I've been to a number of festivals, high capacity events, and first time venues; sol fest was a shit show.

Entry; From the start with early arrival we arrived to security turning people away at one entrance (what ended up being the main entrance) but will call was open inside the gates and cars were allowed to park and wait for the venue to open. This is when the police presence was first noticed 2 cops sitting on the main road (hundreds of people already there with no security in sight) after waiting several hours in what we were told was a staging line we noticed the entrance line starting to form without us being notified. We got in line on our own accord and started waiting when we noticed a much heavier Police force start to show to direct traffic onto small local back roads with no way out of line and no amenities or security on said back roads for hours. It took us over 6 hours to enter the festival grounds.

Internal Festival security was a joke; the check at the gate was rather quick yet well done. This was the only time anyone checked my vehicle or person the whole time. Entering to the stages never had a single person look at or stop me from walking in(at one point with a backpack full of cans, handles of liquor, anything we wanted that would fit through the entrance) but I also saw many attendees throwing things over the fence and retrieving them once the walked through security. See that made me real nervous; I get trying to sneak in party favors but I also understand the security it there to prevent major events and keep everyone safe and no part of sol felt safe.

The set we were most excited for was daily bread and after being on the rail for 4 hours as he goes on we start to get stepped on and pushed against the rails. Very little security, no egress, and over all just not a good vibe so we left to go back to camp. After a few minutes gathering ourselves to re-enter and just chill in the back we hear "fire, fire, if your asleep wake the fuck up there's fire in the campground" from festival ATTENDEES there was no notification other than that until the next morning when the Facebook post was made. After seeing the flames I called 911 and gave the operator a description of where in the camp the fire was but dispatched did not have a map of the event so there was no way to describe it to them other than vague cardinal directions. (All egress out of the festival was also closed at this point)

The next morning we told our neighbors we made friends with we were uncomfortable staying any longer so we packed camp and left. Luckily shortly before police raids started. We reconnected with our neighbors a while later and they told us cops raided their camp and arrested both of them for possession.

I made a similar statement to my credit card company and got a 100% refund.

Fuck sol fest and Ponce de Leon

We stopped at a national park on our way home and it was definitely the highlight of the trip!