If you asked me in September what I thought of Drive-In OC, I would've told you that it's great and…read moreprobably given it 5-stars. After going to Insomniac's Park 'n Rave, Drive-In OC pales far in comparison.
I came for Gareth Emery and since I bought GA tickets (which are first come, first serve), I arrived 5-min before gates opened. The security will not let you in until 4:30pm on the dot so we had to wait in the strip mall across the street. By the time we were let in, we were probably the 20th car in line. Somehow after security was done checking our vehicle, we were luckily the 2nd car to actually go into the venue and park, so we had an amazing view in the first row of GA, which is basically the 4th row (first three rows are VIP).
I love their food and restroom system, which is all done on their app/website via QR code. Major plus. And their restrooms aren't port-o-potties, so even better! There were also some food trucks that you could buy directly from. Food is average event prices and obviously will not be the best-tasting food. Just good enough to suffice you if you're hungry. You are allowed to bring in your own sealed water, although now looking at the new rules, they've now limited the size per individual, which I don't like.
Speaking of limitations, at that time, each car was allowed however many people as there were seatbelts in the car. So if you had 8 seatbelts, you were allowed 8 people in your group. Looking at new rules, the maximum is now 5 people. I'm not sure if this is because of COVID or if they're just greedy, but I'm not a fan of this new limitation especially since 5 is such an odd number.
Another thing I wasn't a fan of is the stage and sound set-up. The stage is tiny and looks like one of those stages they do at free events. There are two screens, just as small, so it must've sucked for those in the way back. The sound system is a regular PA system and although they had extra speakers set-up in the center of the parking lot, I heard from friends that the music could be barely heard in the back. They have a channel on the FM Radio so you can blast the music in your car, but my friends who went to Kaskade said it wasn't in-sync and lagged behind the actual music a bit. Even in the 4th row, which was really really close to the stage and sound, I could easily have conversations with my boyfriend and not constantly scream, "What???" at him. This may be a good thing for some, but personally, I think it lowers the concert experience. I want to feel the music and bass bumping through my body lol
Now the thing that upset me the most: social-distancing and spacing of the vehicles. The staggering system is great, and the 160 sqft of dancing space next to your car is nice too, in theory. They did not have any railings dividing these sections forcing everyone to keep to themselves. When you have concert goers inebriated, they are not going to stick to their own areas; that's just a fact. And the lazier ones trying to sneak to the front to get pics are going to cut through rows and walk into your private space instead of walking around the rows of parked cars. Since we were in the front, people were constantly walking through our private dancing space and it was rude, uncomfortable, and annoying. I think recently, they decided to add pink ribbon to divide the spaces. Pink RIBBON. RIBBON. Lol. What the hell is ribbon going to do? People can easily walk under it or just pull it down? There's no sense of safety or security at all (not to mention incredibly unprofessional, ugly, and cheap-looking).
I'll be attending Gareth Emery's Laserface next weekend and I'm only going because I'm a huge fan and I want to support him during rough times. Not looking forward to the shitty sound and lack of social-distancing security.
