After a previous edition marked by the Covid-19 pandemic, this Thursday the Rock en Seine festival has returned in a big way in Saint-Cloud. For the occasion, the festival organizers had seen the general picture and especially regarding the distribution of the public, leaving many festival attendees embittered.
This year, the public received a fun surprise when they arrived at the festival site: more than half of the space in front of the main stage was closed and reserved for 1,500 VIPs willing to pay more for the privilege of being in the front row.
A novelty, which according to the organizers of the festival, responds “to the request for greater comfort from a traditionally very eclectic audience of Rock en Seine”, as we can read in the newspaper the echoes.
“It’s not the spirit we expect from a festival”
This system, called here “golden pit”, is common in particular in the United States, where for an additional fee, festival goers benefit during events from reserved bars, lounge areas, VIP concert areas, etc.
When buying Rock en Seine tickets, it was therefore possible to add, in addition to the basic price (69 euros per day), 10 euros to skip the queues, 20 to have access to the “golden moat” and 30 to the total: ” gold well” and “garden”, a space with bathrooms and reserved bars.
Obviously, the “golden well” did not cease to annoy non-VIP festival goers, relegated, despite the wait, to the “all public” area, away from the stage. On social media, some of them shared their frustration at not being able to be front row at their favorite concerts, like the highly anticipated Arctic Monkeys on August 25.
“I was dying to go see Arctic Monkeys tonight, but that was before I realized that the VIP area takes up 70% of the front of the stage. Rock en Seine really out of style, not the spirit you’d expect from a festival, not even Coachella dared”, cheep a netizen.
“Or how to distort a mix that draws all the festival interest by adding a social barrier (no pun intended). How sad,” she continues. another user On twitter.
At the venue, some spectators even complain that the famous “golden well” was finally quite empty during the concerts, while the “non-VIPs” crowded right behind the barriers.
Source: BFM TV
