Hey all,

Wanted to let the insanity die down and it seems like I have a nice window between fit pics and whenever OMG TBA lands on YouTube.

My wife and I did Safari this year and had guest passes and first of all, the Safari Residence is the fucking shit. But more on that in a second. But one of the cool things with these passes is you meet a lot of people who are really connected to the festival and I heard a bunch of shit that I think you all would find interesting/juicy.

Ticket Sales:
A lot of you were thinking this was a terribly selling year and that the lineup was "bad" (absolutely crazy opinion, but OK) and everybody hated it. Well, apparently not LOL. I met one of the guys in charge of overseeing ticket sales and he was over the moon. He said this is one of the best selling W2s of all time, easily outsold the last few years, outsold Beyonce's year. Didn't say it was the best selling of all time but seemed like probably at least since that 2014-2015 range. He said the demand was so high for this lineup compared to the last few and they were amazed by the interest. W1 was a true sellout, not a single pass left even if they wanted to. If I understand it, W1 hit the absolute capacity, W2 was "100K" - keep in mind that the last time I met somebody who could tell me numbers was Beychella, and that was "120K [just below cap] W1, 80K W2". So, for those of you thinking they will change strategies next year on the lineup, I wouldn't hold your breath. Unfortunately for those who felt GV increased prices too much and that they would hold steady or even reduce, I wouldn't hold your breath on that either.

I didn't think to ask why they left tickets out - but clearly based on this statement, they have claimed at least W2, and maybe even W1, had sold out in years past when it really didn't. Probably because the profits are so crazy even without the sellout? I don't know. But seriously, they apparently are thrilled with how it sold this year and it sounds like it way exceeded expectations.

This honestly checks out too because W2 was the most crowded I have ever seen it, easily. (More on that too!). Also a month or so ago I started to doubt the "insiders" saying W2 only sold 50% because of the crazy high resale on camping passes, the fact that VMT W2 entirely sold out very early on (and often doesn't sell out at all, candidly), and the fact that not a lot of passes actually made it to StubHub - a lot of you screaming that this was collusion between GV and StubHub - well it just appears that most people didn't want to part with their tickets. Those insiders were full of shit, probably just salty that they didn't like the lineup.

1999.ODDS:
We did that sushi speakeasy thing for lunch on Sunday and there were some people on Blink 182's team there. I asked if Blink 182 was 1999.ODDS originally, and they were like "definitely not lol". So, I think Loren actually was 1999.ODDS from Day 1 and it wasn't Blink - this one totally surprised me because I totally bought into the theory that they removed 1999.ODDS from the lineup app and just added Loren once they heard Travis needed surgery.

For those who also said that they should have had more time to get SZA or whatever for Frank's replacement, they also said it was a near miracle that they got everybody back to the desert even though they had just played, and that they were flying out people left and right.

W1 VS W2 VIBES:
This one, I cannot claim was truly a GV insider. It was a woman who I met in Safari. This woman does YURTS for BOTHCHELLA every year and has forever...holy shit is that unfathomable amounts of money...but she seemed so familiar with GV and the festival and who runs it that I wondered if it was a friend/relative of one of the higher ups with the fest...and she clearly knows tons of people in the music industry even if not GV. So this one, you can take with some salt. But she said that "oh yeah, we picked the crowded weekend" and when I said, "isn't W1 way more crowded though?" she said, "No, it sells more tickets, but the wristband data shows that people at W2 come in way earlier and stay way longer, and that W1 people come in way later and bounce earlier, so there are more people at the festival at any given time W2." So, the "W2 is really about the music!!!" thing is apparently completely true, but "W2 is so much less crowded!!!!!" is apparently false. But once again this is the only one I can't tell you is 100% certainty.

SAFARI RESIDENCES:
Ok this one was interesting. I was in a Safari Residence - these were the studio pods that were added with a month or so to go, and people in Safari Tents were given the opportunity to upgrade. First of all, definitely the right choice, these were absolutely amazing with goodie baskets, perfect AC, king sized, bed, a private front yard, etc. But, apparently these are prototypes for a Safari rebranding and next year the tents and Yurts will all be gone, and replaced with these pods, as well as "one bedroom and two bedroom" options. These took up so much more space than the tents - not only were they way bigger, but you had a fully fenced "front yard" for lack of a better word that was several times bigger than the pod itself.

I don't know if it will still be called Safari, because these had a mid-century modern Palm Springs vibe that didn't fit aesthetically with the rest of the Safari theming. Also, candidly, the studio versions took up so much real estate that if they are replacing all the Safari Tents, there is no way Safari will stay anywhere near the same capacity - probably fewer people, higher prices.

Aight that's all I got hope this was fun.