I went to Escape expecting some commotion. I have been to many events like this in the past, though never at San Manuel Ampitheater. However, I have never encountered as much frustration before gaining entrance to an event (and leaving afterwards) as I did on Saturday night. My group arrived at the festival around 7:30, and were directed into the parking lot where we were directed in zig zags throughout the ENTIRE lot unnecessarily before being directed down the street to the VERY end of the other lot, perhaps 1.5 miles away from the entrance. That was annoying, but as we made our way over to the ticket booth, I had yet to realize the biggest obstacles lay ahead.
When buying my ticket, I had wanted to use Flavorus because I enjoy their web service and find them generally to be a very seamless customer experience. However, their website had not been working so I was (begrudgingly) directed to Ticketmaster. Ticketmaster would not allow me to buy my ticket if my billing and shipping address were different, so my only option was Will Call. Fine, whatever. The Will Call line at Flavorus was practically empty, but every lane in the Ticketmaster line was filled with people and just getting longer. As we stood there, getting more and more frustrated, we could see the people around the sides cutting in front. The general disorganization of the whole line lead to more and more chaos. In contrast, the line for ticket sales was relatively small, and people were able to buy their ticket for only $10 more at the event and get in much faster than those who had to wait for will call. We finally ended up getting into the venue at around 9:15.
I would suggest handing out maps and venue information prior to getting inside the event because we had to split up with some friends who already had their tickets and didn't want to make them wait half an hour, and having a pre-arranged meeting spot would have been much easier than aimlessly sending delayed texts back and forth.
Once we got inside, the experience itself was great. There was plenty of breathing space, everyone was very courteous to each other, and you could easily get up as close as you wanted without being shoved. I really enjoyed the decorations and lighting and of course the music. However, because of how long it took to get inside the venue, the experience felt far too short. I would have loved for the night to have lasted a lot longer.
The end of the night was also atrocious. There was only one line available to leave, ONE single exit for ~10,000 cars, and it took 2.5 hours. This lead to lots of honking, cutting, and desperate attempts to get out of the hellish standstill line. We saw one car try to escape over a mound on the side of the road, and become stuck in their attempt to 'escape'. I really couldn't blame them too much.
As I stood in my cattle line, in a scenario that had made it seem like we would never get into the arena and now could never leave, I began to wonder if the 'escape' was really referring to the parking lot rather than the amphitheater. It truly tested my willpower and I actually promised myself if I got out of there I would never return. The mismanagement really frustrated me for the amount of money I paid and I hope these setbacks do not occur again because there were many problems that should have been handled better.