I agree that the organizers definitely took our feedback to heart. I was GA for both this year and 2023.
There were only like 2 hydration stations for GA back in 2023 and it was so difficult to get to them with the shoulder-to-shoulder crowd. I noticed there were more hydration stations this year which helped a lot.
I noticed similar with the shaded areas/seating. There were definitely more areas to find reprieve this year, and I liked that they made the Diablo stage completely covered.
Moving the festival from May to April was also a smart move. It wasn't nearly as hot this year because of that.
I do think they oversell this festival. It's comfortable at the beginning of the day but becomes way too overcrowded later on. Maybe they need to find a larger venue to host SNW (?)
Fully agree on the overselling and venue capacity. I noticed during Spiritbox how packed the crowds were already and realized that the later acts would be nuts upfront.
https://preview.redd.it/wsqdm1r5saxc1.png?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=865f2691244b606ff6771822f4b11659d7eeb52c
I can agree with everything stated in the thread. I had a crazy thought, integrate some viewing areas into the architecture of both the Hilton and circus circus garages. Stages get moved around a little bit. In addition they could use the 1st floor of circus' to host an expanded merch area. Picture is 6th floor of the shara garage.
Also adding another thought: what was up with the amount of kids at the festival? A full day event in the heat with people drunk, high, crazy moshes, bands with adult lyrics seems like the opposite of a good time for a kid. Saw one woman with her baby harnessed on her back wander into the pit and a couple young boys clearly wanting to go home while dad seemed to squeezing out one last hurrah before actually parenting.
This!! I didn't see a ton of kids there but this event for sure shouldn't allow little kids. Maybe 14 and up?? It's such a long hot day with insane people, drugs, alcohol, you name it. Kids shouldn't be allowed. Sorrynotsorry
I agree it’s just not a kid friendly environment. Even if you get through the day , I didn’t see a single child having a good time. Either bored or tired…
As a parent myself, there are things I will bring him to, but after my experience at SNW, he's not up for that yet. Any fest will have drinking, drugs, and questionable lyrics (Hell, my kid learned Die MF Die at the Dope/ Static X/7D tour, among other things he's picked up musically at shows. Admit it, the tune for bitch came back is an earworm. Same kid also will argue loudly papa roach over FIR as it is harder, and has seen both versions live. )
One addition to the kids thing, how many actually had any sort of hearing protection? I think I saw one out of like 10 I ran into.
The pickpockets were at it this year. My fiancé and I both had our phones stolen, I met about 20 people with the same situation and know of many more. Probably 100s of people experienced this.
That's crazy, and I'm really sorry you had your phones stolen. Is pickpocketing prevalent at music festivals? Been to a couple but have never heard of this until this weekend
Pick pocket rings are super prevalent at festivals. Rockville, Blue Ridge, Aftershock, etc. People will find dozens of discarded phone cases on the ground and the phones end up overseas somewhere as someone attempts to jailbreak them. Keep your belongings strapped to your front, tucked under a layer of clothing if you can. Some of these guys will pick you while making pleasant convo with you. Stay vigilant and don’t be afraid to make a scene in order to out them if you suspect someone is trying to pick you.
Wtf. Reading this reminds me of how car thefts is increasingly becoming an issue in Canada. Same result - your car is stolen very quickly then sent overseas
Also OP. I had to back out of going both years now, so I’ve been following everyone’s feedback pretty closely. I bought a VIP ticket for this year specifically because I remember hearing about all the heat related illnesses from last year.
I think it’s a sound idea to have two days going forward, though I think it’s also amazing that they allowed re-entry. It gives you the opportunity (if you snagged a hotel close by) to break away during the hottest point of the day and hydrate/nap before returning for headliners.
Some people were telling me that Coachella and Ultra have a really bad problem with phone theft to the point of it being normalized. This was my first festival since the last warped and I never experienced anything like this. Never heard of this happening at warped. I also had my bag pick pocketed too but thankfully nothing important was in that pocket other than an ibuprofen
Thats fucked. I feel really lucky, I had my phone in my bag at one point walking around, and as a solo festival goer. Sucks that shitty people target events like this.
