I hear there was something like 5000 kids at last year's Fest and there's going to be 2000 this year so I'm thinking the lines will be much smaller, which excites me. Is this a safe assumption?

I won't say there is maybe shorter lines but your argument is not right.. yes they said they will just sell 2.250 tix... but please don't forget bands get wristband as well and a good portion stays the whole weekend or at least two days and partys along.. if you just take an average of 4 for 300 bands , thats 1.200 as well (and thats probably underestimated).. plus there is the volunteers that work a day or a shift and therefor get a wristband as well... the no idea crew, other people taht make the festival as well - this adds up...

for this amount of venues and bands the Fest is really cheap, main reason for that is all the people contributing, bands playing for lower fee, volunteers and so on... on the other hand I doubt the number 5000 for last year...

I guess lines will be again an issue of which bands plays which venue, whats the competition and you also always got the problem earlier the day, when it takes just to control each passport, get the people the 21+ wristbands... I think lines last year were way better then the years before... main ones I saw was early the day at venue / 8 seconds till they got the people in and common grounds + atlantic, for bands were i simply expected, like iron chic playing common grounds while most other venues weren't even opened..

Last year I think they only sold 3000 passes, but the number 5000 for total attending is pretty accurate, when you add up the band members, volunteers, staff, etc.

So the decrease in ticket sales is not that dramatic, and Just because there are fewer passes available online this year doesn't mean there will be fewer people overall. I think they are trying to do more sales at record stores around FL.

I wish there was a reason for the clubs to care about how long it takes people to get in. It seems like every year that the Venue has been involved, they've been terribly slow at realizing that one person checking ID's when the line grows past 50 and is quickly growing just won't do.

Yeah, it's bizarre - like Common Grounds opening 15 minutes before Red City Radio started, even though there was a queue snaked back out to the road and up the pavement. And then when you got to the front, there's one dude IDing. Why not open up an hour beforehand and get an extra 45 minutes of sales? It meant that most people missed RCR who in turn played to a substantially vacant venue.

I would just like to get inside in time to catch Dear Landlord's entire set this year instead of just the last three songs because the people at the door are slow and the line is really long

The lines have never made me that crazy, I usually meet the coolest people in line and you can get away with drinking in some of them so no big deal if they're big again this year.

Common ground just opening 15min before RDR starts was bad .. just the one guy controlling and he wasn't also not really what I call friendly...

we definitly had luck with the line for dear landlord, on the right hand side there was a huge line, while we pretty much could walk straight in from the lefthand side...

the people working the door at eight seconds are notoriously slow even non-fest time I've noticed

thankfully I'm not a fake problems fan because I stood in line their entire set when they played with Rival Schools / Gaslight Anthem last year, the line wasn't even that long too

I think it was just last year, because at Fest 8 CG opened about 45 minutes before Banner Pilot came on.

It was last year. I was dying to see them and the place wasn't at capacity and still very few people got to see them play.

Surely if you wanted to see a band that badly, you'd just show up to the venue early?

It's a lot harder than you would think. A lot of people have that same idea.

We did, that's the point.

Yeah, at Fest 8 I showed up for B!TMI at least an hour early, waited through that hour, Bomb's set, then finally made it in as Definace, Ohio was starting. Sometimes you need to show up REALLY early.