All the (Legal) Ways to Get Into a Music Festival for Free
Free festival hacks from a decade ago won't cut it anymore, so you'll need some hustle.
Back in 2014, I finished a weekend of camping and partying at Bonnaroo by packing up my tent and relocating to an entirely new part of the massive campground. I was 18, and there was no way I could afford the then-$250 festival ticket. Instead, my friends and I scraped together gas money and old tents, took three extra days off from our summer jobs, and volunteered to pick up trash after all the attendees and performers had left in exchange for free entry.
It wasn’t glamorous work; I picked up thousands of cigarettes, candy wrappers, abandoned sunglasses, and empty liquor bottles. In three days of the hot Tennessee sun, I earned my keep, and by the end, my hair was several shades lighter, and my skin was significantly darker.
In the last 10 years, it's gotten more difficult to get free entry to major festivals. In the heyday of blogging, there were a million and one guides on how to get into music festivals for free, which included advice ranging from volunteering for an organization like Clean Vibes (how I attended Bonnaroo for free) to creating fake press passes to sneak into restricted areas and photo pits.
But in 2024, festivals have beefed up security, and it feels like the only people attending festivals for free are influencers with tens of thousands of followers. Basically, if you aren’t closing deals with Garnier Fructis, you can expect to pay full price for your festival ticket. The opportunity to attend a festival for free, however, hasn’t totally disappeared.
Below are some ways you can still attend music festivals for free or very cheap. But be warned, you can expect to put in some serious work for your ticket. You might be saving money, but you're definitely investing sweat equity.
Volunteer at a music festival
Certain organizations, like Clean Vibes, offer volunteering opportunities in exchange for free admission. Your best bet if your goal is to attend a music festival for free is to find an organization working with festivals and then apply for a volunteer gig. It might be easier to get a volunteer role at some of the smaller festivals compared to the biggest ones, such as Coachella or Lollapalooza. Some organizations only work in certain parts of the world; for instance, you can volunteer with Oxfam to attend UK festivals like Glastonbury and the Reading and Leeds Festivals.
In the US, several organizations conduct polling, outreach, and advocacy at music festivals. By volunteering with them, you can work shifts at the festival on behalf of the organization and receive admission to the festival in exchange. A few of the organizations that work with major festivals include:
- Headcount registers people to vote. They are active at a number of popular US festivals, including Hangout, Railbird, Gov Ball, and Bonnaroo.
- Oxfam fights global poverty. They will be at dozens of UK festivals this year.
- Clean Vibes works to actively encourage and promote recycling, composting, and proper waste disposal. They work with dozens of festivals, including Rockville, DelFest, Gazebo Festival, Electric Forest, and Outside Lands.
- Reverb is focused on climate change and works with several festivals and events, including the California Roots Festival.
These organizations usually require potential volunteers to submit some sort of deposit comparable to the cost of festival admission, along with an application that is a bit like a job application. The plus side is that, typically, these applications will also ask you which act you’d like to see most or let you rank your preferred shift hours. If there are numerous daytime acts you want to see, for instance, you could volunteer for early morning or night shifts.
Some festivals, like Barefoot Country Music Festival, will offer their own opportunities to apply to volunteer directly with the festival. If there is a smaller festival you want to attend, check out the website for the event to see if the festival is partnering with local organizations or is offering volunteer opportunities.
Get a job at a music festival
Another way to attend festivals for free and actually net a bit of a profit is to get a job with a company that works there. Just Squeezed and Just Brewed (lemonade and coffee vendors, respectively) travel from music festival to music festival. This will give you the chance to attend festivals like Coachella, EDC, Electric Forest, and EDC. Like any job, relevant experience, availability, and good references will help you have a better chance of getting hired.
You can also search job boards like Indeed for music festival job postings. This can get you hired for hourly roles like stagehands, merchandise cashiers, and others. These jobs will likely come with more set hours and firm responsibilities, so your flexibility to actually see some live music and partake in the general festivities that abound will be more limited.
Become a festival brand ambassador
If you want to get the work out of the way before the festival, consider becoming a festival brand ambassador. These roles are somewhat like unpaid sales team roles in that the more tickets you sell, the more you can save on the price of your own admission. These ambassador programs are offered by festivals like North Coast Music Festival and High Sierra Music Festival. The company Tixr has even formalized the system; you can earn points by bringing friends to events (selling tickets), which will translate to discounted ticket prices.
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