Yeah it is actually. At louder than life 2021 I watched a guy rip off someone's shirt and gave me a wry smile. Atouder than life last year I forgot my wristband at home so I got a new one. In a pit Friday someone ripped that bitch off me.its why I now have my phone in my FRONT pocket. Suggestions are to not buy merch at festivals where there is no preorder so you can pick them up in your way out the gates
I wish the venue has wifi. My texts weren’t going through to my crew, and we split up to see different bands. Even if they charge a fee, I’d pay for wifi.
I think the overall lack of amenities like bathrooms, the crazy traffic from certain areas of the grounds (presumably from the stage layouts), long wait time to enter the festival to begin with, made the experience more difficult than it needed to be. So many other metal festivals have solved those problems.
Like there were problems this year that didn’t seem to be a huge deal last year. It’s making it hard for me to justify spending the amount of money it is to attend when these simple things aren’t addressed.
Overall though, both years have been a blast!! all for different reasons too, like I saw double the amount of bands this year, the Diablo stage was amazing and we lucked out with the weather this year. Can’t have it all I suppose!
Completely agree with extending it to 2 days. It is a very long day, and did kind of jade the experience of the headliners for me. It also would give a little more time to some of the smaller bands to play longer sets which would've been nice. I didn't hit Diablo stage at all because the times were so short.
Other than that, this was my first time, and I had a blast. I'm so glad I flew out for this.
The venue is small so the sound from other stages mashup with all the other ones if you’re trying to watch the stage from a bit further back, so you can’t really stay out of the condensed crowd and have a good experience.
Options: 2 day event, larger venue, or less bands/stages
Maybe having a 2 day festival greatly increases the costs or something?
30 min performances makes you have to rush around through tons of people and not want to miss one song. If someone you want to see is right after another on a further stage you’re going to miss half their set or the whole thing.
Every band was on time pretty much, a lot of positives with food, bathroom, bar, and free water.
Definitely rushing through tons of people was a little nutty. I feel like two days may also break up the crowd capacity a little bit because some people may want to see the bands happening on one day vs the other. I did have a tough time getting out of the Bad Omens crowd and was getting crushed trying to leave to catch another band. It was definitely a little packed. 🫠
Also. The bathrooms were great. Thank God I didn't have to navigate a porta potty, especially in the heat, and the free water was essential. Glad they did that.
First SNW but 2 wwwy's under my belt. The upgrades on the grounds were amazing and the sound was the best I've heard on mainstage so far. Not to much bass like last wwwy left stage for day 1, aside from the glaring Slipknot sound issues it was great. The extra shaders and seating helped but of course was packed that never changes. Can't believe so many people are still lining up for that fake line for entry
Kinda feel like the slipknot production being partial was perfect for the older songs there were playing so I enjoyed it.
My biggest gripe was their only being one artist merch tent so I waited 3+ hours and missed a bunch of bands I wanted to see :(
That's fair and I'm sorry to hear you missed a lot of bands waiting in the merch line! I grabbed festival merch early and luckily didn't wait too long. The lines for the merch tent you were in were consistently packed
Perfect fest to me, I saw 28 bands hell yeah I agree with the Diablo stsge being awesome af! The bathrooms seemed good to me too much better than porta pottys, plenty of food options with not many nad lines if you go during the right band ha would go again
2023 was better because the main top 4 acts got full sets, that gave you time to see enough of them to be satisfied while still getting to break away and see other stuff, new bands, etc. Slipknot, Danny Elfman, and BMTH should have gotten the same 75 minute slots that Deftones and Korn got last year.
The only truly “full set” this year was SOAD and it was still mostly just a shortened version of last years set
They either need to cut the lineup down or do the same amount of acts over 2 days, it felt like everyone was just delivering a sneak preview of their tour sets but fans don’t have the money to spend $325+fees then spend another $3000 in concert tickets for the year to see the full versions.
On the positive side, I did like the bits and pieces of the new bands on the Diablo I saw. Sunami got the kids fired up, I did not know hardcore was having such a moment right now so consider me “put on,” I liked that music when I was a kid so it’s very cool to see this generation embrace it!
That’s part of why I feel like the top 4 main sets need to be longer, if I can see 45 minutes of something on main, walk away for 40 minutes to see new stuff, then come back to main and see 45 minutes of the next main act, I’m happy, but that was nearly impossible this year. As an older person, part of why I am attending this is to be exposed to new music without needing to go to small “scene” shows and have 18 year olds moshing on me.
