Secret Tunnels, Fake Security, a Bus? How festival-goers sneak in

Ahh yes. Music festivals. The beloved time of the year to go listen to your favorite artist live, surrounded by 20,000 of your best friends. There’s just one thing. You don’t want to pay $250 for general admission passes. Why do that when you can ~sneak~ your way through security? You’d be such a genius! Though it sounds like a great idea, it’s not as easy as you think, or is it? 

A lot must go your way. You need to be lucky enough to find a way in, agile enough to not get caught and dumb enough to try. Here are some examples of people who used one of their nine lives to get into these festivals. 

Moonrise Festival 2017 

Moonrise Festival is a music festival hosted by Insomniac Events in Baltimore, Maryland.

The genre for this festival is electric dance music (EDM). Artists such as ZEDD, The Chainsmokers, Illenium, Marshmello, and Diplo are typically invited to perform, seeing over 30,000 guests every year. 

Connor Burke, the person in the video, is shown in the beginning walking around the sides of the event, making sure that no one is looking around to catch him. Then you watch him and his friends make a break towards the event.

They scale a giant cement wall and sprint across a field to leap over another fence. After successfully hopping over the fence, they all run into one lone security guard that gets a sense that they aren't supposed to be there. He pursues them but loses them in the crowd of people. 

This could’ve been much worse and was a pretty simple task for sneaking past security.

Don’t worry. The videos are only getting tougher 😲

Lollapalooza Fence Jumpers 2016 

For my readers that don’t know about Lollapalooza, it is a four-day music festival held in Grant Park, Chicago.

It sees over 400,000 attendees annually, and is not limited to genres like hip-hop, EDM, heavy rock, and alternative. C3 Presents is responsible for organizing the festival every year. 

Alrighty, this one has a bit more excitement to it. Not only does this person sneak into this festival once, not twice, but THREE different days he found ways to get inside. The guts this person has is insane. Two instances look like he got passed the security easily and got chased once inside.

But remember, getting inside is the hardest part. It’s much easier to lose them in a crowd than in open space. 

The third time this guy does it, he has a crew of about 20+ people with him. It was like watching an action movie, running through private areas and what looks like a roof to avoid security. Once they made it to a bridge, they made a quick sprint inside to get cover inside the festival.

I must say, this guy has passion and dedication, but is it really worth exerting all that effort to get inside?

Over the bridge and sneak past security, to the music festival we go! 

Sneaking Into Worlds Most Secure Festival Through A Secret Tunnel 

The Glastonbury Festival, also known as "Glasto," is a five-day festival held in in Southwest England.

In 2022, artists Megan Thee Stallion, Billie Eilish, Kendrick Lamar, and Paul McCartney were all headliners. You can expect anywhere from 200,000-400,000 people in attendance every year to listen to these talented musicians. 

After watching this video, my jaw just hit the floor. This person put in way too much effort to do what he just did. Instead of buying a ticket to go to this festival, this person researched the setting of the festival and mapped out where there were “secret tunnels” to get past security.

Wow. Okay man. You win. At this point I’d say, “After all that time doing research and trying to find ways to get in, why not just save yourself the trouble and stress and buy the ticket?”  

Of course, his plan didn’t go exactly to plan, as he waited till around 10pm to go through a tunnel that was heavily patrolled. Is this seriously what people are doing now to not spend a couple hundred dollars? 

Sneaking a Bus into a Festival? 

This next one tops the cake... Music Midtown is a music festival located in Piedmont Park in Atlanta, Georgia.

The festival can see upwards of 300,000 attendees, featuring six stages for attendants to watch a variety of artists.

Performers such as Jack Harlow, Bleachers, 21 Savage, Machine Gun Kelly, Lizzo, Megan Thee Stallion, Travis Scott, and Charlie Puth have all made appearances at the iconic Atlanta festival the past few years. 

Yes, you read that title right. This guy somehow, someway, to sneak not only him and his friend into the festival but finessed their way to park their bus for multiple days inside. Their logic was simple. To get a parking pass for their bus, you need a sponsorship pass.

So, they went online & found the sponsorship list on the website, and then posed as another sponsor to receive load-in details for the festival. At the load-in, he found a parking pass for another sponsor, took a picture of it, and went to photoshop to put their information in for their bus. Does that sound simple to you? 

Upon arrival, they get questioned about their parking pass. Of course, they flex their pass with excitement thinking they outsmarted her. She tells them with a dead face, “wrong pass”. You’d think their efforts would be stopped there. Of course, with luck on their side, the attendant gives them a new pass for the entire weekend.

 That's the hardest part. All you gotta do is park and bing, bang, boom, you’re in! Unfortunately, after going to grab lunch, they got a call saying they couldn’t occupy that spot. So they got back, and immediately becomes a game of chicken and lying through the teeth, hoping someone breaks. Eventually, everyone starts to leave them alone and they were good. Talk about insanity and luck! 

Apparently this guy is the master of sneaking into festivals. He has multiple YouTube videos dedicated to finding loopholes and sneaking around to get in without getting caught. He once dressed up as Justin Bieber to get in. No, really. This actually happened.

Again, why put so much effort and time into sneaking around when you can just pony up the money to get with no trouble? The world may never know. 

So, what did we learn here?

What I’ve learned from these videos is that some people are willing to spend hours, even days trying to think of ways to beat the system, and prove they can outsmart security and tournament directors to get in without giving them a single penny.

My takeaway is this: as events continue to come back, event security and staffing companies are only going to continue to adapt to people sneaking themselves into events. It’s just going to get harder to get in.

Don’t be a fool. Save your time and energy and buy the ticket. For my event staffing company readers, I'm sure you're doing it already, but make sure to step up your game. Train your staff to know what to look for to avoid being fooled by these fools.

The consequences of buying a ticket are far greater than the consequences of getting caught. For the not-so-lucky people that get caught, you can expect to be tased, arrested, or possibly fined. In case you have forgotten, these people are doing their job: protecting the attendants and performers inside. They don’t know if you are drugged up or looking to harm someone. Do the right thing. 

Know of any crazy event break ins? Share them with me on LinkedIn! 👉 Nick Brooks on LinkedIn

 If you're a staffing company looking to better manage your crew, let's talk about how we might be able to streamline your processes. Sorry, we don't provide how-to-avoid-break-in trainings, but now that I'm thinking about it, maybe we should!? 🧐

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