Where There's a Will, There's a Way

So here's a great story.
I mean, if it wasn't it wouldn't be in my blog.

Outside Lands Music and Arts Festival. It was a 3 day event in San Francisco located in the Golden Gate Park. Tickets were $90 a day or $225 for all three days. Bands such as Incubus, Jason Mraz, M.I.A., Dave Matthews Band, Black Eyed Peas, Zion I, Portugal. The Man, Pearl Jam, Modest Mouse, and Tenacious D were there, among countless others. I really wanted to see Portugal. The Man, but needless to say I would never pay $90 for a concert at this point in my life. I would, however, try to sneak in.

Mika Abogado was my trustee sidekick. She had her KTVU badge, I had my older sister's old press badge for Silicon Valley Newspapers, and we both had our ethics...right up until it came time to tell tons of lies to tons of people.

We both wore purple shirts, which was kind of a mistake because we were not very conspicuous. Anyway, we began at the main entrance.

First we planned to just walk by the ticket-checkers as they were checking other people's tickets. This did not work because a large man was standing there whose only job was to watch for people like us. He stopped many people and forced them to show their ticket again if he didn't see it the first time. We thought we might get by as they weren't even scanning tickets electronically. People were just flashing their internet-printed paper tickets to the guards. So easy to photocopy! Unfortunately, we were photo-copier free.

Our second attempt was to straight up ask the guards to let us in after showing him our press badges. This failed as he told us to go to the ticket office to get our credentials.

So we followed his advice and went to the ticket office. This was our 3rd attempt. We showed a young man our press badges and asked him for tickets. He told us to go to will call.

So we went to will call, our 4th encounter. We talked to the "press" guy who was giving out entry wristbands. Mika gave him her ID and told him we were on the list. He checked 3 separate lists several times but obviously didn't find our names. He did not budge and claimed he "only had enough wristbands for the people listed."

This brought us to the same young man in the ticket office. Our 5th attempt. We told him that the man at will call told us to pick up our tickets from the ticket office. We just plain lied to him. He did not believe us. "He told you that? For me to just give you tickets?" "Yes," I replied. He then told Mika and me to meet him over at will call and we will all figure this out together: Mika, will call man, ticket office guy, and me.

So we bailed.

While trying to figure out what to do, we then made the mistake of meandering around in plain sight in our purple shirts right in front of both guys we just ditched. Luckily they didn't chase us out.

So next we contemplated going to the volunteer table and telling them we were volunteers. We decided that was a bad idea. So then we go to the info booth and ask for directions to another entrance. The guy was confused because we were at one entrance already, and the next one would take 20 minutes to walk to. We thanked him and took off for the alternate entrance.

At this entrance, there were people who were actually scanning tickets which looked a little more official, which in turn scared us more. (The whole time we were practically peeing in our pants so nervous.) So first we go up to VIP entrance (which is right next to the normal one) and tell the lady that we are with the press and "they" told us to enter at VIP. (We used the word "they" a lot.) She told us we needed tickets to enter. Failed 6th attempt.

So this was our last leg here. If we didn't get in at this entrance, we would have to walk to the 3rd entrance another 20 minutes away.

We decided to just go for it.

We scoped out the youngest, dumbest-looking male who was scanning tickets. I went first. A girl checked my bag, then I proceeded to the ticket scanner boy. I flashed my press pass to him and told us "this is where they told us to enter for media." He looked at my press pass, looked up at me and said, "Ok," while kind of shrugging and waving me on. I then get wide-eyed and look back at Mika while trying not to smile too big. She was in the process of pouring out her water bottle (since you can't bring in liquids) and said, "I'm with her!" while pointing at me and trying to rush through the security phase of pouring out her water.

Success is sweet.

So we celebrate quietly and rush to the near-by porta-potties because we have been on the brink of wetting our pants for about 2 hours. We talk to each other while in the stalls and decide we should have waited to pee since we entered without tickets right in front of the VIP lady who told us we needed tickets to enter. Luckily, when we exited the stalls, no police waited to escort us off the premises.

Portugal. The Man was sweet.
Black Eyed Peas were off the hook.

What did I learn?
See also: title of this post.

What else did I learn?
Anything is possible with confidence.

Extra fun facts about this experience:
The picture of me is right when we got in, and I'm really excited and calling my family to brag.
The picture at the top is from the Black Eyed Peas show.
The picture below is from the official website, showing the thousands of people at the concert. It was an insane amount of people.
Mika and I took turns "talking" to people. We were so nervous the whole time that neither of us wanted to talk and be put on the spot for fear of getting caught in our lies, so we decided to take turns.
From the beginning, we planned on targeting young, dumb-looking, males. (Slightly insulting, I know.) So we only approached men, never women. The younger, the better. Obviously, it worked!

Outside Lands...cheayuhh

Here are a few pictures I took at the concert.