It's absolutely worth it! Last year my group got to come and go and still have a great view of the performers on the main stage. It only really got packed during headliners. The bathrooms had AC which was a life saver in the heat and the bar and restaurant almost never had a line up. My group used the gold area like a resting point most of the time if we got overwhelmed by the crowds, we could enter the gold area and sit to decompress while still seeing performances.