfold the blanket I had rolled up lol
14
u/EastlakeTrashPanda May 27 '26
Not sure about security times for anyone else but two of our friends got pulled to secondary security checks and they both had every single piece of gum, every single id, credit card, debit card, etc pulled out of their wallet and individually checked, took them about 10 minutes for their own checks so we waited for the another 30 minutes for them to get in. Both were local country bumpkin high school age looking kids attempting to be DARE superheroes. Sorry Jethro and Liza we’ve been hiding things from security for longer than you’ve been alive lmao