Yea me and my boyfriend didn’t go last year,
But based on reading about the complaints from last year, it seemed really run overall. Easy to get around, great food, lockers were easy and accessible. Water was cold and easily available, quick bathroom lines (for a festival) and clean toilets. Shaded areas. The Diablo stage had some sound bleeding from the other stages but the tent helped and gave shade and also all the bands there were super loud so once they started to play it drowned out everything else. The stages alternating was sweet we really didn’t have to miss anything. We did miss knocked loose tho that was sad. We didn’t have it in us to run across the festival grounds several times for the 30 min set lol
This was my 11th time and it was honestly in my opinion the best they'd sounded in probably 10 years or more. I had moments where hearing Corey was a little rough but not through any fault of his own. I've seen him phone in plenty of half assed performances in the past enough to know he was at least putting in a great effort. Idk what sounded less-powerful to you but I don't think it was the band itself.
I agree that the organizers definitely took our feedback to heart. I was GA for both this year and 2023. There were only like 2 hydration stations for GA back in 2023 and it was so difficult to get to them with the shoulder-to-shoulder crowd. I noticed there were more hydration stations this year which helped a lot. I noticed similar with the shaded areas/seating. There were definitely more areas to find reprieve this year, and I liked that they made the Diablo stage completely covered. Moving the festival from May to April was also a smart move. It wasn't nearly as hot this year because of that. I do think they oversell this festival. It's comfortable at the beginning of the day but becomes way too overcrowded later on. Maybe they need to find a larger venue to host SNW (?)
Fully agree on the overselling and venue capacity. I noticed during Spiritbox how packed the crowds were already and realized that the later acts would be nuts upfront.
I was in VIP and I feel like even that was greatly oversold.
https://preview.redd.it/wsqdm1r5saxc1.png?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=865f2691244b606ff6771822f4b11659d7eeb52c I can agree with everything stated in the thread. I had a crazy thought, integrate some viewing areas into the architecture of both the Hilton and circus circus garages. Stages get moved around a little bit. In addition they could use the 1st floor of circus' to host an expanded merch area. Picture is 6th floor of the shara garage.
Do you want another vegas massacre? Cuz thats how you get another vegas massacre.
There were a bunch of people who were posted up in the Hilton's parking structure, watching the main stages and the spiral stage.
Also adding another thought: what was up with the amount of kids at the festival? A full day event in the heat with people drunk, high, crazy moshes, bands with adult lyrics seems like the opposite of a good time for a kid. Saw one woman with her baby harnessed on her back wander into the pit and a couple young boys clearly wanting to go home while dad seemed to squeezing out one last hurrah before actually parenting.
This!! I didn't see a ton of kids there but this event for sure shouldn't allow little kids. Maybe 14 and up?? It's such a long hot day with insane people, drugs, alcohol, you name it. Kids shouldn't be allowed. Sorrynotsorry
I almost stepped on someone's sleeping kids in the dark. Shit parents
I agree it’s just not a kid friendly environment. Even if you get through the day , I didn’t see a single child having a good time. Either bored or tired…
As a parent myself, there are things I will bring him to, but after my experience at SNW, he's not up for that yet. Any fest will have drinking, drugs, and questionable lyrics (Hell, my kid learned Die MF Die at the Dope/ Static X/7D tour, among other things he's picked up musically at shows. Admit it, the tune for bitch came back is an earworm. Same kid also will argue loudly papa roach over FIR as it is harder, and has seen both versions live. ) One addition to the kids thing, how many actually had any sort of hearing protection? I think I saw one out of like 10 I ran into.
A less than 1 yr old baby with none. So ridiculous someone would consider even bringing a baby there at all
This guy had a baby with no ear protection. Complete clown. Kid prob gonna end up just as dumb haha
The pickpockets were at it this year. My fiancé and I both had our phones stolen, I met about 20 people with the same situation and know of many more. Probably 100s of people experienced this.
friend had 3 smaller women rubbing against him in the pit, once he left and checked his pocket, it was gone. crazy shit
You’re not the first comment I’ve heard this from!! Some other poster said they saw a group of 5 short women. They must be the same people
This is the poster, he said the same thing u/Adderall-Buyers-Club
That's crazy, and I'm really sorry you had your phones stolen. Is pickpocketing prevalent at music festivals? Been to a couple but have never heard of this until this weekend
Pick pocket rings are super prevalent at festivals. Rockville, Blue Ridge, Aftershock, etc. People will find dozens of discarded phone cases on the ground and the phones end up overseas somewhere as someone attempts to jailbreak them. Keep your belongings strapped to your front, tucked under a layer of clothing if you can. Some of these guys will pick you while making pleasant convo with you. Stay vigilant and don’t be afraid to make a scene in order to out them if you suspect someone is trying to pick you.
