Music festival season is officially upon us. Coachella kicked off the start of massive summer concert events on April 11-13 and April 18-20, and Columbus’ Sonic Temple Festival closely followed up on May 8-11.
Some attendee accounts from these fests have stirred up major controversy, which forces the question, “Are festivals getting worse?”
For starters, Coachella opened their weekends with cars stuck in traffic for 12+ hours, as reported by ABC7 Chicago. “I’ve seen people pass out from heat exhaustion,” one interviewee said. Some cars even ran out of gas and needed to be pushed onto the grounds.
This past weekend, TikTok user @sickboy_theguyontiktok, who is also a Columbus resident and frequent festival attendee, shared a video criticizing the Sonic Temple festival. As of publication, the TikTok video sits at 209,000 views.
The user shared that accessibility was far from ideal. Examples he shared included oversold and pricey parking lots, hours-long waits in traffic and merch lines, one water station (as opposed to more in previous years), poorly-planned merch tents, restricted wheelchair access, and overlapping headliners.
Read more: 9 New Songs That We Have On Blast This Weekend
Some users agreed, noting that the only incorrect issue he reported was that certain bathrooms were locked.
“I will not pay hundreds and hundreds of dollars to just be miserable,” he said.
He added, “Like you would think this is the first year they’d ever done it,” before calling the experience “so disappointing and so heartwrenching.”
Don’t believe him? Without police interference, Rob Zombie would not have made it to his own show. The rocker posted on Instagram, “Driving into Sonic Temple. Without the police we would have never made it! CRAZY TRAFFIC on the highway.”
TikTok user @fallen_wings69 also shared that traffic patterns were backed up and parking was not ideal. Though the TikToker noted that the single hydration station offered more fountains than in previous years.
Finally, TikTok user @altjedi offered criticisms about VIP treatment, hydration station placement, pricing, and merch lines.
Beyond poor access for attendees, Reddit users also listed out that more than 10 sets had significant technical issues. One user went so far as to make a list of performances impacted by tech difficulties, such as Poppy and Jinjer.
Notably, the festival promoters Danny Wimmer Presents (DWP) saw their CEO Danny Hayes step down in April 2025. There was no specific reason outlined for his departure in his LinkedIn post. However, some users on TikTok have speculated that his leaving was due to concert management issues and corporate greed. Aftershock, Louder Than Life, and Welcome To Rockville are also run by DWP.
Of course, it wasn’t all bad. Sonic Temple attendees shared videos of crowd-surfing and pitting with funny, inflatable costumes. Headliners included Linkin Park, Metallica, and more.
Our fingers are crossed that festival goers experience smooth and accessible concerts to come this summer!
