…but a damn near riot broke out. And that’s how Coachella 2008 opened last night for a small chunk of this weekend’s festival goers: in a civic and organizational mess. Just like last year, Filter’s annual kick off celebration was held at The Yacht Club–on a spacious and well-landscaped ode to Pirates of the Carribean, apparently–where partiers were bussed in from another location. Free margaritas and free-pour vodkas provided fodder for kids and adults alike. I have no idea who was DJ’ing or what was going on with some retro-futuristic car exhibition (?) in a crowded corner of some lower deck, but the swaying red noses, desparate testerone and broken heels was a good sign that everyone had a good time. But the problem with bussing sober people to a party is that you also have to bus drunk people back.
When the booze ran out, everyone realized that they still had at least an hour–assuming everything went smoothly–before they could end their night and begin their morning. What started as a haggered line for the shuttle quickly turned into the front of the stage at a Wu-Tang concert. With more Oasis sing-a-longs. But an equal amount of fights, pushes to the front, line cutting, shouting matches over the uncivility of cutting line. An entertainingly juvenile situation, it was exasperated by an overwhelmed security staff that really didn’t know the first thing about crowd control. After a 20 minute bus-less span, the natives got rowdy and the staff decided to hold the first arriving shuttles until everyone could “back up two steps.” Of course, only the first 50 people (and not the 100s pushing from the rear, pause) could hear the instructions and eventually everyone just sprinted towards any opening door. The buses continued to sit there, empty, unmoving. 50 minutes later the riot-gear outfitted 5-0 showed up, just as some order was established and enough shuttles for everyone were being loaded. It set an interesting tone for those involved, but ended up being amusingly harmless.
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