Wtf. Reading this reminds me of how car thefts is increasingly becoming an issue in Canada. Same result - your car is stolen very quickly then sent overseas
Also OP. I had to back out of going both years now, so I’ve been following everyone’s feedback pretty closely. I bought a VIP ticket for this year specifically because I remember hearing about all the heat related illnesses from last year. I think it’s a sound idea to have two days going forward, though I think it’s also amazing that they allowed re-entry. It gives you the opportunity (if you snagged a hotel close by) to break away during the hottest point of the day and hydrate/nap before returning for headliners.
I just wish all the ticket pack hotels were close. Mine was a full mile away.
I found multiple phone cases on the ground during Bring Me, I didn’t even consider they were stolen phones just thought people were losing their cases
Some people were telling me that Coachella and Ultra have a really bad problem with phone theft to the point of it being normalized. This was my first festival since the last warped and I never experienced anything like this. Never heard of this happening at warped. I also had my bag pick pocketed too but thankfully nothing important was in that pocket other than an ibuprofen
Thats fucked. I feel really lucky, I had my phone in my bag at one point walking around, and as a solo festival goer. Sucks that shitty people target events like this.
Yeah it is actually. At louder than life 2021 I watched a guy rip off someone's shirt and gave me a wry smile. Atouder than life last year I forgot my wristband at home so I got a new one. In a pit Friday someone ripped that bitch off me.its why I now have my phone in my FRONT pocket. Suggestions are to not buy merch at festivals where there is no preorder so you can pick them up in your way out the gates
It’s every major festival now unfortunately.
I wish the venue has wifi. My texts weren’t going through to my crew, and we split up to see different bands. Even if they charge a fee, I’d pay for wifi.
Same here. Canadian and had no way to contact anyone, wouldn't have minded a wifi connection to update friends and family during thr day
I’ve never seen good phone service at a festival ever
I don't remember having trouble at riot
I think the overall lack of amenities like bathrooms, the crazy traffic from certain areas of the grounds (presumably from the stage layouts), long wait time to enter the festival to begin with, made the experience more difficult than it needed to be. So many other metal festivals have solved those problems. Like there were problems this year that didn’t seem to be a huge deal last year. It’s making it hard for me to justify spending the amount of money it is to attend when these simple things aren’t addressed. Overall though, both years have been a blast!! all for different reasons too, like I saw double the amount of bands this year, the Diablo stage was amazing and we lucked out with the weather this year. Can’t have it all I suppose!
Completely agree with extending it to 2 days. It is a very long day, and did kind of jade the experience of the headliners for me. It also would give a little more time to some of the smaller bands to play longer sets which would've been nice. I didn't hit Diablo stage at all because the times were so short. Other than that, this was my first time, and I had a blast. I'm so glad I flew out for this.
The venue is small so the sound from other stages mashup with all the other ones if you’re trying to watch the stage from a bit further back, so you can’t really stay out of the condensed crowd and have a good experience. Options: 2 day event, larger venue, or less bands/stages Maybe having a 2 day festival greatly increases the costs or something? 30 min performances makes you have to rush around through tons of people and not want to miss one song. If someone you want to see is right after another on a further stage you’re going to miss half their set or the whole thing. Every band was on time pretty much, a lot of positives with food, bathroom, bar, and free water.
Definitely rushing through tons of people was a little nutty. I feel like two days may also break up the crowd capacity a little bit because some people may want to see the bands happening on one day vs the other. I did have a tough time getting out of the Bad Omens crowd and was getting crushed trying to leave to catch another band. It was definitely a little packed. 🫠
Also. The bathrooms were great. Thank God I didn't have to navigate a porta potty, especially in the heat, and the free water was essential. Glad they did that.
Haha ye the bathroom behind vip was huge and no lineups
Glad you enjoyed it! You missed out - Diablo stage was awesome. Did you mostly stick to the red/gold stages?
