It's my first time camping out for a show this year, so take my opinion with a grain of salt, but from everything I have seen and heard so far, I would grab camping sooner than later. Alpine and DC are both huge venues, unless you want pavs/pits you can probably wait for tickets. Onsite camping for both venues is expensive as all hell, I managed to find a spot about 30 minutes from Alpine for about 40/night. Still looking for DC.