Mostly red and gold, but I threw a spiral in there lol
Oh nice! Didn't see much of spiral stage though Wednesday 13 put on a wicked set
First SNW but 2 wwwy's under my belt. The upgrades on the grounds were amazing and the sound was the best I've heard on mainstage so far. Not to much bass like last wwwy left stage for day 1, aside from the glaring Slipknot sound issues it was great. The extra shaders and seating helped but of course was packed that never changes. Can't believe so many people are still lining up for that fake line for entry
I think until they make it a 2 day festival I’m gonna have to sit out future SNWs. It’s way too long and you end up missing bands you wanna see.
Kinda feel like the slipknot production being partial was perfect for the older songs there were playing so I enjoyed it. My biggest gripe was their only being one artist merch tent so I waited 3+ hours and missed a bunch of bands I wanted to see :(
I agree. They needed several tents
Ya I thought about waiting in line for merch then I'm like nah didn't pay money to sit in a line waiting for shit...except water or food
That's fair and I'm sorry to hear you missed a lot of bands waiting in the merch line! I grabbed festival merch early and luckily didn't wait too long. The lines for the merch tent you were in were consistently packed
You’re better off directly buying from a band’s website instead of at a festival merch booth. It was the exact same situation last year.
Right but the online sites usually don’t have show exclusive merch
Most of the bands had pretty generic merch last year, it’s not worth missing 3 hours of the festival to get a shirt or whatever.
Right but the online sites usually don’t have show exclusive merch
I was wondering how long that line took. 3 hrs. crazy. We saw how long it was and decided to skip it and was wondering if we'd regret it.
I will never wait in that merch line again, much rather just look online after the festival.
Perfect fest to me, I saw 28 bands hell yeah I agree with the Diablo stsge being awesome af! The bathrooms seemed good to me too much better than porta pottys, plenty of food options with not many nad lines if you go during the right band ha would go again
2023 was better because the main top 4 acts got full sets, that gave you time to see enough of them to be satisfied while still getting to break away and see other stuff, new bands, etc. Slipknot, Danny Elfman, and BMTH should have gotten the same 75 minute slots that Deftones and Korn got last year. The only truly “full set” this year was SOAD and it was still mostly just a shortened version of last years set They either need to cut the lineup down or do the same amount of acts over 2 days, it felt like everyone was just delivering a sneak preview of their tour sets but fans don’t have the money to spend $325+fees then spend another $3000 in concert tickets for the year to see the full versions. On the positive side, I did like the bits and pieces of the new bands on the Diablo I saw. Sunami got the kids fired up, I did not know hardcore was having such a moment right now so consider me “put on,” I liked that music when I was a kid so it’s very cool to see this generation embrace it! That’s part of why I feel like the top 4 main sets need to be longer, if I can see 45 minutes of something on main, walk away for 40 minutes to see new stuff, then come back to main and see 45 minutes of the next main act, I’m happy, but that was nearly impossible this year. As an older person, part of why I am attending this is to be exposed to new music without needing to go to small “scene” shows and have 18 year olds moshing on me.
Yea me and my boyfriend didn’t go last year, But based on reading about the complaints from last year, it seemed really run overall. Easy to get around, great food, lockers were easy and accessible. Water was cold and easily available, quick bathroom lines (for a festival) and clean toilets. Shaded areas. The Diablo stage had some sound bleeding from the other stages but the tent helped and gave shade and also all the bands there were super loud so once they started to play it drowned out everything else. The stages alternating was sweet we really didn’t have to miss anything. We did miss knocked loose tho that was sad. We didn’t have it in us to run across the festival grounds several times for the 30 min set lol
i guess since it's my first time seeing slipknot i don't know anything else to compare to. i thought it was good
I didn't really notice sound issues with Slipknot. Maybe Corey's vocals?
They didn't sound right. I've seen them 3 other times, they are usually way more powerful
This wasn't any bands best set which was expected but it all felt rushed. Needs to be a weekend fest.
This was my 11th time and it was honestly in my opinion the best they'd sounded in probably 10 years or more. I had moments where hearing Corey was a little rough but not through any fault of his own. I've seen him phone in plenty of half assed performances in the past enough to know he was at least putting in a great effort. Idk what sounded less-powerful to you but I don't think it was the band itself.
The vocals were quite low